Month: November 2025

Zhang Kechun: Yellow Land

November 20, 2025

La Galerie, Hong Kong, 20 November 2025 to 24 January 2026

La Galerie Paris 1839 presented “Yellow Land and The Sky Garden” from November 20, 2025 through January 24, 2026 at 74 Hollywood Road, Central. The exhibition marked Zhang’s first Hong Kong outing since 2017 and paired recent work from two series. “Yellow Land” extends his long engagement with northern China’s loess plateau and the afterimage of industry. “The Sky Garden” shifts the gaze to engineered green spaces that hover over new urban fabric. In his Yellow River project, Zhang uses a large-format, high-key palette and broad, atmospheric compositions to position small human figures and infrastructure inside vast, muted landscapes. The effect is cool and unsentimental. You read the pictures for evidence of modernization and urban geometry. The gallery anchored the run with bilingual artist talks at the opening.

Modern Art, Painting

Joan Mitchell: To Define a Feeling, 1960-1965

November 6, 2025

David Zwirner, New York, November 6–December 13, 2025.

At David Zwirner’s 20th Street gallery, To define a feeling, 1960–1965 zeroed in on a short, charged span in Joan Mitchell’s practice. Curated by Sarah Roberts with the Joan Mitchell Foundation, the show brought together canvases and works on paper from the so-called “black paintings” years, when Mitchell tightened the palette, stacked brushwork into dense verticals, and let black and white flare through restrained color.

Several loans and foundation works clarified the transition from the Paris move to the fuller chroma of the later French years. You could feel her testing speed and structure, especially in the ravishing charcoal sketches. The title came from a 1965 remark of hers – they were attempts to catch sensation before it turns into a picture.

The exhibition formed part of the artist’s centennial programming, one node among museum events and publications that traced her influence. It also marked a return to Chelsea, with Zwirner presenting a period that often gets overshadowed by the late sunflowers.

Ceramics, Sculpture

A Hidden Oasis in the Bronx

November 1, 2025

Tucked away on the ground floor of the Walsh Family Library at Fordham’s Rose Hill campus, the Fordham Museum of Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Art is one of New York City’s best-kept secrets. For anyone in the Bronx, it offers a startlingly intimate encounter with the ancient world, particularly the enigmatic Etruscan civilization that predated and influenced the rise of Rome.

The museum’s location (literally inside a library) creates a quiet atmosphere. Unlike the sprawling halls of the Met, where you might feel like one of many thousands, here you are often the only person in the room with artifacts that are 2,500 years old. Windows look out onto the campus, grounding the ancient objects in a modern academic setting.

Etruscan Highlights

While the collection spans the Mediterranean, its Etruscan holdings are particularly evocative of a culture that blended elegance with a deep focus on the afterlife and ritual.

Bucchero Ware: The collection’s standout is its array of Bucchero pottery. This is the signature “black-on-black” ceramic of the Etruscans, designed to mimic more expensive hammered metal. The deep, lustrous black finish and sharp, angular shapes provide a striking contrast to the more common red-and-black figure Greek vases nearby.
Votive Offerings: You’ll find a fascinating collection of terracotta votive heads and feet. These were left at temples as “thank you” notes or prayers for healing. They are surprisingly human and individualistic, offering a direct emotional link to the people from the Italian peninsula long before the Caesars.
The Burial Amphora: A centerpiece of the renovated gallery is a large Etruscan Amphora (ca. 650 B.C.E.). It serves as a focal point for understanding Etruscan burial ceremonies, surrounded by smaller implements like bronze spearheads and cosmetic applicators.

[…]