Stephen Friedman Gallery

Stephen Friedman Gallery is pleased to return to West Bund Art & Design in Shanghai with a group presentation centred on painting. This selection is characterised by a focus on expressive forms and dynamic use of colour. Artists include Marina Adams, Mamma Andersson, Leliah Babirye, Sarah Ball, Lisa Brice, Ilona Keserü, Yinka Shonibare CBE RA, Caroline Walker and Luiz Zerbini. 

Caroline Walker joins writer and art critic Thomas Marks to discuss the integral role of drawing in her practice. They will discuss drawing towards painting in the preparatory stages of a work and as a means of teaching its mood and composition to the hand.

Prospect New Orleans is a citywide contemporary art triennial and the only exhibition of its kind in the US with a decade-long history. 'Yesterday we said tomorrow', curated by Artistic Directors Naima J. Keith and Diana Nawi, is the triennial's fifth iteration. 

'Histórias da sexualidade (Stories of sexuality)', brings together more than 300 works by 130 artists, organised into nine thematic categories: Nude Bodies, Totemism, Religion, Gender Performativity, Sex Games, Sex Markets, Languages, Voyeurisms, and Body Politics.

Curated by Hou Hanru and Luigia Lonardelli, ‘The Purple Line’ is an exhibition of works including Hirschhorn’s ‘Pixel-Collage’, an expansive series of works created between 2015 and 2017. For the first time, the collages are grouped together and displayed on a long purple wall following a layout designed by the artist. The project seeks to disrupt the standard exhibition format whilst making the viewer hyper-aware of their surroundings.

The Royal Academy of Art’s Summer Exhibition continues in 2021, with coordinator Yinka Shonibare CBE RA celebrating the joy of creating art through the theme of ‘Reclaiming Magic’.

‘Mixing It Up’ brings together 31 contemporary painters, spanning three generations of artists who live and work in the UK. The exhibition celebrates paintings that bring together diverse images and ideas, highlighting the UK’s emergence as a vital international centre of contemporary painting whilst reflecting the international character of the painting scene in this country.

'Caroline Walker: Windows', explores themes of privacy and voyeurism. The exhibition brings together large-scale canvases and intimate portraits depicting anonymous women in environments that blur the line between private and public. 

Yinka Shonibare CBE RA features in The Piccadilly Art Takeover, an expansive, outdoor exhibition on view to the public at Piccadilly Circus, London. Vibrant canvases, zebra crossings, and a 720 square-metre film transform this busy junction at the heart of the city. 

Tau Lewis’ solo exhibition ‘Symphony’ is presented as part of the National Gallery of Canada’s Contemporary Projects series. ‘Symphony’ is the first work by Lewis to become part of the national collection, and is also the Toronto-born, Brooklyn-based artist’s inaugural presentation at the National Gallery of Canada.

Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald’s acclaimed and historically important portraits of President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama go on display in association with Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.

Stephen Friedman Gallery is pleased to present Leilah Babirye’s first solo exhibition in the UK and Europe in June 2021, following the announcement of her representation in April 2020. 

Stephen Friedman Gallery is pleased to present British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare CBE RA’s seventh solo exhibition at the gallery, titled ‘African Spirits of Modernism’. Opening on 4 June 2021, the exhibition comprises quilts, sculptures and a series of African masks that engage with the artist’s own identity as a ‘post-colonial hybrid’. The works are accompanied by archival material that captures the burgeoning interest in African art in Paris in the 1920s.

A new sculpture from international artist Yinka Shonibare CBE RA, has been commissioned by the David Oluwale Memorial Association [DOMA] to honour the life of the British Nigerian and Leeds resident whose personal story inspired local people to create a lasting legacy to mark his life. The sculpture will be unveiled as part of Leeds 2023, the city’s landmark year of culture.

Claire Barclay has been commissioned by Tideway, London to create artworks for the new public realm site at Putney. In response to the heritage theme ‘Recreation to Industry: Society in Transition', Barclay has developed a series of three works: three bronze oars to be incorporated into the foreshore balustrade in the form of lengths of handrail; text integrated within the inlaid University Boat Race (UBR) marker line in the form of raised cast lettering; and a graphic pattern waterjet cut into the granite walling of the foreshore kiosk.

We are delighted to announce a collaboration between Kehinde Wiley and The National Gallery, London on an exhibition of new work, which will be presented in Trafalgar Square this winter.

Tate Britain presents a landmark group exhibition spanning an ocean and half a century. This exhibition will explore work by artists from the Caribbean who made their home in Britain, alongside other British artists who have also made work addressing Caribbean themes and heritage.

Rivane Neuenschwander will have a major solo exhibition at Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz this winter. The show will bring together historical and recent works in a wide variety of media, including textiles, painting and film. Curated by Christiane Meyer-Stoll, the exhibition will be accompanied by a substantial publication. 

The talk will take place on Thursday 28 October, 6-7pm MDT (GMT-6) ahead of Gibson's upcoming residency at Tamarind Institute. 

In collaboration with Bombas Gens Centre d’Art and curator Sandra Guimarães, Thomas Hirschhorn presents 'Energy = Yes! Quality = No! (Critical Workshop)'. Attendees are required to contribute a single work or input such as a text, an original painting, a drawing, a song, a collage, a sculpture, a video, etc. and participate in ‘common work’ such as discussions, exchange, thinking or judging. All are welcome to attend and entry to the workshop is free.

TWO x TWO for AIDS and Art is an annual contemporary art auction held in the Richard Meier-designed Rachofsky House in Dallas, benefitting both the Dallas Museum of Art and amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research.

In response to the isolating effects of the pandemic, ‘Art as Connection’ is designed as an experimental, socially focussed and accessible exhibition. Confronted with questions about isolation and exclusion, distrust, illness and death, the curatorial team at Aargauer Kunsthaus developed the exhibition in a consciously collective discourse with the invited artists.

A riot of beloved Beano characters are on show alongside similarly rebellious artists at Somerset House this autumn in 'Beano: the Art of Breaking the Rules'.

At the third edition of the Setouchi Asia Forum, Setouchi Triennale and Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale is 'Artists’ Breath Live', an online program focusing on the ways that artists are living, thinking, and creating during the global pandemic. The project consists of a digital booklet comprising over 100 artists’ texts and an online forum during which 30 artists will each deliver a three-minute report.

'Warm Inside' marks Jonathan Baldock's first solo exhibition in Sweden. The presentation conjures a peaceful, parallel world where the relationships between trauma, sensuality, vulnerability, spirituality and the human body can be explored. 

'A look inside' is the first major European solo exhibition from award-winning US-based artist Deborah Roberts. Combining collage with mixed media, her figurative works critique notions of beauty, the body, race and identity in contemporary society through the lens of Black children in the USA.

Jeffrey Gibson's solo exhibition at deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Massachusetts explores the intersections of four powerful words—INFINITE INDIGENOUS QUEER LOVE.

Curated by Deborah Smith, 'Human Conditions of Clay' explores expressions of humanity in the material use of clay. 

'Re-Création' brings together works by contemporary artists from Africa and its diaspora to create a 'new' history of art, that challenges pre-existing Western conceptions. 

Stephen Friedman Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition of new paintings by African-American artist Deborah Roberts at Frieze London 2021. This coincides with the artist’s first institutional solo show in Europe at The Bluecoat, Liverpool from October 2021. This body of work continues Roberts’ investigation of the challenges encountered by Black children as they respond to social constructs perpetuated by the white gaze and western visual culture.

For the 2021 edition of Frieze Masters, Stephen Friedman Gallery brings together a group of historical works from the 1970s through 1990s centred around the work of Japanese artist Jiro Takamatsu in relation to his contemporaries. Positioning his work alongside key examples by Richard Diebenkorn, Agnes Martin and Anne Truitt, the presentation looks at their shared exploration of two-dimensional space across a range of media including painting, works on paper and sculpture. 

'No Humans Involved' showcases the work of seven emerging artists and collectives whose practices disrupt and interrogate Western modes of humanism, highlight the limits of corporeal identity, and prioritise the nonhuman or antihuman as a point of departure. 

Group exhibition ‘FUCK YOU’ is a provocative show with a radical yet inclusive message. Curated by Klaus Verschile, the exhibition aims to open viewers minds to a non-conformist alternative to conventional and acceptable aesthetics. 

Group exhibition ‘Earth Beats’ explores artists’ engagement with our natural environment and its vulnerability, featuring artworks from the 18th century to the present. The presentation considers both the history of ideas and future scenarios for the sustainable use of natural resources.

Coventry Biennial 2021 will take place across Coventry & Warwickshire from 8 October 2021 – 23 January 2022. Named HYPER-POSSIBLE, this collaborative and socially focussed event brings together a wide range of local, national and international artists and creative practitioners to exhibit in galleries, museums and a range of historic and community locations across Coventry and Warwickshire.

Yinka Shonibare CBE RA has created a special edition of 50 sculptures to help support The Emerging Curators Fellowship. The editions are priced at £1,500 + VAT and available online from frieze.com and Frieze art fairs in London. All of the money raised will benefit the fellowship, and one work will be made available via a free prize draw.

'Holy, Holy, Holy' presents a library of 20th and 21st century books with holes. An international collection of titles includes South African artist Kendell Geers’ 'Point Blank' (2004), an edition of 1,030 blank books with each copy shot at point blank range. This exhibition celebrates the launch of new journal 'Inscription: the Journal of Material Text', coinciding with Frieze and featuring Kendell Geers as artist in residence for ‘Inscription #2’.

Join this year’s Summer Exhibition Coordinator Yinka Shonibare CBE and writer and broadcaster Afua Hirsch in this online event. They discuss Shonibare's vision for the exhibition, the significance of reclaiming magic in art, and how an inclusive art world can engage with and value artists who have developed their practice in different ways.