© Lola Montes; Photo by © Alessandro Sala / Cesura; Courtesy the artist and Vito Schnabel Gallery
Alvaro Barrington, Lola Montes, Derek Fordjour, Nari Ward, and more are on view in this week's openings around the world.
Cirica by Lola Montes
Where: Vito Schnabel
When: November 16, 2023 - January 20, 2024
Why It’s Worth a Look: As an American artist living in Europe, Lola Montes builds on traditional influences from classical history, literature, and Old World mythologies, using clay as her dominant medium. She will be debuting her new ceramic-based paintings and sculptures in New York, built on her own research and collaboration with local artisans in Sicily—her home since 2018. “When European artists came to America they were trying to forget the past. There is a plethora of imagery that is very much alive in all art, and it is ancient art that brings me into this present moment,” Montes said in a recent statement.
Know Before You Go: The exhibition title “Cirica” comes from Italy’s Cirica peninsula, a spot where fishermen collect ancient fragments of Roman and Greek ceramics from the ocean water. In Greek mythology, the place is also known as the home of Circe, the daughter of the sun god Helios, who carries the supernatural power to transform humans into other beings in order to reveal their true nature.