Thursday, November 3, 6-8pm: Brice Marden | Let the painting make you at Gagosian 

One of the things about art is that it is full of contradictions. The only rule is there are no rules. But everybody works by rules. You set up your own rules. —Brice Marden (1938-2023)

 The exhibition features a group of large paintings that Marden made in his studio in Tivoli, New York, in 2023, along with sixteen recent drawings. The paintings are characterized by weblike linear networks that cover variously colored grounds, and the group has a raw, spontaneous look, showing Marden drawing on intuition honed over a lifetime. These final works convey his idea of letting the paintings “make” us.

Marden was inspired by a broad range of art historical sources and spiritual traditions, and by experience gleaned through extensive travel. Allied with references to the natural world, these resources inspired an open-ended approach to painting through which he transformed earthly material into transcendent compositions of shape, color, and texture.

Gagosian, 980 Madison Avenue, New York, NY Info 

ILLUSTRATION WEEK events in conjunction with the AI-AP Party 

Saturday, November 4, 4-6pm: Anita Kunz in conversation with Mark Heflin at Society of Illustrators

Join award-winning illustrator Anita Kunz and Director of American Illustration and American Photography (AI-AP) Mark Heflin as they discuss Kunz’s new book Striking a Pose: A Handy Guide to the Male Nude.  

Inspired by her own art students’ struggles and triumphs with nude life drawing, Anita Kunz turned her brushes to nearly 150 speculative portraits of famous figures, stripped of their vanities and as unpretentiously posed as life models. Alone or grouped, male marvels and monsters and musicians stand, lean and sit for the imaginary eye of the acclaimed painter and illustrator.

Books will be available for purchase in the SI Museum Shop for a signing after the talk.

Wednesday, November 8, 6pm: Interior Desecration | exhibition and book launch with Steven Guarnaccia 

The spirit that animates Guarnaccia's illustrations is neither didactic nor informative. He does not want to show the world as it is-as in an illustration for an encyclopedia or medical text-but instead wants to go beyond reality, to peek into the deeper meaning of things. In this book, Steven takes us inside his world with a dizzying array of images that show us reality as he sees it and recounts the process through ideas, sketches and, finally, finished drawings. This is not an invitation to get lost in the beauty of illustrations but instead to look at the world and illustration in a new way. 

At 7:00 the evening of the opening, Steven Guarnaccia will be in conversation with Julie Lasky, design journalist , design writer, editor and critic.

Salotto, 84 Withers Street, Brooklyn, NY Info 

Thursday, November 9, 7-11pm: The Party at Angel Orensanz 

It's a book launch, exhibition and video salon-screening with open bar! AI-AP’s annual event is set for Thursday, November 9th, 2023 at the Angel Orensanz Foundation, just off East Houston on New York's Lower East Side

Join the creative community and celebrate with the winners in American Photography 39, American Illustration 42 and the Int'l Motion Art Awards 11.  Get more info and register here!

Angel Orensanz Foundation, 172 Norfolk Street, New York, NY Info

Friday,November 10, 6:30-8:00pm: Edel Rodriguez in conversation with Chip Kidd at Poster House

Join “America’s illustrator-in-chief,” Edel Rodriguez, in conversation with graphic designer and writer, Chip Kidd, for a wide-ranging conversation on Rodriguez’s new graphic memoir Worm: A Cuban American Odyssey. 

Through vivid, stirring art, Worm tells the story of a boyhood in the midst of the Cold War, a family’s displacement in exile, and their tenacious longing for those they left behind. It also recounts the coming-of-age of an artist and activist, who, witnessing America’s turn from democracy to extremism, struggles to differentiate his adoptive country from the dictatorship he fled. Confronting questions of patriotism and the liminal nature of belonging, Edel Rodriguez ultimately celebrates the immigrants, maligned and overlooked, who guard and invigorate American freedom. Books available for purchase. RSVP

Poster House, 119 West 23^rd Street, New York, NY Info

November 2-5: The Art Show at The Armory and Upper East Side Gallery Walk
For info see the 10.27.23 issue of  DART

Looking ahead: 

Tuesday, November 7, 6:30-8pm: Drawing Dialoguesat National Academy

Drawing Dialogues continues — a series of presentations featuring selected artists from the exhibition Drawing as Practice. This evening of conversation features Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap ofBirds and Michael Waugh sharing the role of drawing in their practices. This series celebrates the vitality of technique and approaches to contemporary drawing and create opportunities for interesting discussions among artists and audiences. Read more about the artists here.

National Academy of Design, 519 West 26^th Street, New York, NY RSVP required

Wednesday, November 8, 6-8 pm: In Common | New Approaches with Romare Beardon

This exhibition highlights Romare Bearden’s work as an artist, educator, scholar, songwriter, and social activist. Part of a multitier initiative co-organized by The New School’s Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics, the Romare Bearden Foundation, and The Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University Newark. Above: Romare Beardon, Baptism, 1976; screen print from The New School collection

 Drawing from multiple collections including the Romare Bearden Foundation and The New School, In Common presents a selection of works demonstrating Bearden’s exploration of the Black experience, often taking inspiration from history, literature, the Bible, jazz, and African American communities.

His work is complemented by six leading and emerging contemporary artists—Black Quantum Futurism, Kahlil Robert Irving, Lorraine O’Grady, Hank Willis Thomas, Mickalene Thomas, and Charisse Pearlina Weston—whose work and values resonate with those of Bearden and contribute to a multigenerational dialogue on the political agency of art.

Parsons School of Design, The Sheila Johnson Design Center, 66 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY Info