Tag: camera

Jana Euler in ‘Suncrush’ at Greene Naftali Gallery

Known for large paintings of plug sockets, phallic sharks rearing out of the ocean depths, surreally distorted human figures, multi-horned unicorns called ‘Morecorns’ and other uncanny imagery, Frankfurt and Brussels-based painter Jana Euler addresses power, gender and sexual relations with humor.  In the group exhibition ‘Suncrush’ at GreeneNaftali Gallery in Chelsea, Euler’s ‘Closed Circuit,’ connects a washing machine and a Canon camera by a flexible, fabric lens that joins the circular forms on the front of each device.  Each of the improbably joined devices suggest viewing – through a lens or window – but while the assumption is that the camera will be trained on something interesting, the washer recalls the banality of housework.  Together, the two elements of the painting suggest the coexistence of, or perhaps battle between, a tool’s potential for excitement vs drudgery.  (On view through July 28th).

Jana Euler, Closed Circuit, oil on canvas and artist’s frame, 60 ½ x 96 inches, 2023.

Keegan Monaghan in ‘Platform’ with David Zwirner Gallery and James Fuentes Gallery

Virtual exhibitions have replaced in-person shows at many New York galleries, but David Zwirner Gallery’s new ‘Platform’ offers something different by showcasing work by individual artists represented by twelve established, smaller New York galleries.   The initiative highlights painting and sculpture, conceptual and digital art by groundbreaking artists and includes Keegan Monaghan’s impasto oil paintings.  Monaghan’s ‘The Screen’ – pictured here from New York Art Tour’s photo archive from Jan ’18 at James Fuentes Gallery – perfectly illustrates how pictures can ‘serve alternatively as barriers and entry points’ as we look at someone looking at someone looking.

Keegan Monaghan, The Screen, oil on canvas, red oak frame, 50 x 56 ¾ inches framed, 2016-2017.

John Chiara at Yossi Milo Gallery

Using a homemade camera positioned in the back of a pickup truck, John Chiara records unique images onto paper prepared as a negative, creating otherworldly photos that challenge our sense of time and place.  Occasionally, a new skyscraper will loom in the background or a streetlight will invade the scene, making it undeniably contemporary, as in this East Village view.  But without storefronts or people, and under a fiery sky, Chiara’s scenes turn Manhattan into a glowing landscape of intrigue. (On view at Yossi Milo Gallery in Chelsea through Oct 27th).

John Chiara, East 2nd Street at Avenue C, negative chromogenic photograph, approx. 50 x 40 inches, unique, 2018.

Richard Mosse at Jack Shainman Gallery

Richard Mosse pictures European refugee camps like you’ve never seen them in monumental new photos taken with a military grade telephoto camera. Normally used for combat and border surveillance, the camera detects thermal radiation, turning individuals into ghost-like presences. (At Jack Shainman Gallery’s 20th Street location in Chelsea through March 11th).

Richard Mosse, (detail of) Idomeni Camp, Greece, digital c-print on metallic paper, 40 x 120 inches, 2016.

Lisa Oppenheim at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery




It’s important to know but hard to guess how New York artist Lisa Oppenheim sources the materials she uses to make her images – in this case, swirling clouds or monstrous faces that emerge from book matched wood. Using a thin sheet of veneer from Eastern Red Cedar, the artist created a camera-less photogram, which she then framed in Eastern Red Cedar and in birch, a wood used to imitate cedar. (At Tanya Bonakdar Gallery through Feb 20th).

Lisa Oppenheim, Landscape Portraits (Eastern Red Cedar)(Version I), set of four silver gelatin photograms in Eastern Red Cedar and Birch frames, 51 5/8 x 55 inches, 2015.