Tag: Matthew Marks Gallery

Vija Celmins at Matthew Marks Gallery

Titled ‘Winter,’ Viya Celmins first New York solo show in six years at Matthew Marks Gallery sees out the season with paintings featuring snow against dark backgrounds.  Those familiar with the artist’s signature subject matter may identify the work as a night sky painting for which she is renowned, but what look like stars are in fact flakes of snow.  Celmins has explained in an interview that she aims to wrestle something vast down into the space of the canvas, fixing it there.  The new snow-related paintings suggest she’s taken the universe and transposed it into something positioned right before our eyes.  In a further twist, the piece’s title, ‘Snowfall(coat)’ reveals that the snow is not actually seen in front of the darkness of night but has been pictured instead on a black coat. (On view in Chelsea through April 6th).

Vija Celmins, Snowfall (coat), oil on canvas, 19 5/8 x 13 1/8 inches, 2021 – 23.

Robert Gober at Matthew Marks Gallery

Drawings of barred windows contrast sculptural tableau depicting open windows in Robert Gober’s new work at Matthew Marks Gallery’s 22nd Street location. While the bars suggest imprisonment, a series of wooden windows offer varying degrees of access into personal space resembling – to judge by the weathered sash and can of lithium grease in this version – an aging farmhouse.  Titled ‘Help Me,’ the piece suggests urgent need as it offers objects that stand in for the house’s inhabitants and possibly allude to the body.  Despite the pretty hand-painted designs on a lively curtain that appears to catch the breeze, uncertainty, sentiment, nostalgia and even delight at Gober’s meticulously hand-crafted objects combine to leave a feeling of thought-provoking unease.  (On view through Dec 23rd).

Robert Gober, Help Me, pewter, glass, synthetic plastic polymer, epoxy putty, acrylic paint, wood, cotton, epoxy resin, 30 ¼ x 30 3/8 x 18 ¾ inches, 2018 – 2021.

Suellen Rocca at Matthew Marks Gallery

Chicago artist and member of the iconic Hairy Who artist group, Suellen Rocca devises a language of her own in this symbol-laden, nearly 10-foot long canvas from 1965 at Matthew Marks Gallery in Chelsea. Dominated by the perfect beauties of advertising, simplified down to their silhouettes and made sinister with modified features, Rocca’s painting ponders the temptations of consumer culture. (Through Oct 22nd).

Suellen Rocca, detail from ‘Bare Shouldered Beauty and the Pink Creature,’ oil on canvas, two joined panels, 83 ¼ x 119 ½ inches, 1965.
Suellen Rocca, detail from ‘Bare Shouldered Beauty and the Pink Creature,’ oil on canvas, two joined panels, 83 ¼ x 119 ½ inches, 1965.

Tony Smith at Matthew Marks Gallery

Titled ‘Playground,’ this piece by architect turned modernist sculptor Tony Smith was inspired by ancient mud-brick buildings. Two public installations of the sculpture in Beverly Hills, CA and Rochester, NY entice visitors to go through the opening but in New York, visitors to Chelsea’s Matthew Marks Gallery are invited to appreciate at a little more of a remove. (Through April 18th).

Tony Smith, Playground, steel, painted black, 64 x 128 x 64 inches, 1962.

Charles Ray at Matthew Marks Gallery

More than many vehicles, pick-up trucks seem loaded with sentimental value. Alone in Matthew Marks Gallery’s large 24th Street gallery, this machine-carved, solid stainless steel replica of a baled truck by Charles Ray feels like a monument to a memory. Ray’s exacting sculptural process – involving model making and scanning – took six years, giving the sculpture even more import. (Through April 18th).

Charles Ray, Baled Truck, solid stainless steel, 33 x 50 x 118 inches, 2014.