NEW WINDSOR, NEW YORK Storm King Art Center Did David Smith intend to leave eight large white sculptures white, the state in which they were seen at Bolton Landing, when he died suddenly in 1965? That question, which has periodically vexed art historians, drove an intriguing exhibition at Storm King Art Center, where six of the white-painted steel constructions were installed outside on the lawn, including the three Primo Piano sculptures on view together for the first time.
Roni Horn
POTOMAC, MARYLAND Glenstone “Roni Horn,” a survey of work from the last four decades curated by the artist from the museum’s permanent collection, featured photographs, sculptures, and drawings divided into eight rooms: the earliest work, Ant Farm, dates from 1974, but the majority of the works were produced from 2000 to 2015. Horn’s work was ideal for Glenstone, a private museum outside Washington, DC; architecture, site, and art melded seamlessly together into a total experience that allowed for contemplation of complex ideas.
Alberto Giacometti
LONDON Tate Modern The U.K.’s first major retrospective of Alberto Giacometti in 20 years, made possible through unparalleled access to the collection and archive of the Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti in Paris, contained more than 250 works, including some extremely fragile and rarely displayed pieces. Although Giacometti is revered for his bronzes, the exhibition showcased a number of works in plaster and clay, repositioning him as an artist with an inherently experimental approach and farreaching proficiency in materials.
Thom Puckey
THE HAGUE Stroom Den Haag Thom Puckey’s remarkable Thorbecke monument and “A Matter of Time,” his recent, revelatory survey, firmly called attention to the intrinsic heterogeneity of his work. The monument, situated on the edge of a green space near the House of Par – liament in The Hague, confronts viewers with two loosely connected scenarios. The carved marble half depicts Johan Rudolph Thorbecke, a 19th-century politician heralded as the architect of the Dutch democratic state.
Jason de Haan
CALGARY, ALBERTA, CANADA Esker Foundation The artistic practice of Calgarybased Jason de Haan eludes categorization. His work inhabits an in-between space, a space of antidefinition. His recent exhibition, “Oh for eyes! At night we dream of eyes!” spoke to an interest in exploring non-hierarchical formations of objects. Wandering through the show, pondering, viewers first encountered clusters of crystals apparently growing from speakers. Placed in a large circle, the speakers emitted specific frequencies, vibrating at a distinct thrum.
“Revival: Stone and Steel”
RUTLAND, VERMONT Castleton Downtown Gallery The artists featured in “Revival: Stone and Steel” bring new life to their chosen materials in unique figural, botanical, mechanical, and conceptual ways. Selected by curator Oliver Schemm for their versatile skills and hands-on manipulation of media, they all come from the Rutland and Barre regions of Vermont, where quarrying, carving, and forging are part of the local language. Sabrina Fadial’s Burdock, an intricate sculpture incorporating steel and gold leaf, consists of 108 forged steel tapers with curlicue tips emanating from a golden core.
Sabine Senft
SAN ANTONIO Artpace Sabine Senft’s stone towers stood guard at the entrance to “Border – line Reality.” Entry portals made from massive river rocks gathered along the West Texas border, they represented the checkpoints that Senft encountered as a small child growing up in West Germany, yet they also recalled checkpoints closer to home between the U.S. and Mexico.
Paul Chan
NEW YORK Greene Naftali Paul Chan, winner of the 2014 Hugo Boss Prize, was born in Hong Kong, raised in Nebraska, and now lives and works in New York. His recent show, “Rhi Anima,” featured a group of nylon sculptures that he calls “breathers,” carefully engineered, inflated figures set in motion by fans and gesticulating wildly into empty space.
Ai Weiwei; Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron
NEW YORK Park Avenue Armory Hansel & Gretel presented a fitting cautionary fairy tale for our post- Snowden world. This large-scale interactive installation in the Wade Thompson Drill Hall of the Park Avenue Armory was the latest collaboration between Ai Weiwei and the architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron. Like their “Bird’s Nest” stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and 2012 pavilion for London’s Serpentine Gallery, this commissioned project, curated by Tom Eccles and Hans-Ulrich Obrist, continued to engage with the politics of public space and the psychological effect of architecture.
Tania Pérez Córdova
CHICAGO Museum of Contemporary Art “Smoke, nearby,” the ambiguous title of Tania Pérez Córdova’s first major U.S. museum exhibition (organized by José Esparza Chong Cuy), alerted one to the convoluted sensibility at work in the show. Born in Mexico City, Córdova received her BA in fine art, studio practice, and contemporary critical studies at Goldsmiths College in 2005.
