Chelsea is one of the few Manhattan neighborhoods that feels deliberately built for the long game. Its borders are technical (Sixth Avenue to the Hudson, 14th to 34th), but its cultural footprint sprawls far beyond the map. What began as a Lenape village became a shipping stronghold, then a haven for immigrant labor, then a no-rules frontier for artists priced out of SoHo. Today, Chelsea folds all of it in: dockside grit, industrial bones, progressive politics and a post-gallery globalism that somehow still feels local.
The neighborhood’s transformation wasn’t just about rising rent. It was infrastructure-led. The High Line reengineered the city’s relationship to public space. Piers became parks. Warehouses became megawatt galleries. Rail yards became real estate—some of the most ambitious on the continent. The Hudson Yards development may grab headlines, but Chelsea’s character lives in the contrast between a Dia installation and a 24-hour diner, a sidewalk flower stand and a Jean Nouvel façade.
Chelsea didn’t get interesting by chasing what its other neighborhoods had to offer. It drew energy from what already existed, whether that was freight tunnels, factory space, counterculture or queerness, and built around it. The result is a neighborhood that knows how to absorb change without losing plot. It’s where Zaha Hadid landed her only New York project. Where a community board can still kill a billionaire’s plans. Where you can see work by the next big artist, and then see them at the bodega. Chelsea knows its value isn’t hype. It’s infrastructure, intent and staying power. You don’t need to understand art to get Chelsea. But give it 10 blocks, and you might start pretending you do.
Kiaf SEOUL and Frieze Seoul each opened at the COEX Center with a VIP preview on September 3. Courtesy of Kiaf SEOUL
For those who’ve attended Seoul’s art week since Frieze arrived in 2021, the contrast this year was unmistakable. The chaotic entrance lines at Kiaf SEOUL and the overcrowded aisles of last year’s Frieze are gone. Attendance feels lighter, and the booths more subdued, though major brands like Adidas, BMW, Ruinart and American Express still held prime positions at the entrance—a clear indication that the fair’s popularity is now firmly rooted in Korean society four years after its debut.
At the opening of Frieze Seoul on Wednesday, September 3, the mood was distinctly more muted and contained—a reflection of the art world adjusting to a new chapter in South Korea’s post-boom market. Slightly more lively in the afternoon was the historical Korean fair Kiaf, where collectors remain loyal to longstanding traditions and their local dealers.
This year marks the 4th edition of Frieze Seoul. Courtesy of Frieze and Wecap Studio
Blue-chip gallerists like Larry Gagosian and Emmanuel Perrotin skipped the trip this year, leaving their booths staffed solely by regional teams during the preview—a stark contrast to previous editions, when they flew in with much of their global staff. When gallery owners or lead partners from spaces focused on Korean artists, such as Gladstone and Mennour, did attend, it signaled that international galleries have already recognized the need to tailor their offerings to a local audience attuned to the market’s slower collecting pace and shifting attitude.
While Korean collectors remain engaged with the international art circuit, this has undeniably been a turbulent year for the country. With President Yoon Suk-yeol ousted after attempting to declare martial law and an economy still reeling from the effects of U.S. tariffs, Korean collectors are understandably more cautious in their buying.
This year, Frieze Seoul hosted over 120 galleries. Courtesy of Frieze and Wecap Studio.
Private buyers and institutions remain active, but spending habits have shifted, as Observer gathered from early press preview conversations. The once-rampant appetite for ultra-contemporary works has given way to a more measured approach, focusing on institutional-grade pieces and blue-chip artists. Speaking with resigned pragmatism, dealers noted that this trend extends beyond South Korea, echoing across Asia and the global market.
So what’s the new mantra for galleries? Cultivate your own relationships in the place you show. Those who have spent years building ties in South Korea can still make it work, as can local players. But for newcomers, entering the market now may feel like they’re arriving just as the music stopped.
That was not the case for the dynamic Los Angeles gallery Make Room, which marked its first appearance in Frieze Seoul’s main section with a shared booth alongside Apalazzo and a celebrity-filled dinner party steeped in a witchy atmosphere. Between drinks and bites of Korean fried chicken, K-pop and K-drama stars made appearances that set social media alight—including SUHO from EXO, actor Lomon Park, Tony Hong and members of the girl group Lovelyz.
Make Room hosted a K-pop and K-drama star-filled dinner on Tuesday night. Courtesy Make Room | Photo: Studio Monday Naked
Park Seo-Bo, a foundational figure in postwar Korean abstraction and the father of Dansaekhwa, was one of the names resonating most strongly at Kiaf and Frieze this year, following his recent passing. At Frieze, LG OLED honored his legacy in collaboration with the artist’s foundation, dedicating an entire booth to rarely seen later Écriture paintings from the estate, paired with ultra high-resolution video works that captured the textures in striking detail. The sharp contrast between the digital reinterpretations on screen and the tactile surfaces of the paintings underscored how, in his later years, Seo-Bo was already reflecting on the role of painting in a world saturated by screens and shaped by emerging digital realms that influence perception and aesthetics. As he once described it, standing on a “cliff edge” in the early 2000s, Seo-Bo confronted the question of how painting could evolve as the boundaries between different worlds began to blur.
Dynamic lower tiers and Focus Asia offer opportunities for discovery
Noteworthy results at both Frieze and Kiaf weren’t limited to the highest price points. Lindseed from Shanghai quickly sold out works by Chinese-born, Paris-based visionary Fu Liang at the Focus Asia sector, with prices ranging from $6,500 to $34,000. Similarly, Hong Kong-based gallery Kiang Malingue, which recently opened a space in New York, nearly sold out its solo booth of work by Taiwanese talent Tseng Chien Ying, priced between $15,000 and $25,000—a current sweet spot for collectors.
Returning to Seoul from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s leading contemporary gallery, Galerie Quynh, took a bold step with a solo presentation in the main section, showcasing the layered work of Lien Truong, a Vietnamese-born artist based in North Carolina. Her intricate canvases—exploring the intersection of body, identity and environment through the lens of diasporic trauma and societal pressure—drew early interest from collectors.
Seoul gallery Cylinder made a striking debut in the main section, securing multiple sales, including a work by Jennifer Carvalho ($9,000), three works by Sunwon Chan ($2,500-4,800), two works by Eunsil Lee ($12,000 and $5,000) and two works by Jongwhan Lee ($2,200 and $5,000). Next for the fast-growing gallery is its debut at Frieze London with a solo booth by Rim Park.
Equally successful, the young and dynamic Seoul gallery G Gallery sold six works by Choi Yoonhee on the first day ($2,400-19,000), a work by Moon Isaac for $12,000 and a piece by Cindy Ji Hye Kim for $10,000.
Another first-time exhibitor in Focus Asia was Shanghai- and Beijing-based Hive Contemporary, which showcased emerging names including Yuan Fang, Xia Yu, Zhang Mingxuang and Tan Yongqing, drawing a strong response: by evening, the gallery had sold 18 paintings and one sculpture priced between $20,000 and $100,000.
Timoteus Anggawan Kusno was presented by the Kohesi Initiative at Frieze Seoul Focus Asia. Photo: Elisa Carollo
Despite this year’s reduced footprint—and tucked into a narrow corridor wedged between the main booths—the Focus Asia section at Frieze offered some of the most compelling opportunities for regional discoveries inside the COEX.
Jakarta-based gallery Kohesi Initiatives presented Indonesian filmmaker and multimedia artist Timoteus Anggawan Kusno, whose work revisits censored narratives from 1960s films to explore liminality and historical erasure, examining the blurred lines between fact and fiction. Rooted in post-colonial and post-dictatorship Indonesia, Kusno’s practice reflects the country’s ongoing unrest and protests, shaped by the long-term consequences of the very issues his work confronts.
Parcel (F3) at Frieze Seoul, Focus Asia. Courtesy of Frieze Seoul
Tokyo-based PARCEL is presenting the multilayered practice of Side Core, a Japanese collective that critiques forced urbanization and restless public development through thoughtful multimedia guerrilla interventions. The works on view confront contradictions in public funding for the Tokyo Olympics and the broader paradoxes of Japan’s rapid urban expansion. Among them, the Rode Work series—launched in 2017 in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture—juxtaposes post-disaster reconstruction landscapes with the repetitive motions of skateboarding, highlighting the enduring bond between land and people. In the film, flashing lights and hazard signs guide drivers to a skate park built on a damaged industrial site, where skaters in high-visibility jerseys grind a half-pipe—subtly revealing how grassroots creativity can emerge from destruction and corruption.
Another standout in the section is PTT Space, presenting the sharp satire of Taiwanese American artist Christine Tien Wang, who explores millennial diaspora anxieties and the recent volatility of the bitcoin bubble through one of the most diffuse yet persistent forms of contemporary ephemera: memes. Her Tiger series addresses diasporic anxiety and societal mobility within Asian communities, while her Bitcoin series critiques the NFT apocalypse and the fleeting nature of digital culture, transforming the disposable aesthetics of memes into what the artist calls “historical paintings,” reflective of our time and its contradictions. Working at the intersection of institutional critique, politics and popular culture, Tien Wang is gaining international recognition, with acquisitions by LACMA and exhibitions at both Night Gallery and Naxos Draxler.
Christine Tien Wang’s “BDSM (Bitcoin Daddies Seek Memes),” presented by PTT Space in Frieze Seoul’s Focus Asia section. Courtesy of PTT Space
Korean and international galleries stake a claim on Kiaf’s first-day buzz
When comparing Kiaf with Frieze, several Korean dealers appeared to place even more emphasis on their presentations, spotlighting the top names in their rosters. On the lower level of the historic Korean fair, Kukje Gallery reported a complete sell-out of Ugo Rondinone’s work (the artist also has a show at Gladstone this week), along with an iconic green Kapoor piece (£550,000-660,000) and a later work by Park Seo-Bo ($250,000-300,000). Known as a leading gallery for Korean art, Johyun Gallery made a strong showing with artists like Lee Bae and Park Seo-Bo, reporting early sales directly from the floor. Blue-chip names also anchored Gana Art’s presentation, which included works by Alex Katz, Chiharu Shiota and Yayoi Kusama.
Seoul-based EM Gallery drew attention with Moonassi, the Korean artist recognized for his black-and-white existential compositions. The gallery sold out pieces priced between $20,000 and $32,000—Moonassi’s works have remained in high demand since his last presentation, often with waiting lists.
The oldest work on view at Kiaf this year was a painting by Palma Il Vecchio, dated 1525-1528, presented by Die Galerie alongside drawings and sculptures by Marino Marini and works on paper and lithographs by Picasso. The historic canvas drew attention on the floor with a price tag of €750,000, standing out amid the fair’s modern and contemporary offerings. Long part of the gallery owner’s personal collection, the masterpiece was originally acquired from a nobleman in Hungary, and now everyone’s wondering whether it will find a new home this edition.
The oldest work on view at Kiaf this year was a Palma Il Vecchio painting from 1525-1528, presented by Die Galerie. Courtesy of Die Galerie
In general, however, a pop aesthetic and lower price points seemed to be the winning formula for maintaining Kiaf’s floral energy on the first day. Gallery Delaive reported early sales of several works by Ayako Rokkaku, priced between €50,000 and €200,000.
Among the standout presentations of new names, Space Willing N Dealing showcased quietly contemplative scenes of human interaction and exchange, all priced between $2,500 and $3,500. Busan-based gallery Nara Cho Busan presented Anomalisa, an exploration of love and entanglement through thread, with works priced at $7,800-12,000. Intimacy and suspended atmospheres—rendered through soft, delicate paint—also defined the work of Japanese painter Shimpei Yoshida, shown by Shibuya-based Hide Gallery. Thanks to very accessible pricing under $1,500, several pieces had sold or were on hold by day’s end.
KORNFELD, participating in its fifth Kiaf, also reported a strong start. Works by Korean artists Wonhae Hwang and Seong Joon Hong found new collectors on day one, totaling €10,000, while a major piece by Etsu Egami sold within the first hour to a new Korean collector for €22,000. “After participating at Kiaf for more than five years, we are very pleased with the successful start of this edition and the positive response from collectors and institutions,” gallery owner Alfred Kornfeld told Observer.
Returning to Kiaf with a strong grasp of the rhythm and habits of Korean collectors, the Milan-based Cassina Project had a particularly promising first day—even with just one confirmed sale. “We had good conversations. From our experience in past years, the following days are usually more intense—clients who show interest often return, and the final days are when deals close,” Irene Cassina told Observer.
Kiaf SEOUL runs through September 7. Courtesy Kiaf SEOUL
Among the additional sales reported by dealers at Kiaf by the start of the second day, Gallery Palzo sold Byeong Hyeon Jeong’s Ambiguous Inclination 25008 for $5,250 and two works by Lee Daecheon—Berg, Wasser (산, 수) for $3,000 and Gardener for $450—along with two paintings by Haru. K, each sold for $675. Galerie PICI placed two works by Dukhee Kim: Gold Desire-Bag for $4,000 and Keep Going (pump) for $2,000. SAN Gallery sold Jenkun Yeh’s Back and Forth I for $2,085 and Huihsuan Hsu’s Chasing a Lush Cave for $1,875. SH Art reported a complete sell-out of works by Backside—a street artist from Fukuoka, Japan, whose true identity remains anonymous—including VIVA, PINEAPPLE, SMILE, VINYL and QUIET, each priced at $17,250.
Frieze and Kiaf SEOUL continue through Sunday, September 7, at the COEX Center.
This group show could not find a better place or moment, given how South Korea’s cosmetics industry has peaked—driven by the global export success of Korean brands—and how cosmetic interventions have become so normalized they border on obsession within the country’s society. Featuring a lineup of established and emerging names including So Young Park, Pamela Rosenkranz, Diane Severin Nguyen, Haena Yoo, Haneyl Choi, Sylvie Fleury, Simon Fujiwara, Sanja Ivekovic, Anna Munk and Ju Young Kim, the exhibition at P21 Gallery examines how artists engage with the material world of cosmetics consumer culture. Exploring the intersections of beauty and capitalism, the show highlights the emotional intensity of cosmetics and makeup, revealing how the body, skin and psyche are metaphorically reconstructed amid the expansion of the consumer goods market—a market fueled by spontaneous, conscious responses to users’ trauma. Rather than offering a simple expression of beauty, the exhibition proposes a psychological, sensory and materialist aesthetic composed of powders, lotions, sprays and plastic packaging, raising urgent questions about our relationship with our own bodies.
Art Basel Paris 2024 on opening day. Courtesy of Art Basel
The majestic Grand Palais quickly filled with a steady stream of art lovers there for Art Basel Paris’ VIP preview day. The atmosphere was positive and the mood upbeat, spurring healthy sales and lively negotiations from the early hours. Collectors and professionals from across the globe descended on the preview, with many traveling from the Americas and Asia. Among the notable attendees were Chloe Sevigny, Natalie Portman, Owen Wilson, Princess Maria-Anunciata von Liechtenstein, Queen Rania of Jordan, Raf Simons, Sheikha Mayassa, Sheikha Nawar Al Qassimi, Philip Tinari, Massimiliano Gioni, Adrian Cheng, George Economou, Maya Hoffmann and Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, to name a few.
Pace Gallery’s booth “Mystic Sugar” curated by Paulina Olowska at Art Basel Paris. Sebastiano Pellion di Persano
At the entrance, Gladstone’s booth greeted fairgoers with a monumental Dubuffet hanging on the wall, juxtaposed with a sculpture by Sarah Lucas and drawings by Marisa Merz, an homage to the Arte Povera artists celebrated in the show at La Bourse—Pinault Collection. Pace Gallery stood out with “Mystical Sugar,” curated by Paulina Olowska, featuring an extensive work that dominated the booth alongside pieces by Louise Nevelson, Kiki Smith and Lucas Samaras. In the first few hours, all four of Olowska’s paintings sold, as did several sculptures by Nevelson and Smith. In the backroom, Lee Ufan’s Response from 2024 led sales, complementing works by Ufan, Agnes Pelton, Max Ernst, Leonor Fini and Alexander Calder.
Next door, Blum & Poe presented a solo booth of Asuka Anastacia Ogawa, which sold out by the afternoon, with prices ranging from $22,000 to $100,000. Not far away, Eva Presenhuber’s solo presentation of new works and furniture by Tschabalala Self also sold out in the early hours, with prices ranging from $175,000 to $320,000. Jeffrey Deitch curated a booth featuring rarely seen artists like Myrlande Constant and Ella Kruglyanska, with a focus on Judy Chicago and a standout selection of Rammellzee works, ahead of his upcoming show in NYC.
PPOW saw strong results, selling all of its Grace Carney pieces in the $20,000 to $30,000 range, along with a central piece, a large table with a hand-painted tablecloth and porcelain vases by Ann Agee, sold as a pair for $14,000-18,000. MASSIMODECARLO also did brisk work, selling twenty-five pieces on the first day, including a Matthew Wong painting consigned directly from the estate, presented alongside a work by Salvo. Other sales included a piece by Dominique Fung ($36,000), various works by Jean-Marie Appriou, two by Tomoo Gokita, three by France-Lise McGurn and one by artist duo Elmgreen & Dragset, who currently have a museum exhibition at Le Musée D’Orsay.
Among the notable sales on the first day, White Cube sold a Julie Mehretu work for $9.5 million, a Howardena Pindell piece for $1.75 million and a Lucio Fontana slash for $1.3 million.
Jeffrey Deitch at Art Basel Paris. Photo by Andrea Rossetti. Courtesy of the artists and Jeffrey Deitch, New York and Los Angeles.
Standing out in the Hauser & Wirth booth was a striking spider by Louise Bourgeois, paired with a powerful Ed Clark, which reportedly sold by the end of the day for $950,000. Also sold was a work by Barbara Chase Riboud for $2.2 million and a large Mark Bradford for $3.5 million. Of particular interest, the external wall featured a large Jeffrey Gibson, hinting at a potential new collaboration with the gallery, while the other wall showcased a vibrant, explosive work by Frank Bowling. Meanwhile, Lisson Gallery sold two pieces by Colombian artist Olga de Amaral—one for $800,000 and the other for $400,000—both to a private U.S. collection. The sales coincided with the artist’s current show at Foundation Cartier in Paris, one of many exhibitions opening alongside Art Basel Paris.
Lisson Gallery at Art Basel Paris. Courtesy Art Basel
In celebration of Surrealism’s 100th anniversary, many booths honored artists from the movement in the city where it began. Di Donna offered a beautiful dialogue between Jean Tanguy and Wilfredo Lam, while Nahmad devoted their entire booth to works by Dalí, Picabia, Max Ernst, Tanguy, De Chirico, Picasso and Magritte, along with a stunning floating mobile by Calder. In the masterworks section, featuring pieces priced in the five- to six-digit range, Van De Weghe presented a 1964 Pablo Picasso and a 1985 Great American Nude by Tom Wesselmann, riding the wave of momentum from the “Pop Forever” show at the Fondation Louis Vuitton. Tornabuoni’s booth featured a standout monumental map by Alighiero Boetti, covering an entire wall. New York dealer Aquavella showcased a series of masterpieces by Fontana, De Kooning, Basquiat and Thiebaud, with a gallery representative telling Observer that “a lot of good collectors” had come through throughout the morning.
Among the best-curated booths, The Modern Institute from Glasgow dedicated its entire presentation to a site-specific, immersive installation by artist Martin Boyce, titled Before Behind Between Above Below. Combining various works and elements, Boyce created a liminal interior space exploring the boundary between the real and imagined and the collapse of architecture and nature. The installation drew inspiration from Jan and Joël Martel’s cubist trees, first exhibited at the Exposition des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in 1925, right in front of the Grand Palais.
The Modern Institute at Art Basel Paris. The Modern Institute
Once the ground floor became too crowded to navigate, many collectors sought breathing room in the upstairs sections, where more space allowed for new discoveries, particularly in the terrace corridor of the “Emergence” section. A standout in this area was the experimental Jakarta-based gallery Rho Projects, showcasing Kei Imazu’s intriguing blend of historical memory, traces,and digital structures (priced between $15,000 and $20,000). Another highlight was a large, narrative-rich painting by young Polish artist Jeh Eustachy Wilsky, presented by Piktogram, stretching across the entire booth.
Upstairs also housed a range of thriving galleries, including Karma, Clearing, Mariane Ibrahim, Sultana and Société. Société’s booth had a future-forward feel, featuring Trisha Baga’s pictorial explorations of the digital realm and a divinatory video by Lu Yang. Nearby, Ortuzar Projects presented a solo booth of Takako Yamaguchi, fresh from the Whitney Biennial, which quickly attracted buyers. With prices set at $300,000, only three works remained by midday.
Throughout the VIP day at Art Basel Paris, the atmosphere was effervescent, proving that collectors are still eager and excited about bold new moves—especially with this being the first Art Basel in its new, opulent historic venue, which truly has no architectural equal worldwide.
SCAD at Design Miami Paris with an Alumni Booth presenting the work of Trish Andersen, Lærke Lillelund, Bradley Bowers and Eny Lee Parker. Photo Chia Chong. Courtesy of SCAD.
Design Miami Paris also saw a successful opening, launching its second edition the day before with a similarly packed VIP reception at L’Hôtel de Maisons. Inside the lavish 18th-century mansion, exhibitors presented a curated selection of historic and contemporary collectible designs, with strong sales early on. Notably, Galerie Downtown-LAFFANOUR (Paris) sold a full-scale Jean Prouvé post-war prefabricated house (1946) for over one million euros.
Among the standout presentations, SCAD took over the elegant staircase with a cascade of abstract forms and vivid colors in a fiber site-specific installation by artist and alumna Trish Andersen. The school also showcased the creative talents of alumni Lærke Lillelund, Bradley Bowers and Eny Lee Parker. Other highlights included fashion designer Rick Owens’ striking pair of Tomb Chairs in the gardens, presented by Salon 94 Design (New York), alongside rare pieces by Gaetano Pesce, such as his Palladio Cabinet (Milk colored prototype) (2007) and Flower Origami Table (2023). The award for “Best Gallery Presentation at Design Miami Paris 2024” went to Galerie Gastou (Paris) and Galerie Desprez-Bréhéret (Paris), which brought a significant collection of minimalist works by Jean Touret in wood and iron, shown in dialogue with contemporary pieces by Agnès Debizet.
The garden of Design Miami at the fair’s opening. IVAN EROFEEV
Genesis Belanger’s work is coming to Pace London. Fine art documentation for Perrotin, photographed and edited by Claire Dorn
New York-based artist Genesis Belanger has made a name for herself exploring the uncanny and unconscious meanings of everyday objects, crafting mysterious handmade tableaux vivants that blend mass-production aesthetics with exquisite craftsmanship across a range of materials, from wood to porcelain. She’s currently preparing for her upcoming show, “In the Right Conditions We are Indistinguishable” at Pace Gallery’s Hanover Square location, which opens on October 9 to coincide with London Art Week, but hit pause to speak with Observer about the themes shaping her new body of work.
Belanger describes the exhibition as a series of vignettes that challenge our relationships with material objects and the desires, needs and emotions we project onto them. “This idea that something or someone could all be the same, except for the context that makes one different. The context is what changes the person,” she explains. In our conversation, Belanger reflects on America’s polarized state and suggests that many of these perceived differences are actually shaped by external circumstances. In her work, she captures the tension between the homogenization of cultural habits driven by global mass production and the deeply personal stories we attach to the objects that surround us.
Underlying Belanger’s practice is a fascination with how advertising and popular culture shape our perceptions and the value we assign to material goods. Her meticulously crafted replicas of ordinary objects serve as eerie anthropological artifacts of mass consumption, revealing the layered associations and emotional weight we impart onto inanimate items. By inviting us to examine these items as symbols of our collective desires and anxieties, not to mention our deepest fears, Belanger’s installations offer a commentary on the complex interplay between consumerism and personal identity.
The surreal quality of Belanger’s art is intrinsically linked to her interest in human psychology, a fascination that both Surrealism and advertising share. “I feel like the surreal character in my work is because Surrealism is interested in human psychology and the subconscious, and so is advertising,” the artist told us. “I came to the surreal or uncanny elements through an interest in the tools advertisement uses to manipulate.” At the heart of her research lies a deep focus on psychology, which then intersects with sociology and semiotics. She’s not necessarily intentionally making work thinking about Surrealism, but she very much is thinking about human psychology.
Belanger’s practice stages scenes that hover between dreamscapes and studio sets, where miniature versions of human daily dramas are enacted through the objects that define those interactions. She examines how these items transform into symbols, becoming part of more intricate narratives. Yet, her characters (the objects) appear transient, embodying a sense of impermanence—as if they are worn-out replicas of a once-meaningful original, shadows of the objective referent drained of value and meaning through repeated remediation.
As for contrasts, Belanger’s ghostly, malleable cartoonist avatars of the real subjects have hilarious yet poetic titles, which transport them into another symbolic universe, already detached from the materialism that characterizes the capitalistic mass production and consumption from which they originate—and by which they would otherwise be condemned to rapid obsolescence. Occasionally, these objects become so malleable that they metamorphose entirely, adopting human-like features and transforming into eerie fantasies or unsettling creatures, evoking a blend of attraction and repulsion. Through synesthetic play, her sculptural creations evoke psychological responses that blur the boundaries between senses, unlocking a surreal, nonsensical realm of expression beyond any conventional linguistic code.
It’s no wonder that some of her pieces are reminiscent of characters from animation, such as those in Disney’s Fantasia. They tap into similar Surrealist imaginings, unveiling hidden aspects of the collective unconscious and conjuring a vibrant symbolic universe that resists the rigid societal frameworks of productivity and rationality.
“I’m always interested in the element of time and how, if you create a scene or an image that alludes to the presence of a person who’s no longer there, it’s like all the objects left behind are just evidence,” Belanger explains. “The viewer can access and then enter a narrative.” In this way, her works become relics—remnants that evoke human presence and their stories without depicting the actual subjects. By blending beauty, nostalgia and humor with motifs of capitalist consumerism, Belanger provokes specific psychological responses, allowing us to connect with the objects’ narratives and emotional associations. In this sense, they also serve as reminders after the loss and absence, contrasting the restless circle of consumption and destruction by freezing in time and eternalizing the emotional values associated with the original products.
The artist acknowledges that it’s impossible to escape the consumer-driven reality surrounding us. Thus, her primary source of inspiration is the overwhelming flood of products and images she encounters daily. “I live in New York, and I travel mostly by bike,” she says. “I feel like I’m just moving through this center of capitalism and seeing so much all the time. I don’t think you could exist today and not be inundated with a type of delicious image or images made to touch our desires. I’m a visual sponge; I’m absorbing every single thing that interests me.”
During this appropriation, Belanger creates critical friction between the readily available and reproducible mass-produced objects and the laborious craftsmanship behind her version of those objects. Using ceramics, wood and other natural and traditional materials, she highlights the handmade, tactile nature of her sculptures, imbuing them with a distinct material presence that transforms them into “artifacts” and cultural records of contemporary society and of the state of our civilization. This focus on craft interrupts the ceaseless flow of products and advertising, giving these objects a new weight and individuality, allowing them to stand apart from the homogenized world of consumer goods and acquire unique identities.
These layers of interpretation add depth to Belanger’s practice, especially considering how, in photographs, her art often resembles digital images created by A.I. based on inputs about our human needs. “I think it’s exciting to make an object that exists in the world, but when it’s photographed, it could just be like the imagination of an artificial intelligence,” says Belanger.
This concept complicates the relationship between her creations and the real-life objects that inspire them, highlighting how Belanger’s artistic process absorbs and transforms these influences into new material forms—similar to how A.I. processes and reinterprets data on human consumer behavior. Thus, her work reflects on the meaning and significance of objects and products, a dialogue that gains further relevance as data itself becomes more valuable than the physical items it represents. Despite these complexities, Belanger’s art ultimately encourages us to appreciate the tangible materiality of the objects we create, interact with, and integrate into our lives.
One of the absolute highlights of the second edition of Tokyo’s art week was the Alexander Calder show, “Calder: Un effet du Japonais,” now on view through September 6 at Azubudai Hills Art Gallery in collaboration with Pace Gallery. The exhibition celebrates Pace’s new Japanese outpost, which had its soft opening and preview timed to coincide with Tokyo Gendai. The ambitious show marks the first extensive presentation of the artist’s work in the city, following a series of institutional shows in other parts of Japan. “It took us twenty years to do a Calder show in Tokyo,” Calder Foundation president and curator of the exhibition, Alexander S. C. Rower told Observer. We had the pleasure of walking through the exhibition with Rower (whom many might know as Sandy Rower, Calder’s grandson). “This is really a gift to Japan,” he said. “He could have had a big party, but Marc [Glimcher] decided on this multimillion-dollar show instead.”
Despite Calder never actually traveling to the country and never openly claiming any direct connection with Japanese culture, the show sheds new light on how much of his art had absorbed and inventively interpreted an approach to form and space typical of the Japanese aesthetic. As Rower explained, this was probably the result of Calder’s parents collecting many Japanese tools and prints that then surrounded the artist during his youth.
Featuring around 100 works from the Calder Foundation’s collection spanning the 1920s to the 1970s, the exhibition was not conceived as a retrospective but aims instead to explore the relationship Calder’s art had with Japan and how the country’s aesthetic influenced and nourished his endless inventiveness in poetically reimagining sculptural forms. According to Rower, it’s about looking at Calder’s work with fresh eyes. The line, of course, appears as a leading element throughout Alexander Calder’s career, shaping a formal journey into the rhythm of nature and natural circles. As masters of Japanese ink painting would do, Calder was able to suggest form, space, energy and movement with nothing more than a black line.
The exhibition, which is the artist’s first solo show in Tokyo in almost thirty-five years, draws its title from the enigmatic piece positioned right at the entrance of the show, Effect Japonaise, which mirrors the beauty of a tree’s floating leaves moving with the wind and the beauty of a star suspended in the sky, also recalling the dancing movement of the fans during the traditional Kabuki dance, which can be adjusted to evoke the wind, the water, the snow and other natural phenomena.
Calder’s oeuvre is deeply imbued with the Japanese “aesthetics of emptiness,” based on a necessary dialectic relation between emptiness and presence that allows a dynamic space of transformation—a place where processes can still flow and find a balance. His sculptures appear to translate the philosophical and construction concept of “MA,” namely the interchangeable relation that needs to exist between place, space and void. Yet his use of the line on canvas often follows the lesson of Japanese traditional ink paintings, and the haboku technique in particular, where a few very rapid monochrome ink strokes can suggest a landscape not explicitly identified and, more importantly, the air circulating in between the subjects, translating a simultaneous both sensory and spiritual engagement with the scene.
The first epiphany related to these crucial aspects of Calder’s practice comes with the first artworks we encounter in the exhibition: sketches of animals hanging on the first wall, just a few single linear traits quickly drawn on white paper to describe creatures and the dynamics between them. These works remind one of the Cirque Calder, one of his early works. Calder, in the 20s, was working as a toy designer, and in 1926 he made mechanical toys that led to the creation of his Circus, now on permanent view at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. However, the Azubudai Hills Art Gallery show purposely avoids presenting his wire sculptures, focusing instead on what Calder was sharing with the Japanese traditional aesthetic and philosophical approach to the line as space: “drawing in space,” as critics describe the artist’s practice.
On the first wall, we are also invited to examine two large paintings, which are very much not what Calder fans might regard as his most significant. They’re there, Rower explained, because they were the first two works by Calder shown in Japan in 1965 as part of an extensive show of Western art in, of all places, a department store. In one, we see a view of Calder’s studio in 1955.
As we move to the second cluster of works in this survey, a series of early abstract paintings from the ’30s show how Calder was absorbing and elaborating in a very personal way the lessons of the avant-garde and the sensibility of surrealism. The burgeoning surrealist movement naturally influenced Calder, and some of its most prominent voices, including Joan Miró, André Breton and Jean Arp, became his friends. Some of Calder’s abstract paintings show his closeness with Mirò, as they shared an interest in establishing rhythmic and dialectic relations between organic forms and flattened picture planes drawn together with sharp and interlacing lines into new “constellations.”
A significant contribution in translating this formal and narrative rhythm into the space in this extensive show is provided by thoughtful exhibition design conceived of by Japanese architect Stephanie Goto, a longtime Calder Foundation collaborator. Rooted in the proportion of the geometry of a 3:4:5 triangle, the design plays with traditional Japanese materials such as cherry wood and the mysterious blackboard black paper, which create a framework where Calder’s sculptures can differently emerge or be camouflaged to create a new tension between the elements and offer new suggestive allusions to their parallels in nature. The black paper background, in particular, allows for an entirely different experience of Calder’s use of color. The three red spheres suspended in space become the protagonists; there’s the structure, but like a trunk, it serves to elevate and connect with these suspended celestial presences.
In our walkthrough with Rower, we stopped to contemplate a curious story connected with one of the works on view that showcased the inventiveness of the American Modernist sculptor: one of the sculptures is kept together with both permanent rivets and removable screws, which let the sculpture to come apart and be reassembled. The piece is from 1945, right after the war, and Rower explained that at the time, due to the limited resources, Calder was repurposing everything he could find in the studio. Duchamp once visited him and, fascinated by the recent evolution of Calder’s work, now all made from scraps, he wanted to organize a show in Paris, suggesting they could send the sculptures by airmail. “Calder made demountable sculptures that could fit in a small package that could be in Paris the next day, where the work would be reassembled,” said Rower. “As with a teleport, you could collapse a work of art down and then send it, and then it reappears the same as what it was, which has something extremely pioneering both on a technical and conceptual level at the time.”
As we proceeded through the exhibition, we encountered the sculptures depicted in the two paintings at the entrance. One of those, in particular, seemed quite explicative of the idea of “drawing in space.” It stands in the extreme synthesis of its thin, linear sculptural body thanks to the specific inclination and angle that allows it to stand, counterbalancing the busy top part. Above, there is a strange mobile with a more symbolic appearance floating in space, reminding us of the iconography of the dragon in some ancient Asian mythology. Rower explained that this is the only piece that didn’t come directly from the Calder Foundation. In the corner, a towering black stabile is a meditation on the shape of the triangle; between compression, expansion and elevation, it eventually recalls a Pagoda, as its title suggests.
To the other side, the exhibition’s second section presents much more of what one expects to see in a show of Calder’s work, with some beautiful examples of his stabiles and gouaches carefully selected for their resonances with Japanese aesthetics and sensibility. And in between, Rower opted to include a video by John Cage filming a selection of Calder’s sculptures from different perspectives with an accompanying score of dedicated music that enhances the rhythmicity in their perception. It’s almost hypnotic and does a fine job of translating on video the actual experience of Calder’s sculptures, as they dance in a sort of ritual, moving organically like leaves on a tree.
This video and certain other works in the exhibition particularly exemplify how Calder’s idea of sculpture is all about staging constellations of forms in space, often with the ambition to replicate broader cosmic orders and processes. As in the traditional Japanese ink paintings, Calder uses empty space as the climax of action: in the dialectic between complete and void, the free space allows the void to circulate between subjects, distinguishing them, amplifying and enhancing their action bringing to fruition the height of the representation/presentation. Viewers are drawn into these endless dynamics between the form and the space, in a similar dialectic tension that characterizes all the interrelational exchanges with the outside world. Calder’s sculptures invite us to experience art from multiple perspectives, drawing visual lines in the tridimensional space—something that anticipated the research of Minimalist artists just a few years later.
A group of paintings and gouaches toward the end of “Calder: Un effet du Japonais” highlights how his use of circular lines and forms resonates with “ensō,” another key concept in traditional Japanese calligraphy and ink painting. As one of the most potent symbols of Zen 禅, the circular shape becomes synonymous with the cosmic circle enclosing emptiness. It is a symbol of the absolute, of the totality of phenomena, and at the same time, of the extreme intuition and understanding of both the formal and philosophical role of emptiness, which the art of Calder attempts to reach.
Ironically, the show’s closing piece is a metal maquette for an outdoor sculpture that recalls in its shape and movement the Great Wave by Hokusai, playing with what is arguably one of the most iconic paintings of Japanese art known by the international public, while still moving beyond such art historical stereotypes. Ultimately, Rower’s unique Calder exhibition effectively reveals unexpected and largely unexplored connections between the art of the Modern American master and Japan, demonstrating how modern art is shaped by cultural exchanges between artists operating at the historical intersection of local/nationalist resistance and the unstoppable forces of globalization.
“Calder: Un effet du japonais” is on view through Friday, September 6, 2024 at Azubudai Hills Art Gallery in Tokyo.
Visitors at Frieze London in 2023. Photo courtesy of Linda Nylind/Frieze
As the art world copes with what feels like an abbreviated summer break and a crowded fall calendar looming, Frieze announced details for its upcoming London fairs, coming up on October 9-12 in The Regent’s Park. The 2024 Frieze fair in London will feature more than 160 galleries from forty-three countries, including some of the leading spaces in London’s gallery scene, with established names like Stephen Friedman Gallery, Alison Jacques, Lisson Gallery, Victoria Miro, Modern Art, White Cube and Thomas Dane Gallery plus spaces devoted to pioneering research on the latest contemporary art expressions, including Arcadia Missa, Carlos/Ishikawa, Leopold Thun’s Emalin and Maureen Paley. Among the international galleries returning to Frieze London are Gagosian, Goodman Gallery, Hauser & Wirth, Gallery Hyundai, Tina Kim Gallery, Lehmann Maupin, Pace Gallery, Perrotin, Almine Rech, Thaddaeus Ropac, Esther Schipper, Sprüth Magers and David Zwirner.
What to expect at Frieze London 2024
Frieze London’s newly announced big change is the fresh floorplan by design practice A Studio Between. The new layout will give prominence to the fair’s curated sections, placing more emphasis on artists and discoveries.
Among those sections, “Focus” will feature thirty-four solo and dual presentations from artists and galleries spanning five continents. In the list of participating galleries and artists, we find that 56 Henry (New York) showcases powerful paintings by Jo Messer; El Apartamento (Havana, Madrid) brings Julia Fuentesal; Madragoa (Lisbon) takes the work of Jaime Welsh; and Gallery Vacancy (Shanghai) the work of Korean artist Sun Woo, among others. Meant to offer a platform especially to the young gallery community, the section is presented this year in collaboration with the brand Stone Island, which will help fund the participation of these emerging galleries.
Another interesting curated selection that will return this year is “Artist-to-artist,” which mounts six solo presentations chosen by world-renowned artists. This year’s edition will feature Appau Jnr Boakye-Yiadom, chosen by Glenn Ligon (Champ Lacombe, Biarritz); Rob Davis, selected by Rashid Johnson (Broadway, New York); Nengi Omuku selected by Yinka Shonibare (Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London); Massinissa Selmani chosen by Zineb Sedira (Selma Feriani Gallery, Tunis); Magda Stawarska chosen by Lubaina Himid (Yamamoto Keiko Rochaix, London); and Peter Uka chosen by Hurvin Anderson (Mariane Ibrahim, Chicago, Paris, Mexico City).
Finally, connecting material and some narratives that have become increasingly present in the contemporary art scene in recent years, Frieeze created a new themed section, “Smoke,” curated by Pablo José Ramírez (Curator, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles) and dedicated to ceramic works that explore diasporic and Indigenous histories. The section draws its title from El Animal Humo(the Smoke Animal), Humberto Ak’abal’s story of an enigmatic creature made of smoke that emanates from the soil as a sublime and disturbing manifestation of nature. Featured artists include Manuel Chavajay (Pedro Cera, Madrid, Lisbon), Lucía Pizzani (Cecilia Brunson Projects, London), Christine Howard Sandoval (parrasch heijnen, Los Angeles), Ayla Tavares (Galeria Athena, Rio De Janeiro and Hatch, Paris) and Linda Vallejo (parrasch heijnen, Los Angeles), who explore counter-archaeology, the continuum of ancestry and how materials bear witness to diasporic movements.
Koetser Gallery at Frieze Masters in 2023. Courtesy of Frieze and Michael Adair
What to expect at Frieze Masters 2024
This year’s Frieze Masters will feature 130 galleries from twenty-six countries mounting booths focusing on modern and classic masterpieces. Led by Nathan Clements-Gillespie, the fair will similarly try to be more artist-centered, with an expanded “Studio” section and a redefined floor plan designed to encourage creative connections across art history.
The fair will present long-time exhibitors such as Galerie Chenel, Richard Green, Hauser & Wirth, Lehmann Maupin, Skarstedt and Axel Vervoordt, as well as leading Korean dealers such as Arario Gallery, Gana Art, Hakgojae Gallery and Johyun Gallery. This year, there’s a solid contingent of galleries dealing in ancient Asian art on the roster including Gisèle Croës s.a, Rasti Fine Art, Carlton Rochell Asian Art, Rossi & Rossi, Tenzing Asian Art and Thomsen Gallery. First-time participants include Afridi (London), Bijl-Van Urk Masterpaintings (Alkmaar), Galatea (Salvador, São Paolo), Galerie Léage (Paris), Tilton Gallery (New York) and Trias Art Experts (Munich).
In terms of thematic sections, Frieze Masters will continue with the “Studio” section curated by British art historian and curator Sheena Wagstaff. This section focuses on practices that illuminate the interconnections between our civilization’s past and future. The line-up includes Isabella Ducrot, Nathalie Du Pasquier, Shirazeh Houshiary and Doris Salcedo
The other curated section, “Spotlight,” is curated by Valerie Cassel Oliver, curator of modern and contemporary art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and previously senior curator at the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston, Texas.The section will focus on solo presentations by 20th-century artists, particularly overlooked artists and lesser-known works by established figures from the 1950s to the 1970s. Featured artists include Judy Chicago, Kulim Kim, Balraj Khanna, Donald Locke, Nabil Nahas, Nil Yalter and more.
Visitors at Frieze London in 2023. Photo courtesy of Linda Nylind/Frieze
Must-see Frieze Week shows
During Frieze Week in October, the vibrant London art scene will showcase a series of major institutional exhibitions that you’ll want to make sure to put on your art week itinerary. Those include: “Francis Bacon: Human Presenc” at the National Portrait Gallery; Lygia Clark and Sonia Boyce at Whitechapel Gallery; Michael Craig-Martin at the Royal Academy of Arts; “Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers” at the National Gallery London; “Mike Kelley: Ghost and Spirit” and the majestic Mire Lee’s Turbine Hall Commission at Tate Modern; Hew Locke at the British Museum and “Haegue Yang: Leap Year” at the Hayward Gallery.
Artist Maggi Hambling at an exhibition at Marlborough Gallery in London in 2020. Photo by Jonathan Brady/PA Images via Getty Images
Businesses open and close all the time, and art galleries are no exception. Dealers retire, others close up shop when bankruptcy looms, some die with no succession plan and still others simply decide, for a host of reasons, to exit the scene. In New York, Cheim & Read said its goodbyes in December and Helena Anrather shut its doors in March. The Fortnite Institute ceased operations earlier this week, and Betty Cuningham Gallery in the Lower East Side will end its two-decade run later this year. Yesterday (April 4), the 78-year-old blue-chip Marlborough Gallery, which has spaces in London, New York, Barcelona and Madrid, made headlines when it announced it would be closing in June.
Art galleries often run on slim margins to begin with, and the pandemic was tough on businesses across the board. Other recent NYC gallery closures: JTT, Foxy Productions, Queer Thoughts and Denny Gallery. London has seen a similar spate of closures as the local market has contracted. It’s not unusual for gallery owners to land on their feet—Jasmin Tsou, founder of JTT, became a director at Lisson Gallery. But for the artists represented by galleries that close and for the patrons who worked closely with said gallery owners to build art collections, the disruption can range from nuisance to traumatic.
Sculptor and installation artist Judy Pfaff could not have guessed that she would be without a New York City gallery for a very long time when legendary art dealer André Emmerich retired in 1997, but she waited seven years before she was brought into the Ameringer|McEnery|Yohe fold in 2004. “A few people talked to some dealers about taking me on, but they didn’t want to touch me,” she told Observer. “Then, it hit me that the art world has no memory; it doesn’t owe me anything; there’s no one knocking on the door. I better hold onto my teaching job and figure things out. It was a total reality check.”
But artists can and do up and leave their dealers—usually for reasons involving the advancement of their careers, but not always. Terry Dintenfass “never paid me, or it took forever to get her to pay me,” said painter Nancy Hagin. Sculptor William King left Dintenfass after she refused to give his then-girlfriend a show. “Robert Miller just wasn’t nice to me,” said painter Janet Fish. “Staff would roll their eyes when I walked through the door, as though they’re sorry to see me.” Alex Katz felt Pace Gallery “had low energy when it came to my work.” Pfaff left the Holly Solomon Gallery after thirteen years, when the dealer moved from a more spacious downtown address to a fifth-floor location on 57th Street “where I couldn’t get things in and out. There was only a passenger elevator.”
The point is that artists generally have choices. “There are some I worked with for forty years,” veteran dealer Betty Cuningham told Observer, “and I have been trying to get them situated with other dealers.”
She sees the closing of an art gallery as “harder for collectors than for the artists.” An engaged art dealer provides long-standing buyers with information on up-and-coming artists, as well as first dibs on artworks, and the insider access that potentially took years to develop isn’t easy to replicate elsewhere. Galleries also help their buyers sell. Cuningham is now returning work she took on consignment to collectors, though she wanted to make it clear she’s not completely retiring from the art world. “I can’t just store them,” she said of the consigned pieces but added that she and some of these consignors “might set up a separate arrangement” in which she looks for prospective buyers on their behalf.
Meanwhile, Cheim & Read director Maria Bueno planned to work with the gallery’s consignors and patrons in her “new venture Bueno & Co., which is a private fine art dealership and artist management service. Bueno & Co will open a private showroom in New York later this year.”
Given the bleak headlines, collectors might wonder what exactly one is to do if one’s preferred art gallery goes belly up. “When a gallery closes for good,” Thomas C. Danziger, a New York City attorney who specializes in art law, told Observer, “the question becomes: Who owns the art?”
That question is easier to answer when artists consign their work to galleries—at least in New York. The state’s Arts and Cultural Affairs Law decrees that, should an art gallery become subject to a lien from a bank or face bankruptcy, consigned artwork can’t be taken by a creditor in payment of a debt but must be returned to the artist or their heirs, in the case of deceased artists. That law also requires dealers to place proceeds from sales of consigned artwork “in trust” for the artist, meaning galleries can’t use that money for any other purpose than paying the consignor. California and twenty-nine other states have similar legal protections for artists who consign artworks to galleries.
While those laws don’t apply to nonartist collectors who consign artworks to galleries, art collectors can protect themselves by filing a UCC-1 form for works on consignment. The form announces publicly that the consignor has a prior lien on their artworks, so in the event a gallery declares bankruptcy or a dealer disappears in the face of numerous creditors, leaving a warehouse full of art, the consignor has a legal right to take back their work. Ideally, the UCC-1 filing should occur at the time of consignment, but consignors would still be protected if they file in advance of a bankruptcy.
It’s a simple fix—the form is typically available online or the filing cost is nominal, usually $25—but many high-end consignors are reluctant to file the form, even when advised to do so by their lawyers. “They don’t want to announce publicly that they are looking to sell something, which a UCC-1 does,” New York City art lawyer William Pearlstein told Observer. “Some would rather stay private than disclose. Myself, I would rather be protected than private.”
Another less public protective measure art collectors can pursue is drawing up a consignment agreement with the gallery owner or dealer that explicitly states the artwork is the property of the collector rather than of the gallery.
That leaves one final question, which is whether there’s an epidemic of art galleries facing financial distress. Commentary on the state of the art market tends to be mixed, with art fair sales figures and the annual UBS market report generating pessimism and optimism in equal measure.
“There’s barely any credit and lending in the gallery sector and businesses are already heavily burdened with rents, so many don’t have spare funds to ride it out,” Dr. Clare McAndrew, a cultural economist and founder for the Dundrum, Ireland-based Arts Economics research firm, told Observer. She added that after the worldwide financial crisis of 2008 and 2009, “many businesses were only starting to do well again in the last few years” and may not have the resources to weather this storm.
So, how can one know if a particular gallery might be in financial distress? Insiders, such as art advisors, art lawyers or other dealers, may have an inkling. Pearlstein said that offers of “huge discounts of expensive artworks or firing most of the staff” might suggest a gallery is in trouble. One also could conduct a UCC search to see if a particular gallery owes money to multiple lenders and if there are any tax liens (by the IRS or otherwise) or judgments based on a failure to pay rent or repay loans. The filings won’t tell a complete story, but for collectors who are feeling anxious, they’re a place to start.
From Gary Waterston’s appointment at Pace Gallery to the resignation of Phillips CEO Stephen Brooks, here are some of the most notable role changes recently announced across the arts and culture spheres.
The Andy Warhol Foundation appoints Max Hollein to its board
Max Hollein in May 2022. Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images
Max Hollein, the director and CEO of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, has been elected to the board of directors at the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
He will join the group of artists, curators, museum directors and scholars on a board that includes members like Brooklyn Museum director Anne Pasternak and Guggenheim deputy director Naomi Beckwith. “The Warhol Foundation has made a tremendous difference in the art world by prioritizing artistic vision, empathy and impact,” said Hollein in a statement.
In addition to researching and preserving Warhol’s body of work, the foundation focuses on financially supporting artists and artist-centered projects. Earlier this month, it announced plans to give out $4 million worth of grants to fifty art organizations across the U.S.
Appointed director of the Met in 2018, Hollein also became the Met’s CEO in July of last year. Throughout his tenure at the museum, he has overseen more than 100 exhibitions and the launch of numerous capital projects, in addition to re-envisioning its educational and digital initiatives.
Before joining the Met, he was director and CEO of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Hollein also previously simultaneously led the Schirn Kunsthalle, the Städel Museum and the Liebieghaus in Frankfurt, Germany.
Gary Waterston joins Pace in a newly created role
Gary Waterston will officially join the gallery next month. Michael Halsband/Courtesy Pace
An art gallery veteran will soon join Pace to take on the new role of vice president of global sales and operations. Gary Waterston, who has spent more than twenty years working in gallery management, will assume his position on Feb. 1 and will be based in London.
“Having stepped away from galleries, artists and exhibition making these past three years, I am beyond excited and thrilled to be joining Pace Gallery in such a transformative role,” said Waterston in a statement. He most recently worked with Atlantic Contemporary LLC, an art-focused financial services startup.
Waterston previously spent nearly two decades at Gagosian, where he oversaw the gallery’s various expansion projects while serving as a director in London. He became the gallery’s managing director in Europe in 2011, collaborating with Gagosian directors across Paris, Rome, Geneva, Athens and Basel.
He has organized exhibitions for the likes of Jeff Koons, Julian Schnabel and James Turrell, three of Pace’s most well-known artists. And in addition to working as a private advisor for several artists and foundations, Waterston has also collaborated on two major Picasso exhibitions organized by Sir John Richardson.
In his new role, Waterston will work directly with Pace’s CEO Marc Glimcher and president Samanthe Rubell as he manages numerous gallery departments. “With his guidance, we will continue to strengthen and grow our business–and our relationships with artists and collectors around the world,” said Rubell in a statement.
Marie-Anne McQuay to curate the 2025 Liverpool Biennial
Marie-Anne McQuay will curate the biennial’s next edition. Zak Grant/Courtesy Liverpool Biennial
The 13th edition of the Liverpool Biennial, the largest contemporary art festival in the U.K., will be curated by Marie-Anne McQuay. It is scheduled to take place between June 7 and Sept. 14 of next year.
“I feel honored to be curating the 13th edition of Liverpool Biennial with and for the city where I live,” said McQuay in a statement. “I am so looking forward to reflecting on civic life, researching international exchanges and collaborating with the wider team on Liverpool Biennial 2025.”
McQuay is currently the director of projects at Arts & Heritage, an English organization that works on collaborations between contemporary artists and heritage organizations and will return to her role following the festival’s completion. She previously was head of programs at Bluecoat, an arts center in Liverpool, and in 2019 was a guest curator of the Welsh Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale.
Formed in 1998, the Liverpool Biennial has presented work from more than 560 artists over the past few decades. McQuay will succeed Khanyisile Mbongwa, the Cape Town-based artist and sociologist who curated the 12th edition in 2023 with an emphasis on ancestral and indigenous knowledge.
Stephen Brooks resigns as CEO of Phillips
Stephen Brooks joined the auction house in 2021. Courtesy Phillips
After leading Phillips for two and a half years, Stephen Brooks is stepping down as CEO.
Brooks, who first took on the role in 2021, came to Phillips after spending more than a decade at Christie’s, most recently as deputy chief executive. Throughout his tenure at Phillips, he oversaw the auction house through its highest annual sale totals in company history. Brooks’ leadership additionally saw an expansion into younger audiences. Around 50 percent of buyers in 2023 consisted of first-time buyers, one-third of whom represented Millennial and Gen Z collectors.
Brooks decided to step down “for personal reasons,” according to a statement from Phillips executive chairman Edward Dolman. “Stephen has led the company through a remarkable period of growth during his tenure and his contributions have helped to build the infrastructure for Phillips’ continued success,” he said.
In light of Brooks’ resignation, Phillips is restructuring its executive leadership team and creating a CEO’s office. Dolman, who previously served as CEO of Phillips between 2014 and 2021, will take on a new role combining the titles of both CEO and executive chairman.
Meanwhile, Amanda Lo Iacono will be appointed to the newly created position of deputy CEO. Joining Phillips in 2016, she has since 2022 been managing director for the 20th Century and contemporary art department and spearheaded the launch of Phillip’s Dropshop program. The auctioneer’s new leadership team will also see Cheyenne Westphal continue in her role as global chairwoman. “2024 presents Phillips with many opportunities to continue our expansion and, with the new leadership structure in place, we are well-placed to forge ahead,” said Dolman.
