Tag: albertz benda

Brie Ruais at Albertz Benda Gallery

Brie Ruais’s signature approach to art involves manipulating a 130 lb pile (equivalent to the artist’s weight) of clay into flat rings of ceramic sculpture textured with finger and footprints.  Here, she varies her usual circular form with this knot-shaped piece in her current show at Albertz Benda Gallery.  The artist has called her work ‘Earth Art that takes place in the studio;’ in this sculpture, the relationship between the body and landscape speaks to interconnectedness.  (On view in Chelsea through Jan 22nd.)

Brie Ruais, Intertwining, 130lbs times two (Thief Knot), glazed and pigmented stoneware, hardware, 62 x 124 x 6 inches, 2021.

Chloe Chiasson in ‘Fragmented Bodies II: Fluidity in Form’ at Albertz Benda

In Albertz Benda’s summer group exhibition, ‘Fragmented Bodies II:  Fluidity in Form,’ fluidity defines identity.  Chloe Chiasson’s Target Practice, a shaped painting that is part of the wall and leaps off of it, features a group of young men who defy stereotypes of masculine rural behavior.  Perched on a wooden fence with beer cans used for target practice, one man’s ‘Daddy’ tattoo, another’s earring and scattered daisies upend expectations.  (On view in Chelsea through July 31st).

Chloe Chiasson, Target Practice, oil, acrylic, resin, wool, denim, aluminum, lantern, wood, nails, hot glue, graphite, glitter, neopixels, cigarette butts, matches, bobby pin, sticky note, page from book, washers, ink on shaped canvas, 104 x 130 x 60 inches, 2021.

Hangama Amiri at Albertz Benda

Growing up in Kabul and in Central Asia, recent Yale grad Hangama Amiri was drawn to bazaars and their abundance of textiles, as well as her uncle’s tailor shop.  Now in the US, Amiri has sourced similar materials from Afghan-owned businesses to create cloth collages picturing products and places in South Asian diasporic communities now on view at Albertz Benda Gallery. “Fabric as a medium really is associated with memory,” she explains in a statement released by the gallery, “…fabric captures smell, and time, lot of bodily attachments – we are all wearing fabrics. It is also a fragile medium, so it really touches and resembles all those notions of memory I am talking about and it really reconnects with what I am trying to convey in my art”.

Hangama Amiri, A.K. Fabric Shop, chiffon, silk, satin, muslin, cotton, lace, polyester, suede, paper, iridescent paper, denim, ikat printed fabric, faux leather, color pencil on fabric, velvet, camouflage, and found fabric, 113 x 99 inches, 2021.

Sharif Bey at Albertz Benda

Created during quarantine but using faces and feet crafted 20 years ago, Sharif Bey’s small but forceful Boilermaker sculptures layer references to the artist’s personal history as a maker and art history. Formed from a vessel fired with nails and shards to resemble a nkisi nkondi power figure, ‘Boilermaker: Fidel’ references a working-class beer cocktail and Bey’s father’s job as a Pittsburgh boilermaker.  The artist identifies the central focus of his work as an investigation of how power manifests; his hybrid sculptures encourage complex understandings of power and influence.  (On view at Albertz Benda Gallery in Chelsea through March 27th. Masks and social distancing required).

Sharif Bey, Boilermaker: Fidel, earthenware and mixed media, 15 x 10 x 9 inches, 2021.

Felipe Pantone at albertz benda

Audience interaction is key to activating Spanish/Argentinian artist Felipe Pantone’s optically sizzling sculpture, so how will viewers engage his latest work?  Though Pantone’s current exhibition at Chelsea’s albertz benda gallery won’t involve touching the work (and is even titled ‘Contactless’), Pantone has created an online exhibition that allows manipulation of this patterned, pixelated grid and other sculptures in the show.  If not quite as satisfying as interacting with the art in person, the digital component is still a huge boost and worth checking out.  Visitors who are hooked can download Pantone’s interactive app @configurableart for more optical play.  (On view through August 28th.  Appointments are not necessary, masks are required and guests must sign a Covid release and submit contact info.)

Felipe Pantone, Chromadynamica Manipulable #7, UV paint on aluminum composite panel, 39 3/8 x 31 1/2 inches, 2020.