Tag: rubber

Eddie Rodolfo Aparicio in The New Bend at Hauser & Wirth Gallery

Eddie Rodolfo Aparicio’s ‘Holbein En Crenshaw,’ a rubber cast of a tree on a LA street dominates ‘The New Bend,’ a standout show of textile-related work curated by Legacy Russell at Chelsea’s Hauser & Wirth Gallery.  Layered imagery including a highway exit sign, distorted wheel-like shapes, and advertisements crowd together on one side of this hanging piece, recreating the bombardment of information pedestrians and motorists experience on city streets.  On the other side, the rough texture of the cast tree with its burls and imperfections suggests the difficulties of urban life, even for plants.  Aparicio explains that his intention is to connect beleaguered, non-native trees to the reception of migrant workers in California while also recognizing the rootedness of both in LA life.  (On view through April 2nd.)

Eddie Rodolfo Aparicio, Holbein En Crenshaw (Washington Blvd and Crenshaw Blvd., LA, CA), rubber, sulfur, tree and plant residue, wood glue, latex paint, acrylic paint, strings and found cloth quilt, 138 x 150 x 5 inches, 2018.

Jeanne Silverthorne at Marc Straus Gallery

If you climb up to the fourth floor of Marc Straus Gallery expecting to find strange things in the attic spaces, Jeanne Silverthorne’s sculptural rendition of scored poppy plants dripping latex won’t disappoint.   Surrounded by rubber sculptures of packing crates, perhaps hiding even stranger cargo, the piece comes as an otherworldly surprise. (On the Lower East Side through Dec 10th).

Jeanne Silverthorne, Poppy Juice, platinum silicone rubber, phosphorescent pigment, 25 x 38 x 19 inches, 2017.

Nari Ward on the High Line

Smart cars snag great parking spaces in New York; this one, created by Harlem-based artist Nari Ward, enjoys a privileged place on the High Line where an admiring audience regularly surrounds it. Inspired by an abandoned car that hosted a lime tree in his father’s yard in Jamaica, Ward planted an apple tree in this car, lining the exterior with rubber tire treads and turning a symbol of nimble urban driving into a stationary support for nature. (On the High Line through March 2017).

Nari Ward, Smart Tree, Smart car, cinder blocks, tire treads, soil, apple tree, 106 x 61 x 120 inches, 2016.
Nari Ward, Smart Tree, Smart car, cinder blocks, tire treads, soil, apple tree, 106 x 61 x 120 inches, 2016.

Romy Scheroder in ‘Museum Starter Kit’ at El Museo del Barrio

Trinidad-born artist Romy Scheroder explains that she was thinking of the strictures of colonial culture (wood) vs adaptation by the population (rubber bands) in her sculpture Skin (seen here in the background). Despite the serious subtext, two mirrored chairs delight in the foreground with a joyful dance. (At the Museo del Barrio through September 6th).

Romy Scheroder, Mirror, Mirror, found chairs, 2014.

Jian-Jun Zhang in ‘Contemporary Chinese Prints’ at PacePrints

Riffing on Mao’s famous injunction to ‘Let the past serve the present,’ Chinese artist Jian-Jun Zhang presents traditional but damaged Chinese vase forms in silicone rubber, selling an updated version of ‘authentic’ national heritage. (At Pace Prints, 57th Street, through April 12th.)

Jian-Jun Zhang, vases from the ‘Vestiges of a Process’ series, silicone rubber, 2007 & 2011, and detail from ‘Flowing Water,’ 40 x 29 inches, set of five, unique monoprints.