Jorge Mendez Blake in ‘Borders’ at James Cohan Gallery

Borders are front and center in U.S. politics and at James Cohan Gallery where Jorge Mendez Blake’s ‘Amerika’ bisects the main exhibition space, arresting both visitors’ thoughts and physical progress through the show.  Mid-way along the base of the wall, Mendez Blake has placed a copy of Kafka’s ‘Amerika,’ the troubled tale of a European immigrant to New York, intimating that migration is a fraught undertaking from start to finish.  (On view at James Cohan Gallery’s Chelsea and Lower East Side spaces through Feb 23rd).

Jorge Mendez Blake, Amerika, bricks, edition of ’Amerika’ by Franz Kafka, 72 7/8 x 11 7/8 x 400 inches, 2019.

Rachel Whiteread at Luhring Augustine

Famous for making casts of empty space (inside of rooms, between book shelves), British sculptor Rachel Whiteread continues to consider built and domestic environments in her latest solo show at Chelsea’s Luhring Augustine Gallery. Among doors and windows cast in resin, this papier mache and silver leaf brick wall offers an architectural fragment as a precious object. (Through Dec 19th).

Rachel Whiteread, Untitled (Silver Leaf), papier mache and silver leaf, 22 x 19 5/8 inches, 2015.

Virginia Overton, High Line Art Commission at 20th Street Edison ParkFast

Brooklyn-based artist Virginia Overton combines the city and country in her untitled project next to Chelsea’s High Line park by parking a pickup truck with a bricked in bed and a scene of flying ducks in the back window on the top of an Edison ParkFast stack.  (Next to the High Line at West 20th Street through Aug 8).  

Virginia Overton, Untitled, pickup truck, bricks, 2012.