Long-established New York dealer Marian Goodman recently unveiled its new headquarters in the Tribeca gallery space, housed in the recently renovated and renovated Grosvenor Building at 385 Broadway. First built in 1875, the five-story building served as an industrial warehouse for more than a century before becoming home to arts organizations. After being vacant for years, the building was renovated by studioMDA, which decided to preserve the essential character of the building, as seen in the cast-iron façade, the interior archways and the exposed brick walls, which includes a gallery in Tribeca and as part of a certain period of time in the history of New York .
The gallery's first exhibition, “Your Patience is Admirable,” presents the works of fifty international artists and places on the gallery's list, reflecting the breadth of its strong program, which has for five decades championed pioneering practices and narratives from around the world. . Linked to the gallery's first exhibition in 1977, which was dedicated to Marcel Broodthaers's extreme conceptual and multi-dimensional practice, the exhibition in the new space is a statement and a tribute to the gallery's commitment to supporting the most rigorous practices, with a lasting commitment to time. – based, temporary and experimental works of art.
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Spread over these three floors are seventy-five works in all media, from photography to institutional-quality installations and video presentations. “The title of the exhibition speaks to the ideas of expectations that come with times of change and emphasizes the conceptual and temporal complexity of our artists' practices, which clearly require patience and purpose,” Philipp Kaiser, the gallery's president and partner, wrote on the exhibition's website. “The title of this exhibition, as well as the exhibition itself, also reflects the gallery's unwavering commitment to its program that has followed the different strands of contemporary art over several decades and continents, offering an opportunity for critical thinking, poetic sophistication and artistic integrity.”
On the entrance to the reception room hangs a strange tribute to Maurizio Cattelan in New York: Ghosts, 2021 + Got a Job (2021), a canvas with the tourist favorite “I Love New York” surrounded by dated signatures, with three of his iconic taxidermied doves perched on top. In the sun-filled first room on the ground floor, the exhibition pairs an impressive vertical work by Julie Mehretu, Filmstrip-Black Monolith of the Levant (2013-2024), featuring Nairy Baghramian's captivating and gravity-defying split glass sculpture Four Bikes (Always One Direction) by Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco.
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On the ground floor, a museum-style room has been completely designed to accommodate video presented on a large screen; specifically, James Coleman's 35-minute video Take Evidence (2007), which was originally installed as a large, floor-to-ceiling installation at Documenta 12 in 2007. In the video, Harvey Keitel, the famous actor of “Taxi Driver”, walks around the set, talking to him and asking questions. He is portrayed as an ordinary man, drenched in sweat as if he is off duty and not ready for the camera. The image de-politicizes the star, reminding viewers of the man involved. And on the ground floor, another room is entirely dedicated to Yang Fudong's video work, Moving Mountains (2016), which was previously presented at Art Basel Hong Kong in 2018 and was inspired by an ink painting produced in the early 1940s by Xu Beihong (1895-1953) that was dedicated to the ancient story of a man, who some called a fool, for wanting to move a mountain. Fiction, and video, creates a powerful symbolic narrative of human perseverance and strength.
On each of the exhibition's three floors, there are “capsules,” dimly lit rooms dedicated to individual videos or photographs, such as the one hosting the lightbox installation. Lynching Tree by famous photographer Steve McQueen. This architectural design creates an ideal space and pace to consider time-based works, which are a major part of the gallery program.
Another flight of stairs leads to the second floor, where the entire area is dedicated to the Arte Povera artists represented by the gallery, with ample works by Giuseppe Penone, Giovanni Anselmo and Giulio Paolini. There are also works by artists who share the same poetic and philosophical approach to space, materials and energy, such as the installation of delicate golden copper wires by Leonor Antunes, the carved column by Ettore Spalletti and the corner work, Organized Salt Water (Agua Salada Organizzata) by Delcy Morelos, which, while sober in its construction and use of physical conditions, serves as a reminder of the natural process, assembling it into a form.
The nostalgic echo of the classic that characterizes Arte Povera also continues in the second room, where some marble works by Tavares Strachan resemble parts of Greek columns or buildings facing wall installations based on words by the German conceptual artist Lothar Baumgarten and combined with installations based in aluminum by Cristina Iglesias, creeps up the wall like a vine. On the other hand, the painted surfaces of the Australian Aboriginal artist Daniel Boyd emerge from the darkness with a series of traditional Aboriginal dots, applied in this case with archival glue.
Upstairs, French artist Annette Messager takes up an entire wall with a wallpaper depicting a floating womb hanging from it. Malicieuse (Mischievous)the insertion of a red cloth that also arouses the female organ. In the foreground are two stainless steel works by Tony Cragg that seem to be reminiscent of physical structures alike. On this same level, Sabine Moritz's lively and expressive abstracts are displayed next to a sculpture by Richard Deacon. In the adjoining room, works by Louise Lawler, Andrea Fraser, Yang Fudong and James Welling on the walls.
While going over certain themes, the opening show is packed with storytelling, aesthetics and content. Thankfully, the gallery's layout allows for the right time and dimension for each voice, reflecting the breadth of Marian Goodman's program and its commitment to supporting and presenting experimental and ambitious practices across all media.
Described by the New York Times as “the silent matriarch of art, 96-year-old Marian Goodman is one of the world's most respected and respected art dealers, and, remarkably, one of the first women to found an international gallery. Since its founding in 1977, it has built a reputation for showcasing emerging European artists to American audiences, presenting museum-level exhibitions and supporting some of the most ambitious and experimental forms of that generation. The gallery's stellar roster includes internationally acclaimed artists such as Pierre Huyghe, Tacita Dean, Maurizio Cattelan, Dara Birnbaum, Chantal Akerman, Tavares Strachan, Tino Sehgal and Robert Smithson, among many others. Everything is included in this first exhibition that ends up feeling like a very relaxed family meeting, to celebrate one of the galleries that has helped to define modern art today beyond the market and with a clear focus on institutional relevance.
“Your Patience is Appreciated: The First Exhibition” is on view at Marian Goodman Gallery's new flagship in Tribeca through December 21.
