The painting furthest from the door is the first to attract attention at Paula Cooper Gallery’s show of recent work by New York abstract artist Dan Walsh. Glowing like a tower-top beacon, a stylized ziggurat resembling the pinnacle of the Empire State Building lures visitors into minimalist painting by a self-styled ‘maximalist.’ (On view in Chelsea on 26th Street through Feb 15th).
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).
Evocative sculpture by New York artist Sarah Braman creates a nexus between mass produced furniture and the unique art object, coldly minimal forms and a potentially cozy bedroom, a mined metal and unexploited nature in the form of a gorgeous sunset. (At Chelsea’s Mitchell-Innes & Nash through April 16th).
Minimalist art pioneer Carl Andre accompanies his current Dia:Beacon retrospective with a show of work from the past thirty years at Paula Cooper Gallery. Here, two sculptures use cedar beams as building blocks, making an additive sculpture of strong, industrial materials. (Through July 25th).
Carl Andre, 4 x 4 Cedar Solid, 16 Western red cedar units, each 36 x 12 x 12 inches, 2008 (foreground). Bar, Douglas Fir (36 unit row), each 12 x 12 x 36 inches, 1981 (background).
To celebrate the publication of Rackstraw Downes’ writings since 1983, Betty Cunningham Gallery has curated an exhibition of his work, including this typically ordinary landscape made remarkable by whizzing wires and rising radio towers that strain to burst out of the frame. (In Chelsea through May 3rd).
Rackstraw Downes, At the Confluence of Two Ditches Bordering a Field with Four Radio Towers, oil on canvas, 46 x 48 inches, 1995. (Collection of Louis-Dreyfus Family).
