the Best Exhibitions of 2023 according to 36 Artists, Gallerists, and Curators
AVA GANZA presents the best of art list made by the people
Jumpstarting 2023 I was introduced to Vilte Fuller at Guts Gallery’s group show (It's My Party) I Can Cry If I Want To. Fuller would be one of my favorite discoveries of the year along with Ingrid Berthon-Moine who I met at the MAMA show Fetish, Aline Perez who showed me a new context for blue at Various Small Fires (VSF), Molly Martin whose paintings I gushed over with my gal pals at Arusha Gallery’s Felt Cute Might Delete Later group show, and Georg Wilson who absolutely smashed it while donning Valentino at the opening for her solo exhibition What Mad Pursuit at Berntson Bhattacharjee. I meant to acquire the book that accompanied the exhibition but forgot to follow up as I left London shortly thereafter to the Canarías where I saw Casa César Manrique, my top permanent installation of the year. I did go home to my flat in Camberwell with 2023 exhibition catalogs from the Alice Neel retrospective at the Barbican, the Lynette Yiadom- Boakye solo show at the Tate, and the Hilma af Klint x Piet Mondrian conversation (mainly just for Hilma) also at the Tate.
Sasha Gordon’s work at Stephen Friedman Gallery was a highlight to see in real life in her solo exhibition The Flesh Disappears, But Continues to Ache. I spent a lot of time investigating Hannah Black’s work “There is at least one spot in every dream at which it is unplumbable (plum pit qi, hyoid bone,)” at Arcadia Missa with a friend of mine from uni. In June, I did the art school thesis rounds and was really into Antonia Caicedo’s Slade MFA body of work (who I previously met at a mutual friend’s birthday party) as well as Lily Hargreaves’ undergraduate paintings at my alma mater Goldsmiths. I collected a collaboration between clothing designer Rhi Dancey and artist Ida Lissner.
I will forever cherish hearing Marina Abramovic speak at her book release at the Southbank Center in conjunction with her retrospective The Artist is Present at the Royal Academy of the Arts. My favorite things I saw during and surrounding Frieze were obviously Philip Guston at the Tate, Julia Hazel Thomas’s soap perfume bottles at Minor Attractions, Klara Kristalova’s smiling face at the Gagosian booth, and Liu Ye’s perfect painting in her solo at David Zwirner. My favorite exhibition of the year would be my last gallery outing of 2023, Groundswell: Women of Land Art at Dallas's Nasher Sculpture Center. Even if I disagree with the inclusion of Anish Kapoor and some of the other boys, the Ana Mendieta and Lida Albqueruqe works on display spoke louder to me than any complaint could.
In addition to the art I experienced in real life, there was a plethora of content I FEEL like I saw vis-à-vis the digital sphere. Emma Steinkraus: Princess Botticelli at 1969 Gallery and Bony Ramirez’s Deitch NYC solo were the best things I saw on the internet in 2023. I would have liked to see the candy painted cozy coupes in real life from Daniel Antelo: Best of Time at Good Mother Gallery. From people I know, Chicago based Jacqueline Surdell had a wonderful installation based solo exhibition entitled Adoration Garden at Alabama’s AEIVA that I peeped on her page as well as Superposition founder Storm Ascher continued to excel in her projects with a Miami curatorial debut exhibition entitled Bounce that looked super baddie via instagram. Having previously collaborated with the gallery, I root for Ricky Morales and Mer Williams of Martha’s and was excited to see them land a booth in EXPO Chicago and sell out the booth in NADA Miami by midday for their first year in the fair.
In general, both Ricky and Kevin Ivester of Ivester Contemporary continued to exhibit stellar exhibitions in Austin this year- the latter’s solo show of Diego Mireles Duran caught my eye. My top artist from Texas, Jose Villalobos, continued to redefine Norteño machismo culture in 2023 with their work featured in group and solo exhibitions in The Cheech, Big Medium, and the Rubin Center. Mexico City based OMR crushed it with their collaboration this year with Sebastian Silva, particularly the film Rotting in the Sun that made it to my friend at A24’s annual best films of the year. Also in Mexico City, I wish I could have gotten a closer look at ceramicist Alejandro Garcia Contreras' vessels in his Karen Huber exhibition and additionally sculptor Sula Bermúdez-Silverman’s objects in any of their shows from this year including the Armoury. Lastly, it would have been rad to catch the Imperfect Game curated by Antonio Del Valle- Lago at the Spring Break Art Show featuring Saul Acevedo as well as Amy Bravo’s autumn solo exhibition with Swivel Gallery- both presentations looked absolutely insane.
While that's my take, Ava Ganza is a publication that requires reader participation to conduct mini experiments and surveys in order to yield theory rooted in something real. Thus in order to accurately create a list of the best art experiences of 2023 we needed to poll the people. Ergo, I dmed and texted artists, gallerists, collectors, and creatives asking for their top art experiences of the year and 36 got back to me within the day. Below is the list, in no particular order of the Best Exhibitions of 2023 according to the people from my circuit.
The People’s Nominees for Best of Art of 2023
Nadia Lee Cohen Hello My Name Is at Jeffery Deitch. Alex Katz Gathering at Guggenheim. Math Bass Roses are Red at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery. Dreaming of Home curated by Gemma Rolls-Bently at Leslie Lohman Museum. Barkley L. Hendricks Portraits at the Frick. Spring Break Art Show, NYC. Rufino Tamayo Variaciones Museo Tamayo / Zona Maco, Mexico City. NADA Art Fair, NYC. Miguel Calderon Materia Estética Disponible at Museo Tamayo. Njideka Akunyili Crosby Coming Back to See Through, Again David Zwirner. Hilary Harkness Prisoners From the Front P-P-O-W Gallery. Meleko Mokgosi Spaces of Subjection: PARTS 1 TO 5 Jack Shainman Gallery.
-Xavier Schipani, Artist, Austin
Judy Chicago at New Museum and seeing the Olympia at the met was fucking wild!
-Jacqueline Surdell, Artist, Chicago
Fictions of Emancipation at the MET. Tell Me What You Remember at the Barnes Collection. Africa Fashion at the Brooklyn Museum of Art (traveling). Black American Portraits at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art (traveling). Going Dark at the Guggenheim.
-Heather Nickels, Ph.D Student and Independent Curator, NYC
John Waters retrospective at the Academy Museum in LA and then the current Abraham Angel show here at the Dallas Museum of Art.
-Adrian Zuñiga, Gallerist VSF, Dallas
Megan thee Stallion at LA pride deserves to be in a museum. Hugh Hayden at Lisson Gallery in Los Angeles. It’s incredible, he basically designed it as a bathroom and you had to open each door which revealed the work… you could pee in one of the urinals. It was hot. Paul Pfeiffer at MOCA. Tatsumi Hijikata the Last Butoh at Nonaka Hill. Sylvie Fleury at Sprüth Magers.
-Reid Calvert, Photographer, Los Angeles
Jawn Diego Reyes, ALGO (+), Public Works Gallery in Manhattan. This distinctive exhibit delved into the fascinating contrast between the anonymity of graffiti culture and the clear transparency of NFT art on the blockchain. Reyes prompted visitors to reflect on essential questions regarding the value and authenticity of art when ownership is uncertain. Uniquely, 'ALGO(+)' was presented across three different spaces - online, inside the gallery, and on the streets of New York.
-Dev Moore, Creative Director Felt Zine, NYC
The Kiefer exhibition at White Cube Bermondsey was WOW.
-Andrea Wild Botero, Artist and Designer of Pickled Pulp, London
Day Jobs at the Blanton Museum curated by Veronica Roberts. Robert Motherwell Retrospective at the Fort Worth Modern. Fuertes Y Firmes: José Villalobos at Big Medium. Wet Hot Texas Summer at Martha’s Contemporary. Invasive Species at ICOSA. Unbreakable: Feminist Visions from the Gilberto Cárdenas and Dolores Garcia Collection at Blanton Museum curated by Claudia Zapata. Richard Avedon’s WEST at Amon Carter Museum of American Art. Amy Cutler Past, Present, Progress at Ruby City. Liu Ye Naive and Sentimental Painting at David Zwirner London. Philip Guston at the Tate.
-Michael Carnes, Artist and Registrar the Blanton, Austin
I would say Emma Webster at Deitch, LA, Lily Stockman at Massimo de Carlo, London and of course my own at Carl Kostyal lol.
-Scout Zabinski, Artist, Los Angeles
The Dominique Fung exhibition in London was fantastic and great to see a cohesive display of sculpture and painting in one space where you could see direct translations between the two. She is an insane painter and I appreciate her approach to create this idea of the universe as something you can imagine that is so much bigger than this world.
Julianknxx at Curve gallery at the Barbican. Incredibly immersive experience, I appreciate this constant link to nature and the African Diaspora, it caught my attention; I sat there for quite a while.
Mollie E. Barnes curator of P.D.A Public Displays of Affection at Yusto/Giner Gallery Madrid. It's a good time to bring in connections and displays of care all together and people's needs and desires. This exhibition shows the ways people can find a connection not just in each other but in the world around us- this is something that will become a more explored topic as we try to combat an increasingly isolated society.
-Precious Opara, Artist and Model, London
Dawoud Bey & Carrie Mae Weems: In Dialogue at the Getty. To see Carrie's "The Kitchen Table Series" in person was truly moving. I had only seen them on a small screen, so to see her photographs in large format allowed you to experience and feel the emotions of the scenes and subjects. Weems hoped her portraits would give a voice to women, questioning how we can begin to alter these domestic spaces traditionally seen as the woman's domain. What does the kitchen table mean to you? This series also showed her the possibilities of things you can create through subtle changes in scenery.
Sula Bermúdez-Silverman: Ichthyocentaur at Matthew Brown Gallery. What can I even say?! Sula's work is a perfect combination of so many things I love- natural objects, sculpture, translucence, fantasy, and legend. My favorites were her mini frames, each one creating a tiny universe I wanted to explore- from the praying mantises that made my nature girl heart do little flips, to the different items filling the epoxy resin frames (chewed gum, maize, lemon peel turmeric and more), and the haunting images in some, the mind could create so many stories to accompany each work. I loved the element of imagination and exploration that Sula's work made me feel in relatively small works of art.
Day Jobs at the Blanton Museum of Art. I have been attending exhibitions at the Blanton for many years and never have I loved a show as much as this one. In this society, money has to be made, and many times that means taking on jobs that do not exactly align with your hopes and dreams. Day Jobs did a fantastic job highlighting this struggle to create while also having to work to survive and how these jobs influence the work that is made. Featuring pieces from artists who held jobs in museums, the service industry, caregiving, fashion, and more, your eyes are opened up to a fact that we all know but so often forget: talented artists are everywhere, finding inspiration in the mundane, working day to day to bring their passions to life. I am so thankful to all of those who continue to push through the exhausting limitations our society creates and don't stop creating.
- Mer Williams, Gallerist Martha’s, Austin
Tim Walker at the Getty. Women Defining Women at LACMA. Ed Munch at Musée d’Orsay. Sankai Juku butoh performances and Dada Masilo’s The Sacrifice, both at the Joyce Theatre.
-Sanam Mechkat, Collector, NYC
Carrie Mae Weems, Reflections for Now at the Barbican and Johny Pitts touring exhibition Home is Not a Place. Both resonated with me on a personal level in regards to my own practice. I also saw Weems give a lecture about her work and practice; she is phenomenal, very inspiring.
-Ryan Adrian Prince, Photographer, London
Wolfgang Tillmans, Fold Me, at David Zwirner
-Saul Acevedo, Artist, New York
Rights of Passage, Gagosian. Garry Simmons, Hauser & Wirth. Jennifer Packer, Corvi Mora. Chris Offili, Victoria Miro. Isaac Julien, Tate Britain. Eric Gyamfi, Autograph. Daryl Daley, Now Gallery. Remi Ajani, Sid Motion. Akinola Davies Junior, Harlesden High Street. Emmanuel Awuni, Copperfield. Brianna Rose Park & Leyla Faye, Lindon & Co.
-Hamed Maiye, Artist, London
Honor, an Artist Lecture by Suzanne Bocanegra Starring Lili Taylor, Moody Center for the Arts.Kelly Akashi: Infinite Body, at Tanya Bonakdar, NY. Day Jobs at the Blanton. Remedios Varo at AIC. Groundswell: Women of Land Art at Nasher. Laura Lit: Others, at Northern-Southern, Austin. Moveables at ICA Philadelphia. Marie Laurencin: Sapphic Paris, Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia
-Claire Howard, Curator the Blanton, Austin
Bony Ramirez, Tropical Apex, at Jeffrey Deitch. Larissa De Jesus Negrón, La Cancion Verde, at Anna Zorina Gallery. Erin Milez, Round and Around We Go, at Monya Rowe Gallery. Cindy Bernhard, Holy Smokes, at Monya Rowe Gallery. Sole Perspectives curated by Easy Otabor in collaboration with Nike
-Pedro Troncoso, Artist, NYC
Gray Wielebinski solo exhibition at the ICA was the best for meeeeee. Daniel Wang and Lindsey Lascaux at Martha’s vid. Just Friends at McLennon Pen & Co. Isa Genzken at Neue Nationalgalerie. Aby Warburg exhibit at the gallery Uffizi
-Grace Saparpani, PhD candidate and Icon, Berlin/Austin
VLM’s (Virginia L. Montgomery) exhibition at Women and Their Work was probably my favorite of the year. Aryel René Jackson at the Contemporary. Brittany Ham and Justin Korver at grayDUCK was great.
-Kevin Ivester, Gallerist Ivester Contemporary, Austin
In Mexico, Ragnar’s show at the Tamayo. In Berlin, the Isa Gensken- to see those works in that building (Neue Nationalgalerie) was an amazing experience. I also think the Latin American show at MoMA (in which I participated) was very important.
-Mario García Torres, Artist, Mexico City
Daniel Lind- Ramos, El Virgo Griot- Una Historia de todos nosotros, MOMA PSA. Daniel Tyree Gaitor-Lomack, EyeNeedAWitness, Jac Forbes Contemporary. Lauren Halsey, The Roof Garden Commission, the MET. Stephanie Temma Hier, Roadside Picnic, Bradley Ertaskiran. Thomas Barger, Wholesome, Salon 94
-Antonio Del Valle- Lago, Independent Curator, NYC
I think my favorite exhibitions I visited this year was the Wangechi Mutu: Intertwined exhibition at the New Museum and the Alma Allen: Nunca Solo exhibition at Museo Anahuacalli ☺️
-Lizette Hernández, Artist, Los Angeles
Desert Flood at LagoAlgo with Claudia Comte, Gabriel Rico and SUPERFLEX. Phillip Guston at the Tate modern. Per Kirkerby at the Tamayo. Alicja Kwade works at MAZ
-Jacob Flood, Gallerist OMR, Mexico City
Groundswell group show at the Nasher Sculpture Center. Kamala Ibrahim Ishag at Serpentine. Hilma AF Klint in the Tate Modern. Molly Martin paintings at Arusha Gallery. Georg Wilson at Berntson Bhattacharjee. Larissa De Jesús Negrón La Cancion Verde at Anna Zorina.
-Ava (it me), Art Historian and Scientist, London
Day Jobs, curated by Veronica Roberts at the Blanton was really dope- all about the day jobs artists kept before and during their careers, destigmatizing having to work for extra income when you’re a full time artist.
Jonny Negron Chateau Shatto and Chase Hall at Kordansky Frieze Los Angeles booths stand up in person and a lot of them were about fishermen so I related. Earnie Barnes “ Sugar Shack” on loan from the collector at the Blanton was the result of a major auction of the artist's works which I saw a bunch of at Frieze… and they should be in museums.
Rina Sawayama crushed it at ACL. Julia Mairuri with 12.26 at Dallas Art Fair, I love her work and bought one. There was a Stanley Whitney painting at Basel (Miami) that I freakin loved. I was extremely proud of our Erick Medel exhibition in collaboration with Alan Garcia of ATX barrio; our Conner O’Leary show was probably my fav.
-Ricky Morales, Director and Founder Martha’s, Austin
The best show I saw was at the Tate. It’s a canonical exhibition, Magdalena Abakanowicz
-Kahlil Robert Irving, Artist, NYC
Not much really gripped me this year but there's a show up at Lawndale Art center in Houston curated by Tierney L. Malone
-Ricky Sallay Zoker (YATTA), Musician and Performance artist, nyc
Visitando sitios arqueológicos.
-Charly Garcia Noriega, Artist, Mexico
In Austin, two installs at The Contemporary Austin (one at each of their locations) — Manik Raj Nakra’s mural “The Man Who Fell To Earth” and CELESTE’s takeover at Laguna Gloria. In NYC, Sonic Sphere at The Shed, Judy Chicago’s retrospective at The New Museum. As well as, Guerilla Girls exhibits for Format Festival at The Momentary and Crystal Bridges and Yvette Mayorga’s What A Time to Be at The Momentary.
- Jane Claire Hervey, Creative Director and Founder Future Front Texas, Austin
Private Pleasures - Shmorevaz, Paris. Unbound - Julia Stoschek Foundation, Berlin
-Dan Adeyemi, Musician, Marseille
Philip Guston at Tate and Hilma as well 😘 (she did that kissy face because we went together) . Felt Cute Might Delete Later at Arusha Gallery. Mimi Lauter and Marguerite Humeau at White cube. Martin Wong and also Forrest Bess (both solos) at Camden arts Centre. Lawrence Abu Hamdan, 45th Parallel at Talbot Rice in Edinburgh. Henry Curchod at Mamoth. The last supper in Milan lol.
-Olivia Sterling, Artist, London
The Hilma af Klint at Tate Modern!! Felix Gonzalez-Torres at Zwirner and Delcy Morelos at DIA.
-Michael Jiang, Collector, NYC
Martin Wong, Camden Arts Centre- amazing paintings that transported me to a grimey 80s New York with undercurrents of psychedelia and a heart wrenching sadness.
Hilma af Klint and Piet Mondrian Tate Modern - A beautiful exhibition that explored themes of our connection with nature. A highlight was seeing the final room of Klint’s work and being uplifted and moved by these joyous large symbolic flower forms.
Philip Guston, Tate Modern - heaven seeing these paintings in real life and a longer overview of his career. I loved seeing the transformation from abstracted to these ridiculous big cartoon hooded figures. His unique way of grappling with the horrors he was being confronted with at the time and his own role as an artist.
-Stella Murphy, Artist, London
Kehinde Wiley at Museum of Fine Arts Houston. Wangechi Mutu at New Museum. Bony Ramirez at Jeffrey Deitch. Shakira's performance at the VMAs. Shaina Mccoy at A Hug from the Art World. Paola de la Calle at SOMA. Eddie Salinas curated a show at Soho in LA called Heaven is a Basement. Javier Ramirez at Sow and Tailor. Golden Worlds at MFAH. Juan Pablo Echeverri at James Fuentes changed my life. Braden Hollis at 56 Henry.
- Rossana Romero, Artist, NYC
There was a great exhibition on one of our artists Rosemarie Trockel at MMK in Frankfurt which was delicious and one of the most anticipated museum shows this year.
-Carolyn Seiler, Gallerist Sprueth Magers, London
Kurt Lightner I Hauled Harper’s Chelsea. Shirin Neshat The Fury Gladstone Gallery. Marilyn Minter LGDR. Rear View LGDR. Karewith Casas, Hunter MFA Graduation. Bárbara Sánchez Kane New Lexicons for Embodiment kurimanzutto New York. Pipilotti Rist, Prickling Goosebumps and a Humming Horizon Hauser & Wirth. Derek Fordjour Score Petzel Gallery
-Aida Valdez, Gallerist Harper’s and Mad54, NYC
I would say that the Philip Guston show at the Smithsonian was a fantastically tight survey of his progression from Abstraction to incorporating the cartoon as cultural commentary. With any painting, photo documentation is an insufficient mode of conveyance, but is even more so with a Guston because the illustrative approach to art making already has a tendency to visually and psychologically flatten the pictorial space, but Guston utilizes his abstract and physical approach to defy that flattening, giving the painting both physical and narrative heft, that one should see in person informing each other.
The Isaac Julien exhibit at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford CT, “I am Seen, Therefore I Am.” More specifically, I am talking of his video installation about Frederick Douglas, “Lessons of the Hour.” This multi-screen installation incorporates a cinematic approach regarding the Mise en scene, using actors and costume to portray Douglas and various characters of the time, but this is no narrative movie. I think one could more accurately describe it as a selectively edited documentation of a performance piece.
The caretakers of Robert Smithson’s Amarillo Ramp are willing to accommodate you if you want to see it. Again, pictures will not do justice to the experience, but when you walk the elevated spiral, against the open landscape of west Texas, there is a “charge” that occurs, which I always love when art does and am always chasing, that reminds you or your smallness and connectedness in the universe. I was skeptical that something like that would happen and perhaps it only did because I was visiting it during a solar eclipse, but this is now one of my favorite art experiences
-David Alcantar, Artist, San Antonio