Tag: Metro Pictures

Paulina Olowska at Metro Pictures Gallery

For the last exhibition of its forty-year history, Helene Winer’s and Janelle Reiring’s legendary Metro Pictures Gallery is showcasing new work by Polish artist Paulia Olowska that celebrates exhibition and educational spaces run by women.  This large painting checks in with Seurat’s 1880s scene of Paris leisure, La Grande Jatte, while having been directly inspired by a photo by fashion photographer Deborah Tuberville.  Harnessing imagery meant to encourage consumption, Olowska sells the idea of new creative communities while aiming to increase representation of women in art history.  (On view through Dec 11th in Chelsea.  Masks required).

Paulina Olowska, The School of Archery (after Deborah Tuberville), oil on canvas, 102 3/8 x 82 11/16 inches, 2021.

Cindy Sherman’s Tapestries at Metro Pictures

On the heels of iconic photographer Cindy Sherman’s latest solo show at Metro Pictures, the gallery recently hung three enormous tapestries by the artist in its back gallery.  Based on portraits created using filters and face-altering apps and posted to Instagram, the images don’t have the resolution to be printed large-scale but work wonderfully as tapestries, in which pixels translate to thread.  More profoundly distorted and infinitely creepier than Sherman’s printed photos, the tapestries dramatically move Sherman’s vision from screen to wall.  (On view at Chelsea’s Metro Pictures Gallery.  Masks and social distancing are required.)

Cindy Sherman, installation view of three tapestries at Metro Pictures Gallery, Nov 2020.

Cindy Sherman at Metro Pictures

It’s not hard to slip from male to female in Cindy Sherman’s reckoning.  A bit of makeup and a change of clothing, and the iconic photographer became both halves of jet-set couples who are the subjects of her latest body of work at Metro Pictures Gallery in Chelsea.  With exceptions, Sherman has shied away from portraying male figures in the past; her current characters embrace gender fluidity in colorful or opulent clothing from Stella McCartney’s archive.  Placing them against backgrounds that Sherman shot in Bavaria, Shanghai and, here, Sissinghurst Castle Garden in England, the artist tempts viewers to read the identities of these eccentric characters.  (On view through Oct 31st.  Masks and social distancing are required.)

Cindy Sherman, Untitled, dye sublimation print, 62 ½ x 91 ¼ inches (image, no frame), ed of 6, 1 AP, 2019.

Gary Simmons at Metro Pictures Gallery

LA based artist Gary Simmons has returned to the subject of racist American pop culture imagery in a striking group of new paintings at the newly reopened Metro Pictures Gallery.  Here, in ‘Screaming into the Ether,’ 1920s & 30s Looney Tunes character Bosko loses his characteristic portly belly as he releases a full-bodied cry that dominates the gallery in this eight foot-tall canvas.  Partially erased by Simmons’ hand the figure nevertheless exerts a powerful presence.  (Open by appointment in Chelsea through Sept 19th).

Gary Simmons, Screaming Into The Ether, oil and cold wax on canvas, 96 ¼ x 72 ¼ inches, 2020.

Robert Longo at Metro Pictures

Resembling a disco ball and wrecking ball, Robert Longo’s dramatic 1.5 ton sculpture ‘Death Star’ draws viewers into Metro Pictures in Chelsea to discover a sphere covered with 40,000 inert assault rifle bullets.  Referring to the number of deaths by gun violence in the US in 2017, the number has more than doubled from those included in a similar piece by Longo from 1993.  (On view through May 25th).

Robert Longo, Death Star 2018, approximately 40,000 inert bullets (brass, copper, lead) welded to the frame; steel I-beams; steel chain, 254 ½ x 254 ½ x 144 inches, 2018.