A Three Dot Early November Exhibition Rundown

Oh, boy. I love semi-midterm election season. The reason is that hopes get high, a new direction is almost pointed to, we have Thanksgiving to… look forward to? I don’t know, but the vibes of collective possibility seem high. I don’t want to go and pontificate on some political points, because deep down, let’s just let the new mayor of NYC, Zohran Mamdani, lead for a year or so before we start the full-on governing analysis. These things take time. Let’s let it take a little time.

That said, the art world got the memo that it was struggling and just kept plowing ahead. The fall season has had some blockbusters (it seems like Zwirner made sure to have most of them, ie Sasha Gordon and Mr. Richter), but what I love about this time right before Art Basel Miami Beach is that there are some great shows that open in late October and early November. I live in Los Angeles so I’m lucky right now, but NYC, Oakland, London, Seoul, Tokyo… you got the goods as well.

So I am going to do my “three dot” thoughts on where to go, who to see, tell them Evan said hi, and also let you all know that November 22, The Unibrow has something cooking with Tlaloc Studios and Ozzie Juarez… more on that soon.

First things first, so excited for my friend and one of the best muralist in the world, Conor Harrington, is flexing big time at Ben Brown Fine Arts in London with Pallium, which, if you didn’t know, means “a wool vestment worn by Catholic archbishops, a Roman cloak from ancient Greece and Rome, and the cerebral cortex in neuroanatomy.” Wool is in season… Going to stay on that side of the proverbial pond and note that Justin Williams, The Autumn Fall will be on at Semiose in Paris this month, and our resident Issue 01 illustrator Jean Jullien will open a new solo show at Alice Gallery in Brussels on November 6… you actually can go to that one and say I sent you… Moosey Norwich has been excited about their Motonori Uwasu show all year, and from the looks of the preview, the Japanese artist is making a giant leap in color and composition… also, the Shelby Jackson show at Lo Brutto Stahl in Paris has some of my favorite works of the entire year… eerie, Severence-like.

In the Bay Area, Muzae Sesay is opening a solo show with pt.2 Gallery in Oakland and the big KAWS: Family show opens at SFMOMA… Down by me in LA, Charlie James Gallery will open Shizu Saldamando’s May the Ground Seethe in Chinatown, featuring a fantastic series of craft-forward portraits… Philip Martin will go with the foliage theme with the densely packed natural landscape works of Sky Glabush… and our friends at Night Gallery host Kayla Witt’s photoreal paintings to close out their year…

Back east, David Altmejd opens a museum show in Montreal featuring over 25 years of work… Company Gallery has Divorce Paintings… and Pace Prints hosts the NYC solo debut of Yusuke Hanai, a show we caught a preview of at his studio in Kamakura, Japan back in September… and Younguk Yi has a Mutant Lab at The Hole, Bowery, which give a psychedelic, hallucination feel to the end of your year… and if you find yourself in Texas in a few weeks, LA’s own Mario Ayala will have his first US museum show at CAM Houston entitled Seven Vans, solidifying Ayala place in a long lineage of car-culture painters to come out of southern California… a big win for the new generation of LA-now painters…

Text by Evan Pricco