Tag: petzel

Emily Mae Smith at Petzel Gallery

Inspired by the manically busy brooms in Disney’s Fantasia, Emily Mae Smith’s recurring broom character is set apart – an individual posing with tense self-assurance in several of the artist’s new works now on view at Petzel Gallery.  Initially, Smith saw the brooms as representative of unrecognized female labor; separated from the pack, they become lone underdogs constructed from the discards of wheat production but forming identities of their own. This figure is host to two mice on her legs and birds and a squirrel on her head, offering sanctuary and even enduring abuse as part of her relationship to nature.  (On view through Nov 12th).

Emily Mae Smith, Habitat, oil on linen, 2022.

Derek Fordjour at Petzel Gallery

Derek Fordjour’s tour de force exhibition at Petzel Gallery includes two dramatic sculptural installations, a puppet show performed twice daily and two distinct bodies of collaged 2-D work, each as powerful as the next.  Continuing to address themes of systemic racism in the US, Fordjour was prompted by George Floyd’s death to directly address Black grief, mourning and the specter of death in several powerful paintings.  He also returns to his signature themes of performance and games to consider the complex lives of Black performers in the spotlight.  The synchronized swimmers in this image join marching bands, dancers, jugglers who occupy ambiguous identities as they keep the show on the road.  (On view in Chelsea through Dec 19th.  Masks and social distancing are required.)

Derek Fordjour, Cadence, acrylic, charcoal, cardboard, oil paste, foil and glitter on newspaper mounted on canvas, 2020.

Pieter Schoolwerth at Petzel Gallery

Pieter Schoolwerth’s new paintings at Petzel Gallery question human identity in a time when our on-screen personas are more prevalent than ever.  Basing his images on screenshots of the life-simulation game The Sims 4, each digital avatar’s form is mingled with flat layers of grey surface and some have faces rendered in expressionist swirls of paint.  Here, young women take a selfie while a horrified woman in a space suit (full protective gear?) looks on.  The disorienting effect of paint vs inkjet print, vivid color vs drab grey and layers that have come unmoored from their source create a fascinating world of provisional realities.  (On view in Chelsea through Oct 31st. Masks and social distancing are required and gallery capacity is limited.  Visitors must give contact info.)

Pieter Schoolwerth, Shifted Sims #1 (Get Together) oil, acrylic, inkjet on canvas, 54 x 93 inches, 2020.

Florencia Escudero in ‘A Love Letter to a Nightmare’ at Petzel Gallery

Under the rubric of ‘vamped Surrealism and Symbolism,’ Petzel Gallery’s summer group show considers contemporary artwork that channels the power of the subconscious.  At the gallery entrance, Florencia Escudero’s disembodied eyes and face greet visitors like a digital mirage.  Hand sewn and printed on satin and spandex, the sculpture’s material qualities are as evocative as the impossibly odd character herself. (On view in Chelsea Tuesday – Friday, 10am – 6pm through Aug 14th. Masks and social distancing are required.)

Florencia Escudero, Frog Licker, Hand-sewn, digitally-printed satin and silkscreened spandex, 3D-printed plastic, metal purse clasp, with hand-sewn velvet, foam, and spacer mesh base, and hand-sewn, digitally-printed satin, silkscreened spandex, foam, and spacer mesh parts, 6.5 x 13.5 x 5 inches, 2019.

Jon Pylypchuk at Petzel Gallery

LA’s trash is Jon Pylypchuk’s treasure, transformed via glitter and wood glue into a series of humorous portraits of alien-like creatures now on view at Chelsea’s Petzel Gallery.  The family trio featured in this panel is quirky and cute with their big eyes (actually cue balls) on cartoonishly large heads but also grotesque with their sagging and twisting flesh (composed of pants).  The title, ‘I used to be your internet kids,’ jokingly suggests that the passage of time wears on everyone, human and alien alike as offspring grow up and move on.  (On view through Feb 29th).

Jon Pylypchuk, I used to be your internet kids, fabric, wood glue, watercolor, glitter, black cue balls, polyurethane, wood on linen on panel, 2019.