Tag: recycling

Shari Mendelson at Tibor de Nagy Gallery

The centuries and cultural divides melt away like hot glue in Brooklyn sculptor Shari Mendelson’s replicas of ancient artifacts from China, Egypt, Mesopotamia and elsewhere at Tibor de Nagy Gallery.  Using plastic bottles gathered near her studio, Mendelson cuts and glues together forms, using acrylic resin to make patinas that transform trash into ancient artworks.  Here, she creates a Tang Dynasty court lady from recognizable consumer plastics, subtly nodding to the material’s long life.  (On view on the Lower East Side through Dec 5th).

Shari Mendelson, Praying Lotus Woman, repurposed plastic and mixed media, 17 x 10 x 11 inches, 2020.

Paul Bulteel at Anastasia Photo

Belgian photographer Paul Bulteel spent a career focusing on energy and sustainable practice; lately, he’s expanded on his professional experience with ‘Waste Not,’ a photo series shot at European waste recycling facilities. Bulteel’s eye for color and composition make materials intriguingly strange (this pile of mixed metals suggests hair) while demonstrating what efforts go on to recycle and reuse. (At Anastasia Photo on the Lower East Side through Nov 22nd).

Paul Bulteel, “Tinned copper wire, typically used in electrical motors. The different metals (copper, nickel, lead, and tin) are separated in a pyro-metallurgical process. Lead and tin are further separated using vacuum technology.”

Josh Kline at 47 Canal

Josh Kline’s stunning new show at Lower East Side gallery 47 Canal imagines a world in which technological advances have created mass unemployment. Carts with bottles and cans rendered in flesh tones suggest a sinister equivalence between recyclables and bodies that have been rendered redundant by ‘progress.’ (Through June 12th).

Josh Kline, The Sound of Severance, cast sculptures in silicone, granny cart, polyethylene bags, plastic zip tie, rubber, plexiglas, LEDs, and power source, 40.5 x 24 x 23 inches, 2016.
Josh Kline, The Sound of Severance, cast sculptures in silicone, granny cart, polyethylene bags, plastic zip tie, rubber, plexiglas, LEDs, and power source, 40.5 x 24 x 23 inches, 2016.