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Best art of 2020 thread:
One of the first things I saw this year, Michael Rakowitz’s show at Jane Lombard, I think remains the best of the year. I’m constantly impressed by Rakowitz.
One of the first things I saw this year, Michael Rakowitz’s show at Jane Lombard, I think remains the best of the year. I’m constantly impressed by Rakowitz.
I don’t know why I can’t find my images from the exhibition but Zachary Leener at Klaus von Nichtssagend was an exhibition I had been anticipating for quite a while that did not disappoint. Beautiful strange friendly psychosexual forms expertly arrayed.
Worst show of the year is a tie between Hans haacke and vija celmins; unclear why we needed either in their time or what a retrospective contributes to our current moment; another pair of shows I, uh, mysteriously don’t have photos of
My partner @cnqmdi hated this show by Sam Mckinniss at JTT and I mostly don’t disagree with her appraisal, but the grid of works on paper was wonderful
I worked for the 2020 Armory Fair and there were a number of works that really rejuvenated my love of making things. My impression is that many found this edition of the fair “safe” or “boring”, but it brought me back into loving art after a long period of real despair
And then, uh, everything stopped. I spent the first few months of the pandemic making drawings on press releases from shows I’d seen in the decade before
First show I saw post lockdown was Park McArthur @ Essex Street and it was as satisfying and clear-eyed as her MoMA commission last year imagining an equitable institution; fantasy cast into ever harsher relief as every major institution threw its precarious workers under the bus
A studio visit with Christhian Diaz; a beautiful series of felted works
I’m not sure I’ve ever known anyone who did a fund for public art project before and it really made me smile to see this Kamrooz Aram work through the open doors of a bus
Sophy Naess did a lovely show in a friend’s recently vacated apartment of works she had intended to display in a cancelled show. Wonderful use of a temporarily empty space.
Austin Martin White at Derek Eller. This piece belongs in a museum. We’ll see him again later in this list.
George Ortman at Mitchell Algus. My first time seeing in the flesh many works by a proto-minimalist whose work is very significant to me
Torey Thornton in “the covid biennial” under the light of “the tribute in light”; another artist we’ll hear from again in this list
A wonderful eclectic group show at Storage Projects including Sam Chun, archival materials from the Black Panther party and (again) Austin Martin White
This goofy show really took me off my guard: paintings by Ian Faden and ceramics by Wayne Bruce Dean
I participated in an outdoor show in Prospect Park with Good Naked that they followed with an awesome encore: bread and butter sculptures by Dominic Terlizzi & Christine and this beautiful video piece about bonsai and GANs by Blake Marques Carrington were especially great
Kristi Cavataro stained glass sculpture and Iiu Susiraja at Ramiken
I’ve never seen so much Henry Darger work in one place as the show at Andrew Edlin gallery. Utterly surprising, delightful, weird, uncomfortable, inspiring in ways his work has never been allowed to be for me
Francis Cape is one of my favorite artists. This show at Marinaro was more disjointed than others, but the individual works were as poignant as ever
I found the Tishan Hsu show at SculptureCenter (which I had been expecting to love) painfully dated and pretentious, but the downstairs show of Jesse Wine (that I had no expectations of) was full of lovely moments
Ok ok “Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration” is actually the best show of 2020. It’s not a happy show, but it’s correct. I’ve never been more aware of how many artists in a show are my age or been as aware of the span of time someone lost to the state.
I found Torey Thornton’s current exhibition at Essex Street less consistently engrossing than the last show they had there, which I spend a lot of time thinking about, but it’s still among the best art out there right now. Go check it out!
My last surprise of 2020 was Joy Curtis’ current show at Klaus von Nichtssagend. Lots of very witty material moments that ground the whimsy of the shapes and forms she favors.
