We Asked Three of the Art World’s Most Plugged-In Young Women What They Can’t Wait to See (and Read) This Fall

As Labor Day fast approaches, so does the art world’s
back-to-school season, which is about to kick off with an annual
abundance of blockbuster museum exhibitions, hotly anticipated
gallery shows, can’t-miss performances, and long-awaited book
releases.

To help us plan our calendars and choose our bedside reading, we
spoke to three leading art world women—Esther Kim Varet, the
founder and director of Various Small Fires; Brinda Kumar,
assistant curator at the Met; and Justine Ludwig, executive
director of Creative Time—to learn about what they are most excited
for in the upcoming season.

Esther Kim
Varet
Founder and Director of Various Small Fires

“With Pleasure: Pattern and Decoration in
American Art 1972–1985“
Museum of Contemporary
Art, Los Angeles
October 27, 2019–May 11, 2020

I’ve been following the development of this exhibition over the
past few years. Anna Katz, the show’s curator, had reached out to
the gallery [Various Small Fires] about including Billy Al Bengston’s hanging mobiles from the 1970s.
This exhibition will be the first full-scale scholarly survey of
the Pattern and Decoration American art movement, bringing together
over 50 artists who embodied its “defiant embrace of forms
traditionally coded as feminine, domestic, ornamental, or
craft-based, and thought to be categorically inferior to fine art.”
I mean, how appropriate is it that we are “rediscovering” this
movement in the here-and-now of 2019 when so many of these ideas
have come back to the forefront of contemporary practices? A
formidable survey catalogue, published by Yale, is also
forthcoming, which I am absolutely looking forward to getting my
hands on.

Korakrit
Arunanondchai
Performa 19, New York
November 1–24, 2019

Performa’s
founder, RoseLee Goldberg,
actually introduced me to my husband. He was on RoseLee’s board at
the time, so this Biennial is one that continues to be very special
to us even from the West Coast. A highlight for sure will be
Korakrit Arunanondchai’s commission.

We threw a party with Korakrit
at [the gallery in] Los Angeles a few months ago where we previewed
and screened his most recent video works for the Venice Biennial
and the Whitney Biennial. At the end of the event, Korakrit did an
impromptu musical performance for the crowd that was electrifying
beyond words. That was probably just a sneak peak of what Korakrit
can deliver in the live-art realm with powerful support like
Performa’s behind him. For Performa 19, Korakrit is building a film
and sound set for performers, musicians, and projections that will
investigate recent events in Thailand, contemporary Buddhism, and
pop culture. 

“Julie Mehretu”

Los Angeles County Museum of Art
November 3, 2019–May 17, 2020

I’ve been spending a lot of time
with Christine Y. Kim, the co-curator of the exhibition, as we’ve
been organizing a benefit this fall for Gyopo,
an organization of Korean-American art professionals based here in
LA. Christine, via LACMA, will co-organize this first mid-career
survey by Mehretu with the Whitney Museum that will cover over 20
years of Mehretu’s examinations of colonialism, capitalism, and
global diaspora. The show seems pretty timely, doesn’t it? I’m
especially interested in seeing the more recent figurative works
that will also be included in the retrospective.

Brinda Kumar

Assistant Curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

“Fatimah Tuggar: Home’s Horizons”

Davis Museum, Wellesley, Massachusetts
September 13–December 15, 2019

I’m always fascinated to see how
technologies can work in the context of exhibitions. I’m
particularly interested in the multimedia approach that [Nigerian
artist] Fatimah Tuggar takes, in which she thoughtfully engages
with artisanal practices and new technologies by probing their
effects on relationships. In this monographic exhibition at the
Davis Museum, Tuggar, who is the recipient of a 2019
Guggenheim Fellowship, will be debuting her first augmented reality
work. I’ll be visiting Boston this fall and look forward to taking
in the show.

“Nikhil Chopra: Lands, Waters, and
Skies”
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
September 12–20, 2019

I first saw Nikhil Chopra in
performance at Khoj International Performance Art Residency when I
was living in New Delhi about a dozen years ago. I was struck by
the incredible way he inhabits spaces and characters to reflect
upon the mutability of identity and belonging. I’m eagerly
anticipating re-encountering him in the galleries of the Met and am
particularly interested in the resonances of his practice in the
context of the densely layered narratives of the museum.

Sam Gilliam
Dia: Beacon
Ongoing

Like many people, I’ve become
more keenly aware of Gilliam’s extraordinary
practice in recent years and now seek out opportunities to
experience his works first hand. Especially his Drape paintings.
Not only is it always rewarding to hop on the MetroNorth and take a
break from the city by heading to Beacon, but I anticipate that
Dia’s cavernous spaces will be particularly suited for the
installation of Gillam’s work.

Curating After the Global: Roadmaps for the
Present
MIT Press
October 2019

As a curator, I think a lot
about the implications of the experience of globalization, and its
impact on the production and reception of art in different
locations. It is increasingly important to be alive to the
plurality of positions that follow. The perspectives brought
together in this volume are some that I’m looking forward to
learning more about.

Justine Ludwig

Executive Director, Creative Time

“Clapping with Stones: Art
and Acts of Resistance”
Rubin Museum of Art, New
York
On view through January 6, 2020

Curated by Sara Raza, this
exhibition brings together 10 artists to address the power of
non-conformity and resistance [as part of] the museum’s 2019
year-long investigation of the theme of power. The exhibition
includes the work of a few artists I deeply admire, including Nadia
Kaabi-Linke, Hank Willis Thomas, Kader Attia, and Nari
Ward. 

Les Filles de
Illighadad
Pioneer Works
October 15, 2019, 7 p.m.

Les Filles’s album Eghass
Malan has been my go-to commute music of late. It is full of
energy and is deeply transportive. I’m so thrilled that they are
coming to Pioneer Works and I look forward to experiencing their
music live in such a beautiful environment.  

“Pia Camil: Fade to Black”

Queens Museum
October 6, 2019–February 16, 2020

I have had the pleasure of
working on two exhibitions with Pia Camil and her work never ceases
to surprise and inspire me. She co-opts the visual languages of
retail and theater to address consumerism and exchange. I am
curious to see what she has in store for the Queens
Museum. 

“Vija Celmins:To Fix the
Image in Memory”
The Met Breuer
September 24, 2019–January 12, 2020

Vija Celmins’s profound and
poetic attention to detail
is transportive; looking at her work, I sometimes feel as if I were
engaging in astral projection. It can be an out-of-body experience
carrying you from choppy seas and into the cosmos. This
retrospective spanning her [more than] 50-year career is
something I cannot wait to experience. 

Making Another World
Possible: 10 Creative Time Summits, 10 Global Issues, 100 Art
Projects
CRC Press
November 2019

Creative Time’s upcoming book
celebrates the 10-year anniversary of the Summit, as well as the
[previous] decade of socially engaged art. Edited by Corina Apostol
and Nato Thompson, the publication looks at 100 artists’ projects
addressing such diverse themes as surveillance, education, and
terrorism. In the book, there is a timeline of arts, politics,
and engagement from 1945 to the present, rendered by the collective
Chto Delat. The project has been a long time in the making, and I
am delighted to share the final product with the
public. 

The post We Asked Three of the Art World’s Most Plugged-In
Young Women What They Can’t Wait to See (and Read) This Fall
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