LONDON.- Gagosian is now presenting To Bend the Ear of the Outer World: Conversations on contemporary abstract painting, an exhibition of new and recent works by more than forty artists from the Americas, United Kingdom, and Germany. The exhibition has been organized by guest curator Gary Garrels, who, in collaboration with the artists, has selected a single painting by each, with most works presented here for the first time. This is Gagosian’s first exhibition to be sited across its two galleries in Mayfair, at Grosvenor Hill and Davies Street.

The exhibition in London examines the significance of abstract painting today, from Garrels’s perspective. Juxtaposing a diverse range of approaches to contemporary abstraction, the exhibition brings together works by three generations of artists, including some never before shown by Gagosian.

Participating artists include Tomma Abts, Richard Aldrich, Tauba Auerbach, Frank Bowling, Mark Bradford, Cecily Brown, Vija Celmins, Matt Connors, Tomm El-Saieh, Jadé Fadojutimi, Suzan Frecon, Katharina Grosse, Mark Grotjahn, Wade Guyton, David Hammons, Mary Heilmann, Thilo Heinzmann, Richard Hoblock, Jacqueline Humphries, Suzanne Jackson, Jennie C. Jones, Brice Marden, Helen Marden, Julie Mehretu, Oscar Murillo, Albert Oehlen, Laura Owens, Nathlie Provosty, David Reed, Gerhard Richter, Amy Sillman, Pat Steir, Ryan Sullivan, Lesley Vance, Charline von Heyl, Mary Weatherford, Stanley Whitney, Pamela Helena Wilson, Terry Winters, Christopher Wool, and John Zurier.

To Bend the Ear of the Outer World is the conceptual successor of Oranges and Sardines (2008–09), an exhibition of abstract painting organized by Garrels at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, which included work by some of the same artists. The titles of both exhibitions are derived from verses by Frank O’Hara.

The exhibition surveys contemporary abstract painting through an installation that emphasizes the individuality of each work and artist, while encouraging viewers to find affinities between them. It reflects ongoing conversations regarding the possibilities of abstraction with artists Garrels has long admired, along with others he discovered in the process of planning the exhibition. He relates: “As a curator, I have found that artists look at art with a focus and scrutiny, a criticality and engagement, that few of us can summon with the same intensity.”

That intensity of engagement informs the ways in which these artists continue to push the boundaries of abstraction. Avoiding systematic or theoretical restrictions, they are united by an expressive subjectivity, developing their practices in dialogue with their peers and in relation to over a century of innovation in nonrepresentational art making. The multiplicity and vitality of works on view speak to the continued relevance of abstract painting.

Gagosian will publish a catalogue to accompany the exhibition with a preface by Larry Gagosian, an essay by Garrels, and reproductions of included works paired with remarks on abstraction and process by the artists.

Gary Garrels was cocurator of Vija Celmins: To Fix the Image in Memory, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2018–19, traveled to Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, 2019; and Met Breuer, New York, 2019–20); Bruce Conner: It’s All True, Museum of Modern Art, New York (2016, traveled to San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2016–17); and Richard Serra Drawing: A Retrospective, organized by Menil Collection, Houston (2012, traveled to Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2011; and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2011–12). At the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, he organized Eden’s Edge: Fifteen LA Artists (2007). At the Museum of Modern Art, he curated Brice Marden: A Retrospective of Paintings and Drawings (2006) and Roth Time: A Dieter Roth Retrospective (2004, organized by Schaulager, Basel). Additionally, he curated Sol LeWitt: A Retrospective, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2000), and Inside Out: New Chinese Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1999), among many other exhibitions.

To Bend the Ear of the Outer World: Conversations on contemporary abstract painting
June 1–August 25, 2023
20 Grosvenor Hill and 17–19 Davies Street, London