Is Red Grooms a ‘zany genius’ or ‘so much kitsch?’ The New York Times pondered the question in a 2018 profile of the New York-based creator of ‘sculpto-picto-ramas’ – sculptures of New Yorkers and their habitats. Now, visitors to Marlborough Gallery’s exhibition of Grooms’ work from ’74 to the present have the opportunity to consider anew Grooms’ affectionately eccentric characters, such as this dog-walker from 1981. (On view in Chelsea through May 8th).
Southern Indian sculptor Ranjani Shettar’s concern for threatened rural Indian ecosystems informed her dramatic mezzanine installation at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, ‘Seven ponds and a few raindrops.’ Crafted from organic muslin and bound to a welded and molded steel base with tamarind paste, the piece’s floating organic shapes conjure 3-D scientific models, intricate plant life or alien life. (On view on the Upper East Side through Sept 16th).
August Sander’s iconic ‘People of the 20th Century,’ a photographic project documenting the German people in the early 20th century is the starting point for Omer Fast’s ‘August,’ a captivating video imagining Sander’s haunted later years. Here, Fast restages Sander’s oft-reproduced image of young farmers as an opportunity to consider the photographer’s stagecraft. (On view at James Cohan Gallery through Oct 29th).
Johannes VanDerBeek’s thick aqua-resin paintings at new Lower East Side gallery Marinaro look like highly colored views from under the microscope. Looser than Joan Miro and freer and more abstract than Yves Tanguy, the work still channels Surrealism and early 20th century abstraction. (On view through March 19th).
