Curated by Donna de Salvo

For some, the “System” of the 1960s evoked images of a nameless and monolithic authority. For artists, however, the notion of “systems aesthetics” referred broadly to works of art conceived as open and expanding networks, a concept in dialogue with popular discourses around cybernetics. Former Tate curator Donna de Salvo takes up the importance of structures and systems in movements from Fluxus to Neo-concretism, Minimalism to Conceptualism. Spanning the mid-’60s through the ’70s, “Open Systems” features art in a range of media by over thirty artists—Bas Jan Ader, Marcel Broodthaers, Valie Export, and Ilya Kabakov, among others. The accompanying catalogue includes essays by de Salvo, Boris Groys, Mark Godfrey, and Johanna Burton.

— Pamela M. Lee

Curated by Patrine Archer-Straw, David A. Bailey, and Richard J. Powell

Though historical categories have formed the basis for many recent exhibitions on black art, “Back to Black” is unique in its transnational and interdisciplinary approach to the heyday of black political consciousness, namely the ’60s and ’70s. Selecting forty-five artists from the US, Britain, and the Caribbean, the curators have used their academic acumen to present a vast swath of diasporic works and concepts, from the originative (Romare Bearden) to the brilliantly blaxploitational (Melvin Van Peebles) to the perennially cool (David Hammons).

Travels to the New Art Gallery Walsall, England, Sept. 30–Nov. 20.

— Malik Gaines

Curated by Tanya Barson and Emma Dexter

Some twenty years after Frida fever swept American museums and art-history departments, the British public gets its first major Kahlo retrospective. This survey comprises over seventy paintings, drawings, and photographs, drawn mainly from Mexican institutions—though rumor has it that Madonna is also lending from her collection. Portraits, still lifes, and idiosyncratic takes on retablo, or devotional painting, are augmented by watercolors and oil sketches from the mid-’20s and by syncretistic spiritual iconographies made later in the artist’s life. Standouts will, of course, be the iconic self-portraits, including Frieda and Diego Rivera, 1931, and The Two Fridas, 1939. The catalogue features essays by a host of contributors, including art historians Gannit Ankori and Christina Burrus.

— Frances Richard

Curated by Jane Alison

Often thought of in terms of chromophobia, contemporary art turns out to have a severe case of latent chromomania. The Barbican’s Jane Alison makes the diagnosis in an exhibition of about sixty paintings, videos, photographs, and sculptures from the past half century by noted chromomaniacs like William Eggleston and Sophie Calle, as well as a few surprises, such as Bas Jan Ader. The topic has long been a red herring in the antiaesthetic-versus-beauty grudge match, so it will be interesting to see if this rainbow coalition tells us anything about color’s social meaning or whether color is content simply to dazzle visually. The catalogue includes an essay by Nuit Banai and reprints texts by Spencer Finch, Hélio Oiticica, and Ol’ Blue Eyes himself, Yves Klein.

— Katy Siegel

Curated by Sophie McKinlay and Howard Schubert

Cedric Price (1934–2003) is one of those architects whose paucity of built works belies their profound influence. His long affiliation with the Architectural Association in London ensured that his ideas worked their way deep into the DNA of contemporary architectural design. And when (or if) the modifiable structure of Zaha Hadid’s Guggenheim Taichung is built, it will be haunted by the ghost of Price’s 1976 Generator, a sort of full-size, modular dollhouse designed to be continuously reconfigured using an attached boom crane. In what promises to be a comprehensive retrospective of a most unusual architect, over 130 sketches, plans, models, and more will highlight some of Price’s landmark projects as well as later, influential studies of London’s South Bank district.

— Kevin Pratt

Curated by Rochelle Steiner

Why make things in a straightforward, easy manner when the job can be complex, difficult, and labor-intensive? Andreas Slominski is using his solo debut in a public British gallery as a platform to answer this question. The gallery’s interior features numerous “finished” objects (including a full arsenal of Slominski’s signature contraptions and animal snares), as well as a series of new, ephemeral actions. He has even arranged an outdoor intervention to take place before the opening involving a ski ramp, a professional skier, and an abundance of real snow provided by a snow machine. The show underscores the fact that Slominski’s practice is more than just a laborious means to generate art objects; his elaborate performative acts also add a layer of mystery and myth to the more static works.

— Alison M. Gingeras