Tag: face

Brian Calvin at Anton Kern Gallery

As artists continue to present bodies of work created during the pandemic, Californian painter Brian Calvin’s best new paintings at Anton Kern Gallery stand out for concisely capturing a feeling of disorientation.  Here, a female figure’s parted lips convey cluelessness or surprise and a sense of vulnerability, yet at the same time, her other mouth – lips firmly pressed together – suggest composure.  Trying to separate the faces (and emotions) can literally hurt.  (On view in midtown through Dec 5th.  Masks and social distancing required).

Brian Calvin, Composite Sketch, acrylic on linen, 40 x 30 inches, 2020.

Giuseppe Penone in ‘Arte Povera’ at Hauser & Wirth Gallery

In 1977, Arte Povera artist Giuseppe Penone grew potatoes inside casts of his ear, mouth and nose. The resulting face-shaped potatoes were cast in bronze and are set among real potatoes in Hauser and Wirth Gallery’s huge showcase of the Italian art movement that embraced ‘poor’ materials and rethought what art could be. (On view in Chelsea through Oct 28th).

Giuseppe Penone, Patate (Potatoes), five bronze casts, potatoes, installation dimensions variable, 1977.

Mark Thomas Gibson at Fredericks Freiser Gallery

A monster’s human mask falls away in Mark Thomas Gibson’s ‘Washed Up,’ or is a disguise being applied? Either way, to judge by the quivering, fearful eyes, it seems like the game’s up and this creatures underlying monstrous identity will soon be revealed. (On view at Fredericks Freiser Gallery through Oct 14th).

Mark Thomas Gibson, Washed Up, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 40 inches, 2017.

Liz Craft in ‘Dirge’ at JTT

Liz Craft’s speech bubbles, made into faces by the shapes of protruding ceramic mushrooms, are a standout in JTT’s summer group show, Dirge, which considers how artists engage with accounts of history. Here, Craft merges contemporary text-message bubbles with pre-electrical light (a candle). The mushroom face suggests a voice from 70s counterculture speaking from the void. (On the Lower East Side through July 28th).

Liz Craft, Mushroom Bubble (Green), ceramic, grout, aluminum, wood, 30 x 31.5 inches, 2016.

Roy Lichtenstein at Castelli Gallery

Like finding shapes in the clouds or interpreting a Rorschach inkblot, Roy Lichtenstein’s brushstroke head sculptures from 1987 build a portrait from a few well-placed marks. Though she’s derived from Pop Art and Abstract Expressionist painting techniques, this blond muse rejects painting altogether, manifesting as a 3-D bronze sculpture. (At Castelli Gallery through Jan 28th).

Roy Lichtenstein, Brushstroke Head II, painted and patinated bronze, 28 7/8 x 13 ¼ inches, 1987.
Roy Lichtenstein, Brushstroke Head II, painted and patinated bronze, 28 7/8 x 13 ¼ inches, 1987.