Natalie Frank at Salon94

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Tiny at just 8 x 8 inches, this underpainted and glazed ceramic sculpture has a powerful presence in Natalie Frank’s solo exhibition at Salon94’s Lower East Side location.  ‘Woman, Bride,’ is one of many female figures depicted in paper pulp paintings or ceramic sculpture who appears to know her own mind and is prepared to use it.  Whether Frank is partnering with Ballet Austin on a performance, illustrating books with her expressive paintings, or crafting sculpture, the dynamism and daring of her imagined characters stands out.  (On view on the Lower East Side through May 22nd.)

Natalie Frank, Woman, Bride, glazed ceramic, 8 x 8 x 1 inches, 2021.

Niki de Saint Phalle at Salon94

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Titled ‘Joy Revolution,’ Salon94’s exhibition of late French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle’s painting, sculpture and work on paper celebrates color, pleasure and play.  Just inside Salon94’s stunning new 89th Street location, a 17,500 square foot former mansion built by philanthropist Archer Huntington, two lions originally intended as garden decoration greet visitors.  Intended to entice kids to climb them, they serve here as guardians and greeters.  (On view through April 24th).

Niki de Saint Phalle, Guardian Lions, polyurethane foam, resin, steel armature, ceramic tiles, glass, tumbled stone, and fused millefiori glass inserts, 88 x 132 x 112 inches, 2000.

Josep Grau-Garriga Tapestry at Salon94

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At over twenty feet tall, late Catalan fiber artist Josep Grau-Garriga’s monumental tapestry ‘February Light’ dominates visitors to Salon94 Bowery.  Made in the 70s after Grau-Garriga had pioneered a move away from realist tapestries crafted with expensive materials into expressionist compositions fashioned from fibers including string, hemp and even old sacks, February Light’s wooden rods and ropes give the piece a remarkable boldness.  Created in the years just after the death of dictator Francisco Franco, the many openings in the blood-red areas of the artwork seem to continue Grau-Garriga’s frequent political allusions.  (On view on the Lower East Side through Feb 29th).

Josep Grau-Garriga, Llum de Febrer, tapestry, 255 7/8 x 118 1/8 inches, 1978-81.

David Benjamin Sherry at Salon94

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David Benjamin Sherry’s photos depict familiar-seeming western landscapes but in colors that force viewers to ask what they’re seeing.  Man’s impact on the environment comes to mind, as does the emotional value of portraying these spaces in vibrant pink or purple or yellow tones.  In his latest series, ‘American Monuments,’ Sherry shot locations newly threatened by having their protected status removed to allow resource extraction.   (On view at Salon94 on the Lower East Side through Oct 26th).

David Benjamin Sherry, View from Muley Point, Bears Ears National Monument, Utah, chromogenic print, 2018.

Luis Flores at Salon94 Bowery

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LA based artist Luis Flores deliberately employs the feminized craft of crochet to create self-portraits which undermine the concepts of masculinity he learned as a boy from his male relatives.  Here, he fights with himself in an installation featuring a series of wrestling moves enacted by his body doubles and observed by his passive and skeptical wife. (On view at Salon94 Bowery on the Lower East Side through April 20th).

Luis Flores, Tornado, yarn, AAA t-shirt, Levi’s jeans, Vans shoes and socks, 57 x 69 x 36 inches, 2019.

Lyle Ashton Harris at Salon94

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Lyle Ashton Harris’ new photographic self-portraits continue to posit ambiguous identities while forcing the question of what might be ‘natural’ as he dons masks collected by his uncle in East Africa while posing nude in various outdoor locations in New York and New England.  Here, a tenuously held, chipped colored sheet obscures Harris’ face and upper torso, masking his identity as he stands in front of an anonymous shingled façade.  Africa, art, ritual, the male nude, New England architecture and other references conjoin and collide in one provocative image.  (On view at Salon94 through Dec 21st).

Lyle Ashton Harris, Zamble at Land’s End #2, dye sublimation print on aluminum, 48 x 32 inches, 2018.

Sylvie Fleury at Salon94 Bowery

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“Unfettered, confident, individual…” – these adjectives don’t describe art or an artist, they’re part of Dior’s marketing for its ‘Precious Rocks’ eye shadow compact, remade into a series of large-sized acrylic paintings by Swiss artist Sylvie Fleury. Long a provocateur who questions fashion, consumption and ‘high’ art, Fleury’s latest series may be modeled on makeup, but it makes an unmissable nod to mid-20th century hard-edge abstraction. (On view on the Lower East Side at Salon94 Bowery through Dec 22nd).

Sylvie Fleury, Precious Rocks, acrylic on canvas on wood, 45.625 x 54.75 x 3 inches, 2017.

David Benjamin Sherry at Salon94 Bowery

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Working blind in the dark room, David Benjamin Sherry exposes cardboard templates, acetates printed with patterns, his own body and that of his dog, Wizard to light sensitive paper. The vibrantly colored results don’t bear a recognizable likeness of the artist, but they feel intensely personal nonetheless. (At Salon94 Bowery on the Lower East Side through July 27th).

David Benjamin Sherry, detail of Metamorphosis (Self-portrait with Wizard), 150C40M0Y, unique color darkroom photogram, 72.25 x 29.75 inches (image, no frame), 2017.

Gaetano Pesce in ‘Ghost Dog’ at Salon94 Design

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This huge clown by Italian designer Gaetano Pesce dominates Salon94’s lively new venture, Salon94 Design, promising good things to come. (On the Lower East Side through April 15th).

Installation view of ‘Ghost Dog’ at Salon94Design, featuring Gaetano Pesce’s, Tomando dal Circo Cabinet, resin, wood, steel, 245 x 136 x 100cm, 2016.

Lorna Simpson at Salon94 Bowery

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Lorna Simpson’s understated, monochrome images employ collaged fragments from magazines like Ebony and Jet in a powerful, poetic mediation on race in America. (At Salon94 Bowery on the Lower East Side through Oct 22nd).

Lorna Simpson, Hands, India ink and screenprint on Clayboard, 48 x 36 inches, 2016.
Lorna Simpson, Hands, India ink and screenprint on Clayboard, 48 x 36 inches, 2016.

 

Ibrahim El-Salahi at Salon94

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A visit to the Alhambra in Spain inspired Oxford, England-based Sudanese artist Ibrahim El-Salahi to begin his ‘Flamenco’ series, in which he celebrates the music and dance of Andalusia in his signature, modernist style.  (At Salon94 on the Lower East Side through April 18th).

Ibrahim El-Salahi, Flamenco, poster paint on cardboard, 33.875 x 34.625 inches, 2010.
Ibrahim El-Salahi, Flamenco (detail), poster paint on cardboard, 33.875 x 34.625 inches, 2010.

Katy Grannan at Salon94 Bowery

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Taken in what photographer Katy Grannan calls ‘spontaneous collaborations,’ photos of anonymous subjects on the street from 2012-13 lend a heroic quality and astounding dignity to Californians on the margins. (At Salon 94 Bowery on the Lower East Side through Dec 20th).

Katy Grannan, Anonymous, Modesto, CA, archival pigment print on cotton rag paper mounted to Plexiglas, 55 x 41 inches, 2013.

Anton Alvarez at Salon94 Freemans

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Stockholm-based artist Anton Alvarez has turned Salon94’s Freeman Alley space into his studio this month to construct new works using his ‘thread wrapping machine.’ Pictured here with an assistant, Alvarez (rear) guides an object into the machine’s opening, allowing glue coated thread (each a different color) to wrap around and create a pattern. (Through May 9th – see Salon94.com for a schedule of Alvarez’s studio hours).

Anton Alvarez, installation view of ‘Wrapsody,’ at Salon94 Freemans, April 2015.

David Benjamin Sherry at Salon94 and Danziger Gallery

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Young LA-based artist David Benjamin Sherry made his name with eco-conscious photos that alter the landscape of the American west. Here, he collages several photos together making a quilt-like pattern of stones that resembles a Playdoh sculpture or a well-intentioned but garish re-do of nature. (At Salon94 on the Lower East Side and Danziger Gallery in Chelsea through Oct 25th).

David Benjamin Sherry, Emotional Algorithm Epoch, Joshua Tree, California I, collage of traditional color darkroom photos, 40 x 50 inches, 2014.

Amy Bessone at Salon 94

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Amy Bessone’s pencil holder fists unite in vague protest in her current solo show at Salon94 Bowery on the Lower East Side.  A nearby poster warns, ‘Don’t Truncate Me!’  Already truncated, the hands become resistance tchotchkes. (through June 14th).

Amy Bessone, installation view of  ‘In the Green Room’ (foreground is ‘Number…(Numbers),’ ceramic, pencil, 2013).

Jules de Balincourt at Salon94 Bowery

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Jules de Balincourt, Off Base, oil and acrylic on canvas, 2012.
Jules de Balincourt, Off Base, oil and acrylic on canvas, 2012.

Jules de Balincourt’s soldiers have a dazed, world-weary expression and, like Andy Warhol’s ‘Triple Elvis,’ each has at least one shadow character in near proximity.  In this detail from the larger painting ‘Off Base,’ the artist turns the mens’ face paint camouflage into Fauvist masks that resonate with a reinterpreted Matisse painting nearby. (At Salon94 Bowery, on the Lower East Side, through January 13th.)