Words by Olisa Jr.

The next few weeks, for the glamorous world of fashion, entails sublimely tailored dresses, chic designers, daringly beautiful runways, and much more to look forward to, and while you’re at it, GUAP has put together a list of art shows and exhibitions to feed your artistic soul. From seductively abstract colours to thick brushstrokes, from sibylline sculptures to oddly crafted forms, this month’s artists have done it all.

ELLIOTT PUCKETTE | KASMIN

Tender, brittle trails of consciousness set upon ominous toned backgrounds, crafted into streamlined forms, and conveying countless abstract shapes—one of many understandings of what Elliot Puckette’s amazing work has set out to portray. Serving as the preceding exhibition, as we can expect the release of her first major monograph this Spring, the exhibition finely details the creative mastermind of the artist’s soul. 

“The coloured washes create distinctive atmospheres in each work—brooding storm clouds of grey and tumultuous seas of dark purple. Puckette uses a razor blade to draw her arcs, carving out pathways instinctively with an exquisitely light touch. Later, she returns to deepen the furrows with cross-hatching—a labour-intensive process that inherently slows the line, subtracting it from the painting and delineating its negative space.”

On view at 509 West 27th Street from January 13–February 26, 2022

LET THERE BE LIGHT, LET THERE BE WHITE | THIERRY GOLDBERG

Let There Be Light, Let There Be White” continues Kenechukwu Victor’s passion for storytelling through portraiture. Utilizing a pallet of vibrant hues, Victor exposes personal perspectives on the realities of Nigerian life. His figures transcend from their surrounding environments, their lips and hair painted Victor’s signature white, alluding to the Nzu tradition symbolizing truth, purity, and peace. Each portrait functions as its own narrative, resulting in an exhibition that resounds in a cacophony of stories, memories, and experiences. Drawing influence from friends, family, and his surrounding community, Victor orchestrates his works to cleverly reflect his reality while connecting to the world at large.

On view at 109 Norfolk Street till February 19, 2022

TONI MORRISON’S BLACK BOOK | DAVID ZWIRNER 

Curated by Hilton Als, the David Zwirner exhibition featuring works by Toni Morrison from her Black Book which, not only explored concerns about race and language, one being Morrison’s sense that the “Black is beautiful” jingoism of the time reduced the complexity of Black American life to a slogan; but also the academic treatises that did not get at the heart and spirit behind the culture. Working with collectors of Black memorabilia and a graphic designer to put The Black Book together, she wanted the largely visual work to be a kind of scrapbook, or panorama, of Black American life, largely free of language and thus cant, and valuable to the young.

“I am The Black Book. Between my top and my bottom, my right and my left, I hold what I have seen, what I have done, and what I have thought.… I am the wars I fought, the gold I mined, the horses I broke, the trails I blazed.” —Toni Morrison, preface to The Black Book, 1973

On view at 525 W 19th St from January 20–February 26, 2022

DAMIEN HIRST: FORGIVING AND FORGETTING | GAGOSIAN

Featuring works from the artist’s recent series “Reverence Paintings,” alongside representations of iconic Disney characters carved out of pink Portuguese marble and white Carrara marble from his “Treasures” series, the exhibition serves as a testament to the artist’s seasoned craft, wonderfully radiating a nostalgic essence in simplistic, yet daringly bold, shapes and forms. 

On view at 541 West 24th Street till February 26, 2022

JASPER JOHNS: MIND/MIRROR | WHITNEY

Our personal favourite for the last few months, and ending right as fashion week kicks off, Jasper John’s exhibition at the Whitney Museum paints a disruptive narrative of transitioning into new outlets of self and creative expression, forefronting movements such as pop art, Pop art, Minimalism, and Conceptualism.

Conceived as a whole but displayed in two distinct parts, the exhibition appears simultaneously here at the Whitney and at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, two institutions with which Johns has had long-standing relationships. This unique dual structure draws on the artist’s lifelong fascination with mirroring and doubles so that each half of the exhibition echoes and reflects the other. Organized in largely chronological order, the retrospective presents pairs of related galleries—one in each city—that offer varied perspectives on the artist’s turns of mind. Individually, each gallery focuses on a particular aspect of Johns’s thought and work through the lens of different themes, processes, images, mediums, and even emotional states. Taken together, they provide an immersive exploration of the many phases, treasures, and mysteries of a radical, enduring, and still-evolving career.

On view at the Whitney Museum till February 13, 2022

LATE NIGHT ENTERPRISE | PERROTIN  

“Late Night Enterprise considers how nocturnal economies — romantic, monetary, and corporeal — act as a foil to the sleek logic of daytime activities. French philosopher Michel Foucault, in Utopian Bodies, describes nighttime as when “the body is torn away from its proper space and projected into another space.” This space becomes a social elsewhere, an imperfect mirror of our 24-hour economy. There, the logic of consumption fades, and another economy emerges: hyperreal pleasure, extreme ecstasy, and immense danger find their own rhythm and release.”

On view at 130 Orchard Street till February 19, 2022

FAITH RINGGOLD: AMERICAN PEOPLE | NEW MUSEUM 

A writer, sculpture, performative artist, and painter above all else, Faith Ringgold has spent the most part of her life offering the art world new ways to beautifully comment on social and civic issues, drawing on her personal experiences. From creating some of the most indelible artworks of the civil rights era to challenging accepted hierarchies of art versus craft through her experimental story quilts, Faith Ringgold has produced a body of work that bears witness to the complexity of the American experience.

Featuring Ringgold’s best-known series, this show examines the artist’s figurative style as it evolved to meet the urgency of political and social change. The exhibition also foregrounds her radical explorations of gender and racial identities, which the artist incorporates into the rich textures of her paintings, soft sculptures, and story quilts. Among the most important artworks of the past fifty years, Ringgold’s fabric works combine local traditions and global references to compose a polyphonic history of this country. Long overdue, this retrospective provides a timely opportunity to experience the art of an American icon.

On view at 235 Bowery from February 17–June 5, 2022

COME TO ME AGAIN | PERROTIN

“Come to Me Again is an exhibition of twenty works by Bernard Frize, taking over two floors of the gallery. For four decades, Bernard Frize has been developing his signature style of process-oriented abstraction. As an artist, he explores the bare minimal essence of painting, devoid of conception and aesthetic, instead of focusing on an industrial approach to making art. Working in series, he conducts experiments, exploring all the possible visual outcomes of preconceived protocols. While each series records the peculiar dynamics of a predetermined technique, his vibrant abstractions also allow for chance.”

On view at 130 Orchard Street till February 19, 2022

Check out the GUAP Arts & Culture section, to discover new art, film, and creative individuals.