Shape and color appear to explode from Omar Rodriguez-Graham’s paintings, once again on view at newly reopened Marc Straus Gallery on the Lower East Side. Based on Renaissance or Baroque paintings by artists from Tiepolo to Ricci which the artist turns into digital abstract compositions then paints on canvas attached to shaped supports, the artist marries historical work with a distinctly contemporary sense of energy and movement. (On view through July 31st).
Butterflies are a reminder of the brevity of life, but the Xerces Blue perching on this crate is an extinct species, adding a note of finality even as the nearby Venus Flytrap demonstrates abundant health. Jeanne Silverthorne’s new sculpture at Marc Straus Gallery also includes silicone rubber crates which symbolize unknown creative possibilities. Acting as pedestal and art object, they range from sturdy to dilapidated, suggesting the coexistence of ideas that will someday manifest as artworks and those that will not. (On view on the Lower East Side through Feb 16th).
Rona Pondick’s seductively shiny stainless-steel sculptures, featuring her own head on human/animal hybrid creatures, have been shown worldwide; now, she’s debuting the next step in her career with glowing resin and acrylic sculptures at Marc Straus Gallery on the Lower East Side. After health problems forced Pondick to give up foundry work, she began encasing her visage in blocks of resin, creating the suggestion that some magic has temporarily paused the complicated processes within each head. (On view through Dec 16th).
Marc Straus Gallery nods to Mark Rothko’s hovering, painted rectangles of color and Josef Alber’s nests of colored squares on canvas, but the real attraction to Spain-born, New York-based artist Antonio Santin’s paintings is the fact that they’re painted at all. Resembling tapestries, Santin’s amazing abstract paintings are made with oil paint in a variety of patterns that suggest a 3D surface with something hidden beneath. (On view on the Lower East Side through Oct 16th).
Seated figures and seats themselves comprise the surprisingly engaging theme of Marc Straus Gallery’s summer group show, which includes Red Grooms’ 1974-5 ‘The Minister of Transportation.’ Long arms languidly crossed and propped up on a skinny knee, the art-deco styled ‘minister’ offers a small case of cigarettes as he puffs away himself atop a parade float featuring images of vehicles on the ground, in the sky and on the water. (On view on the Lower East Side through July 28th).
