Tag: portrait

Bisa Butler at Deitch Projects

A fabulously patterned rendition of Harriet Tubman’s portrait at the entrance to Bisa Butler’s show at Deitch Projects announces Butler’s supremely enjoyable textile practice and celebration of the achievements of Black Americans.  Basing her artworks on photographs by creatives including Gordon Parks and Jamel Shabazz, Butler lovingly embellishes her subjects using an array of rich materials, including cotton, silk, wool, velvet, and lace.  This portrait of Ahmir Questlove Thompson (original photo by Daniel Dorsa) incorporates glass beads, adding dimension and reflecting light to suggest the musical artist’s visionary quality.  (On view through June 30th).

Bisa Butler, The Passion of Questlove, from a photograph of Ahmir Questlove Thompson by Daniel Dorsa, cotton, silk, wool, velvet, lace, jet glass beads and vinyl quilted and appliqued, 36 x 23 inches, 2023.
Bisa Butler, (detail) The Passion of Questlove, from a photograph of Ahmir Questlove Thompson by Daniel Dorsa, cotton, silk, wool, velvet, lace, jet glass beads and vinyl quilted and appliqued, 36 x 23 inches, 2023.

YZ Kami at Gagosian Gallery

Son of a portrait painter, Iranian artist YZ Kami grew up speaking the language of portraiture, but as his art practice matured, the identity of his sitters became less important.  Now on view at Gagosian Gallery in Chelsea, enigmatic paintings of subjects known only to us by a name or descriptive identifier in the title represent specific individuals at close range who nevertheless feel as if they’re at a remove.  Indistinctly painted contours, a deliberate softening of outlines, give each character a sense of existing at another point in time, perhaps as a memory.  Downcast eyes suggest that the inner life is the subject of these intriguing but elusive paintings.  (On view in Chelsea through Feb 25th).

Isaac in Purple Shirt, oil on linen, 58 ½ x 36 inches, 2022.

Roy Nachum at A Hug From the Art World

Five huge photorealist portraits by Israeli-New Yorker Roy Nachum dominate the creatively titled Chelsea gallery ‘A Hug from the Art World.’ The sense of immediacy that their size generates in this compact space is amplified by expressionist painting on their surfaces.  At first puzzling for the contrast between styles, an upstairs video reveals the paintings to be layered portraits, collaborations between Nachum and blind makers like Rosie Lopez, pictured here.  Once explained, the portraits become fascinating expressions of self-representation.  (On view through May 7th).

Roy Nachum, Rosie Lopez, oil on canvas, 84 x 71 inches, 2015 – 2022.

Thomas Bayrle at Gladstone Gallery

The vast scale of the three artworks in Thomas Bayrle’s current solo show at Gladstone Gallery’s cavernous 21st Street gallery speaks to the huge public profile of his subjects:  the Pope, Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Kim Kardashian.  Composed of repeated images arranged to create a portrait, Bayrle’s ‘superforms’ mimic the repetition of information via mass media and suggest that a person’s identity is formed by their messaging.  In this case, Kim Kardashian’s persona merges with the means of disseminating it – the iPhone.  (On view in Chelsea through April 23rd).

Thomas Bayrle, Kim Kardashian, pencil, acrylic and fine art pigment print on paper, mounted on gallery cardboard, 41 x 37 1/8 inches, 2021.

Cinga Samson at Flag Art Foundation

South African artist Cinga Samson complicates the act of looking in paintings that are challenging to see. The muted palettes and crepuscular lighting of his individual portraits and figure groups not only disguise his subjects, but aim to create a sense of having intruded on a private scene.  Samson’s recent body of work, on view at Flag Art Foundation in Chelsea, features young men like this figure, whose remarkable eyes disrupt easy engagement and suggest moments of looking inward.  Each painting is a meditation on mortality, the flower in this piece acting as a symbol of transience.  (On view through Jan 15th.   Masks, social distancing and proof of vaccination required).

Cinga Samson, Nontshonshi 1, oil on canvas, 18 x 13 ¾ x 1 inches, 2021.