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Vienna's Wonders Back on View
After more than a decade, during which it underwent renovation and the restoration of its objects, the famed Kunstkammer at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna reopened Mar. 1. With some 2,000 objects on display, the collection of works in precious metals and gemstones, ivories, sculptures, scientific instruments, clocks, game boards and other finely crafted items was amassed by various members of the Habsburg nobility over centuries. This is the first major reinstallation of the Kunstkammer since it initially went on view in 1891 in the mezzanine galleries—where it remains—of the newly constructed museum.Read More
Unalienated Labor: Q&A with Ann Agee
Ornate historical ceramics and a funky Brooklyn lifestyle come together in Ann Agee's current exhibition, "The Kitchen Sink," at Locks Gallery in Philadelphia. On view through Oct. 20, the show comes on the heels of the Brooklyn Museum's group show "Playing House" [Feb. 24–Aug. 26], in which Agee transformed a 19th-century domestic library and parlor into a showroom for an enterprise she calls "Agee Mfg. Co."Read More
Cinematic Crises: Q+A with Jesper Just
For "This Nameless Spectacle," Jesper Just's current exhibition at James Cohan in Chelsea (his first with the gallery), the Danish artist has mounted installations of three recent videos. Visually seductive, slow-paced and enigmatic, the short films adopt cinematic conventions only to upset them, confounding viewers' expectations. The show follows the recent announcement that Just will represent Denmark at the Venice Biennale in 2013.
Two of the works—Sirens of Chrome (2010; 12 minutes, 38 seconds) and This Nameless Spectacle (2011; 13 minutes)—are having their New York premieres, while the third, Llano (2012; 7 minutes, 17 seconds), is being screened for the first time.
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The Top Picks at ABC
A low-key cheerful mood prevails at the attractively regrouped and revamped abc Art Berlin Contemporary, which opened at Station Berlin in the city's Kreuzberg neighborhood [through Sept. 16]. As the organizers explained to the press, whom they seemed to suspect had come expecting otherwise, theirs is not a "fair" but an "exhibition." While the faintest whiff of commerce, only "gallerists"—not dealers—participated. Each booth is designated by the featured artist (solos only) and not by the gallery name, which is in fine type.
More than half the participating 126 galleries are from Berlin, but some are from as far away as Seoul, Jeddah and Cape Town. Selection was made by an organizing committee of nine Berlin venues (Galerie Guido W. Baudach, Mehdi Chouakri, Galerie Kamm, Klosterfelde, Meyer Riegger, Galerie Neu, Neugerriemenschneider, Esther Schipper and Zak Branicka), according to criteria that were not specified.
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Nicole Eisenman's Prints and People
Eight months ago, Nicole Eisenman locked her paints away and turned exclusively to prints. Operating feverishly in four different workshops, both alone and in collaboration, the Brooklyn-based artist has produced a trove of works in various mediums—etching, lithography, monotype and woodcut. Her large, inventive monotypes—colorful works focusing a big head, or on a single figure or two in playful combinations—were her contribution to the most recent Whitney Biennial, often singled out for praise in reviews of the show. Eisenman is currently exhibiting her prints in all mediums at Leo Koenig Gallery in New York, through June 30.
Eisenman first achieved notoriety in the early 1990s for her graphic brilliance, as demonstrated in drawings that she produced in profusion, at small and grand scale. The irreverence of her content—what was newly being called "queer" art—was at that time something unprecedented. Drawings ranged from one-off sight gags on tiny scraps of paper to giant murals depicting all-female scenes—shipwrecks, desert islands, an under-water film shoot—replete with sex and violence. In a wall drawing at the 1996 Whitney Biennial, she depicted the destruction of the Whitney Museum itself. While over the years she has tempered the excesses of her subject matter, Eisenman has returned to graphic exuberance in her recent prints. Her tone has darkened in these works, but she is no less experimental in her exploration of form and content.
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Currently on view in the group show "Redux" at New York's Cristin Tierney Gallery (through Feb. 4) are two works by Joe Fig, both related to his 200
