Andrea Grutzner turns framed excerpts from the built environment into surprising and colorful abstractions; here, in six images from her Tanztee series, amid wildly patterned clothes, Grutzner builds a structure from the arms and hands of dancers at a tea dance in rural Germany. (On view at Julie Saul Gallery through Feb 3rd).
Over a period of weeks or months, photographer Tanya Marcuse builds up sections of earth with transplanted mushrooms, berries, and various plants, adding in preserved animals (who have died elsewhere) along with fresh materials. The result is a tour de force of nature, which she likens to the roiling bodies of Jan van Eyck’s Last Judgment or a Jackson Pollock dense, all-over composition. (At Julie Saul Gallery through Nov 25th).
Simple furnishings and pleasing complementary colors in this gouache on paper painting by Maira Kalman recall Van Gogh’s Spartan but intensely colored Arles room. Titled ‘The approach to style is by way of plainness, simplicity, orderliness, sincerity,’ Kalman’s room illustrates a dictate by Strunk and White in their iconic writer’s guide. One of a group of 57 illustrations for ‘The Elements of Style’, published with Kalman’s paintings in 2005,’ it turns writerly concision into a lifestyle. (On view in Chelsea at Julie Saul Gallery through Sept 16th).
Working between London and Botswana, American artist Chloe Sells shoots the natural beauty of the Okavango Swamps, then uses screens, overlays and hand painting in the darkroom to create unique prints with what the artist calls a ‘dreamy effect.’ (At Julie Saul Gallery in Chelsea through June 11th).
Rotting fruits in bright hues, fiddlehead ferns, flowers, egg casings, leaves and other natural materials in various states of decay form the gorgeous palette and patterns of Tanya Marcuse’s new photo series at Julie Saul Gallery in Chelsea. (Through Feb 22nd).
Tanya Marcuse, Fallen No 439 (seen here in detai)l, pigment print, 37 ¾ x 48,” ed 1/7, 2013.
