Gresham Art Advisory

Few contemporary sculptors have reshaped the language of abstraction quite like Carol Bove. The current presentation of her work at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum highlights an artist deeply engaged with the history of modernism while pushing sculpture into an entirely contemporary space. Born in Geneva and raised between Europe and the U.S., Bove emerged in the early 2000s with installations that referenced postwar minimalism, found objects, and archival materials. Over time, her practice evolved into the large-scale steel sculptures she is now known for, works that feel at once monumental and unexpectedly lyrical. Her twisted tubular forms nod to the legacy of artists like David Smith and Alexander Calder, while still feeling unmistakably her own. What makes this Guggenheim presentation especially compelling is the dialogue between Bove’s sculptures and Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic architecture. The tension between weight and movement, rigidity and softness, creates an experience that changes as you move through the rotunda. Heavy industrial steel suddenly appears almost weightless. Bove’s work reminds us that abstraction is never static, it’s a living conversation between history, material, and the present moment. #CarolBove #Guggenheim #ContemporaryArt #Modernism #Sculpture

Long before it became known for contemporary art, the site of MAXXI – National Museum of 21st Century Arts was a military barracks in Rome’s Flaminio district. In the early 2000s, the Italian government transformed the space into Italy’s first national museum dedicated entirely to 21st-century art and architecture, signaling a major shift in how the country embraced contemporary culture. The museum officially opened in 2010 and was designed by legendary architect Zaha Hadid after she won an international competition in 1998. Her vision broke dramatically from Rome’s classical traditions, replacing symmetry with flowing concrete forms, suspended staircases, and dynamic galleries meant to feel in constant motion. Today, MAXXI stands as one of the most important contemporary cultural institutions in Europe, hosting exhibitions that explore art, architecture, photography, design, and the evolving conversations shaping our world. In a city defined by its ancient past, MAXXI represents Rome looking forward. #MAXXI #Rome #ContemporaryArt #ZahaHadid #Architecture

Hidden behind the streets of Rome, Galleria Spada blends art, architecture, mathematics, and illusion into one unforgettable experience. Originally the home of Cardinal Bernardino Spada, the palace became a center of culture and collecting during the Baroque era. But its most famous feature remains Borromini’s incredible forced-perspective gallery, a corridor designed to manipulate perception so convincingly that visitors still stop in disbelief centuries later. It’s one of those rare places where history doesn’t feel distant at all. #GalleriaSpada #Rome #Borromini #BaroqueArchitecture #ArtHistor

I recently visited the newly expanded New Museum, and it’s one of the more interesting museum reopenings in recent years. The new addition by OMA is a clear success: more light, more scale, and a much stronger sense of movement through the building. It completely changes how the art is experienced. The reopening exhibition, “New Humans: Memories of the Future,” takes on big themes, AI, identity, and what it means to be human right now. It’s ambitious, immersive, and visually compelling. That said, critics are mixed. Some see it as expansive and timely, while others feel it’s trying to do too much at once, less a single narrative and more a wide-ranging exploration of ideas. For me, that tension is actually what makes it worth seeing. Museums often experiment like this when they’re trying to define what comes next, and for collectors, that’s usually where the most interesting signals are. #ArtAdvisory #NewMuseum #ContemporaryArt #ArtCollectors #ArtMarket

A closer look at Raphael at the gorgeous exhibition that just opened at @metmuseum At Sublime Poetry at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the focus isn’t just on finished masterpieces, but on process. Through drawings, compositional studies, and preparatory works, you see how Raphael built harmony, balance, and narrative into every scene. He was known for synthesizing ideas, from classical antiquity to contemporaries like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, and transforming them into something uniquely his own. This exhibition is a masterclass in looking: how to read gesture, composition, and line, and how great artists think before the final work ever exists.

Step inside the quiet, patterned world of Édouard Vuillard, where the everyday becomes anything but ordinary. Now on view at Skarstedt Gallery, Édouard Vuillard: Early Interiors explores the artist’s Nabi period (c. 1890–1905), a time when domestic life became his primary subject and pattern his visual language. Vuillard transforms intimate scenes—his family apartment, his mother’s corset atelier, into layered compositions of color, rhythm, and quiet tension. As Maurice Denis famously noted, a painting is first “a flat surface covered with colors arranged in a certain order.” Vuillard takes this to heart, blurring the line between figuration and abstraction long before it became the conversation. #EdouardVuillard #ArtCollectors #GalleryVisit #ArtHistory #DesignInspiration

Step into a dreamscape at Museum of Modern Art. Wifredo Lam’s work doesn’t just expand modernism, it redefines it. Born in Cuba and shaped by war-torn Europe, Lam fused Afro-Caribbean histories with bold, surreal forms to create something entirely new. For Lam, art was an act of decolonization, layered with identity, resistance, and imagination. His hybrid figures and charged landscapes challenge colonial narratives while celebrating the depth and beauty of Black diasporic culture. “Wifredo Lam: When I Don’t Sleep, I Dream” is the first U.S. retrospective to trace his full artistic journey, and it’s a must-see. The exhibition runs now through April 11! #MoMA #WifredoLam #ArtExhibition #ContemporaryArt #BlackDiaspora ArtHistory NYCArt

Color, movement, and material collide in Sam Gilliam: STITCHED, a powerful posthumous presentation of the artist’s boundary-breaking abstractions now on view at @pacegallery in New York. A pivotal figure in postwar American abstraction, Gilliam rose to prominence in the 1960s as part of the Washington Color School and became the first Black artist to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale in 1972. Known for liberating painting from the wall, his radical draped and stitched canvases redefined the possibilities of color, space, and form. This exhibition brings together dynamic stitched works and rarely seen sculptural hangings that underscore his lifelong commitment to experimentation and innovation. On view March 12 – April 25, 2026 Pace Gallery, 510 West 25th Street, New York A must-see for anyone interested in the evolution of abstraction and the enduring legacy of one of its most inventive voices. #SamGilliam #PaceGallery #AbstractArt #ContemporaryArt #NYCArt

Seven centuries of artistry in one auction house. I previewed the Asian Art sales this week at @sothebys - today the bidding begins! #AsiaWeek #AsianArt #ChinesePorcelain #ArtAdvisor #Sothebys

A little escape uptown. This weekend, I visited @metcloisters - a peaceful corner of medieval Europe tucked inside New York. The museum itself is built from architectural elements of several French monasteries, designed to recreate the experience of moving through sacred medieval spaces. I also caught the current exhibition, Spectrum of Desire: Love, Sex, and Gender in the Middle Ages, which explores how medieval artists represented love, longing, identity, and power. Through works like illuminated manuscripts, stained glass, and sculpture, the show reveals that the Middle Ages were far more emotionally and socially complex than we often imagine. Seeing these themes inside centuries-old stone galleries makes the experience feel especially powerful, a reminder that questions about identity and human connection are timeless. Medieval art is full of symbolism. Slow down and look closely, gestures, animals, flowers, and even humor were all part of the visual language. Also, I did not include images of the famous unicorn, although the meaning is debated, I just can’t handle animal suffering so you can look it up on your own 🦄 #MetCloisters #ArtHistory #MedievalArt #NYCMuseums

My highlights from the @outsiderartfair this week! As an art advisor, I’m always looking for work that helps collectors see differently, and this fair never disappoints. There’s a level of honesty, individuality, and creative freedom here that feels incredibly energizing. It’s such an important place to discover artists whose practices are deeply personal and often outside traditional art world pathways. It is also the MOST friendly and community focused fair around - something we need more of in this world. I loved this line from a recent @hyperallergic article about the fair: “The key to viewing work by so-called ‘autodidact’ artists is recognizing its capacity and merit as equal to all other art forms.” So grateful for the discoveries, conversations, and moments of surprise, all the things that make building a collection feel meaningful and exciting. It is truly one of my favorite art events of the year and you can feel the energy, love and commitment from everyone involved. Want to join me next year? Reach out! #OutsiderArtFair #ArtAdvisor #ArtCollecting #ContemporaryArt

Year of the Fire Horse. On the red mesas of Ghost Ranch, an expansive landscape of rock formations, natural grasses, and wide-open vistas, Cara Romero’s “The Gathering” captures more than a moment, it captures spirit. Part of a 2024 exhibition celebrating connection, renewal, and Indigenous presence, the photograph reflects the wild energy of this place, where history, culture, and landscape meet. Photographed near Matrimonial Mesa with Abiquiú Lake in the distance. Romero returned to this hilltop repeatedly during “golden hour,” exploring how the shifting light transformed the land, the horses, and the energy between them. In the Year of the Horse, this work feels especially powerful: strength, freedom, resilience, and connection, grounded in a place that holds both history and myth in its horizon. #YearOfTheHorse #CaraRomero #TheGathering #GhostRanch