Now Showing: Virtual Art Exhibits in LA and NY

Some of the most alluring art shows happening virtually this season.

Los Angeles

The Gallery Is Closed
Blum & Poe Broadcasts, David Muller, and Three Day Weekend
Ongoing
blumandpoe.com

No, this is not a press statement. Blum & Poe’s virtual group exhibition is actually titled The Gallery Is Closed, and it explores everything those words mean during a pandemic—more for the gallery building itself than for the artists, dealers, and spectators. The exhibition includes new and older contemporary works by Sam Durant, Dorit Cypis, Tom Burckhardt, Kathy Butterly, Aram Saroyan, Scott King, Ana Prvački, Ari Marcopoulos, and more. You could think of these works as chronological relics anticipating what will someday be our history, a time when, as Lisa Anne Auerbach’s photograph of a yellow-and-black fumigation tent suggests, life was on standby as the world purged itself of an uninvited pestilence. Dave Muller, in particular, undertakes a micro-examination of the relationship between Blum & Poe’s temporary gallery closure and its subsequent online show through three self-conscious paintings of signs in Doghouse #1, Doghouse #2, and Smile, Junior, Smile. Fred Tomaselli reacts to the echoing emptiness of public walls, while other artists reflect on the acts of waiting and socially distancing. We may be alone right now, but at the end of the day, we’re alone together. The stillness will pass over. And, as Muller writes, “After that, I imagine, The Gallery Is Open.”

AllTogetherNow
William Turner
Through June 15, 2020
williamturnergallery.com

Tom Wudl: The Flowerbank World
L.A. Louver
Through June 20, 2020
wudlflowerbank.lalouver.com

Essential Jim Dine
Jonathan Novak Contemporary Art
Through July 7, 2020
novakart.com

Representational Abstract 3
BG Gallery
Through August 11, 2020
artsy.net

Chris Engman: Looking
Luis De Jesus Los Angeles
Ongoing
viewingroom.luisdejesus.com

New York

Arlene Shechet: Skirts
Pace Gallery
Through August 14, 2020
pacegallery.com

This solo online exhibition consists of more than a dozen new sculptures by multidisciplinary artist Arlene Shechet. The sculptures materialize both an overpowering gravity and a sense that each structure is on the brink of collapsing or falling apart. Shechet’s love affair with imperfection and spontaneity soundly intertwine with her technical prowess in casting, assembling, and glazing. “In firing the glaze into the clay, the color becomes part of the structure,” says the artist. The result is a body of mostly top-heavy sculptures that diverge from the rigid symmetry associated with geometric abstractions. The skirts or outlying parts of sculptures such as Altered State have textures and souls of their own. The coral-like organic forms of Grammar and Via the Moon evoke sea myths and mysteries. Each piece is a balancing act between elephantine bulges and dainty cubes, chartreuse green and French gray, and natural woods and manmade metals. Similar to her influences, Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Sonia Delaunay, Shechet unifies painting and sculpture, carving out an identity that is vastly different from her male counterparts. These sculptures warrant a post-quarantine trip to the gallery for their multidimensional angles that immerse viewers in a range of possibilities.

Side by Side
Victoria Miro and David Zwirner
Through June 20, 2020
sidebysideonline.com

Duino Elegies
Gagosian
Through June 27, 2020
gagosian.com

Gary Simmons: Screaming into the Ether
Metro Pictures
Through September 2020
metropictures.com

Jeanette Mundt: Still American
Company Galley
Through September 1, 2020
companygallery.us

How Can We Think of Art at a Time Like This?
Barbara Pollack and Anne Verhallen
Ongoing
artatatimelikethis.com