issue 040: quiet rigor

My top 10 artist interviews and exhibition reviews from last week featuring works that navigate reality, from fragility and solitude through indifference and friction.

Hi artsies,

I’m writing this week’s issue from a comfy couch at a friend’s place upstate. It’s quiet and calm. It feels like it’s both recovering from chaos and bracing for it.

Last week the art world was abuzz with Art Basel Qatar (here’s a good recap of standout pieces) and Zona Maco (here’s a piece on the best booths). Plus, unsettling Epstein art world connections, unveiled.

The theme for this week’s art reads is quiet rigor. In their own way, these artists harness, portray, disguise, give voice, or capture quietude.

Enjoy!

Gwen John reveals the austere, solitary soul that is left when the “social flab” of the world falls away.

Urban detritus, discarded scraps, and rhythmic moments come together in this overdue spotlight on artist Choong Sup Lim. Highly recommend this show! You can feel the quiet rigor and graceful joining of East and West.

A rhythmic study on the “quiet intelligence” found in the liminal space between reality and its representation in physical form.

The award-winning artist’s newest Milan show confronts our fragility and disorientation with shifting borders and unsteady global ground.

The major Noguchi survey reveals a man inspired by the tactility, connectivity, and playfulness of NYC.

Plumb uses suburban wreckage and boredom as a mirror for our social and ecological fragility.

The art world darling’s latest exhibition unearths the peaty, nocturnal, wild, and indifferent British countryside.

A rejection of our “frictionless” digital era, making messes and exposing vulnerability within our technological infrastructure.

I’m not sure if the answer is yes, but the complexity of Puryear’s unspoken histories of identity and labor are certainly moving and masterfully executed on.

Deep in the pain of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, Lafarge reclaimed her agency with tactile topographies created with watercolor mixed with kinesiology tape.

Let’s close out with a headline roundup:

• Hidden detail found in Anne Boleyn portrait was ‘witchcraft rebuttal’, say historians

• Glasgow’s Centre for Contemporary Arts Announces Permanent Closure

• Van Gogh’s ‘triple painting’ revealed by discoveries beneath the surface

• Thomas Kaplan’s Rembrandt Lion Drawing Sells for $17.8 M. at Sotheby’s

• Fast-Rising Sculptor Yuko Mohri Wins $50,000 Calder Prize

And two art world gossip pieces:

• Opinion: Ken Griffin Drops Half-Billion on Basquiats, a Beloved London Gallery’s Decline, and More Scoops From Kenny Schachter’s Desk

• Wet Paint: Whose Art Is Selling on Facebook Marketplace? Who Is @Artnotnet? And More Juicy Art World Gossip

‘til next week,

tld-art