Art News

An inside look at events and happenings in the contemporary art world.

Noah Buchanan, Color study for light and visual perception and light and intelligence and education, oil on linen, 18½ x 16½"Salmagundi Commission
The historic Salmagundi Club commissioned a milestone artwork by Salmagundi artist Noah Buchanan in celebration of its 150th anniversary. The piece—two dynamic allegorical door panels, Light and Visual Perception for the left side door and Intelligence and Education for the right—is now on view to the public at the Salmagundi Club. The opportunity to create the commission was awarded to Buchanan after a competition of 31 artists from across the country and Mexico, commissioned for Salmagundi’s 150th anniversary, and organized by Salmagundi’s Library Committee. The anniversary celebration and official presentation of the doors took place at a private Library Dinner this past November.

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Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe, Lady on Blue Couch, 2019, oil on canvas, 48 x 36". (Sourced from an image of Velma Rosai Makhandia, originally photographed and copyrighted by Naafia Naahemaa, Berlin, 2018). Los Angeles County Museum of Art, gift of John Auerbach and Edward Tang. © Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe. Image of painting by Robert Wedemeyer. Courtesy the artist and Roberts Projects Los Angeles.Black American Portraits
Black American Portraits, presented by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, features approximately 150 works of Black American subjects, sitters and spaces over the course of the 19th century to present day. Drawing primarily from LACMA’s permanent collection, the exhibition seeks to tell the stories of Black Americans and how they’ve used portraiture to “envision themselves in their own eyes. Countering a visual culture that often demonizes Blackness...these images center love, abundance, family, community and exuberance.” Contemporary artists in the exhibition include Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Amy Sherald, Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe, Bisa Butler and more. Black American Portraits is currently on view through April 17.

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Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988), Jailbirds, 1983. © The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure
The family of famed Neo-expressionist Jean-Michel Basquiat has recently announced that renowned architect Sir David Adjaye OBE will be the exhibition designer for Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure©, which opens April 9 at New York City’s Starrett-Lehigh Building. The exhibition features more than 200 rarely seen (and some never before seen) paintings, drawings, ephemera and artifacts to give an intimate and multidimensional portrait of Basquiat told by his family.

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Sung Won Yun, Invisible Traces, 2021, acrylic on canvas, 30 x 30"

Sung Won Yun solo show
New York-based artist Sung Won Yun’s debut solo exhibition in Los Angeles takes place at Helen J Gallery. The artist’s multidisciplinary process touches on themes of time, nature and ontology. She is inspired by the various stages of plant growth, carefully observing natural processes like the sprouting of seeds or geologic formations. Often her abstract paintings and drawings will take on seed-like circular forms. After painting these “seeds,” Yun sprays water on them, “resulting in a blossoming of colors, spreading and blending amongst each other.” SUNG WON YUN: (in)visible traces runs through January 22. —