The “Bronx Figures”: John Ahearn and Rigoberto Torres @ James Fuentes, NYC

James Fuentes is honored to present Bronx Figures, an exhibition surveying the iconic freestanding works of long-term collaborators John Ahearn and Rigoberto Torres. These affectionate portrayals of the city’s ordinary people began on the sidewalk when, in 1979, Ahearn set up shop to life-cast passersby at the storefront of Fashion Moda, the storied South Bronx art gallery run by Stefan Eins, Joe Lewis, and William Scott. It was there that Ahearn would also meet Rigoberto Torres, a Puerto-Rican born, Bronx raised artist whose experience in casting began in his uncle’s botanica statuette factory. Bronx Figures brings together a group of ambitious, in-the-round works spanning the 1980s to today, which have made a lasting impression on New York City’s public spaces…

En Iwamura Takes Off the “Mask”

Back in 2021 when we last spoke with Japanese ceramic and sculpture artist, En Iwamura, he told us, “I’m still exploring different materials. To be honest, all the colors are decided at the time of spraying—but this often happens by chance. I don’t know which object will have which color, because, for me, I mix the clay with the glazes in different proportions for each figure, and then I spray it. Then, when I open the kiln, I am surprised every time at the colors that emerge.” And now 4 years later, and looking at his new solo show Mask at Ross + Kramer Gallery, and spanning across 20 ceramic sculptures, including some of Iwamura’s first wall-hanging sculptures, it seems like…

Ruby Neri: A Cycle Around the Sun 

Ruby Neri: A Cycle Around the Sun 
At the time of this interview with Ruby Neri, it was November 2024. Her solo show at David Kordansky in Los Angeles had just opened, a solo show was set to open at Massimodecarlo in London in January 2025, and her first solo institutional show, Deep Dive at the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, was in the final stages of preparation. For Neri, who was quite relaxed in her Frogtown studio during my afternoon visit, it was the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. A career milestone with a sense of something fresh on the horizon—a chapter’s end, rather than the end of the novel.

David Altmejd’s Lynchian Universe in “Prélude pour un nouvel ordre mondial”

When David Lynch passed away last week, I was writing a little bit of an overview of this show, Canadian artist David Altmejd’s “Prélude pour un nouvel ordre mondial” at Xavier Hufkens, Brussels. It felt eerily apt and I stopped writing to look over the Lynchian universe, a bit of a gut punch to lose such an icon of Los Angeles in the wreckage of the fire disasters. Altmejd, to me, exists in this sort of post-Hollywood aesthetic, a juxtaposition of cultural and idyllic worlds mixed with the surreal and chaotic vision of modernity and post-humanism. In essence, while Altmejd’s sculptures manifest physical transformations in the medium of sculpture and invite viewers to engage with them spatially, Lynch’s films manifest narrative transformations that engage…

Nicole Eisenman is Getting “Plastered”

There are chameleons, and then there is Nicole Eisenman. When Nicole was on the cover of Juxtapoz back in 2016, it was figurative painting that we knew the artist for, and their art historical overview of what they were painting was fascinating and, across the board, some of the most exciting works being made in painting. Now, often seen as someone who pushes sculptural work in new directions, Eisenman is set to open Plastered at Anton Kern. Plastered features ten relief portraits titled “Understudies,” and as the gallery notes, “along with two large wall reliefs, one of which depicting a bather with a cat, and various recent works including a new portrait painting.” The works are part of this lexicon that…

Erin M. Riley: “Look Back at It” @ mother’s tankstation, London

Look Back At It is Erin M. Riley’s first solo presentation with mother’s tankstation. It is part of Condo London 2025; an innovative, collaborative exhibition bringing together 49 galleries across 22 London spaces. The title Look Back At It is as simple as it is confounding. Look back at what, when, how, why? Here these are crucial, life-changing, questions. Riley’s work sits Janus-like on this boundary line between ‘this’ and ‘that’, primordial aura and contemporary skepticism, timeless and timely. She uses collaged photography, digital images, selfies and photo booth imagery, rendered by hand on the arcane machinery of a loom, in coloration and manner that consciously replicates low resolution digital pixelation. Riley is aware of the involuntary reflex of memory, questioning if it is an attempt…

Anastasia Bay: Homage to the Body Electric

Anastasia Bay: Homage to the Body Electric
Describing Anastasia Bay as someone who sketches figures is akin to calling Giuseppe Verdi a songwriter. She paints big, and with authority, in gestures that are seen, felt and remembered. Among her many interests is opera, which has been crowned the “queen of the arts”—so I’m going to continue in grandiose fashion and coronate this French artist into a most royal court of creatives. In a desire to revive and invigorate the rich magnificence of ancient Greek drama, opera summoned emotion and motive by combining narrative, music, design and dance. Anastasia’s dynamic figures draw from ancient myths as they transcend time, exuding power and passion. Her training in the sport of boxing informs an intimate knowledge of anatomy, movement and…