Tag: graphite

Karl Haendel at Mitchell-Innes and Nash

To what ends will you go for personal improvement? Karl Haendel’s huge, meticulous pencil drawings document a push for personal perfection and accompanying sense of self-worth by yoga practitioners; elsewhere, he draws apes balanced on what look like pieces of modern art. ‘Where does it all start and stop?’ his gorgeously rendered artworks seem to ask. (At Chelsea’s Mitchell-Innes and Nash through Dec 5th).

 Karl Haendel, Radcliffe, pencil on paper with shaped frame, 67 ½ x 89 ½ inches, 2015.

Simon Schubert at Foley Gallery

Edgar Allan Poe’s stern face dominates one very dark wall of graphite drawings by German artist Simon Schubert at the Lower East Side’s Foley Gallery; on the other, a series of white paper ‘drawings’ are folded to create the lines that picture a staircase with a ghostly figure. The sense of a benign, ghostly presence is palpable. (Through Oct 18th).

Simon Schubert, Untitled (Stairs with Figure), 39.5 x 27.5 inches, 2015.

Sandra Allen in ‘Land and Sea’ at Danese Corey

Known for graphite-on-paper drawings of trees, Massachusetts-based artist Sandra Allen creates an almost abstract, immensely powerful image from the trunk of a tree in ‘Ballast’ from 2009. (At Danese Corey through July 31st).

Sandra Allen, Ballast, graphite on paper, 11 x 18.5 feet, 2009.

Ursula von Rydingsvard at Galerie Lelong

The title of this towering sculpture in graphite-rubbed cedar by Ursula von Rydingsvard – ‘Dumna’ – implies dignified pride. Ending with –a indicates the feminine form of the word. Solid as a geological formation yet seeming to sway in graceful contrapposto, the title seems appropriate. (At Galerie Lelong through Dec 13th).

Ursula von Rydingsvard, Dumna, cedar, graphite, 130 x 97 x 64.5 inches, 2014.

Marlene McCarty at Sikkema Jenkins

Marlene McCarty closes out her ‘Murder Girls’ series that pictures girls who have killed with this huge, four-part ballpoint and graphite drawing. Instead of showing the face of someone who has taken a life, McCarty hides it in a screen of wild hair, suggesting mental turmoil. (At Sikkema Jenkins in Chelsea through Oct 4th).

Marlene McCarty, series titled: ’14,’ graphite and ballpoint pen on paper, 71 x 94 inches each of four drawings, 2014.