Weekly Roundup

Mark Bradford. The Tears of a Tree, detail, 2014. Mixed media on canvas; 305 x 1219 cm. Courtesy of the artist.

Mark Bradford. The Tears of a Tree, detail, 2014. Mixed media on canvas; 305 x 1219 cm. Courtesy of the artist.

New and recent work on view by Mark Bradford, Mariah Robertson, Alfredo Jaar, and other ART21-featured artists, featured in this week’s roundup.

Light and illumination engages viewers

Alfredo Jaar’s latest solo exhibition, Shadows, is on view at Galerie Lelong (New York, NY) through March 28. In the exhibition, the artist employs a photograph by Dutch photojournalist Koen Wessing taken in Nicaragua at the height of the 1978 insurrection. Jaar has described the photograph as perhaps the “strongest expression of grief” he has ever seen.

Art shows a physical, symbolic connection with Shanghai

Mark Bradford’s first major museum exhibition in Asia is on view at Rockbund Art Museum (Shanghai, China) through May 3. Tears of a Tree features three 12-meter long collage paintings (commissioned specifically for the exhibition) inspired by the artist’s visits to Shanghai and reflecting the artist’s perceived “dynamic melding of disparate cultures, economies, and functions in the city.”

Artist’s giant spider greets visitors in Sweden

A survey of work by Louise Bourgeois is on view in I Have Been to Hell and Back at Moderna Museet (Stockholm, Sweden) through May 17. The exhibition showcases the range of the artist’s work across seven decades, featuring 47 sculptures (including the giant spider, Maman) and 54 works on paper and fabric.

Challenging boundaries of photography through chemistry

Work by Mariah Robertson is on view in Photography Lovers’ Peninsula, the artist’s first solo exhibition with M+B (Los Angeles, CA). The show features works that demonstrate the artist’s experimentations with photographic chemistry. “I once described this work as an extreme end, or peninsula, of material-based photo work,” describes the artist. “Also, the installation layout looks like the outline of Florida on the floor plan of the gallery.” On view through March 21.

Interweaving visual and sound languages

William Kentridge’s The Refusal of Time—a collaboration with Philip Miller, Catherine Meyburgh, and Peter Galison—will be on view at Iziko South African National Gallery (Cape Town, South Africa) from February 20 through June 21. The installation includes a 5-channel video projection, moving sculpture, and an audio score emitted through four megaphones placed around the room. The work is on view in conjunction with the Design Indaba Festival, which will also include the multimedia performance, Refuse The Hour (February 26 and 27), among other events featuring the artist.

Retrospective addresses Colombia’s social and political landscape

The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (Chicago, IL) will present Doris Salcedo’s first retrospective, on view from February 21 through May 24. The exhibition brings together multiple bodies of work from the artist’s 30-year career, most of which have not previously been shown together. The exhibition also includes the U.S. debut of Salcedo’s recent work, Plegaria Muda (2008–10).

Black and white photos with modern type create visual impact

Work by Barbara Kruger is on view at Skarstedt London (London, UK) as part of Barbara Kruger: Early Works. The exhibition features a selection of the artist’s large-scale juxtapositions of text and photography from the 1980s. On view through April 11.

Museum presents work from a top-rated art school

Monkey Train (Orange), a 2007 screen print by Jeff Koons, is among the many contemporary works exhibited in MICA: Then/Now at the Noyes Museum of Art (Oceanville, NJ). This exhibition showcases artwork created over the past 150 years by Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) alumni. On view May 17.