Though the Skinny is a little thinner this week, there are still plenty of art events to sate your appetite this week, with shows both big and small on offer. As for the two biggest, the Editions|Artists’ Book Fair—an expansive, erudite extravaganza—opens this Wednesday to much acclaim following its Sandy-based rescheduling, while Visual AIDS’s “Postcards From Edge” benefit this weekend features over 1,300 (!) artworks that are priced to fit any sized budget. On a smaller scale, multiple solo shows abound this week, with Deborah Kass, Dieter Roth, and Bruce Nauman all receiving substantial exhibitions examining important periods of their careers.
— WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 23RD —
Opening night party for Editions|Artists’ Book Fair at the Altman Building, 125 West 18th Street, 7 – 9 p.m., $75
Postponed by Hurricane Sandy, the Editions|Artists’ Book Fair returns to New York for its 15th iteration, and will feature over 60 exhibitors from around the globe as contemporary publishers and dealers present the latest prints, multiples, and artist’s books. Painter Dana Schutz has been tapped to create a limited edition print for this year’s fair, which will run from 11 a.m.–7 p.m. from Thursday to Saturday and noon to 5:30 p.m. on Sunday.
Opening reception for Dieter Roth: “Dieter Roth. Björn Roth” at Hauser & Wirth, 511 West 18th Street, 6 – 8 p.m. (through April 13th)
This exhibition of over work created by German-born Swiss artist Dieter Roth, who has been described as “a performance artist in all the mediums he touched,” marks the culmination of the gallery’s 20th anniversary as well as the inauguration of its new, second exhibition space in New York. Featured among the 100 plus artworks Roth created since 1970 are notable pieces from both of Roth’s “Tischtücher” painting and “Kleiderbilder” sculpture series, as well as a fully functional, site-specific liquor and coffee bar created by Björn and Oddur Roth, which will run throughout the exhibit.
Closing of “Picasso: Black and White” at the Guggenheim, 1071 Fifth Avenue, 10 a.m.–5:45 p.m.
Wednesday will be the last day to see the exceptional, not to be missed, chronological exhibition of black, white, and gray works from over 60 years of Picasso’s prolific career.
Opening reception for Claire Fontaine: “Sell Your Debt” at Queen’s Nails, 3191 Mission Street, San Francisco, 9 – 11 p.m.
With their “Redemptions” installation opening the day before at the nearby CCA Wattis Institute, French collective Claire Fontaine is opening an exhibition that focuses on “debt, profit, and how economics in America lost sight of the individual.”
— THURSDAY, JANUARY 24TH —
Opening reception for Brea Souders: “Film Electric” at Daniel Cooney Fine Art, 508 – 526 West 26th Street, #9C, 6–8 p.m. (through March 2nd)
In her first exhibition at the gallery, photographer Brea Souders presents a series of pigment prints featuring snippets of vibrantly colored shapes and images, collaged and interspersed with the artist’s photos.
Opening reception for Deborah Kass: “My Elvis +” at Paul Kasmin Gallery, 515 West 27th Street, 6–8 p.m. (through February 23rd)
Gathered together for the first time in the artist’s career, Kass’s “My Elvis” paintings will be exhibited alongside her first and last self-portraits from her “Warhol Project” series.
Artist’s Talk with Catherine Opie at the Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, 7:30–8:30 p.m.
Known for her socially aware documentary photography, Catherine Opie will talk about her practice at the Hammer Museum as part of the UCLA Department of Art lecture series.
— FRIDAY, JANUARY 25TH —
Opening reception for “WORD” at Tomlinson Kong Contemporary, 270 Bowery, 6–8 p.m. (through March 29th)
This group show compares the work of Thomas Allen, Chrissy Conant, Ken Fandell, Sharka Hyland, and Rob Wynne, and the different technical and thematic approaches they take to their text-based practices.
Artist’s Talk with Meghan Boody at the Rubin Museum of Art, 150 West 17th Street, 6:15 p.m.
As part of the “Artists on Art” series curated by Beth Citron, artist Meghan Broody will stop by the Rubin Museum to discuss her offbeat, idiosyncratic, and occasionally unsettling photographs and sculptures.
Preview party for Visual AIDS's 15th Annual Postcards From the Edge Benefit Sale at Sikkema Jenkins & Co., 530 West 22nd Street, 5–8 p.m., $85
Need a little mystery in your life? Check out the preview party for Visual AIDS annual “Postcards From the Edge” event, which invites artists to create postcards-sized works of art that are then sold to benefit the organization. Artists who have donated works this year include John Baldessari, Ross Bleckner, Tony Feher, Ann Hamilton, Arturo Herrera, Christian Marclay, Marilyn Minter, Catherine Opie, Kay Rosen, Ed Ruscha, Bill Viola, Kara Walker, Lawrence Weiner, and Fred Wilson, among many, many others, and they’re all uniformly priced at $85. The catch? They’re exhibited anonymously, with the artist’s name only revealed after the work has been purchased. While the sale begins in earnest on Saturday, admission to the preview party comes with two raffle tickets and the chance to win your first choice of any postcard.
Opening for “Drawing Surrealism” at the Morgan Library, 225 Madison Avenue, 10:30 a.m.–9 p.m. (through April 21st)
Adding to their recent spate of stellar exhibitions, the Morgan Library presents more than 160 works on paper from iconic Surrealists like Dalí, Ernst, and Miró, as well as over 70 artists from 15 different countries around the world, whose work was impacted by the development of the important 20th-century movement.
Opening reception for “Specific Collisions” at Marianne Boesky Gallery, 118 East 64th Street, 6–8 p.m. (through February 23rd)
Featuring works by Jason Dodge, Max Ernst, Edward Gorey, Adrian Piper, Mungo Thomson, and Francesca Woodman, among others, this intriguing group show focuses on how specific viewing circumstances alter how a work is perceived. The fact that it lists Stephen King’s book The Shining along with Stanley Kubrick’s movie adaptation as touchstones for the exhibition is just icing on the cake.
Opening reception for “Women Artists of the Permanent Collection: Mid-Nineteenth Century to Present Day” at the Riverside Art Museum, 3425 Mission Inn Avenue, Los Angeles, 6–8 p.m. (through April 10th)
The Riverside Art Museum has gathered together some 40 influential female artists associated with Abstract Expressionism, Conceptualism, Muralism, and just about every "ism" in between to celebrate the role of women in art’s rich historical traditions.
— SATURDAY, JANUARY 26TH —
Opening reception for “Giacometti and a selection of contemporary drawings” at Norte Maar, 83 Wyckoff Avenue, #1B, Brooklyn, 6–9 p.m. (through February 17th)
Centered around a double-sided drawing by Alberto Giacometti, this exhibition juxtaposes the work of the modern master with that of 10 contemporary artists.
Opening of Andy Warhol: “Polaroids 1974 – 1987” at the Luckman Fine Arts Complex, 5151 State University Drive, Los Angeles, 12 – 5 p.m.
Pop icon Andy Warhol took thousands of Polaroid pictures in the 1970s and '80s, many of which inspired later paintings and silkscreens. Ranging in subject from strangers to celebrities to ordinary objects, a selection of these photographs have been made available to the public for the first time in this exhibition.
— SUNDAY, JANUARY 27TH —
Opening reception for Gavin Kenyon at Ramiken Crucible, 389 Grand Street, 6–8 p.m. (through March 3rd)
Lower East Side gallery Ramiken Crucible hosts a selection of bulbous, bronze sculptures by Gavin Kenyon, which bear a not so negligible resemblance to the work of Hans Bellmer.
Closing of Talking in Circles in Talking by Aki Sasamoto at Soloway, 348 South 4th Street, Brooklyn, 7 p.m.
Sasamoto, whose work was included in the 2010 Whitney Biennial and the “Greater New York” show at MoMA PS1, returns to Soloway for the third and final of her performances in the gallery, which accompany her current transmutable exhibition.
— TUESDAY, JANUARY 27TH —
Art lecture with Sabine Flach at the School of Visual Arts, 133 – 141 West 21st Street, Room 101C, 6:30 p.m.
Presented by the BFA Fine Arts Department, art historian and theorist Sabine Flach will discuss the potential role of nature in contemporary art.
Opening reception for Bruce Nauman: “mindfuck” at Hauser & Wirth, 23 Saville Row, London, 6–8 p.m. (through March 9th)
Though vulgar, the exhibition’s title serves to highlight the important split between the mind and body in Nauman’s work, while the show presents a thorough examination of the American artist’s career, with a special emphasis on his iconic neon sculptures.
