Rashid Johnson. “Jonathan with Eyes Closed,” 1999. Courtesy the artist and the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum.
In this week’s roundup Rashid Johnson addresses the black American experience, Doris Salcedo and Fred Wilson receive honors, William Kentridge returns to the Metropolitan Opera, and more.
- Rashid Johnson: Message to Our Folks is up at the Kemper Art Museum (St Louis, MO). This is the first major solo museum exhibition to survey Johnson’s work, which challenges entrenched ways of thinking about the black American experience. On view through January 6, 2014.
- Doris Salcedo has received the 2014 Hiroshima Art Prize. Awarded every three years, the prize recognizes artists whose works have contributed to peace efforts, and whose artistic practice spreads the “spirit of Hiroshima.”
- William Kentridge‘s adaption of Dmitri Shostakovich’s The Nose returns to the Metropolitan Opera this week (New York, New York). The final performance on October 26 will broadcast at BAM Rose Cinemas. In conjunction with the opera, David Krut Projects is presenting William Kentridge Prints, comprising thirty prints created in preparation for The Nose. On view through November 2.
- John Baldessari has a new series of large-format storyboards up at Sprüth Magers gallery (Berlin, Germany). Storyboard (in 4 Parts) features storyboard canvases consisting of two photographs ripped out of newspapers and magazines, a text panel that may implant a scene in the head of the viewer, and a color chart which takes up the hues of the individual pictorial elements. On view through November 2.
- Fred Wilson will be honored at the Sculpture Center’s Annual Benefit Gala, taking place at New York’s historic Edison Ballroom on October 9. In addition to being a celebrated contemporary artist, Wilson’s work “parallels the institution’s dedication to experimental and innovative developments in contemporary sculpture.”
- Emancipating the Past: Kara Walker’s Tales of Slavery and Power is up at the Crocker Art Museum (Sacramento, CA). The show features sixty works drawn from the collection of the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation, including wall paintings, works on paper, and new media. All of the objects showcase Walker’s approach to content and graphic design. On view through January 5, 2014.
- Kara Walker: Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated), a suite of fifteen lithographs and screenprints, is up at Pace Prints (New York, New York). According to Pace, “Each of the prints in Walker’s portfolio began with an enlargement of a woodcut plate from editors Alfred H. Guernsey and Henry M. Alden’s Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War, first published in Chicago in 1866.” Walker’s multipart printing process ended with her signature black silhouettes, overlaid in solid black silkscreen. On view through October 5.
- Paul Pfeiffer’s Morning After the Deluge (2003) is included in a group exhibition of video works at Regen Projects (Los Angeles, CA). For this piece, Pfeiffer “uses digital technology to create an illusion, combining sunrise and sunset into a hypnotic projected image.” On view through October 26.
- Lynda Benglis‘s artwork is on view at the New York University Institute of Fine Arts Duke House (New York, New York). This is the first in a series of shows for The Great Hall Exhibitions. Benglis’s installation “brings the feminist movement to the forefront and reminds viewers that the fight is not over.” On view through October 20.
- William Wegman was interviewed for Publisher’s Weekly. In “Q & A with William Wegman,” the artist talks to Antonia Saxon about Flo & Wendell, a “goofy, winsome sister-and-brother story”—the first in a series of books Wegman has signed on to create in collaboration with Dial Press.
- Barbara Kruger has collaborated with Freeway Eyewear on a pair of limited-edition sunglasses. Kruger’s design is stamped with the phrase “Your gaze hits the side of my face,” which first appeared in a 1981 artwork by the artist. “Presented on sunglasses, the wearer transforms into both a voyeur and an object; a play on themes of looking, power, and the gaze.”
