The time surrounding the summer solstice marks the beginning of the art world’s informal holiday season, when in the warmer months, galleries begin to collectively loosen their ties. These decidedly relaxed conditions are ideal for the summer group show, an annual tradition in which art spaces tend to have a little more fun, both curatorially and conceptually. Around the world, these shows often feature a wide range of media, span a great breadth of history, and draw surprising connections between otherwise disparate artists. Below is a succinct list of some of the most intriguing group shows happening this summer across four continents.  

Installation view of ‘Minimalism and Its Afterimage’, Kasmin, New York. Courtesy of Kasmin.
Installation view of ‘Minimalism and Its Afterimage’, Kasmin, New York. Courtesy of Kasmin.

‘Minimalism and Its Afterimage’
Kasmin, New York
Through August 11, 2023

Referring to Jasper Johns’ concept of the afterimage as a kind of lasting visual impression that resounds in the eyes or in the brain, this exhibition of 20 artists looks at the legacy of minimalism as it reverberates through history with works dated from the 1960s into the present day. The visual language of pristine surfaces and crisp angles serves a range of artistic inquiries, including Larry Bell’s concerns of light and space and Sol LeWitt’s conceptual algorithms.

From the left to the right: 1. Maryam Yousif, Habibti in Album Dress, 2023. Courtesy of the artist and The Pit. 2. Sharif Farrag, Stump, 2019. Courtesy of the artist and Francois Ghebaly. Photograph by Evan Bedford. 3. Amia Yokoyama, Damp Instinct, 2022-23. Courtesy of the artist and Sebastian Gladstone. Photograph by Nik Massey.
From the left to the right: 1. Maryam Yousif, Habibti in Album Dress, 2023. Courtesy of the artist and The Pit. 2. Sharif Farrag, Stump, 2019. Courtesy of the artist and Francois Ghebaly. Photograph by Evan Bedford. 3. Amia Yokoyama, Damp Instinct, 2022-23. Courtesy of the artist and Sebastian Gladstone. Photograph by Nik Massey.

‘Clay Pop Los Angeles’
Jeffrey Deitch, Los Angeles
Through August 12, 2023

Bringing together 32 Los Angeles-based ceramists, curator Alia Dahl pulls from a range of artistic movements across generations. The show features works by California Funk pioneer Maija Peeples-Bright, Memphis icon Peter Shire, the influential and oft-referenced Magdalena Suarez Frimkess, and the emerging sculptor Sharif Farrag, whose vessels are distinguished by their chaotic assemblage. Together, in contrast to the aforementioned minimalist exhibition, these artists embrace the formal and textural irregularities of clay.

‘Walking Guides’
Long March Independent Space, Beijing
Through August 23, 2023

For this exhibition, curator Li Jia has brought together 15 artists – including 44 Monthly, Pak Sheung Chuen, and Chen Xi – who use the act of walking as a vehicle to create multi-sensory collages, chiefly through performance captured via photography, video, and multimedia. Zhou Zhang records quotidian rhythms by dragging recording equipment across an uneven road. A performance by Pangolin Art Space entails a group of people wading through the busy streets of Wuhan carrying a canoe to celebrate Chinese New Year. Underpinning the show is a reminder that as the body wanders through urban and rural space, the mind remains fixed on the multitudinous stimuli of daily life – albeit often with an absurdist edge or political subtext.

Left: Howardena Pindell, Untitled #24, 2021. Courtesy the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York. Photograph by Paul Salveson. Right: Hadi Falapishi, Mousehole #3, 2023. Courtesy of the Artist and Andrew Kreps Gallery.
Left: Howardena Pindell, Untitled #24, 2021. Courtesy the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York. Photograph by Paul Salveson. Right: Hadi Falapishi, Mousehole #3, 2023. Courtesy of the Artist and Andrew Kreps Gallery.

‘Wishing Well’
Parker Gallery, Los Angeles
Through August 5, 2023

‘Wishing Well’ is the result of a communal effort among 78 artists for a worthy cause: gene therapy research for SELENON-related myopathy, a debilitating, genetic neuromuscular disease. Each artist in the multigenerational, interdisciplinary group – ranging from painter Nicolas Party to pioneering choreographer and filmmaker Charles Atlas to sculptor Kelly Akashi – donated a work, and 100 percent of proceeds will go to Giving Strength, a non-profit research fund that artist Madeline Hollander and gallerist Sam Parker co-founded soon after their infant son was diagnosed with the disease.

Installation view of ‘On Living – With Taste’’. Works by Allison Katz and Danai Anesiadou. Courtesy of dépendance. Photograph by Alice Pallot.
Installation view of ‘On Living – With Taste’’. Works by Allison Katz and Danai Anesiadou. Courtesy of dépendance. Photograph by Alice Pallot.

‘On Living – With Taste’
dépendance, Brussels
Through July 15


An homage to David Hicks, the late British interior designer whose clients spanned a young Prince Charles to Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd, ‘On Living – With Taste’ features 12 artists from different eras who explore the manipulation of architectural space – and in turn, matters of personal taste. Highlights include Danai Anesiadou’s ‘Small Greek Column’ series (2023), in which personal belongings are solidified into epoxy and molded into the titular structures, and Barbara Kasten’s photograph Construct 34 (1986), featuring her signature kaleidoscopic staging of architectural objects.

Sem título [untitled], 2022, Assum Vivid Astro Focus, AVAF. Courtesy Galeria Casa Triangulo. Photograph by Filipe Berndt.
Sem título [untitled], 2022, Assum Vivid Astro Focus, AVAF. Courtesy Galeria Casa Triangulo. Photograph by Filipe Berndt.

‘House in the Sky’
Galeria Vermelho, São Paulo
Through August 5, 2023

This sizable, multigenerational, interdisciplinary show of nearly 50 Brazilian artists, including performance collective assume vivid astro focus, photographer Claudia Andujar, and conceptual sculptor André Komatsu, is a celebration of the gallery’s first two decades. The title also serves as an homage to late artist Rochelle Costi (1961–2022), whose namesake work, A casa no céu (2018), is a photograph of a small, orange house perched atop a white building like a beacon against a clear blue sky.

Juan Pablo Echeverri, Gay Gone Wild, 2013. Courtesy of Klemm’s, Berlin.
Juan Pablo Echeverri, Gay Gone Wild, 2013. Courtesy of Klemm’s, Berlin.

‘Obselfed’
Klemm’s, Berlin
Through July 29, 2023

As the titular portmanteau suggests, curator Marta Santi’s focus with this show is on the contemporary obsession with the self, an ever-fragile concept prone to societal pressures, performative actions, and delusion – but not without a sense of humor. Among the works of 13 artists, including Nina Childress, Chelsea Culprit, and Nora Turato, highlights include James Bantone’s Terminal Irony (2021), an installation in which a goblin-like figure has seemingly lodged his head inside a mirror, and the late Juan Pablo Echeverri’s Gay Gone Wild (2013), an exuberant video performance to Guns N’ Roses’ 1987 hit single ‘Welcome to the Jungle’.

Em Rooney, Burned Fox-like in Spring, 2020. Courtesy of the Artist and François Ghebaly. Photograph by Paul Salveson.
Em Rooney, Burned Fox-like in Spring, 2020. Courtesy of the Artist and François Ghebaly. Photograph by Paul Salveson.

François Ghebaly x Rhinoceros Gallery, Rome
Through November 19, 2023

Los Angeles gallerist François Ghebaly makes his Italian debut with an exhibition at Palazzo Rhinoceros, Alda Fendi’s cultural center. Sited in a 19th-century Roman palace renovated by Jean Nouvel, the space includes a cinema, shops, and reportedly breathtaking rooftop views. On the ground floor, Ghebaly presents a cross section of gallery artists: an LED-illuminated leather collage, evocative of our screen-based reality, by Neïl Beloufa; a neon terrarium-like assemblage by Max Hooper Schneider; a wall-mounted assemblage and photographs by Em Rooney; and expressive figurative paintings by Ludovic Nkoth.


Janelle Zara is a freelance writer specializing in art and architecture. She is the author of Masters at Work: Becoming an Architect (2019). She currently lives in Los Angeles.

Published on July 5, 2023.

Caption for full-bleed image: Exhibition view, « Obselfed » Klemm’s, Berlin. On the right, James Bantone, Terminal Irony (2021). Courtesy the gallery.

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