Though told as a student that horses weren’t ‘serious’ subjects for contemporary art, Deborah Butterfield persevered to become renowned for sensitive and powerful sculptures of horses created in materials from salvaged metal to sea plastics. Best-known are her bronze pieces that still appear to be made of the wood from which they were cast, an enticing illusion. In a show of new work at Chelsea’s Marlborough Gallery, Butterfield sourced wood from near her home/working horse ranch in Montana and property in Hawaii to create towering horses like this one titled ‘Sweetgrass,’ which, though its assembled form is light like a sketch created in wood, has a powerful presence in keeping with its weighty bronze manufacture. (On view through Jan 14th).
Deborah Butterfield, Sweetgrass, cast bronze, unique, 90 x 108 x 33 inches, 2021 – 22.
While a single glove evokes Michael Jackson in the glitter of stage lights, this lone accessory – a stainless steel mesh glove encased in concrete – conveys something sinister. Semo’s other minimalist sculptures co-opt possible residue of violence, including chains, broken glass and shell casings as art materials, asking how fine art and conflict connect. (At Marlborough Gallery in Chelsea through Jan 14th).
Davina Semo, SHE LOOKED THROUGH HIS THINGS, CAREFUL TO LEAVE EACH AS IT HAD BEEN, pigmented, reinforced concrete; mica, stainless steel mesh glove, 9 x 6 x 1 7/8 inches, 2016.
Monks levitate in an intense ball game imagined by German artist Werner Buttner. Elsewhere, sausages fall from the sky and a dinosaur skeleton in a red hat bounds through a barren landscape in a series of paintings that combine the banal and the unusual to striking effect. (At Chelsea’s Marlborough Gallery through Dec 3rd).
Werner Buttner, Joie de Vivre (Lebensfreude), oil on canvas, 74 ¾ x 59 inches, 2015.
A phenomenal landscape meets a monumental project to collect data at mind-boggling expense ($1b+) in John Kelsey’s pretty watercolor of an NSA Data Center in Williams, Utah. (At Marlborough Gallery through July 29th).
John Kelsey, NSA Data Center, Camp Williams, UT, watercolor, mounted on aluminum, 12 ¼ x 16 1/8 inches, 2013.
Titled ‘Trips I’ve Never Been On,’ Shara Hughes’ solo show at Marlborough Gallery includes slightly surreal scenarios like this one, a juxtaposition of landscapes that seems both dream-like and real. (In Chelsea through March 12th).
Mushroom Hunt, oil, acrylic, flashe, caulk, spray paint and enamel on canvas, 64 x 54 inches, 2015.
Given that Marlborough Gallery’s first show in its Lower East Side space was themed on pizza, an exhibition titled ‘Marlborough Lights’ had to happen sooner or later. Here, Josh Smith’s jack o’ lantern basketball lights the way back to Sadie Laska’s magically glowing, alien-like creature and Oscar Tuazon’s blocky, street-light-like lamp. (Through Aug 1st).
Josh Smith, Illuminated Jackal Lantern Basketball, ceramic, wooden stool, light bulb, socket and wire, ceramic: 8 ½ x 8 ½ inches, 2015.
The neon color and curvy, wave-contoured form of Greg Bogin’s shaped canvas ‘Sunny disposition (oasis)’ is a summery-feeling merger of beach culture and minimal abstraction. Like Martin Puryear’s Phrygian cap sculptures which it resembles, it suggests freedom, but more of a sand-between-the-toes variety. (At Marlborough Gallery Chelsea through July 31st).
Greg Bogin, Sunny disposition (oasis), synthetic paint and urethane on canvas, 72 x 73 inches, 2014.
French artist Antoine Catala contributed a standout piece to the New Museum’s Triennial last spring by commissioning an ad agency to work on a campaign to promote empathy in an info-saturated age. With similar humor, the man absorbed in his cell phone here is not only acting distant but has the word stitched onto his body in happy, puffy letters. (At Chelsea’s Marlborough Gallery through July 31st.)
Antoine Catala, Feel Images (Distant), digital photograph on suede fabric, cotton, wood, batting, 72 x 48 x 5 ¼ inches, 2015.
A sandblasted garden sculpture decorated with bronze sausage is a gratifying opener at Marlborough Gallery for fans of Tony Matelli’s offbeat humor and meticulous craft. But it’s the inverted, nude Adam and Eve sculptures in the back gallery that make the show unmissable. (In Chelsea through June 20th).
Tony Matelli, Warrior (detail), concrete and painted bronze, 55 x 21 x 17 inches, 2015.
Known for her deep engagement with the natural world through her art, New York/Florida artist Michele Oka Doner creates hybrid plant/animal/human figures in her impressive solo show at Marlborough Gallery’s 57th Street location. Here, a gilded cast-bronze figure has the textured surface of weathered wood while a tree-like wax-covered figure at rear stands in contrapposto. (Through May 16th).
Michele Oka Doner, Interior Life, gilded cast bronze, 58 x 14 x 8 ½ inches, 2014.
Titled ‘Outer Loop,’ Marlborough Gallery’s pairing of sculpture by Matthew Ronay and embroidered works by Tony Cox suggests that Chelsea gallery-goers haven’t yet seen it all. Cox’s cool-colored textiles suggest meditative abstractions while Ronay’s vibrant constructions defy description; together, their colorful wackiness charms. (Through May 9th).
Matthew Ronay, Stacked Ellipsoid Cairn with Pearl, basswood, dye, gouache, shellac-based primer, 28 ½ x 23 x 23 inches, 2015.
The dramatic centerpiece of Dale Chihuly’s show of recent work at Marlborough Gallery’s 57th Street space combines burnt logs, glass ‘reeds’ and neon light in a scenario that evokes nature but with overtly man-made objects and forms. Sapphire lights and the juxtaposition of sharp and round shapes both draw in and confound the eye. (Through April 11th).
Dale Chihuly, Sapphire Neon with Burned Logs and Neodymium Reeds, neon lights, burned wood and hand blown glass over stainless steel rods, 96 x 252, 180 inches, 2015.
Young Brooklyn artist Lauren Luloff equates human bodies and surrounding vegetation in pieces like ‘2 Jenns in the Forest’ in her show ‘Water Vessels’ at Chelsea’s Marlborough Gallery. Using bleach on bedsheets, she creates ghostly images assembled as fragments on the stretcher. (Through March 28th).
Lauren Luloff, 2 Jenns in the Forest, bleached bedsheets and fabric, 111 x 118 inches, 2015.
Greer Patterson’s new tropical landscape paintings at Marlborough Gallery were inspired by scenes from his Hawaiian shirts; the pool with two remote-controlled boats installed in the basement also uses materials at hand to create pleasant place. It’s not the Central Park boat pond, but on a cold January day, it’s nice to dream. (At Marlborough Gallery, Broome Street, through Feb 15th).
Greer Patterson, Partners in Crime, round metal frame pool with remote controlled boats, 30 x 144 x 144 inches, 2014.
Known for cheeky stop-motion animations made by photographing thickly textured paintings, Brooklyn artist Yui Kugimiya settles into a vividly colored, thickly painted non-moving images for her current show at Marlborough Gallery’s LES location. Painted as she looked out of her studio window at the East River, their Fauve color and style offers an intensely personal view of the city and here, its geese. (Through Dec 21st).
Yui Kugimiya, Geese on East River – One – 2, oil on canvas, 16 x 16 inches, 2014.
Known for fantastical, druggy, sci-fi environments created temporarily in art venues, Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe’s current show at Chelsea’s Marlborough Gallery continues their practice of “…using the room as the vehicle for an ethno-fictional display of the remnants of the built world.” This claustrophobic space – one of several distinctly different rooms in the installation – combines store display with tacky domestic furnishings and dated technology (on the floor) to question what might transpire here. (Through Nov 29th).
Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe, installation view of ‘Floating Chain (High-Res Toni) at Marlborough Chelsea, November 2014.
Now based in Toronto, ‘80s downtown art influencer Alan Belcher makes a New York comeback at Marlborough Gallery this month with work including this ceramic plaque of a .jpg file kept tantalizingly closed. (On the Lower East Side through Nov 16th).
Alan Belcher, ____.jpg, glazed ceramic plaque, 10 x 7 ½ x 1 ½ inches, 2014.
‘Another Look at Detroit’ is one of the summer’s major exhibitions, showing at powerhouse galleries Marlborough Chelsea and Marianne Boesky Gallery, but it starts off with this initially underwhelming weed by New York sculptor Tony Matelli located near the entrance of Marlborough. Look closer, however, and this meticulously crafted, painted bronze plant becomes an object of wonder. (Through August 8th).
Tony Matelli, Weed #293, painted bronze, 11 x 9 x 13 inches, 2014.
If you’re an artist who thinks your work might be improved by being destroyed, you might want to talk to New York based artist Lucas Ajemian. Ajemian has created this work – reminiscent of a reclining figure in a weathered fresco from a Roman villa – and the others in his latest solo show at Marlborough Gallery’s Lower East Side location by treating, then machine washing other artists’ paintings. (Through June 8th).
Lucas Ajemian, Laundered Painting (20 x 16) I, painting on canvas, 2014.
Guido van der Werve’s 2007 video ‘Nummer acht’ is a standout in Marlborough Gallery’s excellent ‘Lone Tree,’ a show dedicated to artists inspired by 19th century painter of the sublime landscape, Caspar David Friedrich. The Dutch artist walked about 10 meters in front of a towering ice-breaker off the frozen coast of Finland, suggesting bravery and folly in equal measure in one lone individual. (In Chelsea through May 3rd.)
Guido Van Der Werve, Nummer acht, Everything is going to be alright, 16mm to HD, 10 minutes, 10 seconds, 2007.
Though New York artist Red Grooms created this gallery-filling installation replicating an alley near his downtown studio over twenty years ago – to bring some ‘quintessential New York funk’ to Marlborough Gallery’s London location – its shady hustle and bustle and maniacal truck driver still look contemporary. (At Marlborough Gallery’s Lower East Side location through March 23rd.)
Red Grooms, ‘The Alley,’ wood, foam, and mixed media, dimensions variable, 1984-5.
Working by the light of a lamp or with no artificial light at all, Milwaukee-based artist John Riepenhoff has created his night sky paintings in the city and country. Explaining that he can’t see much of what he’s doing while he’s painting, each is a surprise in the morning. (At Marlborough Gallery, Lower East Side through Feb 9th.)
John Riepenhoff, Plein Air (Isle of Eigg), acrylic on canvas, 2013.
Grids of black, hanging chains, squares of painted, cast concrete and slender brass poles leaning against the wall demonstrate New York artist Davina Semo’s affinity for both gritty and slick industrial materials. With titles suggesting interpersonal relationships (‘What is it one person can offer another’ hangs on the back wall in this picture), Davino creates an idiosyncratic style at once personal and distant. (At Chelsea’s Marlborough Gallery through Feb 15th).
Davina Semo, installation view of ‘Ruder Forms Survive,’ at Marlborough Gallery, January 2014.
Inspired by a giant hamburger painting by Andy Warhol, the group show ‘Double Hamburger Deluxe’ at Chelsea’s Marlborough Gallery explores Warhol’s approach through comparison to pieces like Tony Matelli’s bronze lilies, a meticulously hand-crafted, editioned sculpture that never fails to astound. (Through Dec 21st.)
Chelsea and 57th Street gallery Marlborough Gallery has now put an anchor down in the Lower East Side, launching a new space at 331 Broome with the lightheartedly delicious ‘Pizza Time,’ a show dedicated to the slice. It includes this collage by Catherine Ahearn that marries painting and photo as serendipitously as olives and mushrooms. (Through Oct 6th)
The summer group shows have started in Chelsea with Marlborough Gallery’s ‘Endless Summer II/Still Bummin,’ a sprawling exhibition featuring Kaari Upson’s balcony railing, floppy as if melting off a building in the heat. Nestled in the gallery’s corner with a torn parade photo by Christian Marclay, both suggest summer traditions coming undone. (through June 15th).
Christian Marclay, Untitled (from the series ‘Fourth of July’) torn c-print, 2005. Kaari Upson, Balcony Railing, latex, 2013.
Andrew Kuo makes geometric abstraction emote in a series of paintings that map his feelings and experiences as blocks of color. This painting documents the breakup of a seven year relationship; the key to the large yellow patch reads ‘Everything has changed! (Except everything actually worth changing.)” It’s bookmatched with the thought in grey, “All I want is to be like how I was before.” (At Chelsea’s Marlborough Gallery through May 4th).
Andrew Kuo, I Forget (on 12/12/12), acrylic and carbon transfer on panel and laminated paper, 2012.
Robert Lazzarini, at Marlborough Gallery, Jan 2013.
Nothing else in Chelsea looks remotely like Brooklyn-based sculptor Robert Lazzarini’s latest sculptures at Marlborough Gallery (through Feb 16th). Partly inspired by the 1973 movie Badlands, they and evoke an American roadtrip gone badly wrong.
Robert Lazzarini, at Marlborough Gallery, Jan 2013.
This fence was welded together from over two-hundred individually cast steel pieces. Lazzarini’s attention to detail goes far – he even made the barbed wire. It’s the most impressive piece in the show not only in terms of how much work went into it, but in how Lazzarini reimagines a metal fence blowing as if it were a cloth or flag gently flapping the in breeze.
Robert Lazzarini, at Marlborough Gallery, Jan 2013.
Lazzarini called this melting liquor sign the ‘most profound piece in the show,’ saying, ‘It speaks to a damage within society that is not easily seen.’ In person, the sculpture’s text is surprisingly difficult to read, as if we had had one too many. Its towering, ghostly presence is a highlight of the show.
Robert Lazzarini, at Marlborough Gallery, Jan 2013.
Vaults, blown open and empty, are such a Hollywood staple that this twisted lockbox looks strangely familiar. Finding it twisted in the corner, as if in a fun-house mirror, is not so expected. While struggling with that not-quite-clear sense of déjà vu, check out the sculpture’s most amazing feature – its perfectly skewed lock.
Robert Lazzarini, at Marlborough Gallery, Jan 2013.
Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe’s latest feat of installation art takes visitors through a series of rooms, transporting us into both strange and familiar worlds. This show is the talk of the town, art-wise, and is a stop on this Saturday afternoon’s Chelsea Gallery Tour, 2-4pm. For more info, see the scheduled tours page. (At Chelsea’s Marlborough Gallery through Oct 27th).
