Tag: matthew marks

Sturtevant at Matthew Marks Gallery

In a 1971 letter, American artist Sturtevant declared her art practice not as anti-art but anti-great artist.  Her trademark practice of making artwork resembling pieces by renowned artists including Andy Warhol, Keith Haring and here, Robert Gober, upends expectations and interpretation when artwork easily recognizable to an art-savvy audience turns out to be something else.  In that moment of realization, she explained, “you’re either jolted into immediately rejecting it, or the work stays with you like a bad buzz in your head.” A selection of six pieces from the ‘60s to 2014 at Matthew Marks Gallery includes a reconsideration of Robert Gober’s own meditation on doubling.  (On view in Chelsea through Oct 22nd).

Sturtevant, Gober Partially Buried Sinks, plaster, wood, wire lathe, enamel paint, and artificial grass, sinks: 24 1/8 x 23 7/8 x 2 ¾ inches, platform: 2 x 322 7/8 x 208 5/8 inches, 1997.

Suellen Rocca at Matthew Marks Gallery

Suellen Rocca, a founding member of the short-lived but hugely influential group of Chicago artists known as ‘Hairy Who,’ adopted imagery from magazine ads, Sears Roebucks catalogues and other American pop culture sources, but her late-career work took on more personal meanings.  Several pieces in Matthew Marks Gallery’s exhibition of the late artist’s work in Chelsea include imagery relating to fish, which came to Rocca in a dream.  Fish seem to nurse like babies, breasts morph into fish and, in this painting, fish adorn the body of a deity-like multi-armed figure, picturing female power in terms of feeding, nurture and life.  (On view through Jan 29th.  Masks, social distancing and proof of vaccination required.)

Suellen Rocca, Departure, oil on canvas, 30 x 30 inches, 2012.

Leidy Churchman at Matthew Marks Gallery

The “…in-between between everything” is New York-based painter Leidy Churchman’s focus in paintings once again on view at Chelsea’s reopened Matthew Marks Gallery.  Developed from Churchman’s own spiritual study and their concept of trans experience as inbetweenness, the new work features images that invite multiple interpretation, as in ‘Karma Kagyu & Essex Street,’ a vibrantly colored temple scene made transcendent by a screen of dots resembling snow or flashing light.  (On view through July 31st).

Leidy Churchman, Karma Kagyu & Essex Street (Yellow Studio)(Devotion), oil on linen, 79 x 102 inches, 2020.

Gladys Nilsson at Matthew Marks Gallery

Proto-surrealist James Ensor and the fantastical Netherlandish painter Hieronymous Bosch figure as influencers on Chicago Imagist Gladys Nilsson’s odd characters, no surprise, given their pervading oddness and ambiguous identities.  This symmetrically arranged meeting of two couples, elderly, possibly blind, and with facial features straight out of a folk tale challenges belief even before spotting the tiny horns tucked into their mouths.  Are they communicating in honks?  Are they tooting at each other to avoid colliding on the sidewalk?  The fun is in the guessing.  (A selection of work from 1963 to 1980 is now on view at Matthew Marks Gallery in Chelsea through April 18th).

Gladys Nilsson, Honk, acrylic on panel in artist’s frame, 13 1/8 x 15 ¾ inches, 1964.

Vija Celmins at Matthew Marks Gallery

Vija Celmins’ once described her relationship to the ocean, which she has rendered again and again in paint, graphite and prints, as akin to wrestling something huge into a tiny 2-D space.  This woodcut from 2000, created with one of printmaking’s oldest techniques, captures a particular view of the water’s surface that looks as if it could have been made yesterday or hundreds of years ago.  (On view in Chelsea at Matthew Marks Gallery through Oct 26th).

Vija Celmins, Ocean, wood engraving on Zerkall paper, 20 ¾ x 17 ¼ inches, 2000.