New York “Rite of Passage: The Early Years of Vienna Actionism, 1960–1966,” curated by Hubert Klocker, was the first show to present the early years of the Vienna Actionists to a New York audience. Klocker and his academic associate, Gloria Sutton, carefully outlined the importance of these artists—including Hermann Nitsch, Otto Muehl, Günter Brus, and
Enrico David
New York Michael Werner Gallery Idiosyncrasy in contemporary sculpture has a way of communicating pleasure and humor, and Enrico David’s recent show did exactly that. His works play with the figure but also maintain a genuine sculptural intelligence that supports his offbeat themes.
Ted Victoria
New York Robert Miller Gallery Ted Victoria continues to baffle and enlighten viewers with works that explore relationships between actual objects and their photographic representations. Iconic sea monkeys, aswim in projection boxes, along with banal objects sequestered within enigmatic camera obscura constructions, still prevail.
Jane Lackey
Santa Fe, New Mexico Center for Contemporary Art Before we learned to write, we learned to speak. Before it was a language recognized by our tribe, it was sound. Our cries of pleasure and pain were connected to what we experienced in our bodies, and as we quickly learned, those sounds could elicit attention and
Susannah Sayler and Edward Morris
North Adams, Massachusetts MASS MoCA In the 18th century, the world’s most common bird may have been Ectopistes migratorius, the passenger pigeon. Estimated at three to five billion in number, these birds made up a quarter of the total avian population in North America when the first European settlers arrived.
Dane Winkler
Washington, DC Hamiltonian Gallery Growing up as the fifth of six children on a working farm in upstate New York is not often the springboard to an artistic vocation. In Dane Winkler’s case, his rural childhood is a constant wellspring of inspiration.
David Altmejd
Paris Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris David Altmejd’s first major exhibition in France was stunning in scope. His strange and exotic forms offer myriad opportunities for viewer interaction, though the mirrors that were so prominent in his installation at the Canadian Pavilion (2007 Venice Biennale) seemed not as evident here.
Ariel Schlesinger and Wilfredo Prieto
Tel Aviv Center for Contemporary Art “Hiding Wood in Trees” was developed collaboratively by Ariel Schlesinger and Wilfredo Prieto, though most of the works were authored individually. The whimsical title calls attention to a quality shared by their post-Minimalist approach—a belief that art is all around us, and inspiration, or sources of humor, can be
Juan Batalla
Buenos Aires Centro Cultural San Martin Since 2001, Juan Batalla has been involved in the Argentine art scene as an artist and curator. Always concerned with the interdisciplinary, his work navigates religion, contemporary art, and the humanities, with a special interest in African artistic expressions.
Fran Bull
Rutland, Vermont Chaffee Downtown and Castleton Downtown Gallery “STATIONS,” Fran Bull’s recent, dual venue exhibition, featured gigantic, wall-hung tableaux of figures rendered in high relief, along with one floor piece. Her dreamers, wrapped in white Venetian plaster bedclothes, represent iconic expositions of ourselves, draped in mystery, with as much hidden as revealed.
