Tag: fruit

Silas Borsos at Nicelle Beauchene Gallery

‘Green Orchestra’ positions an apple, pear, watermelon and limes like a chorus line, while a mountainous pile of blueberries rises up behind four plums and half an apple in Silas Borsos’ paintings at Nicelle Beauchene Gallery. Featuring delightfully idiosyncratic arrangements of fruit that suggest table-top performances, Borsos’ paintings depart from traditional histories of still life in fanciful ways.   Here, ‘Orange Peel Pyramid’ presents a sole segment of orange leftover from an orgy of peeling, alongside five blueberries nestled as delicately as robin eggs in discarded pulp. (On view in Tribeca through April 6th).

Silas Borsos, Orange Peel Pyramid, oil on linen, 11h x 14w inches, 2024.

Gracelee Lawrence at Postmasters Gallery

Is it natural to manipulate nature?  Gracelee Lawrence’s 3D printed sculpture of fruit and the human body, two commonly modified objects, question how far we’re willing to go.  In new work now on view at Postmasters Gallery in Tribeca, Lawrence prints versions of her own body in vegetable-derived bioplastic, merging it with plant or fruit-forms to create an extra-fertile figure.  Fruits and veg displayed on rotating disks include this giant (7 inches in length) strawberry, an object to admire but no longer to consume, at least in its traditional capacity as food.  (On view through July 23rd).

Gracelee Lawrence, Trampled or in Your Hands, polylactic acid 3D print, 8 available in an edition of 10 with 2 AP, 7 x 6 x 5 inches, 2021.

Jake Kean Mayman at Candace Madey

Though isolated and spare, the objects in Jake Kean Mayman’s painting in his current solo show at Candace Madey tap into complex histories and conversations about technology today.  Surprised by how ubiquitous microprocessors are, yet how little the average person knows about them, Mayman carefully renders a processor next to extra-lush raspberries and a sticker representing Raspberry Pi, a project intended to boost programming skills in schools. As such, the painting represents growth – raspberry vines have a lifespan approximating the time a young person takes to get through the educational system – and potential.  (On view on the Lower East Side through Dec 4th).

Jake Kean Mayman, Brambles of Industry, Druplets of Education (Raspberry Pi Foundation), oil on linen, 43 ¼ x 37 ¼ inches, 2021.

Jennifer Steinkamp at Lehmann Maupin Gallery

A field of fruit appears perfect until it begins to move and collide, revealing soft surfaces that bespeak rot below a flawless exterior.  Titled Impeach I, this animation by Jennifer Steinkamp began life as an LA billboard and now exists as a selection of constantly moving, morphing and reforming fruit.  (On view at Lehmann Maupin Gallery’s 22nd Street Chelsea location through April 13th).

Jennifer Steinkamp, Impeach 1, video installation, dimensions variable, 2019.

Karin Sander at Carolina Nitsch

Known for her 3-D printed human figures, Karin Sander’s ‘Kitchen Pieces’ first offer a puzzle – is the fruit real or meticulously made?  Sander isn’t beating Zeuxis, the ancient Greek artist who painted grapes so believably that the birds tried to eat them.  The grapes and other fruit and veg attached to the wall with specially made nails are real.  The process of searching for evidence of this –which is surprisingly difficult to discern – is the takeaway. (On view at Carolina Nitsch through April.)

Karin Sander, Grapes, grapes, stainless steel nail, dimensions variable, with signed certificate housed in a custom box, 2012/18.