Reframe is a monthly column in which contributor Sam Falb discusses timely openings to view in New York. Each edition offers commentary on the latest exhibitions, performances, and installations. Dynamic and ever-evolving, the content reflects the fluidity of the market it travels through.
The beginning of Reframe’s monthly format arrives at the explosion of fall shows that follow the summer lull. Proverbial arms are being stretched to the (decidedly grayer, decidedly cooler) sky, and fairs, performance pieces, solo shows, and pop-ups are arriving up and down the calendar this September. They’re colorful, they have range, and it was a joy to put this round of content together. Use the guide as a roadmap. Just as well, cherry-pick a preferred one or two to take in on a midweek afternoon, or on a relaxed Sunday, riding the whisper of a crisp, fall breeze.
1. Grand Central Terminal: HELLO STRANGER (September 24-September 26)
In perhaps the most eclectic of the September assortment, Adam Dressner will arrive at Grand Central Terminal to exhibit a series of oil paintings and performances by the paintings’ subjects for one weekend only, in a show produced with friend Greg Yuna. Many of Dressner’s subjects in the show derive from his experience of painting them in Washington Square Park, where he also met now-friend and project collaborator Yuna. The show speaks to the chance encounters that bring people together (like how Adam and I first met at a friend’s party, as a matter of fact) as well as being a celebration of diversity, the radical acceptance of perceived “flaws”, and the altar of chance encounters that Grand Central Station represents. Live performances that feature music, poetry, and real-world visualizations of the personalities in his works will be on view as well throughout the weekend – a treat for the station’s commuters, Dressner fans, and invited guests alike.
2. David Zwirner: Day Night Day (September 12–October 19, 2024)
“You can go in,” the gallery assistant encouraged, as I stood at the threshold of Doug Wheeler’s DNNDWD180EN- NY24, the key fixture of his new show Day Night Day. Like a scene out of a child-sees-heaven flick, I stepped into the light and gasped. The immersive work extends back into Zwirner’s sizable West 20th Street gallery space in a mysterious shroud of fog, light, and gray-purple shadow. Decades of work in light installations and constructions have culminated in this show, his fifth solo exhibition with the gallery and first major presentation since 2020. The works pull from the artist’s own observations of the natural world, as well as objects’ interplay with light. Commenting on early experiences flying with his father, a doctor who cared for patients in remote areas of north-central Arizona, he said, “I was very conscious of the sky, if it was daytime or nighttime…. I was conscious of the planet in the sense of light.” Bring a friend or peer to this show, and witness the unique face of surprise upon entering into Wheeler’s void, not dark or fatalistic, but hopeful and bright.
3. Lubov: Transgression (September 14-October 26)
A technicolor-pastoral scene, Metempsychosis, greets viewers at Lubov’s latest show in their East Broadway space. Dennis Kardon, a maestro of intuitive brushstrokes, richly decadent work, and splashes of sensuality, unveils a series of pieces that entertain and catch viewers’ breath. The nape of a subject’s neck, fingers pressed into skin, figures in various stages of dress and undress, and animalistic (both in nature and in physical form) silhouettes dot the gallery’s canvases. The show is curated by Lubov veteran Kevin Tobin (see his previous solo show, Doom Boogie Woogie), who attended the opening in a stylish black frock and cow-print, furry sandals – perhaps a nod to Metempsychosis’s bovine essence. “Kardon gives his imagination and painterly arsenal carte blanche to stray as far as he pleases from high mannerist or realist rules and regulations,” Tobin shared about the artist.
4. Company: FIELD OF FEELS (September 13-October 26)
When you look at Tosh Basco’s exhibition at Company, you’re looking at the work of a multi-medium artist: dance, theatrical performance, and poetry among them. Such is the breeding ground of the leaps and drama, volcanic eruptions, and emotional swirls of vibrant color that make up her range of work for this show. The second solo at the gallery for the Zurich-based artist, the exhibition aims to pull at the senses and provoke questions on human connection. “I dance that which I know but do not have words for. The movement is the violence and the embrace. The movement is a bouquet of terror and beauty,” Basco shares in a poem that accompanies the show. With each piece, viewers are invited to feel the tension between fragility and force, to find their own rhythm in the spirited tension.
5. Petzel: The working end (September 12-October 19)
Eight sculptural works by Kristin Walsh are now on view at Petzel, gleaming and metallic in nature (and welded aluminum) at the gallery’s Upper East Side location. A centerpiece of the show is Engine no. 12, a reference to the engine of a diesel train, and a commentary on the harmful air pollution that such a train emits, harming workers and the general public. In fact, the works are all train-related in some fashion or another, from the quite familiar shape of turnstiles in Indicator no. 5, to Indicator no. 6 (and 7 and 8) which offer representatives of the handrails/grab poles in subway cars. What Walsh does with these works is continue her investigation into the ways orchestrated systems guide our thoughts and actions. The MTA is a key reference point, with the artist exploring how the institution, “acts as both a public forum and social barometer of the collective conscience” as show notes read.
6. David Peter Francis: Temperance (September 12-October 19)
platter, lodestone. Photo courtesy of the artist and David Peter Francis.
In the brief period that David Peter Francis has existed in the Lower East Side gallery community, a bevy of top-notch shows have come out of the East Broadway space, the latest finding itself at the intersection of mysticism, terror, and the tragic poetry of our shared experience on this planet. R. Jamin brings together a series of works including graphite drawings, a walnut wood reliquary (Reliquary I), a framed pair of opera-length white gloves (Untitled (Glove Pair II)), and a single dove feather resting on a protruded spike (Valentine IV). The influences are just as poignantly dark. These include an alleged 1908 asteroid strike in far-flung Sibera that was never witnessed (very “if a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it..), as well as the personally-resonant 2008 Sayre Fire, which consumed hundreds of Los Angeles home-caravans including their grandmother’s. For fans of Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal, in which a medieval knight plays a chess game with Death, that film would also serve as quite an apt primer alongside the world-building of this show. Absolutely dramatic, absolutely brooding with intensity – how divine.
7. Salon21: This Contains Magic (September 10-October 3)
Meeting Brianna Lance at a dinner for Visionary Projects (who just opened their own Lower East Side gallery), it quickly became clear that her charm and wit extends far beyond conversation and into her work. For her solo show at the delightfully well-appointed Salon21 space, her paintings and sculptural works explore hyper-feminine messaging through the lens of symbolism and mysticism. A watchful eye peeks out from a ruby-red heart or delicate white bloom, while her excellent depictions of the natural world through magical realism (if only all trees could sprout graceful candles, multi-color hands, flowers, and luscious vines) further illustrate a lush, playful sense of world-building. “I want to create moments that the viewer can linger on and discover something new each viewing. The ultimate goal is to create spiritual growth through the works and hopefully give that to others,” Lance shared in show notes. With a venerable background in fashion and culture industries, and (arguably) one of the most tasteful eyes in New York’s creative landscape today, her latest showing is a flora-filled treat that can’t be missed.
8. COLLECTIBLE Design Fair (September 5-8)
A design fair is not necessarily an art opening, as far as the parameters of this column go. However, owing to its first-time nature in the New York scene and the wealth of offerings on view at its temporary downtown hub (WSA, because of course), it is included as an honorable mention for this edition. In a weekend packed with art fairs and fashion week rigmarole, COLLECTIBLE stood out for its fresh assortment of contemporary furniture, design objects, and homeward-bound inspiration of all shapes, sizes, and styles. Think sculptural chairs that double as conversation starters (Lyle Gallery), glasswork of the highest order (Abby Modell), and a specially-curated section that saw the fair bring New York-based curator Sonya Tamaddon into the fold, as well as exhibition design by Rafael Prieto. The section took inspiration from Frank O’Hara’s 1960 poem Having a Coke With You, and featured an international array of exhibitors that set the bar for discovery and acquisition exceptionally high. It’s hard to say what COLLECTIBLE could possibly bring to New York next, but we’ll certainly be watching with a careful eye and hunger for inspiration.
9. Blade Study: SEED (September 4-October 13)
Emerging from a studio packed with spindly, spiky technophilic work, Brian Oakes’ practice comes to life at Blade Study this fall. With SEED, they combine the harsh, LED-lit worlds of mass production and logistical systems with items including 18 homemade rubies and 18 copper sulfate crystal seeds. These rubies, created by the artist, are meant to raise the question of an item’s value and essentiality, either through natural formation or human (i.e. artist) hands. On display at-large is a visual storyboard of commodities production from raw materials, to refinement, to production, to distribution, “investigating how worth is determined as objects progress along this chain,” as exhibition content reads. Oakes last showed at Blade Study in the 2022 group show, Epiphany, with a piece (Vessel, 2022) which similarly speaks to the strain of post-internet art that can be found across their oeuvre.
10. Susan Inglett: Against The Grain (September 3-October 12)
The team at Susan Inglett returns with the work of William Schwedler, the architecturally-influenced, multi-medium artist who produced pieces that blend modes of building sketches, Surrealism, landscapes, and perhaps even blueprints (if one is cocking their head at Untitled, 1964 in the right direction). Calming and pleasing to behold, combining sketches, works bathed in muted blues, greens, grays, and ash-beige, and a ruddy-red leaning tableau, the collection belies the complex story of the artist and his untimely end amidst the AIDS epidemic’s first wave. It’s also important to note that the works on view haven’t been shown since 1983, the gallery’s press liaison Becket Gourlay kindly shared. Had your fill of the Chelsea galleries after stopping into this and a few other shows? Run around the corner (on a guided tour or self-started) to the site of the former location of Schwedler’s favorite gay bar, The Anvil, a feature via membership cards and vouchers in his portfolio as well.
Words by Sam Falb
