What to See in New York Art Galleries This Week

Extract: 'Beyond the Veil’

Through July 8. Olsen Gruin, 30 Orchard St., Manhattan; 646-613-7011, olsengruin.com

Who gets to narrate history? Who gets to represent whom? These questions have been roiling the American art world lately, but they are nothing new in Australia — especially in regard to its indigenous population, who faced official efforts to erase their culture well into the 20th century through forced assimilation. Visual art has provided a crucial tool to help redress these erasures, and at this New York outpost of a Sydney gallery, the paintings by five women from central Australia, and one collaborative group, testify to the vibrancy of Aboriginal Australian art and the necessity of speaking for yourself.

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BRILLIANT - The breathtaking small survey of Aboriginal art "Beyond the Veil" at Olsen Gruin gallery.

Beyond the Veil at Olsen Gruin

So, there is something that holds true in a show like this, which presupposes a different way of looking at society because of the long reach of the West's current obsession with money. Clearly, affluence is not a major interest of the women in this show, who live in the central desert of Australia and who work on paintings that, despite their abstraction, remain close to their lives. This is a different cry by far from the recent dot paintings of Damien Hirst, whose probable appropriation-we are not certain this is true-looks like very much like the theft of a venerable art coming from a culture some 100,000 years old. Hirst's borrowings do tend to look facile in light of the greater gravitas of the indigenous women's works, which can be understood by Western viewers-albeit on a level likely more superficial than the paintings themselves. In any case, the controversy raises real issues about the appropriation of other cultures-a hallmark of Western art practice since the beginnings of modernism, when Picasso made use of African masks for his work Les demoiselles d'Avignon.

 

BEYOND THE VEIL CURATED BY ADAM KNIGHT
May 16 â?? July 8, 2018
OLSEN GRUIN NY
-Jonathan Goodman

Three Sentence Reviews of Marlene Dumas, Dan Colen, and 11 Other Art-World Big Shots

To coincide with several big art fairs and last week’s massive auctions, many larger galleries mounted shows of their bigger artists. So let’s read the tea leaves on the upper end of the food chain.

Extract:  Beyond the Veil
Curated by Adam Knight
Olsen Gruin

No doubt many of the bigwigs in town for all the art stars, megagalleries and super-auctions, missed maybe the best secret show in New York at the moment, this six-artist exhibition of Australian Aboriginal women painters curated by the president of the Aboriginal Art Association of Australia — a show that gives us a breathtaking small survey of what critic Robert Hughes (who in almost every case except this I disagreed with) called “the last great art movement of the twentieth century.”

Beyond The Veil at Olsen Gruin, New York

Olsen Gruin is currently hosting a group exhibition titled "Beyond The Veil."

Until July 8, 2018, Olsen Gruin will host an exhibition that celebrates Aboriginal Australian artistic practices. â??Beyond the Veilâ?� features a group of contemporary Australian artists. It has been made possible by the galleryâ??s collaboration with the Aboriginal Art Association of Australia. The group show will be on view at the galleryâ??s New York venue.

This group exhibition of Central Desert Paintings has been curated by the President of the Aboriginal Art Association of Australia, Adam Knight. The anticipated show features select works by Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Evelyn Pultara, Gabriella Possum Nungurrayi, Gayla Pwerle, Polly Ngale, and the Womenâ??s Collaborative comprising Beverly Cameron, Kathy Marinkga, Imitjala Curley, and Tjangili George.

Featured: Untitled 1993 Emily Kame Kngwarreye Synthetic polymer paints on Belgian linen 23.6 x 35 inches (59.9 x 88.9 cm)

Beyond the Veil

Olsen Gruin is pleased to present Beyond the Veil, a group exhibition of Central Desert Paintings curated by the President of the Aboriginal Art Association of Australia, Adam Knight. The anticipated show features select works by Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Evelyn Pultara, Gabriella Possum Nungurrayi, Gayla Pwerle, Polly Ngale, and the Women’s Collaborative comprising Beverly Cameron; Kathy Marinkga, Imitjala Curley, and Tjangili George, and will be on view from May 16 – July 8, 2018.

Beyond the Veil x Adam Knight

Olsen Gruin is pleased to present Beyond the Veil, a group exhibition of Western Desert Paintings curated by the President of the Aboriginal Art Association of Australia, Adam Knight.

The anticipated show features select works by Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Evelyn Pultara, Gabriella Possum Nungurrayi, Gayla Pwerle, Polly Ngale, and the Women's Collaborative comprising Beverly Cameron; Kathy Marinkga, Imitjala Curley, and Tjangili George, and will be on view from May 16 - July 8, 2018.

Did Damien Hirst Rip Off Aboriginal Australian Artists's Work?

Australian artists and dealers claim â??uncannyâ?? similarities between Hirstâ??s â??Veil Paintingsâ?? and landscapes of the late Emily Kame Kngwarrey.

Damien Hirstâ??s â??Veil Paintingsâ?? works â?? recently on show at Gagosian Gallery, Los Angeles (ranging from USD$500,000 to $1.7 million) â?? have come under fire for their similarity to the work of female Aboriginal artists, including Emily Kame Kngwarreye, who died in 1996.

Stephen Ormandy Only Dancing

Stephen Ormandy “Only Dancing”
Olsen Gruin
OPENS: March 7
The Lower East Side gallery presents a collection of new abstract oil on linen paintings and resin sculptures by Australian artist Stephen Ormandy, co-founder/creative designer of Dinosaur Designs.

ANNA-WILLI HIGHFIELD | OLSEN GRUIN

Christopher Hart Chambers reviews Anna-Willi Highfield‘s exhibition Spirit Faces at Olsen Gruin Gallery in New York City.

Up front by the gallery's storefront window on the Orchange Street strip on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, which is now perhaps the premier location for current fine art, stands a construction of sheet brass shards, with straight, think brass rods projecting outwards in all directions, extending like rays of light or exclamation points.

Spirit Faces: Anna-Wili Highfield's First Show at Olsen Gruin Gallery NYC

After a 10-plus year hiatus, Australian artist Anna-Wili Highfield has returned with a collection of mixed media sculptures. Titled ‘Spirit Faces’, the sculptures are currently being shown at Olsen Gallery’s New York City outpost, Olsen Gruin.

The show is Anna’s first fully conceived body of work in over a decade and follows on from the gallery’s calendar of other strong shows representing some pretty excellent Australian artists: Stephen Ormandy, George Byrne, Leila Jeffreys, and the super cool TV Moore.

Anna-Wili Highfield: Spirit Faces at Olsen Gruin Gallery

"Olsen Gruin is pleased to present Spirit Faces, an installational exhibition of new sculptures by Australian artist Anna-Wili Highfield (b. 1980, Sydney). Highfield's first fully conceived body of work in a decade, Spirit Faces gathers a celebratory mélange of animals, body parts, and self-portraits. Virtuosic and playful, Highfield's mixed media sculptures reach new heights of exuberance and material imagination.

Anna-Wili Highfield's Spirit Faces

A selection of thought-provoking, mixed media sculptures.

After the clean and minimal photographs of sunny LA which provided a vibrant glimpse into the urban landscape of California, New York-based gallery Olsen Gruin presents the work of a strikingly different artist. Anna-Wili Highfield‘s Spirit Faces exhibition features mixed media sculptures that create an intriguing collection. Made of a blend of glamorous materials, brass, and spray painting finishes, the intricate artworks draw the viewer closer. Animals and body parts combine in carefully shaped sculptures that often remind of a self-portrait.

'Jens Einhorn: Raw Vision' at Olsen Gruin, New York

Olsen Gruin is currently hosting a solo exhibition by Jens Einhorn, titled "Raw Vision."

The exhibition presents a collection of new collage-paintings by the German artist. Einhorn's body of work reveals his interest in channeling the assertive energy of the urban periphery. His new works incorporate shapes cut from tarpaper, layered starkly above a vibrant collage of fabric, acrylic, and spray paint. Similar to how associating our personal memories gives meaning to others' discarded objects, Einhorn's collages are full of suggestion and opportunity.

Born in 1980, Jens Einhorn graduated from the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf as a Master Student with Professor Tal R. The artist currently lives and works in Berlin.

The exhibition will be on view through February 5, 2018 at Olsen Gruin, 30 Orchard St, New York, NY 10002, USA.

The rebirth of coo: reconsidering the pigeon - in pictures

Australian photographer Leila Jeffreys focuses on diversity within bird species, and these wildly colourful portraits belie the lowly reputation of the pigeon.

Nicobar Pigeon These striking portraits of the pigeons and doves of New Guinea and Australia form part of Leila Jeffreys’ current exhibition, Ornithurae Volume 1, at Olsen Gruin, New York, until 12 November. The captions below are from an accompanying essay, Reconsider the Pigeon, by biologist Tim Low. All photographs: Leila Jeffreys 

Leila Jeffreys - Ornithurae

OLSEN GRUIN is pleased to present “Ornithurae” a new selection of work by the Australian artist, photographer and environmentalist Leila Jeffreys.

Jeffreys has photographed native birds in her home country and the US (she was personally invited to shoot at Ojai Raptor Center, a sanctuary for wounded birds in California). Her unique work has featured everything from budgies to eagles; wrens to pigeons; cockatoos to hawks.

_View online at the360mag.com

Olsen Gruin and Brooke Shields invite you to the opening of
LEILA JEFFREYS
ORNITHURAE VOLUME 1
Opening: Friday 13 October, 5–8pm
Exhibition continues until 12th November

George Byrnes New Order Photographs Idealize LA Light

The clean lines and colorful, minimal shapes in George Byrne’s photographs belie the busy, messy time in Los Angeles that led to their making. The Australian-born Byrne arrived in the city in 2010, after years of traveling. “I was personally in a very strange place when I got here,” he says. “No idea what I was doing with my life.”

Art Talk | George Byrnes

_View article at My Design Alley

George Byrne's photographic work makes my heart skip a beat. Using the urban Los Angeles landscape as his canvas, George captures forms and colour into unique compositions so they have an incredible alchemy and depth. His latest exhibition, NEW ORDER, includes twelve new works, capturing new compositions of color and geometric forms on the streets of LA - once again taking the ordinary and turning it into something extraordinary.

Art Talk | Stephen Ormandy

Stephen Ormandy has a way with colour. His bold and graphic paintings are strongly influenced by the natural world with a focus on colour and organic forms. His large scale oil paintings and cultural work are a synergy of line, shape and surface all working beautifully in harmony. For Stephen, colour is ''pure joy'' and his latest exhibition at the Olsen Gruin gallery is no exception.

Stephen Ormandy

OLSEN GRUIN NEW YORK 

Six hard-edged paintings of curvy forms by the Australian artist and designer, who is making his New York solo début, evoke otherworldly figures and landscapes.