issue 017: work of art, art of work

This Labor Day, we're examining the relationship between work and art by medium and genre—from surrealism and abstraction to figuration to mixed media.

Hi artsies,

Sorry for the late newsletter today. Life.

As many of us in the US celebrate Labor Day (by not working), I’ve been thinking about how we value work. And how it gives art meaning, influence, and monetary value. Although art doesn’t necessarily serve a utilitarian function, we still measure the labor behind it: brushstrokes, installation hours, concepts, schooling, mastery. The more complex the piece—or the more we know about the effort that went into it—the more we tend to ascribe value to it. And yet, in life as in art, we also chase the illusion of effortlessness.

This week’s reads are grouped by domains, all circling back to the work that goes into art, and distilling work in art. Jump to the end for a roundup of upcoming shows/fairs and art news headlines from last week.

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Abstraction

Flora Yukhnovich has made a career creating effortless riffs on old master paintings, and these do not disappoint. The references and her approach both give meaning.

These abstractions show feeling as the work itself, complex gestures honed until they seem to simply arrive.

Frank Bowling’s poured rivers of color turn migration and memory into monumental labors.

Cameron Martin’s ribboned grids make paintings look like they appeared overnight, hiding the labor abstracted meaning.

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Surrealism

Satire is the labor here, twisting respectability into forbidden delight.

Weiner’s cosmic symbols and ethereal gradients look effortless, overshadowing just how much work it takes to mystify.

For more than seven decades, Rama employed complex iconographic and topical elements to surprise and challenge viewers.

Mallo’s cosmic canvases double as feminist, socialist rebellions. The context does a lot of the heavy lifting.

Picasso’s frantic late works reveal the grind of legacy-building.

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Figuration

Brushstrokes become light and choreography. These laboring bodies are transformed into dreamlike knots.

Sandoval sifted through 500 rolls of film. A decade of labor distilled into one memory-image at a time.

Hanson stretches and smooths her surfaces, hiding toil inside immaculate polish. The details betray the work.

Quintana layers studies into canvases that mask the slow work of becoming. The impact is an effortless glow.

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Scenes

These frames capture seasonal survival where community labor reshapes daily life with each thaw. Strenuous work becomes art.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema’s roses required months of shipments and obsessive detail, beauty staged through backbreaking artifice. Was the work worth the outcome?

Joel Meyerowitz spent six decades honing the patient work of catching life mid-stride. We love him for it.

Room Tour rejects shortcuts, preserving the labor of memory in every imperfect mark. The work shows.

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Mixed Media

Yuk Hui’s call for “technodiversity” reframes imagination as cultural work, asking how futures are laboriously invented.

Sculpting light across decades shows even the most ethereal illusions demand relentless maintenance.

We Will Sing transforms a textile mill through sound, cloth, and community, layering centuries of industrial labor into an installation that feels communal and effortless.

By outsourcing to termites and algorithms, she exposes how unseen labor props up seamless systems.

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Upcoming Fairs & Shows

I can’t wait to head to the Armory Show next weekend, but the whole world is gearing up for fall.

• 80 Museum Exhibitions and Biennials to See This Fall

• Why The Armory Show 2025 is the Must-See Art Fair of the Season

• 10 Standout Shows to See during Armory Week 2025

• Art Dealers Get Candid Ahead of the Armory Show

• Your Guide to NYC’s Fall Art Fairs

• NYC Selected Gallery Guide, September, 2025

• 4 Art Advisors Weigh In on Who to Watch at Untitled Art Houston’s Inaugural Fair

• Ocula’s Picks for the Must-See Exhibitions Around the World This Month

• Art shows to leave the house for in September 2025

• Frieze Seoul 2025 Arrives at COEX, Spotlighting Asia’s Art Powerhouses

• 8 Standout Shows to See during Frieze Seoul 2025

• Five Under-the-Radar Galleries to Watch in Seoul

• RendezVous – Brussels Art Week

• With its 36th edition, Bienal de São Paulo seeks to ‘exhibit silence’

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Art World News

And because context is its own kind of labor, here’s what went down in the broader art world last week:

• Museums are struggling to secure funding, including the Van Gogh Museum and NSW regional galleries

• Jeff Koons returns to Gagosian after a 4-year Pace detour

• A Nazi-looted painting surfaced in an Argentinian real estate ad—then vanished again

• The rarely-seen Weis Collection, including a Rothko crown jewel, is headed to Christie’s

• Newly attributed Malevich rediscoveries are being questioned

• Cindy Sherman graces the cover of The New Yorker’s centenary cover—the second time the cover has featured a photograph

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‘til next week,

tld-art