Heilstätten @ David Zwirner – New York

Three key exhibitions @ New York’s David Zwirner art gallery until the snow makes its appearance in the big city with Christmas time. Capitalizing on two of its major figures “The Devil’s dress” & “Heilstätten” are the newest works of  Michaël Borremans & Neo Rauch.

For Rauch this represents the artist’s fifth solo show at the gallery (demonstrating the interest of public & $$ for the German artist’s works), and consists of small and large format paintings—several larger-than-life—as well as a bronze sculpture  (his first attempt to work in three-dimensional form).

Born in 1960 in Leipzig, then East Germany, Rauch is part of a generation of artists who came of age in a war-torn, divided country  (much like Polke or Richter who happens to exhibit @ Tate Modern right now) although Rauch did not emigrate like his German peers & spent his youth in the Eastern Bloc, and received his arts education at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig.

On the other hand, Borreman’s Devil Dress series translate into the artist’s fourth solo show at the gallery, bringing together paintings that each seems like a variant of a shared theme. Theatrical paintings with unusual close-ups of lone figures who all seem to be immersed in their very own obscure thoughts.

A couple of exhibitions one next to each other (525 West 19th Street & 533 West 19th Street) that perfectly fit with this pre-winterish mood, more info & how to get there on their website.