Robert Ryman in Paradox, an episode from Season 4 of Art in the Twenty-First Century, 2007.
Season 4 artist Robert Ryman recently made the news with a donation of twenty-one works to the Dia Art Foundation. Valued at over $420 million, the gifted works, together with a piece the foundation already owns, are currently on view at Dia:Beacon, and now comprise the most comprehensive survey of the artist’s work held by a public American institution.
Also this week:
- Laurie Anderson joined 7-Inches For Planned Parenthood, a star-studded charity collaboration raising money for the women’s healthcare organization.
- Jeff Koons released his handbag design collaboration with Louis Vuitton.
- And Tania Bruguera is making her directorial debut this week with an adaptation of Samuel Beckett’s twentieth-century one-act play Endgame. Endgame will be performed in Portugal April 20-21 as part of the Biennial of Contemporary Arts (BoCA).
Events & exhibitions
New York City
- Thursday, April 20, 10am—Art21 is hosting a premiere of our latest New York Close Up film on artist Raúl de Nieves and his recent commission for this year’s Whitney Biennial. The premiere will be followed by a talk with featured artist Raúl de Nieves and curator Mia Locks.
- Also on Thursday, Hauser & Wirth is opening a new exhibition, Portable Art, featuring wearable objects commissioned from fifteen artists including Louise Bourgeois, John Baldessari, Mary Heilmann, and Paul McCarthy.
- We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85 opens Friday at the Brooklyn Museum, where it will remain on view through September 17. Featuring work by Lorraine O’Grady, Faith Ringgold, Lorna Simpson, and Carrie Mae Weems, the exhibition “examines the political, social, cultural, and aesthetic priorities of women of color during the emergence of second-wave feminism.”
- This is the last week to see Vija Celmins’ solo exhibition at Matthew Marks, closing this Saturday, April 22.
- A new exhibition co-curated by Mark Dion entitled Exploratory Works:
Drawings from the Department of Tropical Research Field Expeditions, is on view at the Drawing Center through July 16.
New Brunswick, NJ
- Kara Walker collaborated with Rutgers students to create a new immersive installation, on view through July 2. Entitled Atlanta Ladies Memorial Association, the exhibition acts as both a living memorial and cabinet of curiosities, incorporating found objects, ephemera, and personal observations that provide “a space for voices and stories that would have remained absent,” when considering the history of the South.
Easton, PA
- This is the last week to see an exhibition of William Wegman’s early work at Layfayette College. Drawings for a Better Tomorrow and a Worse Yesterday closes Saturday, April 22.
Memphis
- Tuesday, April 18, 6–8 pm—LaToya Ruby Frazier is speaking at the Memphis College of Art as part of the school’s Downing Pryor Distinguished Visiting Lecturer Series. The lecture will be preceded by a book signing of the artist’s 2015 award-winning monograph The Notion of Family.
Atlanta
- Tuesday, April 18, 7–8pm—Theaster Gates is giving a lecture entitled The Art Sermon at Emory University. Get tickets.
Houston
- Friday, April 21, 7:30pm—Season 8 artist Diana Thater is speaking at Rice University’s Moody Center for the Arts in conjunction with her nine-monitor video installation The Starry Messenger (2014), on view at the Moody Center through February 2018.
Los Angeles
- Lari Pittman’s work is featured in a new dual exhibition with that of artist Silke Otto-Knapp. Subject, Predicate, Object opens on Saturday at Regen Projects where it will be on view through May 27.
Colorado
- Thursday, April 20, 6–8pm—A free screening of Robert Adams’ segment in the Art in the Twenty-First Century Season 4 episode Ecology, is being held at Breckenridge Creative Arts’ Breckenridge Theater.
Athens
- Vija Celmins’ work is on view through July 16 at EMST—National Museum of Contemporary Art as part of documenta14.
Japan
- April 17–25—Alfredo Jaar will be presenting Culture = Capital, a week-long seminar and series of public lectures at Tokyo University of the Arts.
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!