Michael Werner

Michael Werner Gallery, London is pleased to present Francis Picabia – Women: Works on Paper 1902-1950, an exhibition of over 40 works on paper spanning 50 years of the iconoclastic French artist’s career. Gaining notoriety as a leader in the Dada movement only to later reject it, Picabia’s contemporary Marcel Duchamp described the artist’s work as a “kaleidoscopic series of art experiences.” Always a step ahead of his peers, Picabia produced an extraordinarily diverse body of work that deeply impacted countless generations of artists. Art critic Dave Hickey writes, “more engaged with making works of art than with constructing an oeuvre or articulating an ideology, Picabia wore out styles like a baby wears out shoes.” Regularly shifting styles, the artist’s interest in rendering the female figure remained steadfast. Culling imagery from sources as diverse as ancient Roman sculpture, paintings by Ingres, popular erotic magazines and Hollywood studio portraits, Picabia’s drawings of women illustrate the artist’s expansive and often contradictory interrogation of image-making itself. The drawings range from personal portraits of lovers and friends to stylised, anonymous icons of femininity. For Picabia, representations of women were both an artistic end and a means of aesthetic exploration. Continually reinterpreting this classical subject throughout his career, Picabia produced a portfolio which moves with agility and wit between beauty and bad taste, the avant-garde and the kitsch.

Michael Werner Gallery, New York is pleased to present an exhibition of works by the pioneering post-war Italian artist Piero Manzoni (b. 1933, d. 1963), a key figure in the international development of performance and conceptual art. Over the course of a short life, Manzoni created a revolutionary, multifaceted oeuvre that had a lasting impact on artists throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Three of Manzoni’s most important works are in the exhibition, including his largest Achrome. Experimenting with a variety of media including plaster, felt, velvet, wool, fur, and kaolin, the Achromes are colorless pictures free from narrative. The artist writes, “We absolutely cannot consider the picture as a space on which to project our mental scenography. It is the area of freedom in which we search for the discovery of our first images. Images that are as absolute as possible, which cannot be valued for that which they record, explain and express, but only for that which they are: to be.” Manzoni’s monumental Achrome measures over six feet high and is made with polystyrene and phosphorescent paint, which glows under a blacklight. Breaking down the picture to its purest form, Manzoni does the same with the line in his Linea series. The Linea series are handmade lines of varying lengths, often rolled and sealed in canisters labeled with the artist’s name, contents, date of creation, and dimensions. The viewer does not see the line, which is instead replaced by imagination and belief. Manzoni writes, “The line develops only in length and extends towards infinity. The only dimension is time. And it hardly needs to be said that a ‘line’ is not a horizon or a symbol and it has value not as something beautiful but in the degree to which it exists.” One of Manzoni’s most significant and longest Linea is in the exhibition. Extending 1140 meters long, it is contained in an artist-designed, chrome-plated metal canister. The shiny, industrial finish of the canister is in direct contradiction to the handmade line concealed inside. The tension between the body and art is a recurrent theme in Manzoni’s oeuvre. In 1961, he stages his first Scultura viventi (Living Sculpture) performance, in which he places his signature on people who wish to become works of art by generating a Certificate of Authenticity to mark their passage. Created in parallel with the Scultura viventi (Living Sculpture) performances is Manzoni’s elusive Base magica, a wooden pedestal that is not intended to be a work of art in and of itself. Instead, it is a “machine” that transforms people into living works of art when they stand upon it. Manzoni died of a heart attack in his studio in Milan at 29 years old. Working from only 1956 to 1963, his provocative and radical body of work liberated and influenced many artists, including Joseph Beuys, Marcel Broodthaers, and James Lee Byars.

“Raven they hold the air like a brush painting with strokes as they go but never grasping for fear of halting their passage through the space” -Don Van Vliet, July 1991 Michael Werner Gallery, London is pleased to present Don Van Vliet: Standing on One Hand, an exhibition of paintings from the 1980s and 1990s by American artist Don Van Vliet (b. 1941, d. 2010). A musician, poet, and painter, Don Van Vliet is famously known by his stage name Captain Beefheart. Throughout the course of his music career, Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band recorded thirteen bold, highly experimental studio albums, securing his place in history as a pioneering and unconventional rock and roll artist. As a child, Van Vliet starred on a weekly local television show as a gifted young sculptor. He painted throughout his life. However, in the mid-1980s, he shifted his immense creative energy away from music and performance, focusing solely on painting. Nature was a source of great inspiration for Van Vliet. The desert, where he spent a large portion of his life, inspired his thick, white painted backgrounds, reminiscent of the desert sun. Van Vliet has said, “The way I keep in touch with the world is very gingerly.” In tune with animals and nature, the artist was also fully engaged with his senses and dreams. Art critic John Yau explains: “Dream, sight, sounds, smell, taste, and touch are inextricable aspects of his experience. For Van Vliet, one of the burdens his paintings must bear is his attempt to preserve the unity of his experience with a fleeting world in which the inner and outer zones mix.” Born in Glendale, California in 1941, Don Van Vliet’s work has been exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide, including San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Bielefelder Kunstverein, Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, PS.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, and the Brant Foundation in Greenwich, Connecticut. Van Vliet died at home in Northern California in 2010. Don Van Vliet: Standing on One Hand opens on 22 November with a private view from 6-8pm and will remain on view through 17 February. The exhibition is accompanied by a full-colour catalogue with a text by London-based artist and writer Charlie Fox.

Michael Werner Gallery, New York is pleased to present Maki Na Kamura, the first solo exhibition in New York of Osaka-born, Berlin-based painter Maki Na Kamura. Many critics have highlighted the competing polarities in the paintings of Na Kamura, namely the Japanese and Western influences, the abstract and figurative elements, the fact that she sees herself as a traditional painter and an artist of the 21st century, as well as the harmonious use of both tempera and oil paint, two materials traditionally labeled as distinct. While influence, style, and time are fluid for Na Kamura, she does not see her work as existing in a liminal space. Instead, the polarities are intentional and deliberately provoke the viewer. Comprised of new paintings and works on paper, this exhibition follows a double solo show of Na Kamura’s work at Galerie Michael Werner and Contemporary Fine Arts in Berlin. In her new work, the artist continues to champion painting and explores diverse structures, from the compositions of Old Master paintings to the choreography of K-pop. Maki Na Kamura studied at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. She has been included in numerous solo and group exhibitions across Europe and Japan. Solo museum exhibitions have been held at Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens in Deurle, Belgium (2017); Osthaus Museum Hagen in Hagen, Germany (2017); Bilbao-Arte – centro de arte contemporáneo in Bilbao, Spain (2015); and Oldenburger Kunstverein in Oldenberg, Germany (2014). Na Kamura was awarded the Falkenrot Prize in 2013. Na Kamura lives and works in Berlin. Maki Na Kamura opens to the public on Friday 17 November with an opening reception on Thursday 16 November from 6 to 8pm and will remain on view through Saturday 27 January. A full-color catalogue with a text by John Yau will accompany the exhibition. Gallery hours are Monday through Saturday, 10AM to 6PM.

Michael Werner Gallery, London, in collaboration with Gallery Hyundai, Seoul, is pleased to present Invisible Questions That Fill the Air: James Lee Byars and Seung-taek Lee, an exhibition of works by American artist James Lee Byars (b. 1932, d. 1997) and Korean artist Seung-taek Lee (b. 1932), curated by Allegra Pesenti. This exhibition marks the first time the works of these two artists are brought into dialogue, highlighting a like-mindedness of vision and spirit. Both artists were born in 1932. Byars in Detroit, an industrial town struggling during the Great Depression. The early, formative years of his career were spent in Japan, where he immersed himself in the study of the ceramic arts, papermaking, calligraphy, Noh theater, and the aesthetics of Shinto and Zen. The cultural traditions and ceremonies of Japan greatly shaped his artistic development and concerns around beauty, truth, and the concept of the perfect. Lee was born in a small town in the Northern province of a then unified Korea under Japanese rule. Japan had an outsized influence on Korean culture due to the occupation from 1910 to 1945, but Lee subverted this influence, seeking to create art that was distinctively Korean but also in conversation with international art movements. Lee’s “non-sculpture” utilizes natural materials and Korean folk objects, including tree branches, stones, briquettes, and earthenware jars. Placed on a pedestal or bound and hung with rope and wire, the objects are removed from their original function and elevated to the status of art. Byars and Lee never met, but the aesthetic similarities in their art warrants closer examination. Invisible Questions That Fill the Air: James Lee Byars and Seung-taek Lee will present six decades of work by the two artists. Rooted in nature, history, philosophy, and tradition, each artist created vital work that continues to inspire generations of younger artists. James Lee Byars has been the subject of numerous museum exhibitions worldwide, including The Palace of Good Luck, Castello di Rivoli / Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Turin (1989); The Perfect Moment, IVAM Centre del Carme, Valencia (1994); The Palace of Perfect, Fundaçao de Serralves, Porto (1997); Life Love and Death, Schirn Kunsthalle and Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain de Strasbourg (2004); The Perfect Silence, Whitney Museum of American Art (2005); 1/2 an Autobiography, MoMA PS1, New York and Museo Jumex, Mexico City (2013-2014); The Golden Tower, Campo San Vio, Venice (2017); The Perfect Kiss, Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp (2018); and The Perfect Moment, Red Brick Art Museum, Beijing (2021). Upcoming exhibitions include a major survey that will open at Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan in October 2023 and travel to Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid in April 2024. A pioneer of the Korean Avant-Garde with a career spanning over a half century, Seung-taek Lee’s work is held in the collections of museums worldwide, including the Tate Modern, London; the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Seoul; the M+ Museum, Hong Kong; the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi; the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney; and the Seoul Museum of Art, among others. Lee’s work has been included in major recent group exhibitions at the Gwangju Biennale (2023); the MMCA, Seoul (2023); the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2022); the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (2019); and the National Gallery, Singapore (2019). In 2020, a major retrospective survey of Lee’s work was held at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul. Upcoming exhibitions include Only the Young: Experimental Art in Korea, 1960s-1970s at the Guggenheim in New York.

Michael Werner Gallery, New York is pleased to present an exhibition of new sculptures and paintings by Los Angeles-based artist Aaron Curry (b. 1972 in San Antonio, Texas). In his new work, Curry expands and hones his unique visual language. Known to draw inspiration from classical sculpture, 20th century modernism, comic book illustration, science fiction, as well as skateboard and BMX culture, the artist uses these diverse influences to develop what he calls a “visual toolbox.” Curry elaborates, “Instead of thinking of art through an avant-garde lens, where ideas are a reaction to what came before, it’s more about building on top of those ideas and discoveries.” For this exhibition, Curry is looking at a vast array of masters of modern art, including Kurt Schwitters, Isamu Noguchi, Pablo Picasso, Vincent Van Gogh, Alexander Calder, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, and Francis Picabia. With all these artists in mind, Curry creates a new, distinctive body of work that furthers his reputation as one of the most singular and notable artists of his generation. Aaron Curry has exhibited his works throughout the world, including solo exhibitions at McNay Art Museum, San Antonio; The Bass Museum, Miami; STPI Gallery, Singapore; deCordova Sculpture Park, Lincoln; Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah; CAPC Contemporary Art Museum, Bordeaux; Lincoln Center, New York; High Museum, Atlanta; Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin; Kestner Gesellschaft, Hanover; Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Bergamo; Ballroom Marfa, Marfa; The Ranch, Montauk; and Gamma Galeria, Guadalajara.

Michael Werner Gallery, New York is pleased to present Birds Follow Spring, a summer painting show featuring the work of eight artists. On view will be work by London-based, Venezuelan artist Alvaro Barrington (b. 1983); Paris-based, French-Israeli artist Nathanaëlle Herbelin (b. 1989); Düsseldorf-based, Japanese artist Kaiso (b. 1986); Bronx-based, German artist Florian Krewer (b. 1986); Düsseldorf-based, German artist Christoph Matthes; Brooklyn-based, Haitian-American artist Andy Robert (b. 1984); Berlin-based, German artist Raphaela Simon (b. 1986); and Paris-based, French artist Pol Taburet (b. 1997) Birds Follow Spring opens to the public on Saturday 24 June with an opening reception on Friday 23 June from 6 to 8pm and will remain on view through Saturday 9 September. Gallery summer hours are Monday through Friday, 10AM to 6PM.

Michael Werner Gallery, London is pleased to present Gaston Chaissac, an exhibition of paintings, drawings, and collages by 20th century French artist Gaston Chaissac (b. 1910 in Avallon, France, d. 1964 in La Roche-sur-Yon, France). The first major, comprehensive exhibition of Chaissac’s work in the U.K., it spans the entire length of Chaissac’s career from late 1930s until his death in 1964. Born into a French rural working-class family, Chaissac was an autodidact. In the late 1930s, his neighbors in Paris, the artists Otto Freundlich and Jeanne Kosnick-Kloss, convinced him to become an artist and promoted his career. A decade later, Jean Dubuffet championed his work as Art Brut only to later exclude him from the Art Brut collection, saying that Chaissac had become “an educated man, in touch with cultivated circles...more or less a professional artist.” Chaissac lived remotely in the coastal town of Vendée and cited unconventional influences, including prehistoric art and the art of children. At the same time, he was also extremely aware of contemporary ideas of abstraction, Cubism, and Surrealism and incorporated them into his work. He kept in touch with established critics, artists, and writers through extensive letter writing. In 1947, he wrote to Picasso, “more than ever, I’m a Picasso in clogs, Picasso’s student, student by correspondence course.” Chaissac earned a remarkable amount of international recognition during his lifetime with exhibitions across Europe and the U.S. Artists such as Georg Baselitz have cited him as an influence. Today his work is held in the collections of Museum of Modern Art, New York; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne; Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain, Abbaye Sainte-Croix, Les Sables-d’Olonne; Espace Chaissac, Sainte-Florence, Vendée; amongst others. Gaston Chaissac opens on 23 June with a private view on 22 June from 6-8pm and will remain on view through 16 September. The exhibition will be accompanied by a full-colour catalogue.

Michael Werner Gallery, New York is pleased to present Florian Krewer: light the ocean, an exhibition of new paintings by German-born, Bronx-based artist Florian Krewer. With the New York night as his muse, Krewer paints all the vastness, liberation, and uncertainty it has to offer. Derived from lived experiences and fantasy, the artist creates a seductive world of drag queens, sex scenes, and magical encounters set against the staged backdrops of imagined landscapes and interiors. Primal needs, longing, and precarious interactions are transmitted to the canvas with the greater intention of revealing our collective vulnerabilities. Florian Krewer (born in Gerolstein, Germany in 1986) studied painting at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Solo exhibitions include Es liebt Dich und Deine Körperlichkeit ein Verwirrter, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf; ride or fly, Michael Werner Gallery, London; Eyes on Fire, Michael Werner Gallery, New York and Tramps, New York; Car Park Godiva, Michael Werner Gallery, London; and pinkflavor, Tramps, New York. The artist is a recent recipient of the Prix Jean-François Prat awarded by the Bredin Prat Foundation and the subject of the solo exhibition everybody rise opening May 2023 at the Aspen Art Museum and then traveling to M WOODS Museum in Beijing. Florian Krewer: light the ocean opens to the public on Friday 5 May with an opening reception on Thursday 4 May from 6 to 8pm and will remain on view through Saturday 17 June. A full-color catalogue will accompany the exhibition.

Michael Werner Gallery, London is pleased to present Maki Na Kamura, an exhibition of new paintings by Osaka-born, Berlin-based artist Maki Na Kamura. Given her background, many critics highlight the competing polarities of Japanese and Western influences in her paintings, but the reality is more complex. Japanese art has long informed European painting. Na Kamura elaborates, “Hokusai compensated for his lack of knowledge of perspective with his pictorial inventions. Sesshu built his pictorial space into the painting. Had Cézanne known about this, he would have been spared his labours.” Furthermore, Na Kamura does not categorize. She sees her work as both figurative and abstract and that these styles, often thought of as distinct, developed in tandem throughout the history of art. Dichotomies do not exist to Na Kamura, and style and time are fluid. Seeing herself “as both a traditionalist and as a painter of the twenty-first century”, for the new works on view, the artist pulls structure from as diverse sources as the paintings by Italian Renaissance master Luca Signorelli and the choreographed gestures of contemporary K-pop dancers. She is communicating with the art of the past and with the viewer in the present: “As long as I produce pictures that are seen, they remain communicative. They’re open.” Maki Na Kamura (b. Osaka) studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. She has been included in numerous solo and group exhibitions across Europe and in Japan. Solo museum exhibitions have been held at Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens in Deurle, Belgium (2017); Osthaus Museum Hagen in Hagen, Germany (2017); Bilbao Arte – centro de arte contemporáneo in Bilbao, Spain (2015); and Oldenburger Kunstverein in Oldenberg, Germany (2014). Na Kamura was awarded the Falkenrot Prize in 2013. Her work is in the collection of Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France. Na Kamura lives and works in Berlin. Maki Na Kamura opens on 21 April with a private view on 20 April from 6-8pm and will remain on view through 4 June. The exhibition will be accompanied by a full-colour catalogue with a text by Travis Jeppesen.

Michael Werner Gallery, New York is pleased to present Markus Lüpertz: Et in Arcadia ego, an exhibition of recent paintings by the eminent German artist Markus Lüpertz. The exhibition shows the artist at his best, forging a future for his work by invoking the past and reimagining it in the present. Et in Arcadia ego is a Latin phrase that has intrigued classicists, artists, and poets since it was introduced in the 17th century, first in a painting by Giovanni Francesco Guercino and subsequently in two paintings by Nicolas Poussin. The widely accepted translation is “Even in Arcadia, there I (Death) am.” Bringing the ethos of Guercino and Poussin into the present-day, Lüpertz paints the idyllic, mythical utopia of Arcadia in the bucolic landscape of Brandenburg, Germany, where the artist keeps his studio. In tranquil and lush settings, death is present through the inclusion of skulls, the Greek underworld rivers of Acheron and Styx, and sleeping figures culled from the paintings of Pierre Puvis de Chavannes. Art historian Eric Darragon has written that “the art world is fragmented and the confrontation between various practices no longer has any meaning,” and because of this Lüpertz “is having a dialogue with a vanished world: that of old painting.” In these recent works, Lüpertz’s own history collides with art history. The artist’s famous looping dithyrambs, apparent in painter’s palettes and Nazi helmets from his provocative German motif series, take shape in memento mori paintings and traditional German landscapes. Lüpertz has said, “Painting confronts the future, which we don’t know, and is aware of the past, which we do know, and this defines the present—not something new, but something individual.” Markus Lüpertz: Et in Arcadia ego presents Lüpertz’s singular vision and remarkable contemporary interpretation of the cycle of beauty, loss, and death in Arcadia. Markus Lüpertz (b. 1941, Liberec, Bohemia) is one of the most important and influential artists to emerge from post-war Germany. In recent years, major surveys have been presented at the Hirshhorn Museum and the Phillips Collection, Washington, DC; the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; Kunst- und Austellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn; Haus der Kunst, Munich; Gemeentemuseum, The Hague; The Hermitage State Museum, St. Petersburg, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art; and Palazzo Loredan, Venice.

Michael Werner Gallery, New York is pleased to present Antonius Höckelmann / Arnulf Rainer, an exhibition of over 70 works by German artist Antonius Höckelmann (1937-2000) and Austrian artist Arnulf Rainer (b. 1929). Featuring a wide array of media, including paintings, sculpture, drawings, photography, and prints, the exhibition provides a unique opportunity to see the works of Höckelmann and Rainer side by side. Working simultaneously from different countries, both artists explored themes of creation and destruction in post-war Europe. Born in Oelde, Germany in 1937, Antonius Höckelmann trained as a wood sculptor in his hometown in the 1950s before studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin. Höckelmann said, “For me, sculpture is at the root of everything”, which is contradictory to the fact that he completed no more than a dozen sculptures in his lifetime, destroying many. Concerned with the way 3-dimensional works interacted with space, Höckelmann ultimately found sculpture to exist in “an artificial world that relies only upon itself.” Drawing also naturally exists in a realm of its own and became an integral part of Höckelmann’s exploration of form. Art historian Julia Garimorth writes of this development: “Though physical contact with material is an imperative for all sculptors, Höckelmann realized that the simple evocation of this material often proved to be more ‘effective’ than working the material itself. He thus experimented with drawing to replace touch by the evocation of touch.” Born in Baden, Austria in 1929, Arnulf Rainer began his first experiments in overpainting at the same time Höckelmann created his first sculptures. Rainer initially started overpainting out of financial necessity but soon found it to be an important catalyst in his creative process. Works were created over a long period of time and in dialogue with the underlying source material that was often completely obliterated. Rainer never saw his work as complete. A pioneer of the Art Informel movement, Rainer describes the movement, “a state in which all was possible and nothing yet pronounced...a pure state of possibility.” It was possibility that excited him as an artist and the resulting impossibility that tormented him. Plagued by doubt, Rainer turned towards rudimentary forms of communication and expression and, like Höckelmann, a tactual method, wherein he used his own body to paint on canvas. Höckelmann had his first solo exhibition with Michael Werner Gallery in 1966. Afterwards, he exhibited in prominent museums including Kunsthalle Bern (1975), Kunsthalle Köln (1980), the Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen in Düsseldorf (1985), and the Hamburger Kunstverein (1986) as well as documenta 6 (1977) and documenta 7 (1982). An exhibition of his work titled “Antonius Höckelmann: All in All” was recently exhibited at the Kunsthalle Bielefeld (2020) and Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck (2020-2021). Arnulf Rainer began exhibiting with the Michael Werner Gallery in the 1960s. He represented Austria at the Venice Biennale in 1978 and exhibited at documenta 5 (1972), documenta 6 (1977), and documenta 7 (1982). Major retrospectives of his work have been mounted at Centre Pompidou in Paris (1984), The Guggenheim in New York (1989), the Stedelijk in Amsterdam (2000), and Kunstforum Vienna (2000). He is the winner of the Austrian National Prize in Graphic Arts (1966) and Painting (1978). A museum dedicated to Rainer’s work opened as part of the Ayn Foundation in New York from 1993 to 1995. Another museum of his work opened in his hometown of Baden, Austria in 2009. Recently, on the occasion of his 90th birthday, the Vienna Albertina hosted an exhibition titled Arnulf Rainer: A Tribute to honor the artist’s career (2019-2020). Antonius Höckelmann / Arnulf Rainer opens Wednesday 23 November 2022 at Michael Werner Gallery, New York and will remain on view through Saturday 28 January 2023.

Michael Werner Gallery, New York is pleased to present Issy Wood: Time Sensitive, an exhibition of new paintings by American-born, British artist and musician Issy Wood (b. 1993).

Michael Werner Gallery, New York is pleased to present an exhibition of paintings by Danish artist Per Kirkeby (1938-2018). Taking the form of a small retrospective, the show focuses on the artist’s lifelong engagement with landscape, geology, and the natural world.

Michael Werner Gallery, New York is pleased to present Francis Picabia – Women: Works on Paper 1902-1950, an exhibition of over 40 works on paper spanning 50 years of the iconoclastic French artist’s career.

Michael Werner Gallery, New York is pleased to present an exhibition of paintings by French artist Eugène Leroy (1910-2000). Living most of his life in Tourcoing, France, near the Belgian border, Leroy painted classical subjects such as still-lifes, self-portraits, and the human figure. He drew inspiration from the history of painting, particularly from the work of masters such as Giorgione, Rembrandt, and Hugo van der Goes. Laboring over his paintings for many years, Leroy built layers upon layers of paint until the subjects are obfuscated and only recognizable through painted glints of light. On view in the exhibition are paintings of Leroy’s muse and lover, Marina Bourdoncle, an artist Leroy met in 1986 and with whom he shared the remainder of his life until 2000. Painting from life was a necessity for Leroy. Never static, Bourdoncle posed for him reading Joyce, Rimbaud, and Proust, as well as playing the guitar or flute. While the nude figure, particularly female and often Marina, was a recurring theme in Leroy’s painting, the subject only served him as a vehicle to capture the movement of light. As the critic Barry Schwabsky has written, “his paintings show no concern with either the flesh or its form but only with what might be called a flash of illumination in which both flesh and form are at once dissolved and memorialized.” Works by Leroy are in major American and European collections and have been exhibited at the Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris; Stedlijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; and Musée d’Art moderne et d’Art contemporain, Nice. He took part in documenta IX in Kassel in 1992 and in the Venice Biennale in 1995. The Musée Beaux Arts Tourcoing was renamed MUba Eugène Leroy in honor of the painter in 2010. Eugène Leroy: About Marina opens 11 November at Michael Werner Gallery in New York. A catalogue will accompany the exhibition. Social distancing is in effect and wearing a mask is mandatory. Gallery hours are Monday through Saturday, 10AM to 6PM.

Michael Werner Gallery, New York is pleased to present Per Kirkeby: Overpaintings, an exhibition of übermalungen, or overpaintings, by the late Danish artist Per Kirkeby (b. 1938, d. 2018). An accomplished painter, sculptor, writer, and filmmaker, Kirkeby’s career spanned over six decades, making him one of the most influential and versatile artists of his generation.

Michael Werner Gallery, New York is pleased to present an exhibition of recent paintings by Markus Lüpertz. Featuring paintings made over the last four years in Italy and Germany, the artist masterfully combines Southern and Northern European painting traditions while creating work that is new, innovative and contemporary.

Michael Werner Gallery, New York is pleased to present James Lee Byars: The Milky Way. The exhibition will feature Byars’s most ambitious two-dimensional work. Composed of 100 black silk paper stars, The Milky Way will envelop the gallery. This exhibition marks the first time the work has been exhibited.

Michael Werner Gallery and TRAMPS present Eyes on Fire, an exhibition of recent paintings by Florian Krewer. Krewer’s new paintings are feverish dreamscapes. Larger than life figures, carried by owls and communing with big cats, wander and brawl at night through empty city streets. Ambiguous, intimate, interior scenes are revealed in the moment as if suddenly illuminated by artificial light. The paintings are intensely personal. Objects, figures and scenes are borne from experience, obsession, fantasy and desire. The artist carries us into his world, providing an alternative way of viewing the one we share. Krewer (born in Gerolstein, Germany in 1986) studied painting at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Solo exhibitions include boogie nights, Tom Dick or Harry, Düsseldorf; pinkflavor, TRAMPS, New York; and Car Park Godiva, Michael Werner Gallery, London. Krewer currently lives and works in New York. Eyes on Fire will be on view in two locations, Michael Werner Gallery (4 East 77th Street) and TRAMPS (75 East Broadway, 2nd Floor), starting Thursday, 19 November 2020. The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue with text by Yair Oelbaum.

Michael Werner Gallery, New York is pleased to present Peter Saul: Murder in the Kitchen, Early Works, featuring paintings and works on paper from 1959 to 1966. The exhibition charts the artist's development as he emerges as one of the most original voices in 20th century American painting.

Michael Werner Gallery is pleased to present Parapliers the Willow Dipped, Paintings 1967-1997, an exhibition of works by Don Van Vliet. Selected by artist Spencer Sweeney, this is the first New York exhibition of Van Vliet’s paintings in more than a decade.

Michael Werner Gallery, New York is pleased to present an exhibition of works on paper and brick sculptures by Danish artist Per Kirkeby. This is the first time many of these sculptures have been shown since their first exhibition in Europe in the mid-1970s.