Here Are 3 Group Shows You Won’t Want to Miss This September

George Condo, Orgy Composition (2008). Courtesy of Gary Tatintsian Gallery.

There’s a ton of solo shows on September’s blockbuster exhibition calendar, but this season also adds a few star-studded group shows to the mix. So if you’ve still got some art-viewing fuel left in your proverbial tank, here are 3 group shows you won’t want to miss this month.

Naturally Naked” at Gary Tatintsian Gallery, Moscow

Naturally Naked, Installation View. Courtesy of Gary Tatintsian Gallery

This Moscow exhibition takes another look at one of the most enduring and controversial questions of art history: how to depict the nude figure. Reflecting on everything from the Venus of Willendorf to Gustave Courbet’s scandalizing realism, this group show brings together a group of contemporary works by artists including Carroll Dunham, George Condo, and John Currin to underscore the humor, implicit eroticism, and changing artistic significance of the motif. Also featured are hyper-realist sculptures by Bjarne Melgaard and Tony Matelli, which will have you doing double-takes.

Naturally Naked” is on view at Gary Tatintsian Gallery through December 15, 2019.

 

CA → NY: Post-War Migration of Abstract Expressionists” at Anita Shapolsky Gallery, New York

Lawrence Calcagno, Untitled (1988). Courtesy of Anita Shapolsky Gallery.

Lawrence Calcagno, Untitled (1988). Courtesy of Anita Shapolsky Gallery.

 

Abstract Expressionism and New York are like Frick and Frack, always expected together. But this new exhibition at Anita Shapolsky Gallery introduces the West Coast to that art-historical narrative. The show centers on the Bay Area School of Abstract Expressionism, which rose out of the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco. Under the guidance of director Douglas MacAgy young artists like Clyfford Still and Richard Diebenkorn were brought on to teach and directly inspired a local nexus of students (many whom enrolled on the G.I. Bill) to take up Abstract Expressionism, including Ernest Briggs, Lawrence Calcagno, John Hultberg, and Jon Schueler, who are all on view here.

CA → NY: Post-War Migration of Abstract Expressionists” is on view at Anita Shapolsky Gallery through November 22, 2019.

 

Embodiment” at Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York

Installation view of Embodiment at Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York, 2019 
Courtesy of Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York 

This sensuous group show brings together works by Pope.L, Jonathan Lyndon Chase, Cheyenne Julien, and Tschabalala Self to explore the various ways the concept of “corporeality” can be captured in two-dimensional spaces. The options are plentiful: there are the highly personal physical experiences of the body (in play, at rest, at work) in the creations of Chase and Julien alongside Self’s powerful depictions of the black female form that challenge and engage society’s role in constructing identity with one’s own body, as well as those of others. This sense of physicality need not even be visually manifestPope.L’s absurdist text series “Skin Sets” employ nonsensical phrases to reference people of color (blue, green, brown, black, and gold), which play with mental associations regarding race and visibility.

Embodiment” is on view at Mitchell-Innes & Nash through October 26, 2019.