Tag: pop

Kiki Kogelnik at Mitchell-Innes & Nash

As Pop art burst onto the US art scene in the early 60s, Austrian artist Kiki Kogelnik moved to New York and forged her own related path, imagining humans as robots, bombs as sculpture and later, models as aliens.  In this painting from 1979, Kogelnik morphed the fashion-forward woman of the day into a creature with glowing eyes and stylish garments, hair and skin in reptilian green tones.  Set against floating triangles, the women are as abstract as their backgrounds and ready to defy convention.  (On view at Mitchell-Innes & Nash in Chelsea through June 29th).

Kiki Kogelnik, City, oil and acrylic on canvas, 98 5/8 x 63 1/8 inches, 1979.

Peter Blake at Garth Greenan Gallery

Did Warhol just like Campbell’s soup?  Was Roy Lichtenstein simply enamored of blonds?  American pop art thrives on its ambiguous criticality towards consumption and mass media marketing, but iconic British pop art icon Peter Blake’s enjoyment of contemporary culture feels less ambiguous.  In a noteworthy show at Garth Greenan Gallery, for which a portion of Blake’s London studio has been packed up and reinstalled in Chelsea, the artist’s portraits of wrestlers, clowns, musicians and Marilyn-like woman are a tribute to the more and less famous.  (On view through May 18th).

Peter Blake, Mary Lin Monroe Fabulous Texan MM, acrylic, enamel and assemblage on board, 16 x 8 ¾ x 1 ½ inches, 2019.

Don Nice at Allan Stone Projects

This oil on canvas rabbit from 1968 by Pop painter Don Nice shares wall space with a muffin and a chocolate glazed donut at Allan Stone Projects, but at almost four feet high, dare not be considered as dinner. Instead, like a nearby duck or a careful watercolor rendering of an onion, its isolation on the canvas is a bold statement of the here and now. (In Chelsea through April 22nd).

Don Nice, Rabbit, oil on canvas, 43 x 90 inches, 1968.

Dorothy Grebenak at Allan Stone Projects

This hooked rug manhole cover by the late Dorothy Grebenak is a handmade homage to a ubiquitous sight on New York City streets. Completely at odds with its cold, hard real-world counterpart, this textile manhole cover takes Pop art in a homey direction. (At Allan Stone Projects in Chelsea through April 22nd.)

Dorothy Grebenak, Con Edison Co, 31 ½ x 31 ½ inches, wool, c 1964.

Don Nice at Driscoll Babcock Galleries

Realist painter Don Nice pairs soda pop and pop corn in a Warholian consideration of the allure of brightly packaged processed food. These two paintings hang side by side in Nice’s current show at Driscoll Babcock Galleries, as if arranged for our viewing and eating pleasure. (In Chelsea through Aug 12th).

Don Nice, Coke Can and Popcorn, both oil on canvas, 24 x 18 inches, 2015.
Don Nice, Coke Can and Popcorn, both oil on canvas, 24 x 18 inches, 2015.