best of 2012

The first annual 'Erik Sommer's Best of the Year' award for 2012 goes to Ryan Sullivan's show at Maccarone. 

Honorable mention to Charles Ray's show at Matthew Marks.

ann hamilton

the event of a thread, Ann Hamilton's show at the Park Avenue Armory, "draws together readings, sound, and live events within a field of swings that together invite visitors to connect to the action of each other and the work itself."

paola ferrario

Paola Ferrario's show at Rick Wester Fine Art features "an intensely quixotic and obsessive catalogue of discarded, distended details painstakingly gathered like orphans amidst a crowd of clearer appeal."

henry darger

Henry Darger's show at Ricco Maresca "brings together highly celebrated landscapes by the self-taught artist."

david lachapelle

David LaChapelle's show at Paul Kasmin "addresses the fleeting nature of humanity, fame, celebrity and power."

fred herzog

In Color, Fred Herzog's show at Laurence Miller, "further expands the appreciation of the innovative and early color photographs made by this Vancouver resident."

trisha donnelly

Artist's Choice: Trisha Donnelly, at the MoMA, consists of "rarely seen 20th-century photographs, films, design items, architectural renderings, prints, drawings, paintings, and sculptures."

alice channer

Alice Channer's show at Lisa Cooley closes December 23.

ed ruscha

Ed Ruscha's show at Gagosian "fully explores Ruscha's obsession with books and language from the outset of his career."

glenn ligon

Neon, Glenn Ligon's show at Luhring Augustine, is "the first exhibition that brings together a significant number of his neon works, many of which have never before been exhibited in New York."

trisha baga

Trisha Baga's show at Greene Naftali flows " between the moving image, distinct three-dimensionality, and a flirtation with the history of two-dimensional practice."

the young collectors

The Young Collectors Exhibition, a group show I am in at Leila Heller Gallery, opens December 18.

david salle

David Salle's show at the Lever House "features six large-scale paintings inspired by allegorical scenes from antiquity."

richard deacon

Richard Deacon's show at Marian Goodman features "new works which highlight Deacon’s virtuosity with materials and his recent investigations into volume, surface and seriality."

between friends

Between Friends, at Moeller Fine Art, highlights the friendships forged between painters in the 1940s.

ryan johnson

Self Storage, Ryan Johnson's first exhibition with The Suzanne Geiss Company, features "a structured installation of representational sculptures made from a variety of materials including wood, medical casting tape and sheet metal."

barnaby furnas

In If Wishes Were Fishes, Barnaby Furnas's show at Marianne Boesky, Furnas "again tackles epic historic and religious iconography, this time drawing from both the lore of Melville’s Moby Dick, as well as Jonah’s flight from God that lands him in the belly of the whale."

elie nadelman

Elie Nadelman's show at June Kelly "reflects his artistic innovations in pre-World War I Paris and his observations of American life and society after his arrival here."

gina beavers

In PALATE, Gina Beavers's show at Clifton Benevento, Beavers "appropriates photographs of food from social media and images taken by friends or acquaintances to create works querying notions of taste."

joshua neustein

Joshua Neustein's show at UNTITLED includes, among other works, "recent pieces on polyurethane sheets."

travis boyer

Travis Boyer's show at Johannes Vogt features paintings and sculptures which "act as both artwork and artifacts that have traveled with the artist over the past few months."

guillermo kuitca

Guillermo Kuitca: Diarios, at the Drawing Center, is the "first U.S. museum exhibition of a selection of paintings made from 2005 to the present."

arlis/ny

The new ARLIS/NY website was recently launched.

olafur eliasson

Olafur Eliasson's show at Tanya Bonakdar "consists of dozens of photographs that focus on a particular element of the Iceland's landscape."

blue mountain project

The Blue Mountain Project, an "open-access digital thematic research collection of avant-garde art, music and literary periodicals," was recently announced by the Princeton University Library.

The Brooklyn Museum Library’s Bendel fashion sketches from the 1920’s were used as resources for the Henri Bendel store at 712 Fifth Avenue and 56th Street.