Weekly Roundup

Gabriel Orozco, My Hands are My Heart, 1991.  Photo courtesy the artist and Salt.

Gabriel Orozco. "My Hands are My Heart," 1991. Photo courtesy the artist and SaltVanAbbe.

In this week’s roundup, Gabriel Orozco and Mike Kelley mix with Turkish artists, Fred Wilson to be honored in Georgia, Carrie Mae Weems to talk about narrative photography, Louise Bourgeois’s restored helping hands, and more.

  • Works by Gabriel Orozco and Mike Kelley are among several others that are part of SaltVanAbbe which brings acclaimed works from the collection of the Van Abbemuseum (Eindhoven), mixing them with new commissions and selections made by Salt (Istanbul).  The project is thought to be one of the biggest cultural collaborations between Turkey and the Netherlands in terms of its longevity and the number of works borrowed. This work will run across both locations from January 27 – April 6.
  • Allan McCollum is in a group exhibition at the James Cohan Gallery (NYC).  Object Fictions assembles works that investigate notions of perception, in its many definitions. Through a variety of media and processes, these artists explore the potential of ordinary objects, historical events, invented narratives and in some cases even other artworks, to expose reality through the lens of fiction. McCollum’s featured work, The Dog From Pompei (1991), is a series of replicas made from the famed plaster cast of a chained dog smothered in ash from Mount Vesuvius in ancient Pompeii, 79 A.D.  The exhibition runs through February 11.
  • Carrie Mae Weems‘s series From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried is on view at the Getty Center (Los Angeles) as part of Narrative Interventions in Photography.  This exhibition explores the concept of storytelling through photographic works.  Weems’s art attempts to rewrite a profound aspect of human history; all works are concerned with photography and the notion of narrative: implied, real, or revised.  Visitors to the web site can hear Weems describe her work, which is on view until March 11.
  • Carrie Mae Weems will also join actress/playwright Anna Deavere Smith and artist Eileen Cowin for an evening of conversation and readings at the Getty Center in Los Angeles.  They will discuss Cowin’s and Weems’s works on view in Narrative Interventions in Photography at the Getty Center, and will explore how storytelling impacts their art making.  The event takes place on Thursday, January 26 at 7:30 pm.
  • Judy Pfaff will have a solo exhibition at the Bruno David Gallery (St. Louis).  Recent Work will exhibit Pfaff’s “adroitness in creating smaller works of art.”  Bringing together several kinds of media and methods of art-making together, Pfaff redefines the capacities of what art can be. A fully illustrated catalogue with essays by Buzz Spector and Kara Gordon accompanies the exhibit.  This exhibition will be on view January 27 – March 3.
  • Community leaders in Chicago recently rededicated Louise BourgeoisHelping Hands, a tribute to Jane Addams, social worker, reformer, and Nobel Peace Prize recipient. The artwork suffered vandalism, was restored by Bourgeois, and went into storage until the Park District and the Art Institute of Chicago worked together to install it at the Chicago Women’s Park and Gardens.
  • Mark your calendars now for the Cindy Sherman retrospective at The Museum of Modern Art.  This exhibition will trace the groundbreaking artist’s career from the mid-1970s to the present and will run February 26 – June 11.
  • Ellen Gallagher‘s work will be presented in Printin’ at the Museum of Modern Art (NYC) next month.  Organized in conjunction with the exhibition Print/Out, Printin’ takes as its starting point Gallagher’s DeLuxe (2005), a series of 60 works that challenged traditional ideas of what a print could be. This technically complex work employs a veritable riot of mediums, unorthodox tools, and elements, from slicks of greasy pomade to plastic ice cubes.  This show will run February 15 – May 14.
  • Fred Wilson will be honored by Savannah College of Art and Design’s deFINE ART 2012 in February.  Wilson will be recognized for his work and influence on contemporary art and he will give public talks at SCAD’s 4C Event Space in Atlanta (February 22) and the Trustee’s Theater in Savannah (February 23).  Wilson will also present an artistic intervention into the Walter O. Evans Collection of African American Art at the SCAD Museum of Art.