London Tate Modern When I walked into Tate Modern for Damien Hirst’s retrospective, I was very positive and full of expectations, but I left with contradictory thoughts—not about Hirst’s work per se, but about the value of an anthological exhibition devoted to his work.
Adriana Varejão
Buenos Aires Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires Adriana Varejão is one of Brazil’s most important contemporary artists. “Histories at the Margins,” her recent survey exhibition, featured her entire universe of thoughts and concerns, including paintings, installations, sculptures, photographs, drawings, and objects.
Attila Richard Lukacs
Vancouver Winsor Gallery Known for realist paintings of virile, eroticized figures during the ’80s and ’90s, Attila Richard Lukacs has since moved on to a psychological realm of submerged illusions and maze-like puzzles. Classical and mythological evocations are layered throughout his recent body of work: fountains, urns, and columns merge with impressions of the dead,
Gerald Beaulieu
Oshawa, Ontario McLaughlin Gallery There is a god of maize in the British Museum, an artifact that represents an enduring Central American myth from the Popol Vuh in which corn becomes the main ingredient in the creation of the first people.
“Civic Action”
Queens, New York Noguchi Museum and Socrates Sculpture Park Noguchi Museum and Socrates Sculpture Park “Civic Action,” though much smaller in scope, celebrated the same spirit of activism and social engagement on view at Documenta XIII in Kassel, Germany, and Manifesta 9 in Genk, Belgium, last summer.
Wang Xieda
New York James Cohan Gallery Based on the title of Wang Xieda’s first New York solo show, one might expect a focus on figurative or narrative content. Describing a grammatical construction, “Subject Verb Object” seems to imply the depiction of subjects engaged in actions that further involve objects.
Jim Osman
New York Lesley Heller Workspace In a very smart show, Jim Osman has taken the cast-offs of his earlier projects in wood and stacked them together to create frontally oriented, open sculptures. The seemingly offhand manner in which he fashions his square or rectangular constructions belies their sophistication.
Murray Dewart
Boston Boston Sculptors Gallery In Guardian of the Vows, a small, serene bronze with an architectural presence, two tiny towers flank a patterned, rectilinear center. The tops of the towers screw on and off; you can put things in them, provided you roll them up, like your wedding vows, your will, or even a recipe,
Ruth Laxson
Atlanta Museum of Contemporary Art Georgia An endless fascination with language defines Ruth Laxson’s work. She combines mathematical equations, musical annotation, graphic symbols, and text to create a unique syntax. “Hip Young Owl,” her recent retrospective, traced the evolution of this language through sculptures, paintings, etchings, prints, artist books, and mail art spanning more than
