This week artist Theaster Gates was awarded one of the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ 2017 architecture awards for the work of his nonprofit, the Rebuild Foundation, and his “exploration of ideas in architecture.”
On April 6, Laylah Ali will receive the Sam Fox School Dean’s Medal at Washington University in St. Louis—where Ali earned her MFA in 1994—for her “outstanding contributions to the field of art.”
Events & exhibitions
New York City
- This week a new exhibition featuring some of John Baldessari’s earliest works is opening on April 7 at Craig F. Starr Gallery. John Baldessari: Paintings 1966-68 brings together experimental works, small canvases, and larger text and photo-text paintings, and is on view through May 20.
- Jacob Lewis Gallery is hosting a reception this Thursday from 6-8pm to celebrate the opening of a new two-person exhibition featuring work by Emilio Perez and Leonardo Drew (on view April 7–May 6).
- This is the last week to see Raymond Pettibon’s monumental exhibition at the New Museum. Raymond Pettibon: A Pen of All Work closes this Sunday, April 9.
Saratoga Springs, NY
- Thursday, April 6, 7pm—Janine Antoni and Stephen Petronio are discussing their ongoing collaboration with Skidmore dance professor Debra Fernandez as part of Skidmore College’s Dunkerley Dialogue series. The event is hosted in conjunction with the exhibition Janine Antoni & Stephen Petronio: Entangle at the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, on view through July 16.
Princeton, NJ
- Saturday, April 8, 2pm—Shahzia Sikander will be giving a talk at the Princeton University Art Museum’s opening reception for her recent site-specific commission, Quintuplet Effect.
Providence, RI
- Wednesday, April 5, 5pm—Catherine Opie will be discussing her work as part of a Visiting Artist Lecture at Brown University.
Edinboro, PA
- Thursday, April 6, 6:30pm—William Wegman will be giving a free public lecture on his work at Edinboro University.
Fort Myers, FL
- An opening reception for the exhibition James Franco & Kalup Linzy: Collaborations is being held at Florida SouthWestern State University’s Bob Rauschenberg Gallery on Friday, April 7 from 6-8pm. An exhibition featuring new and past work that includes an artists’-designed billboard project, Collaborations will be on view through June 3.
Denver
- Shade, an exhibition pairing the work of artists Clyfford Still and Mark Bradford, is opening this Sunday, April 9 at both the Denver Art Museum and Clyfford Still Museum. The collaborative two-venue presentation “underscores the legacy of abstract expressionism” and will be on view through July 16.
Los Angeles
- Yesterday the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA opened Selections from the Permanent Collection: Catherine Opie and Sterling Ruby, on view through June 12.
San Francisco
- Leonardo Drew’s site-specific installation Number 197 spans three walls in the de Young Museum’s atrium, and comprises a “multitude of sculptural elements created and arranged” in response to the architecture of the space. Number 197 is on view through October 29, 2017.
United Kingdom
- An exhibition by Eddie Martinez is on view at Timothy Taylor Gallery until May 6th. Cowboy Town features a new series of paintings described as “raw, pared back, exposed.” In an Artlyst interview about the exhibition, Martinez says, “Drawing for me is often biographical.”
- For its 40th anniversary, the Yorkshire Sculpture Park is exhibiting Ai Weiwei’s Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads (2010), beginning this spring through 2018.
Napoli, Italy
- Voyages Without a Destination, an exhibition of work by Louise Bourgeois, is on view at Studio Trisorio through June 17.
Helsinki, Finland
- April 5-8—A new project by Theaster Gates entitled The Black Charismatic has been commissioned as part of this year’s IHME Contemporary Art Festival. The project includes a film, installation, and concert by the artist’s experimental jazz group, The Black Monks of Mississippi.
It’s impossible to include all the incredible exhibitions and art events happening this week in a single post. If there’s something you feel should have been included in today’s roundup, leave a comment below!