Gardens are Joan Bankemper’s inspiration, whether she’s crafting a vase-form covered in flowers and bees or helping plan community gardens. At Chelsea’s Nancy Hoffman Gallery, Bankemper combines handmade and found flowers, vessels and spiritual beings in this riotous sculpted garden. (On view through Sept 1st).
Silhouetted against natural light, the translucent petals of a blossoming flower from the cannonball tree contrast tightly shut pods in the foreground, but each indulges our pleasure in organic forms. Cambodian artist Sopheap Pich’s largest flowering plant sculpture to date sprawls across Tyler Rollins Gallery’s floor in Chelsea, recalling trees planted near Buddhist temples. Though they resemble the sal tree associated with Buddha’s birth, the plants arrived in Southeast Asia from the Americas via Sri Lanka, a reminder of complicated histories. (Through Feb 4th).
One of the most divine dresses in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibition of China-inspired Western fashions is this evening gown by Guo Pei in the museum’s Chinese Buddhist sculpture galleries. Though the model’s dress incorporates a lotus throne like the sculpture, it doesn’t seem to advocate any rejection of worldly pleasures. (Through Sept 7th).
Guo Pei, Evening Gown, spring/summer 2007, Haute Couture, gold lame embroidered with gold and silver silk, metal and sequins.
Globe-trotting Swiss artist Not Vital fills Sperone Westwater’s Lower East Side gallery with stainless steel heads that echo the austere, clean line of the gallery’s architecture. As much as the reflective material draws the viewer in, however, the uniform, monochromatic surface repels investigation into the character of these heads, which were partly inspired by huge Buddha the artist encountered in his travels. (Through October 4th).
Not Vital, installation view of ‘Everton’ at Sperone Westwater Gallery, September 2014.
Drawing on Japanese pop culture and a predilection for nature, Seattle-based Japanese artist Yumiko Kayukawa’s exhibition at Foley Gallery on the Lower East Side strikes a clever balance between irony and kitsch. (Through July 12th).
Yumiko Kayukawa, Ominugui (Cleaning), acrylic on linen, 22 x 18 inches, 2013.
