installation – new york art tours

Michael Heizer, ‘Negative Sculpture’ at Gagosian Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Hottest Show March 11, 2026March 11, 2026No Comments

Michael Heizer’s ‘Double Negative,’ an enormous cut into the ground of Mormon Mesa, Nevada and his 1.5-mile-long shaped landscape, ‘City’ are among the most astounding artworks of the mid-20^th century and were created far from urban art centers. Though a fraction of the size and located indoors at Gagosian Gallery‘s 21^st Street Chelsea space, Heizer’s current installation of the sculptures ‘Convoluted Line A’ and ‘Convoluted Line B’ from 2024 are nonetheless impressively scaled and prompt a rethink of the space of the gallery. Each is formed of twisting steel earth liners set in a specially constructed concrete floor to create long lines of negative space along which visitors can walk, taking the measure of the piece not just with the eye but with the body. (On view in Cheslea through March 28^th).

A sculpture set into the floor in the shape of a twisting line with a few small figures of people walking around it. — Michael Heizer, installation view of ‘Negative Sculpture’ at Gagosian Gallery, March 2026.

Kader Attia, ‘Shattering and Gathering Our Traces’ at Lehmann Maupin Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Hottest Show November 14, 2025November 11, 2025No Comments

Born in the decade after Algerian independence, Kader Attia grew up in Paris and Algeria, forming a cross-cultural identity that continues to inspire his multi-disciplinary practice. For his latest show at Lehmann Maupin Gallery, Attia presents collages of spliced together African and European cultural objects, suggesting complicated interrelationships. A film featuring a French supporter of the Algerian National Liberation Front, a French political scientist and the artist’s mother tells stories of colonial resistance alongside suitcases full of broken, light-reflecting mirrors that embody the notion of gathering and repair of shattered lives. In the gallery’s main room, the installation ‘Resonance’ allows visitors to gently ring the bells installed in a series of birdcages, communicating with each other without words. (On view in Chelsea through Dec 13^th).

A room with bird cages hanging from ropes from the ceiling. — Kader Attia, installation view of ‘Resonance’ at Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York, Nov 2025.

Marepe in ‘The Kids Are Alright’ at Timothy Taylor Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Hottest Show July 23, 2025July 22, 2025No Comments

Growing up is complicated. Nevertheless, ‘The Kids are Alright,’ a sprawling, salon-style summer group show curated by Helen Toomer at Tribeca’s Timothy Taylor Gallery suggests by its title that obstacles can be surmounted. A textile piece by Anya Paintsil pictures a weeping child comforted by a loving mom, Dominic Chambers’ painting shows young people joyfully fly kites against an apocalyptically red background and Gehard Demetz’ wooden sculpture disturbingly positions a youngster at the center of a giant grinding device yet pictures the youth as entirely serene. Brazilian artist Marepe, known for repurposing found objects in his sculpture, contributes a cluster of hanging nets with openings through which one might have tossed the colorful plastic balls resting within. If life is a game, this piece suggests you need some luck to play it. (On view in Tribeca through Aug 1^st. Note summer hours.)

Marepe, Uteros [Wombs], net, aluminum, and plastic balls, 128 x 110 x 144 inches overall, 2023.

Jeppe Hein, ‘Expect a Miracle’ at 303 Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Hottest Show May 2, 2025May 1, 2025Comments are Disabled

Happiness is Danish sculptor Jeppe Hein’s stock-in-trade. Past work includes brightly colored benches he calls ‘social sculptures’ that invite strangers or intimates to stop and converse, walls of water that dare interaction and shiny balloons of metal that appear to float on the ceiling. A new installation at Chelsea’s 303 Gallery presents a ceiling bedecked with swathes of fabric evoking waves, home to alluringly shiny lacquered plastic fish and other animals. The text ‘expect a miracle,’ spelled out in balloon-like letters at the gallery front door is both poignant and hopeful. (On view in Chelsea through May 31^st).

Jeppe Hein, installation view of ‘Expect A Miracle,’ at 303 Gallery April 26th, 2025.

Joan Jonas, ‘Empty Rooms’ at Gladstone Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Hottest Show March 14, 2025March 13, 2025Comments are Disabled

Though twelve paper sculptures hang from the gallery ceiling, a grid of drawings covers one wall and a video projection takes over another in Gladstone Gallery’s cavernous 21^st Street space, Joan Jonas’ new installation ‘Empty Rooms’ feels more subtly presented than many of her past multimedia works. Overhead, boxy forms dominate the gallery, floating like geometric clouds or 3-D kites and lit from within like lanterns. Made of wrinkled paper (along with lights and steel frames), the sculptures connect with a towering grid of similarly textured paper bearing drawings of leafless trees. Featuring the silhouette of a turbine and a young woman, a monochrome video adds a human actor to this enigmatic but intriguing view of the natural world. (On view in Chelsea through April 12^th).

Joan Jonas, Empty Rooms (installation view) at Gladstone Gallery, March 2025.

Camille Henrot, ‘A Number of Things’ at Hauser & Wirth Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Hottest Show February 14, 2025February 13, 2025Comments are Disabled

Green rubber playground flooring transports visitors into an unexpected perceptual experience in Camille Henrot’s first New York solo show of playfully odd sculpture at Hauser and Wirth Gallery. Marked with a matrix-like grid that’s calming yet at the same time reminiscent of a guillotine paper cutter, the pattern reinforces the artist’s ongoing interest in the structures that organize society. Paintings inspired by etiquette books, sculpture that looks like abacuses (both the kind used as tools and children’s toys) and this group of dogs on leashes offer varied takes on relationships and power relations. (On view in Chelsea through April 12th).

Camille Henrot, installation view of ‘A Number of Things’ at Hauser & Wirth Gallery, Feb ’25.

Lubaina Himid at FLAG Art Foundation

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Hottest Show January 13, 2025January 9, 2025Comments are Disabled

Winner of the 2024 Suzanne Deal Booth / FLAG Art Foundation Prize, Lubaina Himid presents two bodies of related but visually distinct work at Chelsea’s FLAG Art Foundation that both offer and challenge the appearance of order and simplicity. Himid’s ‘Strategy Paintings’ picture individuals seated at tables as they negotiate weighty problems hinted at in titles like ‘Pointless Heroism’ or ‘Bitter Battles.’ The figures’ wary eyes and each painting’s palpable tension suggest that solutions might not be found so easily. In a separate exhibition space, Himid lines the walls with sixty-four plank paintings titled ‘Aunties.’ Nearly as tall as the room itself and abundantly decorated with used materials taken from furniture, floorboards, and travel crates, the planks evoke an assembly of benevolent guardians. (On view in Chelsea through Feb 8^th).

Lubaina Himid, installation view of Aunties, sixty-four painted wood planks, dimensions variable, 2023.

Lubaina Himid, detail view of Aunties, sixty-four painted wood planks, dimensions variable, 2023.

Mulyana, Betty 27 at Sapar Contemporary

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Hottest Show November 15, 2024February 12, 2025Comments are Disabled

Indonesian artist Mulyana’s signature colorful crocheted coral reef sculptures give way in his latest solo show at Sapar Contemporary to clusters of white forms resembling bleached coral. Fashioned in plastic instead of yarn, the new work is every bit as intricately crafted and pleasingly detailed as his previous work, but the attraction is uncomfortable. Made from a material harmful to sea life and speaking to damage done by climate change, the work has an elegiac quality as sad as it is beautiful. (On view through Nov 20th. Curated by John Silvis).

Mulyana, Betty 27, plastic yarn, plastic net, cable wire, 63 x 80 ¾ x 11 ¾ inches, 2024.

Mulyana, Betty 27 (detail), plastic yarn, plastic net, cable wire, 63 x 80 ¾ x 11 ¾ inches, 2024.

Olafur Eliasson, Light Ensemble at Tanya Bonakdar

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Hottest Show November 1, 2024February 11, 2025Comments are Disabled

From his legendary 2003 installation of a sun in the Tate Modern (made with a semi-circle of lights and a mirror) to more intimate light environments and sculptures of colored glass, Olafur Eliasson creates transformative artworks using deceptively simple means. The centerpiece of the artist’s latest solo exhibition at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in Chelsea, ‘Your psychoacoustic light ensemble,’ challenges viewers to rethink how we perceive color, light and other natural phenomena while this time including sound. In the gallery’s darkened central room, low frequency vibrations can be heard, felt and seen as projected lights respond to the sound waves. Inviting us to sit and be immersed in the various stimuli, Eliasson describes our experience as ‘seeing ourselves hearing.’ (On view through Dec 19^th).

Olafur Eliasson, Your psychoacoustic light ensemble, spotlight, glass lens, mirror foil, tripod, transducer, embedded computer system, dimensions variable, 2024.

Carrie Mae Weems at Gladstone Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Hottest Show October 25, 2024October 23, 2024Comments are Disabled

In an interview accompanying her recent show at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, iconic photographer and artist Carrie Mae Weems said, “I know that I will be living with injustice for the rest of my life,” before going on to express her determination to advocate for change as it is currently needed. Her 7-part video ‘Cyclorama: The Shape of Things,’ now on view at Gladstone Gallery after several museum appearances, combines vintage film of circus acts, footage from Amy Cooper’s notorious 2020 Central Park phone call, and scenes from the January 6^th insurrection with shots of methodically moving contemporary dancers and more in a collage of imagery that ranges from beautiful to horrifying. Projected on a circular screen like a 19th century narrative painting accompanied by changing lights and sound, Weems immerses us in the present moment, amplifying and clarifying the conversations and conflicts of the day. (On view at Gladstone Gallery through Nov 9^th).

Carrie Mae Weems, installation view of Cyclorama: The Shape of Things, A Video in 7 Parts, 2021, 7 parts, duration: 40 min, Barbara Gladstone Gallery, September 2024.

Margarita Cabrera at Jane Lombard Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Hottest Show October 21, 2024February 9, 2025Comments are Disabled

Expanding concentric circles of flamenco dresses surround a soft sculpture of a Spanish ship in an eye-catching installation in Margarita Cabrera’s current solo show at Jane Lombard Gallery. The abundant dynamic ruffles of the dress material suggest that though small, the ship is making its presence felt from Spanish arrival in the Americas to the present day. Crafted from material used for US/Mexico border patrol uniforms, the ship and the show’s other engaging sculptures invite discussion of migration past and present. (On view through Oct 26^th).

Margarita Cabrera, installation view of El Vaiven del Mar, Flamenco dresses, uniform fabric, 120 x 168 x 36 inches, 2024.

Aki Sasamoto at Bortolami Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Hottest Show September 23, 2024September 18, 2024Comments are Disabled

Performance is key to New York artist Aki Sasamoto’s practice, but for her latest show at Bortolami Gallery, she outsources the action to her sculpture and to gallery visitors. Titled ‘Sounding Lines,’ after the devices used to test water depth from a vessel, the show consists of handmade sculptures resembling giant fishing lures and lengths of long springs stretched across the gallery between them. Occasionally, a motorized arm causes one of the springs to dance around and unaware visitors to react with surprise. Delightful yet disconcerting, the installation foregrounds our own response to (literally) alluring art. (On view in Tribeca through Oct 19^th.)

Aki Sasamoto, ‘Sounding Line (black, red, yellow – whip whisk), wood (red cedar), whip whisk, acrylic paint, epoxy, Mylar, plexiglass, stainless steel wire and springs, bronze rod, fishhooks, stainless-steel hardware, steel, AC motor, speed controller, timer, 9 ¼ x 27 x 1 ½ inches, 2024.

Paula Wilson at 55 Walker

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Hottest Show August 21, 2024July 23, 2024Comments are Disabled

Art and life meld in Paula Wilson’s engaging, pattern rich paintings and print work at 55 Walker as she depicts domestic environments and desert landscapes like those around her home in the small town of Carizozo, New Mexico. Images of rugs on canvas, attached to wooden slats and mounted on the wall, depict plants, abstractions or entangled lovers while paintings of stained-glass windows are simultaneously images of an interior, glass art and a landscape beyond. Wilson, who prints and sews her own clothing, gives this towering figure a dress created from a cinched rug painting, further connecting various creative endeavors in one fertile practice. (On view in Tribeca through Aug 30^th).

Paula Wilson, Becoming, acrylic and oil on canvas, 162 x 52 inches, 2024.

Samara Golden in ’Material World’ at Marianne Boesky Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Hottest Show July 24, 2024July 23, 2024Comments are Disabled

LA artist Samara Golden turns conventional space on its head in immersive installations like her memorable show at CANADA Gallery in 2015, for which she employed mirrors, an elevated walkway and tables and chairs affixed to the wall to suggest an event space from a parallel dimension. A fragment related to that body of work is a standout in Marianne Boesky Gallery’s summer group show ‘Material World,’ curated by Gina Beavers, another artist whose paintings and installations spring off the wall with their bold, often humorous imagery. The show includes an aluminum textile-like wall work by El Anatsui, a geometric sculpture made of quilts by Sanford Biggers and a painted ceramic ice cream dessert by Claes Oldenburg, all of which have been inspirations for Beaver’s work and which act as an enticing prelude to her upcoming show in September. (On view through July 26^th).

Samara Golden, Missing Pieces from A Fall of Corners #7, foam, plastic, glue, paint, 89 x 89 x 32 inches, 2015 – 2024.

Osgemeos, Cultivating Dreams at Lehmann Maupin Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Hottest Show July 12, 2024February 20, 2025Comments are Disabled

Known for imagining idiosyncratic characters from dreamed up worlds, Brazilian street-artist twins, Osemegos are back at Lehmann Maupin Gallery with paintings and two installations that fill the gallery with vivid color and sound from a built-in DJ booth. Pictured here, the gallery’s west wall houses a mystical architectural construction presided over by a nude man whose body has split in two to reveal a glowing inner self. To either side, a celestial goddess holds a planet in her hand while a man whose head in encircled by flower petals smiles serenely. In the sky, two heads circled by colorful lights – one of which is emerging from a UFO – light up the already bright skies over an installation that delights and entertains. (On view in Chelsea through Aug 16^th).

Osgemeos, installation view of ‘Cultivating Dreams,’ at Lehmann Maupin Gallery, June 2024.

Pipilotti Rist at Hauser & Wirth Gallery and Luhring Augustine Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Hottest Show January 8, 2024February 9, 2025Comments are Disabled

Iconic Swiss video artist Pipilotti Rist is acutely attuned to the comfort of her audiences. Visitors to her atrium-filling video installation at MoMA in 2008 might have lounged on a low couch while another level of relaxation – beds – awaited at the artist’s New Museum retrospective in 2016. Rist’s current show at Hauser & Wirth Gallery in Chelsea offers both a bed and assorted furniture, enticing the public into the artwork itself to be bathed in constantly morphing patterns and images. Rist (seen in this photo conversing with visitors) conceived of Hauser & Wirth’s back gallery space as a living room; her simultaneous show at Luhring Augustine Gallery is a projection-filled back yard. (On view at Hauser & Wirth through Jan 13^th and at Luhring Augustine through Feb 3^rd).

Pipilotti Rist, (installation view) Welling Color Island West, video installation with projector skirt, projection on carpet, plants and furniture, silent, unique, dimensions variable, 2023.

Kayode Ojo at 52 Walker

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Hottest Show November 24, 2023November 21, 2023Comments are Disabled

“If you look at the work, it is actually posing for you,’ explained New York artist Kayode Ojo in a past video describing his elegantly spare sculptural installations, now on view at 52 Walker in Tribeca. Having studied photography before becoming known for in-the-round artworks, Ojo now creates arrangements of fast-fashion clothing, accessories and other objects sourced via on-line shopping that elicit admiration and desire. By titling each artwork with the text originally used to sell each it, Ojo centers his practice squarely in conversations about consumption while transporting each piece into the realm of luxury art object. (On view in Tribeca through Jan 6^th).

Kayode Ojo, Comfort, New Orleans 4-Light Clear Unique/Statement Geometric Chandelier with Crystal Accents, 84 x 72 x 16 inches, 2023.

Shilpa Gupta at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Hottest Show November 22, 2023November 21, 2023Comments are Disabled

‘Uncontrollable Desirrs,’ ‘Between Places’ and ‘Until they Dsiappear’ are among the suggestive phrases that appear in Shilpa Gupta’s ‘StillTheyKnowNotWhatIDream’ flapboard sculpture at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery. The sound of the board’s moving panels creates a sense of dynamism and anticipation as the text constantly changes, while the words themselves conjure unsettled feelings compounded by Gupta’s use of alternative spellings of select words. In the show’s other works, Gupta speaks the works of jailed poets into bottles, capping them and arranging them in an ‘reimagined library’ and presents a sound installation of protest songs sung globally, a collective tribute to the power of words and the need to protect freedom of speech. (On view in Chelsea through Dec 16^th).

StillTheyKnowNotWhatIDream, motion flapboard, 35 min loop, 93 ½ x 5 x 9 ½ inches, 2021.

Sui Park at Sapar Contemporary

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Hottest Show November 3, 2023November 1, 2023Comments are Disabled

Water worn rocks, amoebas, cells, sea creatures and more come to mind in Sui Park’s exhibition of colorful abstract sculpture at Sapar Contemporary in Tribeca. Crafting her work from looped cable ties and monofilaments, Park turns mass-produced plastic materials into artworks that, ironically, foster appreciation of the natural world. This installation’s handsome black background color is somewhat misleading; titled ‘Sprinkles,’ Park has explained that she was inspired by dessert sprinkles. (On view through Nov 27^th.)

Sui Park, Sprinkles, cable ties, hand-dyed cable ties, variable size, 2023.

Tony Cragg at Lisson Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Hottest Show April 11, 2023April 11, 2023Comments are Disabled

Protesters and police clash in a blaze of color in British sculptor Tony Cragg’s 1987 piece ‘Riot’ a sculptural installation running the length of one of Lisson Gallery’s Chelsea spaces. Forty years ago, Cragg made a name for himself with artworks and installations composed of found plastic elements, a material that lacked the associations carried by more traditional media like bronze, marble or wood. Inspired by social unrest in ‘80s Britain, Cragg employs a modern material, fragmented and formerly discarded, to illustrate conflict between citizen and state. (On view in Chelsea through April 15^th).

Tony Cragg, detail of installation of Riot, 1987 at Lisson Gallery in Chelsea, March ’23.

Seung-taek Lee at Canal Projects

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Hottest Show March 22, 2023March 21, 2023Comments are Disabled

Prominent Korean artist Seung-Taek Lee’s untitled stone and rope installation at Canal Projects occupies but does not dominate the center of the art institution’s large SoHo space. Shaped by the cords that have bound it, each hanging stone represents time and human intervention in nature; hung by ropes that form lively V patterns, the arrangement is minimal but dynamic. Inspired by environmental movements of the 60s and 70s that emerged as South Korea transformed the basis of its economy from agriculture to industry, Lee has created performances with the wind and harnessed fire to creatively collaborate with nature. The earth itself – in the form of a huge painted vinyl balloon resting on the gallery floor – has joined Lee on a bike ride through Beijing, appeared in various natural spots and on earth day this year will be used in a performance on Governors Island. (On view on Canal Street in SoHo through May 22^nd).

Seung-Taek Lee, (foreground) Untitled, stone, rope, dimensions variable, 1982-2022. (background) Earth Play, oil on vinyl balloon, 21’ diameter, 1989-1996.

Jannis Kounellis at Gladstone Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Hottest Show November 23, 2022November 23, 2022Comments are Disabled

Describing himself as a ‘Greek man and an Italian artist,’ the late Jannis Kounellis was a founder of Arte Povera, a movement that emerged from the desire of post-war Italian artists to embrace materials more linked to everyday life than to fine art. In this piece from 2016, Kounellis sourced outdoor sheds, placing them on beds of coals arranged in a grid around Gladstone Gallery’s spacious 21^st Street location. Iron panels line the walls, holding a rope and bent pieces of metal that resemble an alphabet. Though not meant to be interpreted literally, Kounellis’ materials are evocative – coal suggesting fire and the wooden sheds standing in for fuel while looking like makeshift coffins. Whether it’s the death of the industrial past hinted at by the old railway sheds or more contemporary losses, this somber installation acts as a reminder to pause and reflect. (On view through Dec 23^rd).

Jannis Kounellis, Untitled, iron panels, bent metal, metal hooks; iron panels, rope, metal hooks; antique wardrobes, coal, overall dimensions variable, 2016.

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer at Pace Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Hottest Show September 27, 2022September 27, 2022Comments are Disabled

In the middle of Chelsea’s bustling Pace Gallery, it comes as a surprise to hear your own heartbeat filling the cavernous room housing Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s interactive installation ‘Pulse Topology.’ Placing your hand under one of three small monitor suspended from the ceiling not only broadcasts the sound of your heartbeat but translates it into flashing lights in one of thousands of lightbulbs suspended in an undulating pattern from the ceiling. Though essential to life, we often take our beating hearts for granted; making them the focus of an artwork not only flips interior functions to the exterior, it speaks to something visitors have in common. (On view in Chelsea through Oct 22^nd).

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Pulse Topology, 2021, 3,000 LED filament lightbulbs, DMX controllers, custom-made photoplethysmography sensors, computers, covers any area between 1,000 and 5,000 square feet.

Claudia Martinez Garay at GRIMM Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Hottest Show September 23, 2022September 20, 2022Comments are Disabled

Lima and Amsterdam-based artist Claudia Martinez Garay constructs a complex image of Peruvian culture and history by combining images sourced through different means. In a piece now on view in her solo show at Grimm Gallery in Tribeca, a winged hybrid creature and stepped geometries inside a flat-topped pyramidal form bring to mind Peruvian mythologies and architectures. In the foreground, academic drawings of native flora are mounted on aluminum, expanding representations of Peru into the gallery and into the realm of new understandings. (On view through Oct 15^th).

Claudia Martinez Garay, Ghost Kingdom, painted wall mural, sublimated print on aluminum (9 parts), steel stand (6 parts), 199 x 186 x 115 inches, 2022.

Anila Quayyum Agha at Sundaram Tagore Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Hottest Show September 20, 2022September 19, 2022Comments are Disabled

Inspired by Islamic art and architecture, Anila Quayyum Agha’s pattern-based practice celebrates the intricacies and pleasures of floral and geometric design. Her installation Beautiful Despair, commissioned by the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, Texas, literally immerses the viewer in patterns that are projected from a central cube onto the floor, walls and ceiling of a room at Sundaram Tagore Gallery. With the piece, Quayyum Agha commemorates those lost to Covid (including her sister) while expressing hope for the future. (On view in Chelsea though Oct 8^th).

Anila Quayyum Agha, Beautiful Despair, lacquered steel and halogen bulb, 60 x 60 x 60 inches, 2022.

Urs Fischer, Denominator at Gagosian Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Hottest Show September 16, 2022February 11, 2025Comments are Disabled

Van Gogh’s flower paintings were intended to be life affirming, representing joy, appreciation of nature and mankind’s love of the divine. In this installation view of Urs Fischer’s piece ‘Denominator’ at Gagosian Gallery, a replica sunflower painting is overlaid with a projection of talking heads sourced from the internet, a juxtaposition geared to suggest that our devotion has shifted to the virtual realm. The painting is part of a recreation of a room in London’s National Gallery, the added heads commenting on how traditional ways of spreading culture have shifted to individuals using on-line platforms. (On view in Chelsea through Oct 15^th).

Urs Fischer, Denominator, database, algorithms, and LED cube, 141 ¾ x 141 ¾ x 141 ¾ inches, 2020-22.

Kapwani Kiwanga at the New Museum

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Hottest Show August 29, 2022August 10, 2022Comments are Disabled

Paris-based artist Kapwani Kiwanga’s fifth floor exhibition ‘Off-Grid’ at the New Museum makes powerful use of the gallery’s high ceilings with two large-scale installations employing evocative materials. Lengths of light-colored sisal hang in a curving grid to create what the museum calls a ‘warm cocoon,’ though with the piece, Kiwanga also references the freighted history of sisal in Tanzania, from colonial introduction to contemporary export. The show’s other piece, a two-part combination of geometric mirrors and hanging beads, features surfaces spray coated with aluminum meticulously harvested from floodlight reflectors used by urban police forces. The metallic surface reflects the gallery’s natural light, vs the light of nighttime surveillance. (On view on the Lower East Side through Sept 5^th).

Kapwani Kiwanga, installation view of ‘Off-Grid’ at the New Museum, July 2022.

Barbara Kruger at David Zwirner

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Hottest Show August 3, 2022August 3, 2022Comments are Disabled

Barbara Kruger’s iconic 1987 ‘I shop therefore I am’ image takes on new and damning forms in her powerful solo show at David Zwirner Gallery in Chelsea, where she updates the piece as a single channel video. The graphic materializes as if composed of puzzle pieces which break apart and reassemble every 57 seconds with new, provocative texts, including, “I am therefore I hate” and “I sext therefore I am.” Surrounded by wallpaper featuring hands holding imagery and messaging culled from the Internet, Kruger questions the values evidenced in contemporary culture and on-line discourse. (On view in Chelsea through Aug 12^th).

Barbara Kruger, Untitled (I shop therefore I am), single-channel video on LED panel, sound, 57 sec, 137 7/8 x 138 ¼ inches, 1987/2019.

Emily Mullin in ‘RGB’ at Yossi Milo Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Hottest Show July 26, 2022February 9, 2025Comments are Disabled

Can art compete with nature? Emily Mullin’s ceramics at Yossi Milo Gallery, presented on wall-mounted shelves and offset by a rectangle of background color, are crowned by show-stealing floral arrangements. Yet like the flowers, which will change as the piece is displayed, Mullin sees her hand-made ceramic pieces as unique individuals, almost characters. Together, this quirky assemblage of sculpture, support and background challenges expectations, existing, as the artist puts it, “…between the space of representation and reality.” (On view through August 12^th in Chelsea).

Emily Mullin, xtravaganza, Lime Raku fired vessels, powder coated steel, flora, 17 x 21 ¼ x 8 inches, (flora dimensions variable), 2022.

Barbara Kruger – MoMA and David Zwirner Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Hottest Show July 23, 2022July 19, 2022Comments are Disabled

Have you seen this eye-grabbing new installation by Barbara Kruger in the Museum of Modern Art’s atrium? Don’t miss the rest of the show at David Zwirner Gallery in Chelsea, where the gallery’s three adjoining spaces on 19^th Street showcase work from a recent exhibition of Kruger’s work at the Art Institute of Chicago and the LA County Museum of Art. Join me on a Chelsea gallery tour to see the show before it closes on Aug 12^th.

Barbara Kruger, installation view of Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You at The Museum of Modern Art, July 2022.

Lauren Halsey at David Kordansky Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Hottest Show June 8, 2022February 16, 2025Comments are Disabled

The architecture and people of South-Central Los Angeles inspire LA artist Lauren Halsey’s sculptures at David Kordansky Gallery’s new Chelsea location, from low relief carvings of barbershop advertising to this sprawling mixed media installation titled ‘My Hope.’ Featuring a version of Kindle’s Do-nuts colossal signage, a doll-sized version of a church service, mini-pyramids and much more, the assemblage speaks to the vibrancy of life in Halsey’s neighborhood. A collector of images since youth, Halsey expands her archives in daily early morning walks through the streets of South-Central; here, her findings from all over combine to create an architecture of pride and promise. (On view through June 11^th).

Lauren Halsey, My Hope, mixed media, installation dimensions variable approximate installation dimensions: 152 x 214 x 125 inches, 2022.

Glenn Kaino at Pace Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Hottest Show June 7, 2022June 7, 2022Comments are Disabled

Just as this fifty-foot-long sculpture by Glenn Kaino at Pace Gallery multiplies and extends Olympic gold winner Tommie Smith’s raised fist on the podium at the 1968 Olympics, the athlete’s gesture for social justice continues to impact protest in and beyond the sports world. The installation – Kaino’s first at Pace Gallery – comes on the heels of his ‘Pass the Baton’ NFT project, through which digital renderings of a baton used by Smith in record-breaking races have been sold to raise funds for activist organizations. The piece is on view through Saturday, but if you don’t catch it at Pace Gallery, an earlier, larger sculpture from the Bridge series will go on view next year in the Smithsonian’s permanent collection in Washington DC. (On view through June 11^th in Chelsea).

Glenn Kaino, installation view of Bridge (Raise Your Voice in Silence) at Pace Gallery, June 2022.

Ebony G Patterson, Tapestry Installations at Hales Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Hottest Show May 20, 2022February 12, 2025Comments are Disabled

In the darkened space of Hales Gallery’s Chelsea location, Ebony G. Patterson’s ‘night garden’ entices with elaborately cut works on paper and wall-mounted tapestry installations decorated with strings of beads, glitter and other alluring objects. Each features a female figure (here in pink) with missing face or other body parts, a representative of loss who is literally no longer whole herself. Patterson explains that on occasions of mourning, it’s often women who are the public face of their family or community; as such, this central, sequined figure, like the garden around her, represents ‘beauty concealing trauma and violence.’ (On view through June 18^th).

Ebony G. Patterson, ‘….in the swallowing…she carries the whole…the hole’ (partial view), hand-cut jacquard woven photo tapestry with appliqué, fabric, plastic, beads, feathers, trim, glitter, and wood mounted on wallpaper in two (2) parts, 50 3/8 x 86 1/4 x 5 7/8 in, 2021 – 2022.

Doug Aitken, Wilderness at 303 Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show May 13, 2022February 11, 2025Comments are Disabled

In his latest multi-screen video installation, ‘Wilderness’ at 303 Gallery, renowned artist Doug Aitken asks, “How far we will continue to evolve, and at what cost?” Aitken’s last major show in ‘18 at his Chelsea gallery featured communications expert and cell-phone pioneer Martin Cooper pondering how connected we actually need to be. Here, the artist takes this train of thought further, shooting footage on the beach near his Venice home to suggest land’s end as a kind of metaphorical end to pre-digital life. Beachgoers mouth phrases like ‘You sound so sweet and clear but you’re not really there,’ but the audio is from AI generated digital voices. Alluring and alarming, Aitken’s scenes give pause for thought as we witness hands photographing the sunset becoming hands that hail the new. (On view through May 27^th).

Doug Aitken, Wilderness, installation view, eight-channel composited video, 2022.

Camille Norment at the Dia Art Foundation

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show March 25, 2022March 24, 2022Comments are Disabled

Norway-based American artist Camille Norment conceives of social relationships past and present in terms of sound in two new commissions at the Dia Art Foundation in Chelsea. For this untitled piece, microphones in the gallery pick up ambient sound and send it down the stem and into the bell below. As sound creates more sound and feeds back into the loop, auditory events in the room become, in Norment’s words, “an exponential saturation of voice, existing and experienced as a negotiation of control.” (On view through Jan 2023).

Camille Norment, Untitled, brass, sine waves, autonomous feedback system, and archival radio static, 2022.

Tomas Saraceno at The Shed

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show March 1, 2022March 1, 2022Comments are Disabled

This web is a tiny part of Tomas Saraceno’s current show at The Shed in Hudson Yards, but like the rest of the exhibition, it elicits wonder at the natural world, prompting greater respect for the web of interspecies relationships around us. Housed behind glass and spot lit from below, webs created by various species of spiders in Saraceno’s Berlin studio demonstrate the arthropods’ ability to communicate and understand the world around them through motion perceived via webs. Elsewhere in the show, visitors are invited to physically enter a version of a web in the immersive installation ‘Free the Air: How to hear the universe in a spider/web’ by settling on a web of wire mesh netting to listen to a soundtrack that translates spider movements into sound. (On view at The Shed through April 17^th).

Tomas Saraceno, installation view (detail) of ‘Webs of At-tent(s)ion,’ spider frames, spider silk, carbon fibers, lights, 2020.

Sarah Cain at Broadway

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show October 13, 2021October 12, 2021Comments are Disabled

Sarah Cain pushes the boundaries of what painting can be, literally extending beyond the canvas onto gallery floors and walls and adopting unexpected materials like sequined backpacks and an easy chair. Her current solo show at Broadway in Tribeca features traditional, framed 2-D artworks but also this installation, a combination of expressionist and hard-edge painting that invites the audience to step in and feel the color. (On view through Oct 16^th).

Sarah Cain, installation view at Broadway Gallery, Oct 21 featuring (back wall) Jamillah, acrylic, color copies, uv seal, and backpack on canvas, 60 x 48 inches, 2021 and (floor) Untitled (NYC), acrylic on floor, 237.5 x 262 inches, 2021.

Kay Rosen, Queue Up at Sikkema Jenkins

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show October 5, 2021February 11, 2025Comments are Disabled

‘Stay Away’ reads an enormous latex sign on the wall of Sikkema Jenkins and Co in Chelsea, not warning visitors away but welcoming them to Kay Rosen’s new show of text-based artwork. Seeing words as found material, Rosen repeats word fragments (such as the ‘ay in ‘stay’ and ‘away’) in a play on language that highlights unnoticed connections. Here, ‘Queue Up’ speaks to the experiences of lining up during the pandemic. (On view through Oct 16^th. Masks required).

Kay Rosen, Queue Up, latex on wall, installation dimensions variable, 2020 – 21.

Martine Syms at Bridget Donahue

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show September 6, 2021September 6, 2021Comments are Disabled

Martine Syms fans expect a stream-of-conscious outpouring of text and image (as in her recent diaristic book, ‘Shame Space’) and her latest solo at Bridget Donahue will not disappoint. Videos housed in custom, laser-cut cardboard boxes covered in fragments of commercial imagery or even inserted into a corner of a hanging dry cleaning bag run counter to typical sleek gallery video presentations. Positioned in front of one video wall, this chair titled ‘Bonnet Core’ sports frilly lace at the edges, abundant text and a high heeled pink boot next to one chair leg. Accompanied by a press release written by Alissa Bennett detailing enthusiastic engagement with an auction of Janet Jackson’s belongings earlier this year, the show speaks to our deeply personal yet shared experience of pop culture. (On view through Sept 25^th on the Lower East Side).

Martine Syms, Bonnet Core, cotton, rhinestones, metal, paint, lace, polyester, thread, 39 3/8 x 18 1/8 x 25 ¾ inches, 2021.

Yto Barrada in ‘Hiding in Plain Sight’ at Pace Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show August 18, 2021August 17, 2021Comments are Disabled

Is abstraction less political than representational art? ‘Hiding in Plain Sight,’ Pace Gallery’s summer group exhibition, argues for abstract art’s capacity to embody resistance. Yto Barrada’s ‘Geological Time Scale,’ a selection of monochrome Moroccan rugs arranged around a custom-built table, recalls how an early 20^th century French general’s catalogue of traditional rugs excluded single-color pieces, his bias impacting his audience’s understanding of Moroccan textile production. (On view in Chelsea through Aug 20^th).

Yto Barrada, Geological Time Scale (assembled group of primarily monochrome Beni Mguild, Marmoucha, and Ait Sgougou pile rugs from Western Central, Middle Atlas, Morocco), Mid-20th Century, mixed media, dimensions variable, 2015.

Karyn Olivier at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show July 21, 2021July 20, 2021Comments are Disabled

Shirt sleeves, pant legs, scarves and other clothing fragments peek out intriguingly from between layers of red brick at the entrance to Karyn Olivier’s current solo show at Chelsea’s Tanya Bonakdar Gallery. On the reverse side of this floor to ceiling wall, the rest of each garment hangs in a mass collage of color and pattern Titled ‘Fortified,’ the piece suggests a barrier erected and made strong by the people. (On view in Chelsea through July 30^th).

Karyn Olivier, Fortified, bricks, used clothing and steel, 144 x 240 x 30 inches, 2018-2020.

Ann Agee Installation at PPOW Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show July 12, 2021February 11, 2025Comments are Disabled

Inspired by Florentine salt cellars depicting religious imagery, Ann Agee’s contemporary Madonna and child sculptures rethink traditional devotional objects. After an online taster exhibition featuring mother and child sculpture in summer ‘20, Agee rewards an in-person visit to PPOW Gallery with dozens of sculptures in wonderfully bold patterns and styles that range from detailed to abstract. Occupying one huge pedestal at the center of the gallery, Agee’s homage to mothers and – in this case female – children is a celebration of variety and invention. (On view in Tribeca through July 23^rd.)

Ann Agee, installation view of ‘Madonnas and Handwarmers,’ July 2021.

Marlene McCarty at Sikkema Jenkins & Co

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show July 6, 2021July 6, 2021Comments are Disabled

Rue is a herb that can be used as a contraceptive and in high doses can kill; it’s one of the plants in Marlene McCarty’s installation ‘Into the Weeds: Sex and Death’ at Sikkema Jenkins & Co which presents plants with medicinal and/or lethal properties in a dumpster outside the gallery and a pile of dirt lit by grow lights inside. Rue also features in one of the McCarty’s large drawings, positioned in front of The Vessel at Hudson Yards (a symbol of developer’s power and more recently, death by suicide), two Roman sandals and more. Explained in detail through histories of each plant posted to the gallery website, McCarty’s point is to highlight flora’s power to undermine established order. (On view through July 30^th. Masks and social distancing required).

Marlene McCarty, installation view of ‘Into the Weeds: Sex and Death’ at Sikkema Jenkins & Co, June, 2021.

Yin Xiuzhen at Pace Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show June 2, 2021June 2, 2021Comments are Disabled

Based in Beijing but frequently traveling to exhibit her artwork, Yin Xiuzhen was inspired to turn suitcases into ceiling-mounted mini-cities now on view at Pace Gallery in Chelsea. Working with second-hand clothing from the city she’s depicting, she has constructed small-scale versions of urban landscapes and architecture from around the world. Both deeply personal – made from a material that expresses many individuals’ personal tastes and circumstances – and representing architecture ‘owned’ by an entire city of citizens, Yin Xiuzhen connects individual and collective experience in a global framework. (On view through June 26^th.Masks and social distancing required.)

Yin Xiuzhen, detail from the installation ‘Along the Way’ at Pace Gallery, May/June 2021.

Ugo Rondinone at Gladstone Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show May 18, 2021May 18, 2021Comments are Disabled

Like his colossal humanoids made of rough-hewn blocks of stone at Rockefeller Center in 2013 or his colorful rock stacks located outside of Las Vegas, Ugo Rondinone’s towering sculptures at Gladstone Gallery offer a transformative experience. Titled ‘nuns + monks,’ the three figures are scaled up bronze versions of stones broken in ways that resemble figures in voluminous ecclesiastical garments. Rondinone explains that nuns and monks exist as ‘vessel and beacon, human body and mystical source,’ and therefore represent the possibility of new metaphorical interpretation. (On view in Chelsea through June 18^th. Masks and social distancing are required.)

Ugo Rondinone, Installation view of ‘nuns + monks’ at Gladstone Gallery, May 2021.

Josiah McElheny at James Cohan Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show May 12, 2021May 11, 2021Comments are Disabled

Josiah McElheny’s current show of blown glass sculpture at James Cohan Gallery’s Lower East Side location was inspired by a set of references as complex as his mirrored environments but dazzles even without the background info. Prompted by a library imagined by Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges, McElheny creates vessels intended to house various forms of knowledge. In this sculpture, McElheny explains that oblong shapes embody the idea of atoms in motion and the planet on its elliptical orbit. Though we don’t literally see a library of knowledge relating to elliptical motion, each sculpture inspires wonder at the possibilities of what we may have not yet considered. (On view on the Lower East Side through June 12^th. Masks and social distancing are required).

Josiah McElheny, From the Library of Elliptical Motion, Hand-blown, cut, polished, and mirrored glass; low-iron mirror and two-way mirror; electric light; walnut frame, 24 1/4 x 28 x 20 1/2 in, 2021.

Olafur Eliasson Solo Show at Tanya Bonakdar

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show March 15, 2021February 11, 2025Comments are Disabled

Glass balls in a rainbow of color and a beautifully ephemeral light projection greet visitors to Olafur Eliasson’s gorgeous new solo show at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, an exhibition designed to give visitors ‘a moment to exhale.’ ‘We need a moment of relief, of beauty, of letting go,’ explains Eliasson, an ambition fulfilled by every piece in the exhibition, including this spherical light installation. Created from green tinted glass and pink iridescent color-effect-filter glass, the piece reflects light of a single color while allowing its complementary color to pass through. (On view through April 24^th. Appointments, masks and social distancing required.)

Edgy but perfect kinship sphere, color-effect filter glass (pink), color glass (green), stainless steel, LED system, diameter: 43 1/4 inches, 2020.

Amelia Toledo at Nara Roesler Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show March 8, 2021March 6, 2021Comments are Disabled

After debuting its new Chelsea gallery space with a tantalizing series of two-week long exhibitions, Brazilian gallery Nara Roesler continues to impress with a career-survey exhibition of gorgeous work by the late Amelia Toledo. Inspired by the participatory nature of Neo-Concrete art and a devotion to nature and the possibilities of color, Toledo’s multifarious career included installations consisting of hanging jute panels like this ‘Path of color.’ (On view through April 17^th. Masks and social distancing required).

Amelia Toledo, Paths of color, 38 pieces of painted jute, c. 100 x 177 x 177 inches, 1999-2000.

Abdullah M. I. Syed at Aicon Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show February 24, 2021February 23, 2021Comments are Disabled

A glowing globe of hand-stitched prayer caps headlines ‘Nurun ‘ala Nur (Light Upon Light)’, Australian artist Abdullah M. I. Syed’s current show at Aicon Gallery. Positioned over a water-like, reflective blue surface, the light sculpture imitates a full moon, associating the sublime beauty of a celestial body with personal and group devotion. (On view through March 6^th).

Abdullah M. I. Syed, Nurun ‘ala Nur (Light Upon Light), Hand-stitched white crochet taqiyah (skullcaps), LED light, Perspex dome and mirror, Dimensions variable, 2015.

Dan Flavin in ‘Flavin, Judd, McCracken, Sandback’ at David Zwirner Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show February 6, 2021February 6, 2021Comments are Disabled

Twelve untitled light sculptures from 1995 by Dan Flavin transform the white cube into a bath of color at David Zwirner Gallery’s 19^th Street Chelsea location. Spaced along two walls, the color configurations change with each sculpture, inviting visitors who walk from piece to piece to reconcile cool and soothing blues and greens with intense reds and yellows. (On view through Feb 20^th. Masks and social distancing are required.)

Dan Flavin, untitled, blue, red and green fluorescent light, 4 ft wide, edition of 5, 1995.

Julio Le Parc at Perrotin Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show December 16, 2020December 15, 2020Comments are Disabled

To Argentinian-French artist Julio Le Parc, the individual’s experience of his work is everything. From inventing games that could be played on the street to constructing installations of moving lights, Le Parc has experimented with ways to draw in his audience and heighten their perceptions of the world around them. Here, at Perrotin Gallery, hanging aluminum shapes reflect the gallery and visitors, bringing both into the experience of the sculpture. (On view on the Lower East Side through Dec 23^rd. Masks and social distancing are required).

Julio Le Parc, Continuel mobile en diagonal, Inox steel, coated steel cable, aluminium, 118 1/8 × 118 1/8 × 118 1/8 inch, 2020.

Sam Gilliam at Pace Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show December 1, 2020November 27, 2020Comments are Disabled

On a recent visit to Basel, Switzerland, iconic Color Field painter Sam Gilliam was struck by how a recent influx of African immigrants has changed the city’s demographics. Gilliam began pondering architectural forms from the African continent; a variety of pyramidal forms and circular buildings (e.g. Great Zimbabwe) come to mind on entering his arrangement of beautifully toned wood and aluminum sculptures at Pace Gallery. Resting on wheels, the pieces have the potential to be moved (though not by gallery visitors) – an improvisation like a musical composition. (On view in Chelsea through Dec 19^th. Masks and social distancing are required).

Sam Gilliam, installation view of Existed Existing at Pace Gallery, Nov 2020.

Ward Shelley and Douglas Paulson at Pierogi Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show September 26, 2020February 9, 2025Comments are Disabled

Boxes are stacked floor to ceiling and charts dominate a claustrophobic space introduced as ‘The Truth Workshop,’ an installation by artists Ward Shelley and Douglas Paulson at Pierogi Gallery. The artists conceived this drably colored, overwhelmingly crowded room as the place where the secretive powers-that-be concoct what the public will believe to be truth. Stacked boxes labeled ‘Fake News Homeruns,’ or ‘Classic Inside Jobs’ house the juicy details of manufactured truths while rows of books with titles like ‘Trashing the Planet’ offer instruction on nefarious activities. (On view on the Lower East Side through Oct 11^th. Appointments are not necessary. Masks and social distancing are required.)

Ward Shelley and Douglas Paulson, installation view of ‘The Room Where it Happened,’ at Pierogi Gallery, Sept 2020.

Sarah Morris at 1285 Avenue of the Americas

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show September 7, 2020September 7, 2020Comments are Disabled

On your way to the newly reopened MoMA? If it’s that or something else that takes you to mid-town Manhattan, be sure to check out Sarah Morris’ UBS Wall Painting in the UBS building on 6^th Ave right around the corner from the museum. Morris’ mural packs a punch from the sidewalk, towering over passersby and offering an abstracted image of the city grid (including this very building) that’s livelier and more colorful than the real version surrounding it. (On view at 1285 Avenue of the Americas.)

Sarah Morris, UBS Wall Painting, household gloss paint on wall, 195.6 x 536 inches, 2001/2019.

Katsu, Dot at The Hole NYC

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show July 26, 2020February 11, 2025Comments are Disabled

Seven blank white canvases, spray paint and drone technology have turned The Hole NYC into one huge painting by New York street artist and tech pioneer Katsu. Partnering with Tsuru robotics in Moscow, Katsu has developed ways to write by drone and recently, to enable drones to create abstract paintings with programmed randomness. (On view through August 23^rd).

Katsu, installation view of ‘Dot’ at The Hole NYC, July 2020

Felix Gonzalez-Torres at locations around the world

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show June 16, 2020June 16, 2020Comments are Disabled

This pile of foil-wrapped candy by late artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres pays homage to a sheet of gold – an artwork by Roni Horn that gave Gonzalez-Torres and his dying partner hope. Intended to be taken by individual visitors, Gonzalez-Torres’ free sweets are a gesture of generosity and an expression both of pleasure and of loss as the pile of candies gradually dwindles. Similarly, his ‘Untitled’ (Fortune Cookie Corner) from 1990 offers participants a positive message in the form of a fortune cookie, piles of which are currently installed from Buenos Aires to Beijing in hundreds of places, from parks to public kitchens, outside of museums and stores and in private homes. Initiated by Andrea Rosen Gallery & David Zwirner Gallery, the New York Times suggests that the project “addresses the grief of today’s pandemic – just as it did the AIDS crisis.” (On view through July 5^th.)

Felix Gonzalez-Torres, installation view of “Untitled” (Placebo-Landscape – for Roni), candies individually wrapped in gold cellophane, endless supply, overall dimensions vary with installation, ideal weight: 1,200 lbs, Sammlung Hoffmann, Berlin, 1993.

Meriem Bennani 2 Lizards and Siham & Hafida

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show April 29, 2020June 1, 2025Comments are Disabled

Two Moroccan women navigate the changing face of traditional Aita music in Meriem Bennani’s mesmerizing video ‘Siham & Hafida’ from ’17, seen here at The Kitchen in a photo from New York Art Tours’ archive. Two quite different characters – a pair of lizards in Brooklyn – navigate a separate set of challenges in Bennani’s new video series, launched with filmmaker friend Orian Barki in mid-March as a break from COVID-19 mandated isolation. Entertaining and short, the videos speak to the surreal quality of life during the pandemic. (Episode One. Episode Two).

Meriem Bennani, still from the video installation Siham & Hafida, The Kitchen, 2017.

Doug Wheeler, 49 Nord 6 Est 68 Ven 12 FL at David Zwirner

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show March 5, 2020February 12, 2025Comments are Disabled

Light and space artist Doug Wheeler’s installation at David Zwirner Gallery makes light a transformative medium, turning the white cube into a glowing and changeable environment to challenge the senses. Light disperses before our eyes as it fades from the bright glow of neon tubes installed in a recessed space to the darker areas of the wall, floor and ceiling at the end of the long rectangular gallery. (On view in Chelsea through March 21^st).

Doug Wheeler, 49 Nord 6 Est 68 Ven 12 FL, installation view at David Zwirner Gallery, Jan 2020.

John Dowell at Laurence Miller Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show January 3, 2020December 28, 2019Comments are Disabled

In his photographic images featuring cotton plants now on view at Chelsea’s Laurence Miller Gallery, John Dowell aims to ‘evoke the remembering, feeling and sense of wonder in African American ancestral strategies of survival.’ Dowell inserts cotton fields in photos of Central Park, Wall Street, Trinity Church and other famous New York sites, creating haunting images and recalling injustices inflicted on African American communities at these places and elsewhere. The show’s centerpiece, ‘Lost in Cotton,’ invites visitors to enter an enclosure of hanging panels that recall the artist’s grandmother’s frightening childhood experience of getting lost among tall cotton plants. (On view through Jan 25^th).

John Dowell, Lost in Cotton, 18 digital prints on taffeta, 10 x 12 x 10 feet, 2017.

Baseera Khan at Simone Subal Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show December 17, 2019December 17, 2019Comments are Disabled

A broken column constructed of foam core and covered by custom handmade silk Kashmiri rugs in Baseera Khan’s current show at Simone Subal Gallery suggests an empire toppled, its segments like gears in a massive, defunct machine. Instead of dominating visitors with its huge size though, the pillar entices thanks to its decorative patterns and appears mysteriously futuristic due to its liquid-looking resin core. Fascinating remnants entice us to consider the historical past as complicated and unknown, suggesting new legacies for the future. (On view on the Lower East Side through Dec 22^nd).

Baseera Khan, installation view of ‘snake skin’ at Simone Subal Gallery, Nov 2019.

Yayoi Kusama, Ladder to Heaven at David Zwirner Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show December 12, 2019February 12, 2025Comments are Disabled

The line to enter Yayoi Kusama’s latest mirror-lined infinity room at David Zwirner Gallery stretches around the block, but you can walk right up to her infinity mirror, ‘Ladder to Heaven.’ Look up and visitors are presented with an endless (theoretical) climb or, conversely, a bottomless descent, suggesting that our fate is in our own hands. (On view in Chelsea through Dec 14^th).

Yayoi Kusama, Ladder to Heaven, steel, LED lights, mirrored glass, honeycomb aluminum, and plastic, 154 xx 59 inches, 2019.

Peter Halley at Greene Naftali Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show December 10, 2019December 10, 2019Comments are Disabled

Inspired by the city grid, jail cell windows, high-rise buildings and other structures designed to regulate and control human activity, Peter Halley’s Neo-Geo abstraction has exceeded into own regulatory bounds in a dramatic, maze-like installation at Chelsea’s Greene Naftali Gallery. Up and down stairs, around blind bends and through an eye-popping assault of day-glo color, visitors find their way through an environment that feels as if we’d stepped into one of Halley’s paintings. Here, a painting composed of stacked forms has an altar-like presence at the top of a vividly green staircase. (On view through Dec 20^th).

Peter Halley, installation view of ‘Heterotopia II’ at Greene Naftali Gallery, Nov 2019.

Lee Bae at Perrotin Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show, Inside View December 6, 2019December 4, 2019Comments are Disabled

Korean-Parisian artist Lee Bae’s medium is more than a means to an end. Since buying a cheap bag of charcoal as a cash-strapped new arrival to the French art scene in 1990, Lee’s interest in the medium has expanded to drawings, sculpture and 2-D mosaics of polished charcoal. He points to the role of charcoal in Korean culture (from art medium to building material) to connect to age-old tradition to his production today. At Perrotin Gallery’s spacious upstairs space, the artist has installed sculptures of Korean pine turned to charcoal in his own kiln, a month-long process which results in a piece of material with endless possibilities. (On view through Dec 21^st.)

Lee Bae, installation view of ‘Promenade’ at Galerie Perrotin, Nov 2019.

Walead Beshty Installation at Petzel Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show December 2, 2019February 12, 2025Comments are Disabled

Many artists work with fascinating methods on which they, unfortunately, don’t elaborate. Walead Beshty’s latest installation at Petzel Gallery swings to an almost opposite extreme, detailing the contents of his studio in over five thousand images picturing tools and objects that have contributed in some way to his production as an artist. Each cyanotype is the product of a simple photographic process that renders objects in white against a treated blue background of newspapers, boxes, personal correspondence and more. Originally commissioned by London’s Barbican Art Center in 2013, the installation (seen only in part at Petzel Gallery) still speaks powerfully to the incredible amount of unseen labor behind today’s art production. (On view in Chelsea through Dec 14^th).

Walead Beshty, installation view of “A Partial Disassembling of an Invention Without a Future: Helter-Skelter and Random Notes in Which the Pulleys and Cogwheels Are Lying Around at Random All Over the Workbench” at Petzel Gallery, Nov, 2019.

Marco Maggi Installation at Josee Bienvenu Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show October 24, 2019February 11, 2025Comments are Disabled

It took a good part of the summer for Uruguayan artist Marco Maggi to install his immersive installation at Josee Bienvenu Gallery in Chelsea, yet it’s possible to visit the gallery and not even notice the artwork. Maggi employed his signature technique of cutting tiny geometric shapes and strips from adhesive paper and adhering them to the wall in his latest show, but he keeps the gallery lights off, forcing viewers to employ flashlights to hunt for the work. As the show’s subtitle, ‘From Obscurantism to Enlightenment’ suggests, Maggi wants viewers to enjoy the process of looking, slowing down and letting enlightenment unfold. (On view through Nov 11^th).

Marco Maggi, installation view of ‘Initialism (From Obscurantism to Enlightenment)’ at Josee Bienvenu Gallery, Oct, 2019.

Wael Shawky at Lisson Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show October 7, 2019October 1, 2019Comments are Disabled

Egyptian artist Wael Shawky talks of crafting history as a medium, referencing existing texts, historical paintings, poems and more to conjure a new creative product. His latest show at Lisson Gallery takes inspiration from histories of the Arabian peninsula from the 17^th century to the present, particularly considering the rapid development of the region’s cities. Here, a glass structure and a giant palm tree act like beacons atop two hills, situated on a larger blue/green structure alluding to traditional thick-walled Najd architecture in a striking installation alive with opaque allusions. (On view in Chelsea through Oct 19^th).

Wael Shawky, The Gulf Project Camp: Glass Sculpture #1, glass, 29 ½ x 31 ½ x 78 5/8 inches, 2019.

Jeppe Hein at 303 Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show September 29, 2019September 25, 2019Comments are Disabled

Though Berlin-based Danish artist Jeppe Hein has installed his trademark polished stainless steel panels in large outdoor spaces (notably at Brooklyn Bridge Park in 2015), 303 Gallery’s tiny back space seems uniquely suited to host an intense experience of reality for visitors who see themselves and Hein’s striped paintings cut together in thin strips. Hein has explained that his stripe paintings represent breathing in and out which sounds meditative, but in this installation is geared to quicken the senses. (On view in Chelsea through Oct 19^th).

Jeppe Hein, Intersecting Circles, high polished stainless steel, 87 3/8 x 85 x 70 inches, 2019.

Sarah Sze at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show September 12, 2019September 12, 2019Comments are Disabled

Ever aware of the evolving role of images as stand-ins for real objects in the digital era, Sarah Sze creates a wave in the form of photos, video and rotating projections at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery. Titled ‘Crescent (Timekeeper),’ the installation displays fragmentary glimpses of the natural world on a rickety but orderly wooden frame. Visitors who step close to explore a coyote crossing a road, a raging flame or a bird in flight experience a dynamic and evolving sculpture that offers an immersive experience in real time. (On view in Chelsea through Oct 19^th).

Sarah Sze, Crescent (Timekeeper), mixed media, wood, stainless steel, acrylic, video projectors, archival pigment prints, ceramic and tape, dimensions variable, 2019.

Meg Webster in ‘Non-Vicious Circle’ at Paula Cooper Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show August 16, 2019July 22, 2019Comments are Disabled

Unlike her mid-20^th century counterparts who also employed minimalist forms, repetition, and awareness of the immediate environment in their sculpture, Meg Webster’s interest in the natural world connects her installation of five glass spheres from 1987 at Paula Cooper Gallery to the wonder of naturally occurring phenomena. The imperfectly formed shapes are scaled up to the size of those made by huge bubble wands at a kids’ science museums yet they evoke the briefly lived magic of a floating pocket of air. (On view in Chelsea through August 16^th).

Meg Webster, Largest Blown Sphere, five glass spheres, each 36 x 36 x 36 inches, 1987.

Mel Ziegler at Galerie Perrotin

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show August 6, 2019July 22, 2019Comments are Disabled

Fifteen years of collected memorabilia from Mt Rushmore yielded the material for artist Mel Ziegler’s one thousand digitally printed portraits of the monument’s four presidents, currently filling the ground floor of Galerie Perrotin on the Lower East Side. Though repetition and systemization are key, the degradation of each image – suggesting they were lifted from cheaply made or tiny reproductions – leaves the most lasting impression. Despite the scale of the effort in the original Rushmore or Ziegler’s redo, there’s no guarantee that a burnished image will be handed down to posterity. (On view through Aug 16^th).

Mel Ziegler, detail installation view of ‘1000 Portraits,’ inkjet on canvas, dimensions variable, each canvas 8 x 10 inches, 2018.

Leonardo Drew at Galerie Lelong

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show June 15, 2019June 15, 2019Comments are Disabled

Newly represented by Galerie Lelong, Leonardo Drew’s inaugural show at the gallery arrives with a bang with an installation that resembles a hovering mass of exploded material. Like the artist’s recently opened outdoor work at Madison Square Park, the piece offers an unexpected blast of color unfamiliar to fans of Drew’s black, white and wood-colored wall sculptures while continuing to ponder themes of destruction and regeneration. (On view in Chelsea through August 2^nd).

Leonardo Drew, Number 215, wood, paint and sand, dimensions variable, 2019.

Rena Detrixhe at Spencer Brownstone Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show June 5, 2019June 4, 2019Comments are Disabled

Finely sifted red soil imported from Oklahoma becomes a patterned carpet in Rena Detrixhe’s first New York solo show at Spencer Brownstone Gallery. Using a trowel to smooth down the dirt, then imprinting it with modified shoe soles, the Kansas-based artist considers the symbolic value attached to land in the mid-west while alluding to mankind’s impact on it. (On view on the Lower East Side through June 16^th).

Rena Detrixhe, Red Dirt Rug, sifted red soil, 20 x 10 feet, 2019.

Josh Kline, Inundation at 47 Canal

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show May 29, 2019February 12, 2025Comments are Disabled

What happens to humanity if global warming leads to drastic sea level rise? Josh Kline envisions the end of life as we know it in a provocative sculpture series featuring submerged cities and preserved specimens of everyday 21^st century life at 47 Canal on the Lower East Side. Inside lab hoods, preserved doll-house sized domestic and office environments suggest that what’s normal now may soon be a thing of the past. (On view through June 9^th).

Josh Kline, detail view of Inundation, lab hood, glass, urethane paint, light box, reinforced steel, color filter gel, blackout fabric, contents: glass, silicone, dollhouse miniatures, fabricated miniatures, objects cast in epoxy resin, cyanoacrylate glue, silicone epoxy, 89 ¾ x 48 x 33 inches, 2019.

Paola Pivi at Perrotin Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show May 12, 2019May 8, 2019Comments are Disabled

The word for Italian born, Alaska-based artist Paola Pivi’s installation of multi-colored, feathered baby bears at Perrotin Gallery on the Lower East Side is ‘cute.’ Explaining that the installation was inspired by her adopted son’s “energy, life and positivity,” Pivi developed a series of bears playfully fighting, doing acrobatics and generally looking to inspire ‘awwwws.’ (On view through June 8^th).

Paola Pivi, installation view of ‘We Are the Baby Gang’ at Perrotin Gallery, April 2019.

Firelei Baez at James Cohan Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show May 4, 2019May 4, 2019Comments are Disabled

Under a recreation of the night sky as it appeared at the start of the Haitian Revolution, Firelei Baez presents a dramatic installation at James Cohan Gallery’s Lower East Side space featuring empowered female figures who assert their presence in the gallery and in history. Wearing a tignon that refers to the 18^th century legal requirement for African-diasporic women to cover their hair, this casually posed yet regal figure lacks a mouth yet speaks with her eyes. (On view through June 16^th).

Firelei Baez, installation view of A Drexcyen Chronocommons (To win the war you fought it sideways) at James Cohan Gallery on the Lower East Side, April 2019.

Vivian Suter at Barbara Gladstone Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show April 25, 2019July 19, 2025Comments are Disabled

From her studio on a former coffee plantation in rural Guatemala, Argentine-Brazilian artist Vivian Suter created the large-scale paintings currently hanging from the ceiling, covering walls and extending to the floor at Gladstone Gallery’s 21^st Street location. Inspired by nature and literally created outdoors, sometimes in conjunction with the elements, Suter aims to subordinate art to the power of nature. (On view in Chelsea through June 8^th).

Vivian Suter, installation view at Gladstone Gallery, April 2019.

Barthelemy Toguo at Galerie Lelong

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show April 20, 2019April 18, 2019Comments are Disabled

Part installation, part performance, Cameroonian-French artist Barthelemy Toguo’s ‘Urban Requiem’ begins with a room of charcoal drawings of African Americans killed by police and culminates in a gallery of heavy, wooden, torso-shaped stamps marked with messages. Against the back wall of the show, prints made using the stamps advocate for peace and respect for human life. The stamp in the foreground incites hope for ‘All the world’s futures.’ (On view at Galerie Lelong in Chelsea through May 11^th).

Barthelemy Toguo, Installation view of ‘Urban Requiem’ at Galerie Lelong, April 2019.

Andisheh Avini at Marianne Boesky Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show March 23, 2019March 19, 2019Comments are Disabled

External architecture comes indoors at Marianne Boesky Gallery in Chelsea, where Iranian-American artist Andisheh Avini has installed two domed forms. Born and raised in the US but inspired by his Iranian heritage, Avini provocatively arranges these two quasi-readymades (the domes are crafted and painted by hand) to suggest danger via their pointed spires, around which visitors are invited to step. (On view in Chelsea through April 6^th).

Andisheh Avini, Untitled, acrylic, brass, foam, resin and wood, two works, each approx: 8 x 10 feet, 2019.

Josh Sperling at Perrotin Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show February 15, 2019February 13, 2019Comments are Disabled

Josh Sperling describes his shaped canvases as “simple, beautiful, and fun” in a recent Perrotin Gallery video that touts the pleasures of looking. He can add ‘huge’ to describe fifteen-foot tall Hocus Pocus, a centerpiece of his current show at the gallery. Evoking flowers or ripples from raindrops in water, the assemblage of eighty-four separate paintings is pure enjoyment. (On view on the Lower East Side through Feb 16^th).

Josh Sperling, installation view of Hocus Pocus, acrylic on canvas (84 elements), 15 x 18 feet, 2018.

Claudia Comte Solo Show at Barbara Gladstone

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show January 30, 2019July 19, 2025Comments are Disabled

Swiss artist Claudia Comte makes walls the focus of her latest solo show at Chelsea’s Barbara Gladstone Gallery, nodding to US politics, cave paintings and installations like Sol LeWitt’s rule-based wall drawings. Destined to be popular on Instagram as selfie-backdrops, the show reinforces Comte’s wish to make art not just for the art world elite but for everyone. (On view on 24^th Street through Feb 16^th).

Claudia Comte, back wall: The Morphing Scallops (black on white) and right wall: Half Circles in a Grid (black on white) acrylic wall painting, dimensions variable, 2019.

Gregor Hildebrandt at Galerie Perrotin

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show December 11, 2018December 11, 2018Comments are Disabled

What do you do as a tune-loving artist with no talent for making music? German artist Gregor Hildebrandt’s answer has been to make art with music-related objects, creating walls with records pressed into clam-shell shapes and ‘paintings’ with cassette tape replacing brush strokes or lines. In the background of this installation view, VHS tape stretched against the wall creates a fluttering surface, as ephemeral as a musical note. (On view on the Lower East Side at Galerie Perrotin through Dec 22^nd).

Gregor Hildebrandt, installation view of ‘In My House, There are Many Rooms,’ at Perrotin, New York, Dec 2018.

Valerie Hegarty at Burning in Water

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show November 27, 2018November 27, 2018Comments are Disabled

In the shadow of Chelsea’s ultra-luxurious new residential buildings, Valerie Hegarty’s new sculptures and wall installations at Burning in Water are a poignant, contemporary vanitas, reminding us that what is fresh will soon be old. Here, the Brooklyn-based artist’s own subway stop is the inspiration for a paint and paper installation that nestles right into a pristine wall. (On view in Chelsea through Jan 5^th).

Valerie Hegarty, Eastern Parkway/Brooklyn Museum (My Subway Stop), paper, latex and acrylic paint, Tyvek, glue, 82 x 72 inches, 2018.

Urs Fischer at Gagosian Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show September 26, 2018September 26, 2018Comments are Disabled

Urs Fischer wants art to ‘do more than it does.’ With a team of software engineers and the input of choreographer Madeline Hollander, the New York-based Swiss artist sets out to surprise gallery visitors with a troupe of dancing office chairs, programmed to interact with each other and humans. Dubbed ‘robotic sculptures,’ the chairs come across as sinister if they come up behind you but strangely cute from the front as they hover nearby, slowly swiveling their wheels like a dog wagging its tail. Here, several engage in a group animation reminiscent of a chorus-line about to kick up its heels. (On view at Gagosian Gallery through Oct 13^th).

Urs Fischer, installation view of ‘Play’ at Gagosian Gallery’s 522 West 21st Street location, September, 2018.

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer at Bitforms

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show September 25, 2018September 25, 2018Comments are Disabled

A plano-convex lens dangling under three projectors creates a mesmerizing, constantly shifting pattern of light on the walls in Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s latest solo show at Bitforms. In advance of a major exhibition of his interactive environments at the Hirshhorn this fall, the artist’s current exhibition tantalizes with small scale pieces from the past few years that evoke wonder at the intersection of technology and the natural world. (On view on the Lower East Side through Oct 21^st).

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Semioptics for Spinoza, projection version, computer, 3D sensor, projectors, metal bracket, motor, Arduino processor, lens, dimensions variable, 2012.

Drake Carr at The Hole NYC

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show August 5, 2018August 1, 2018Comments are Disabled

Drake Carr’s acrylic and airbrush on canvas sculptures bring animation into three dimensions in a way that feels both fresh and disconcerting. To the right, a dancer looks set to leap off the wall. Behind, Carr nods to his mother’s window dressing business with a curtain arrangement that frames two weight lifters in a dramatic domestic setting. Two freestanding characters to the left represent residents of Flint (Carr hails from Michigan) whose odd gestures represent the unnatural quality of the city’s tainted water. (On view on the Lower East Side at The Hole NYC through August 12^th).

Drake Carr, installation view of ‘Gulp’ at The Hole, NYC, July 2018.

Rachel Lee Hovnanian Sculpture at Leila Heller

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show July 14, 2018February 11, 2025Comments are Disabled

A huge, flawless bar of soap in Carrara marble acts as an icon of purity in Rachel Lee Hovnanian’s current solo show at Leila Heller Gallery. The third in a series of consecutive exhibitions by the artist at this Chelsea gallery, the show encourages introspection and the chance to ‘clean up’ some mental baggage. Assistant by gallery staff, a visitor can write down something (s)he’d like to eliminate from her/his life on one of the cast plaster soaps stacked against the gallery wall, then smash the soap with a mallet. (On view in Chelsea through July 20^th).

Rachel Lee Hovnanian, PURE Marble Large, carrara marble, 15 x 10 ½ x 3 ¾ inches, ed of 8, 2018.

Sheila Hicks Installation at Sikkema Jenkins

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show June 26, 2018February 11, 2025Comments are Disabled

Known for large-scale installations of hanging, twisting and looping fibers, Sheila Hicks favors rich, 2-D color-fields in her latest solo show at Sikkema Jenkins & Co. As seen in this detail, Hicks combined several panels wrapped in individual strands of linen floss to create harmonies that speak to a lifetime of absorbing and rethinking textiles from around the world. (On view through July 6^th).

Sheila Hicks, installation detail at Sikkema Jenkins & Co., June 2018.

Claudia Wieser, Chapter at Marianne Boesky

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show, Inside View March 31, 2018February 11, 2025Comments are Disabled

Berlin-based artist Claudia Wieser takes the 1976 BBC drama ‘I, Claudius’ as inspiration for a gorgeous exhibition featuring wallpaper printed with towering busts from antiquity and a series of refined painted vessels atop a large ceramic tiled pedestal. Rather than tell a story or suggest particular meanings, Wieser evokes elegance and opulence using low-brow materials like wood and mirror-polished steel, perhaps a parallel to politically corrupt Roman rulers whose culture non-the-less produced prized artwork. (On view at Marianne Boesky Gallery in Chelsea through April 14^th).

Claudia Wieser, installation view of ‘Chapter’ at Marianne Boesky Gallery, March 2018.

Kay Rosen at Alexander Gray Associates

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show March 25, 2018March 20, 2018Comments are Disabled

Often political, never shy, Kay Rosen’s text-based wall art is bold and outspoken at Alexander Gray Associates. Just four letters speak volumes in this installation titled ‘White House v. America.’ (On view in Chelsea through April 7th).

Kay Rosen, White House v. America, paint on wall, dimensions variable, 2018.

Judith Henry, Casting Call at Bravin Lee

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show January 27, 2018February 11, 2025Comments are Disabled

Titled ‘Casting Call,’ Judith Henry’s installation of 300 small abstract sculptures look like mini-cobbled together robots or tools. Featuring eyes or resembling cameras, some meet our gaze; others appear to be small totems, like the figure at front here, resembling Shiva surrounded by a ring of fire. (On view at Bravin Lee in Chelsea through Feb 17^th).

Judith Henry, installation view at Bravin Lee Gallery, Chelsea, January, 2018.

Serge Alain Nitegeka at Marianne Boeksy Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show January 23, 2018January 17, 2018Comments are Disabled

Obstacle courses constructed from lengths of black wood are a recurring part of Johannesburg-based artist Serge Alain Nitegeka’s practice, forcing gallery visitors to reconsider their environment while ducking and bending through the gallery. Having lived and moved often as a refugee during his childhood, Nitegeka connects his own political experience with the gallery visitor’s spatial experience. (On view at Marianne Boesky Gallery in Chelsea through Feb 24^th).

Serge Alain Nitegeka, installation view at Marianne Boesky Gallery, January, 2018.

Valeska Soares at Alexander Gray Associates

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show December 6, 2017December 6, 2017Comments are Disabled

Five mirror-topped antique wooden tables support a host of antique glassware, installed by Valeska Soares at Alexander Gray Associates in Chelsea. Filled with spirits, and looking like the tidily assembled remnants of an epic celebration, the piece emanates a sickly smell that strongly suggests the party is over. (On view through Dec 16^th).

Valeska Soares, Epilogue, mixed media, 47h x 459w x 47.75d inches, 2017.

Mounir Fatmi at Jane Lombard Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show October 12, 2017October 12, 2017Comments are Disabled

Moroccan-born artist Mounir Fatmi’s installation ‘Inside the Fire Circle’ offers the idea of literally jump starting conversation via his arrangement of jumper cables, typewriters and paper on which the public is invited to contribute thoughts. The centerpiece of a show that considers the limits of freedom, the installation suggests that self-expression can be risky. (On view at Jane Lombard Gallery through Oct 21^st).

Mounir Fatmi, installation view of ‘Survival Signs’ at Jane Lombard Gallery, Sept 2017.

Li Jingxiong in ‘Referencing Alexander Calder’ at Klein Sun Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show October 6, 2017October 4, 2017Comments are Disabled

In a show dedicated to the legacy of Alexander Calder, Li Jingxiong’s snake skin footballs are a standout. Hung like buoys or a flattened Calder mobile, the balls marry beauty, with their craftsmanship, and danger, with their material. (At Klein Sun Gallery in Chelsea through Oct 7^th).

Li Jingxiong, EGOBY, plastic mould and snake skins, 11 3/8 x 6 ¼ inches, 2014-16.

Allen Ruppersberg at Greene Naftali Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show September 29, 2017September 29, 2017Comments are Disabled

Intercut with circus and festival ads and excerpts from Allen Ginsberg’s ‘Howl,’ Allen Ruppersberg’s pointed yet ambiguous texts – one asks, ‘Is one thing better than another?’ – question the status quo in eye-catching day-glo color. (At Greene Naftali Gallery in Chelsea through Oct 21^st).

Allen Ruppersberg, installation view of ‘The Novel that Writes Itself’ at Greene Naftali Gallery (floor 8), Sept 2017.

Kazuko Miyamoto at Zuricher Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show September 24, 2017September 19, 2017Comments are Disabled

Kazuko Miyamoto’s ‘Female I’ reclines along the floor of Zuricher Gallery like a taught, transparent odalisque, a shifting combination of representational form and pure abstraction that rethinks minimalism’s relationship to the organic world. (On the Lower East Side through Oct 22^nd).

Kazuko Miyamoto, Female I, black string and nails on board, 28 x 28 x 91 inches, 1977-2017.

Amanda Ross-Ho Installation at Mitchell-Innes & Nash

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show September 23, 2017February 11, 2025Comments are Disabled

Oversized wineglasses, cups, a fork and other objects litter worktables in Amanda Ross-Ho’s latest solo show at Chelsea’s Mitchell Innes & Nash, where the LA based artist spent August making paintings of clock faces (see the normal-sized glass holding goldfish crackers at middle right). Based on vintage paper clock surfaces that she purchased from eBay and used for note-taking, the clocks unmoor time (Ross-Ho recently lost her long-term studio) and the surreally enlarged elements from everyday life become inexplicably important. (On view through Oct 14^th).

Amanda Ross-Ho, installation view of ‘My Pen is Huge’ at Mitchell-Innes & Nash, Sept 2017.

Christian Marclay, Boneyard at Paula Cooper Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show September 18, 2017February 11, 2025Comments are Disabled

Though it looks like a memorial to the landline, Christian Marclay’s ‘Boneyard,’ now on view at Paula Cooper Gallery, is from 1990, part of a selection of past work by the artist addressing one of his signature themes. (On view in Chelsea through Oct 7^th).

Christian Marclay, Boneyard, hydrostone casts of telephone receivers, in 750 parts, dimensions variable, 1990.

Lin Tianmiao, Protruding Patterns at Galerie Lelong

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show September 15, 2017February 11, 2025Comments are Disabled

Like fuzzy slippers or stuffed animals, Beijing-based artist Lin Tianmiao’s woven wool forms look comfortable and harmless. On closer inspection, this room-sized installation of text on carpets in English and Chinese at Galerie Lelong represents a collection of words used to describe women, from the derogatory to the empowering. Titled ‘Protruding Patterns,’ the piece encourages visitors to walk among ideas that have manifested as form. (On view through Oct 21^st in Chelsea)

Lin Tianmiao, installation view of ‘Protruding Patterns’ at Galerie Lelong in Chelsea, Sept 2017.

Maya Lin at Pace Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show September 14, 2017September 13, 2017Comments are Disabled

As the Zambezi River spills out across the landscape on the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia at Victoria Falls, so spreads a glass-marble replica by Maya Lin across the walls, floor and ceiling of Pace Gallery. Reflections of light through the glass give the ‘water’ a sparkling quality that argues for the preciousness of one of earth’s most value resources. (On view on 25^th Street in Chelsea through Oct 7^th).

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