Tag: balloon

Jeppe Hein at LaGuardia Airport

Last weekend’s biggest art opening didn’t take place in a gallery (they’re mostly still closed) but at LaGuardia Airport, where four artists including Danish artist Jeppe Hein have installed new work as shiny as Hein’s work at 303 Gallery last September (pictured here).  Featuring steel balloons affixed to the ceiling and curvy benches designed to encourage  conversation, Hein’s new installation strikes a celebratory mood that’s a little out of step with current concerns about flying during the pandemic but a worthy gesture of hopefulness for the future.

Jeppe Hein, Intersecting Circles, high polished stainless steel, 87 3/8 x 85 x 70 inches, 2019.

Tomas Saraceno at Tanya Bonkdar Gallery

Mylar, balloon-shaped sculptures are the centerpiece of Tomas Saraceno’s stunning ‘Solar Rhythms’ exhibition at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in Chelsea – a show that envisions fossil fuel free flight via balloon.  Reflected light decorates the gallery in ethereal patterns that connect our earthly realm to the wonderous possibilities of life in the air. (On view through June 9th).

Tomas Saraceno, installation view of ‘Solar Rhythms’ at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, April 2018.

Adam Parker Smith at The Hole NY

Inspired by Homer’s The Iliad, Adam Parker Smith brings the ancient epic up to date by rendering key characters in Mylar balloons, which he casts in resin, then lines with fiberglass. This serious kitty – decked out as Hercules wearing a lion skin – is the centerpiece of one of New York’s most fun gallery exhibitions. (On view on the Lower East Side at The Hole NY through Nov 19th).

Installation view of Adam Parker Smith’s ‘Kidnapping Incites Years of Murderous Doom’ at The Hole, NY, Nov 2017.

Harold Edgerton at Sikkema Jenkins & Co

A cup shatters, a golfer swings and a bullet pierces balloons in photos by late scientist Harold Edgerton, who made time freeze with the aid of an electric strobescope. This image of three bursting balloons demonstrates three stages of destruction with arresting beauty. (At Sikkema Jenkins & Co through March 7th).

Harold Edgerton, Bullet Through Three Balloons, gelatin silver print, 30 x 48 inches, 1959, printed 1989.