1stdibs Introspective
2023
Why Abstract Painter Emily Mason’s Star Continues to Rise
1stdibs Introspective, December 17, 2023
A new show at New York’s Miles McEnery Gallery celebrates the late artist’s rich, beautiful and long-overlooked body of work.
The Very Modern Love Story of Mid-Century Design Duo Alvar and Aino Aalto
1stdibs Introspective, September 22, 2023
A power couple before the term existed, the influential pair made work that still resonates today.
Obsession of the Week: Donald Martiny’s Jumbo Brushstrokes Magnify the Undeniable Personality of Paint
1stdibs Introspective, August 18, 2023
How can a few simple gestures — writ extra, extra, extra large — contain so much beauty and drama?
With Dansk, Jens Quistgaard Delivered Danish Simplicity to American Tables
1stdibs Introspective, May 28, 2023
When a visionary Copenhagen designer teamed up with an enterprising Long Island couple, Scandi-style magic landed in kitchens and dining rooms across the United States.
2022
Why Americans Particularly Love Scandinavian Design
1stdibs Introspective, October 30, 2022
How politicians, editors and retailers sold eager consumers on the “Scandinavian dream.”
2019
113 Chairs That Prove Danish Design Isn’t Limited to Denmark
1stdibs Introspective, May 5, 2019
In an innovative display, the Designmuseum Danmark is permanently exhibiting the 20th century's most iconic seats.
2017
Shop Talk: Yossi Milo Thinks Photos Can Be So Much More Than We Know
1stdibs Introspective, July 3, 2017
A Chelsea, New York, gallerist has carved out a niche in process-based photography, which bridges the gap between representation and abstraction while creating high visual impact.
Meet the Couple Who Helped Shape Mid-Century Photography
1stdibs Introspective, June 19, 2017
Leslie Gill and Frances McLaughlin-Gill shot for the biggest fashion magazines of the interwar and postwar eras. Now, Howard Greenberg Gallery in Manhattan is displaying their style-setting images side by side, for the first time.
Salon 94 Doubles Down on Recent Blue-Chip Design
May 15
Gallerists Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn and Paul Johnson are partnering on pop-up shows. Can this duo instill a new respect for fine design in the art world?
Tiqui Atencio Delves into the Mysteries of Collecting Art
April 3
The philanthropist and art aficionado chronicles the regrets and successes of art lovers in their quest to acquire great works — cartoons included.
2016
Sculptor Sam Perry Finds the Beauty in Fallen Trees
December 19
The Hawaiian-born artist started working with wood in his father’s canoe shop. Now, his carved abstractions are on display in San Francisco.
In Search of a Good Story and Great Design at Demisch Danant
September 26
Suzanne Demisch and Stephane Danant are detectives of sorts, tracking down the history behind 20th-century French designers, now from their new Rafael de Cárdenas–designed Manhattan gallery.
Robert Polidori Stitches Together Photos of City Life
September 19
At Paul Kasmin Gallery, the renowned photographer shows artful panoramas of Mumbai's sprawling outskirts and the ruins of a Beirut luxury hotel.
Farideh Lashai's Vision in the Desert
May 9
The Iranian artist gets a stunning posthumous retrospective inside a 19th-century home in the United Arab Emirates.
2015
Gordon Parks' Jim Crow Photos Still Resonate, Alas
Dec. 7
Recent racial injustices spurred New York's Salon 94 Freemans to exhibit a selection of full-color images from the pioneering photographer's pivotal 1956 Life magazine photo shoot focused on life in segregated Alabama.
Reviewing Joan Mitchell's Colorful Peaks and Vallées
Nov. 23
Edward Tyler Nahem presents Mitchell’s early breakthrough paintings alongside those created at the zenith of her creative powers. It's urban angst versus pastoral exuberance, all from the mind of one expressive and troubled artist.
Embracing Abstraction
June 22
A major new retrospective highlights the vibrant, lyrical vision of avant-garde pioneer Sonia Delaunay, a co-founder of the abstract color-theory movement Orphism, whose stunning contributions to fashion, furniture design, textiles, painting and the graphic arts are now on view at London's Tate Modern.
The Art of Obsession
May 11
A new show at London's Barbican Gallery spotlights the fascinating, occasionally fanatical collections of contemporary artists, ranging from Andy Warhol's cookie jars to ceramicist Edmund de Waal's seashells.
Giving Alma Her Due
April 27
The African-American artist Alma Thomas, a devout abstractionist and lesser-known member of the Washington Color School group, didn't start painting until she was in her 70s, nor receive wide-spread recognition until after her death in 1978 — and even then, it was relatively short-lived. Now that's changing, most vividly with a solo show at Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, in New York.
The Masks We Wear
April 13
In a new exhibition at New York's BravinLee Programs, conceptual artist Judith Henry brings her fascination with humankind, writ large, closer to home — casting herself as the protagonist of powerful mixed-media compositions that explore the various roles we all play.
Hadieh Shafie Unspooled
March 30
On the eve of her first solo exhibition in New York, Iranian-born artist Hadieh Shafie explains the complex process behind her vibrant, jewel-toned paintings, whose coiled spools of rag paper contain not only layers upon layers of hand-lettered Farsi but also a deep significance that belies their seductive surfaces.
Spheres of Influence
March 16
New York–based artist Paula Hayes, known for her biomorphic sculptures that make creative use of organic materials, turns her attention to the durable — and non-biodegradable — for a mystical new installation in Manhattan's Madison Square Park.
2014
Cool and Collected
November 17
The fantastical universe of Nikolai and Simon Haas — the L.A. twins formally known to an increasing number of design aficionados as The Haas Brothers — is now on full display in "Cool World," their debut exhibition at R & Company in New York.
In Living Color
November 17
A new exhibition at Manhattan's Howard Greenberg Gallery reveals the relatively unknown color images of octogenarian American photographer Bruce Davidson, as well as recent photos by his talented daughter Anna Mia Davidson.
Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs
October 29
Fresh off its blockbuster run at London's Tate Modern, a show of the modern master's late work – colorful, collaged, and cutting-edge for its time – comes to MoMA, in New York.
Spotlight: Pavel Zoubok
April 16
The New York specialist in collage of all varieties and from a range of time periods talks about his long-standing attraction to the oft-overlooked discipline and its rising profile in the current art market.
Hats off to Them
April 9
Several recent and current New York shows have dived into the worlds–and collections–of the pioneering art dealers whose exhibitions and galleries shaped much of the course of modern art history.
Working Practice: William Bailey
Feb. 19
Step into the enigmatic world of this former dean of Yale's art school, whose still lifes and figurative works are on view in New York through late March.
2013
On Location: T.M. Davy at Eleven Rivington
Dec. 4
The New York-based artist's latest pieces – a series of contemplative candlelit portraits of people and objects dear to him – are an intimate, illuminating revelation.
Working Practice: Iké Udé
Oct. 10
A new show of colorful photographs from the Nigerian-born, New York-based artist and aesthete takes a deep dive into what he calls "sartorial anarchy."
Working Practice: Chris Johanson
August 7
A multi-talented California artist reemerges on the scene with a major show at Los Angeles's MoCA and a new monograph from Phaidon.
Working Practice: Tim Hawkinson at Pace Gallery
June 5
"Tim Hawkinson is completely fluent with many different
materials. . . . But the chief allure of Hawkinson's work has always been its reach beyond the material world."
Working Practice: Tracey Emin at Lehmann Maupin
May 29
"At first glance, Tracey Emin's self-portraits, which currently fill both floors of Lehmann Maupin's Chrystie Street space in New York, seem something of a throwback to the early days of her career."
Working Practice: William Klein
April 10
"For decades now, William Klein has been considered a legend of 20th-century photography. But now a new show demonstrates that there is an even earlier Klein story to be told. It's about how he first made his name as a painter in the early 1950s, after he had decamped to Paris on the G.I. Bill and studied with the proto-Pop painter Fernand Léger."
2012
Working Practice: Mickalene Thomas
Nov. 14
With current exhibitions at the Brooklyn Museum of Art and the Lehmann Maupin galleries in Chelsea and the Lower East Side, Mickalene Thomas is enjoying an extended moment in the sun while still stretching in new creative directions.
Working Practice: Lucas Samaras
Sept. 27
Even as it remains inextricably linked to his groundbreaking earlier work, the latest show by the artist Lucas Samaras at New York's Pace Gallery demonstrates a distinctive stylistic turn toward digital.