Cao Fei, Nova, 2019, Video, 109’. Courtesy the artist, Vitamin Creative Space and Sprüth Magers.
As museums and galleries worldwide shutter their doors until further notice amid the Covid-19 pandemic, many are responding bravely—and innovatively—by hosting online experiences. Below, we’ve compiled a list of virtual exhibitions and viewing rooms to peruse as you stay off the streets and avoid crowds in an effort to cease the spread.
Art Basel Hong Kong—online viewing rooms
What with the escalation of Covid-19 worldwide, Art Basel Hong Kong has been one of the worst hit within the art world—the major fair, which was due to open this week, has been cancelled due to the pandemic. The fair has responded admirably, however, and will be presenting some 2,000 art works virtually. The online viewing rooms are set to open tomorrow to VIPs and to the public from Friday, with galleries including Sprüth Magers, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Société and Perrotin participating.
Moderna Museet—Sofa Tours
The Stockholm-based gallery will be providing gallery tours from the safety of your own sofa for the rest of the month. Accessible daily from 12 noon via livestream on Moderna Museet’s Instagram and Facebook pages, the tours will explore everything from the minimalist sculpture of Eva Hesse to Henri Matisse’s colourful expressions and John Baldessari’s text-based confrontations.
New Museum—First Look: New Art Online
Cassie McQuater, Black Room, 2018. Courtesy of the artist.
New York’s New Museum has long been ahead of the curve when it comes to online exhibitions. Its series First Look: New Art Online showcases innovative online projects and commissions that champion the internet as a site of artistic and technological experimentation. Here, you can revisit Amalia Ulman’s seminal performance-based work, Excellences and Perfections, explore Brenna Murphy’s psychedelic virtual environment and discover Martine Syms’ bookmarked texts on the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin. In particular, we recommend you check out video game artist—and star of our spring issue—Cassie McQuater’s browser-based feminist video game, Black Room.
Walker Art Centre—Living Collections Catalogue
Minnesota’s Walker Art Center is a trailblazer when it comes to online art publishing—the museum’s website publishes a web magazine reporting on performing arts, visual arts and moving image through a dynamic design format. Amid the widespread Covid-19 closures, the art centre is directing visitors to its online Living Collections Catalogue, currently looking at collaborative artistic practices in America from the 1960s-80s.
The Third Line—There Is Fiction In The Space Between
Left: Farah Al Qasimi, Curtain Shop, 2019. Right: Youssef Nabil, Alicia Keys, NewYork, 2010. Courtesy of The Third Line.
Dubai-based gallery The Third Line is teaming up with the city’s cultural district Alserkal Avenue to host 3D and online tours of its upcoming exhibitions. We are especially excited for There Is Fiction In The Space Between, a group exhibition celebrating the gallery’s 15th anniversary. Here, the works of 22 artists, including Sophia Al-Maria, Youssef Nabil, Slavs and Tartars and SLEEK favourite Farah Al-Qasimi, will be presented in 11 pairs, drawing out as many differences as they do parallels. The viewings rooms will go live this Saturday, 21 March.
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía
As lockdown continues in the Spanish capital, Madrid’s leading museum is remaining open online. The museum is inviting you to visit its online multimedia centre, showcasing numerous videos and audio pieces from the Museo’s programme of exhibitions and activities, and the microsites Rethinking Guernica and RRS—Museo Reina Sofía Radio.
Serpentine Galleries—I-Magma
Jenna Sutela, Head Lamp, 2019. Courtesy of Serpentine Galleries.
While not an exhibition exactly, we are fascinated by Berlin-based Finnish artist Jenna Sutela’s app I-Magma, created in conjunction with the Serpentine Galleries and Moderna Museet, which functions as a machine oracle. From the comfort of your own home, experience text fragments mined from the Internet Sacred Texts Archive and Erowid’s Shulgin Archive. You can download the app here. If you’re interested in learning more about Sutela’s work, read our feature with the artist in the new spring edition of SLEEK.
Uffizi Gallery—HyperVisions
As the most significant gallery in the Italian epicentre of the pandemic, Milan’s Uffizi Gallery has had to shutter its doors for the foreseeable future. Thankfully, you can still experience its stunning collections through its impressive online galleries. Its HyperVisions series collects and categorises works into thematic virtual exhibitions such as On Being Present, an exhibition exploring blackness in the Uffizi Galleries and In the Light of the Angels looking at human’s relationship to the divine. The high quality HD images and informative captions might make you question why you ever left the house to visit a museum in the first place.
David Zwirner—Viewing Rooms
James Welling, Morgan Great Hall, 2015. Courtesy of David Zwirner.
The New York-London-Paris-Hong Kong gallery is a pioneer when it comes to virtual viewing spaces—since 2017, the gallery has been operating online viewing rooms so that potential buyers can inspect works via their computer screens rather than visiting the gallery in person. As the war against covid-19 rages on, this forward-thinking has paid off, marking the gallery as a pioneer in the field, prompting fellow galleries to follow suit. While intended for those in the market for buying, the online spaces offer a magnificent close-up look into works by Wolfgang Tillmans, Anni Albers, Jeff Koons and Lisa Yuskavage as well as On Painting: Art Basel Online, opening later this week.