Art Is Everywhere You Go

Kitsch, romance, and the allure of travel combine in this 1928 painting On Top of the World by Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) offered by Christie’s Private Sales in New York.

Lifelong passion for travel defines the curious soul of Charting Transcendence, as written about recently.

Now, the entire art world comes to Miami, a perfect time to experience this convergence firsthand with a guide on one of Charting Transcendence’s art tours.

November’s NYC Circuit:
Spectacle, Stone, and a Golden Throne

A highlight of Phillips New York’s upcoming evening sale, CERA, the most complete juvenile Triceratops skeleton ever unearthed, is estimated to fetch $2.5-$3.5 million, a bargain compared to many treasures of modern and contemporary art.

New York in early November offered crisp weather and dwindling twilight throughout CT’s standard circuit, covering major auction houses, half-dozen museums, and dozens of galleries.

The headline was Sotheby’s new home in the former Whitney Museum. Its move into Marcel Breuer’s once-controversial Brutalist building creates a powerful conversation between object and architectural monument at an interesting time in history.

Auction previews were uniquely theatrical… as usual. Lines formed for Maurizio Cattelan’s “America,” a solid gold toilet with a $10 million starting bid, while Phillips staged a bold experiment, curating contemporary works alongside dinosaur skeletons.

What follows are a few examples of thematic trends CT observes.

The Seduction of Form

There are endless ways for formal elements of art — including shapes, color, texture — beguile and make you fall in love with it.

Revered for its luminous abstraction, blending geometric precision with the light of Santa Monica, Ocean Park #40 (1971) is one of the very best examples of the premier series of paintings by Richard Diebenkorn (1922-1993), who traced a unique artistic path from figuration to abstraction. Coming from the collection of Elaine Wynn, it goes up for auction at Christie’s with an estimate of $15M-$25M.

Chuck Ramirez (1962-2010), a graphic designer for HEB grocery stores in San Antonio, Texas, created a body of fine art photography that elevates mundane objects into commentary on consumerism and ephemerality, this empty chocolate tray in Candy Tray: Godiva 3, (2002) in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art being a perfect example.

Late Japanese-American artist Ruth Asawa (1926-2013), known best for her fanciful and intricate hanging wire basket sculptures, is enjoying a comprehensive retrospective exhibition ever at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).

Circle 2 Legs (1963) by David Smith (1901-1965), a painted steel sculpture going up for auction at Christie’s New York with an estimate of $2M-$3M.

Voluptuous and Exotic

These works embrace opulence and a sense of the unfamiliar. They draw from a deep well of art historical references, reimagining them through a lens that is both bold and transportive.

François-Xavier Lalanne's (1927-2008) Hippopotamus Bar (1976), the only version ever executed in copper, headlines Sotheby's inaugural design sale at the Breuer on Madison Avenue this December. Estimated price: $7M.

This relief painting by Ruby Sky Stiler (b. 1979), who just opened a show with Alexander Gray Associates in Tribeca, is built from hundreds of small, cropped drawings, transferred onto the surface in a meticulous, Greco-Roman mosaic-like technique. This fragmentation assembles a new and complex identity from disjointed pieces of visual information.

Shadow Panel (1972) by a unique Chicago artist Christina Ramberg (1946-1995) featured in the exhibition Sixties Surreal at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Auction houses are not known for stellar curation, yet Sotheby’s did well in juxtaposing this 1981 silkscreen painting The Witch (from Myths)by Andy Warhol (1928-1987) with a 2019 pumpkin sculpture by Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929).

Powerful Femininity

Much art on Charting Transcendence’s radar captures a vision of female identity that is self-possessed and projects a strength that is intrinsic and unapologetically present.

Mujeres in the universe of Spanish painter Cristina BanBan (b. 1987), represented by Skarstedt Gallery, are defined by their quiet power and contemplative isolation.

Similarly, Sasha Gordon (b. 1998) uses classical old-master techniques to paint nude avatars of herself in psychologically captivating new paintings at David Zwirner in Chelsea.

The paintings of Ana Benaroya (b. 1986), on view at the FLAG Art Foundation in Chelsea, feature exaggerated, superhuman figures that challenge rigid, heteronormative conventions of gender and representation.

An unusual full-length portrait by one of San Francisco’s greatest artists, Wayne Thiebaud (1920-2021), Revue Girl, (1963) is being deaccessioned from Dickinson College’s collection in order to raise funds for a center for to social justice issues around the forced schooling and assimilation of Native Americans. Estimate: $1.5M-$2M.

A Hint of Magic… or… Transcendence?

Threads of magic connect poetic mysteries with much of the most personally compelling art terrain making Charting Transcendence into the guide and advisory service it is today.

In his show at DC Moore, The Nature of Desire, Duane Michals (b. 1932) combines surrealist images with handwritten text to poetically unravel the complexities of longing and the male form.

George Condo (b. 1957) painted this painting celebrating the 1998 studio album by the Vermont jam band Phish, The Story of The Ghost. It has been consigned to Phillips with an estimate of $250k-$350k.

Eamon Ore-Giron (b. 1974) Talking Shit with the Decapitator Owl Outside My Window, (2025) at James Cohan Gallery exemplifies abstraction transforming ancient symbols into contemporary visual language.

A singular delight of masterful artistry, Matthew Wong’s (1984-2019) Unknown Pleasures (2019), in the collection of MoMA.