Though Billy Childish is known for his stunningly prolific production of punk and garage albums, volumes of poetry and thousands of paintings, his latest show of canvases at Lehmann Maupin Gallery exudes tranquility. Here, a lone shore pine dominates the canvas, reaching out to the blue and white strata of sky with its branches. In other paintings, solitary figures navigate canoes or swim in frigid-looking waters, suggesting a journey that must be undertaken alone. (On view in Chelsea through Jan 7th).
Billy Childish, tree – seattle, oil and charcoal on linen, 96 x 72 x 2 inches, 2022.
Twenty-six vividly colored new watercolors by Gladys Nilsson lining the walls of Garth Greenan Gallery are an intense dose of visual pleasure and irreverent fun. In this piece titled ‘Wheee,’ Nilsson tones down her focus on the body parts we tend to keep private (with the exception of a prominent derrière), instead featuring a large figure in jester-like clothes who dangles from a fleshy-pink tree branch. From on high, the individual above makes eye contact with a similarly boneless-looking character below, each as curious about each other as they are to us. (On view in Chelsea through Dec 17th).
Wheee, watercolor, gouache, and pencil on paper, 30 x 22 ¾ inches, 2021.
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.
Medicinal or deadly depending on its use, Antiaris toxicaria (aka the Anti-bausor tree) is the missing presence in this painting by Brooklyn-based painter Anthony Cudahy at Hales Gallery. Partly inspired by an antique woodcut featuring two men lying on the ground under the fruit-bearing tree, here it’s the artist and his husband who lie prone. But while it’s uncertain if the characters in the original woodcut are alive, Cudahy and partner appear to enjoy a peaceful sleep, occupying a subconscious realm complicated by the spider and webs in the upper register. Alluding to Kate Bush’s ‘Coral Room,’ a song featuring a web-spinning ‘spider of time,’ the references place the couple in a poetic realm of dreams and memory. (On view through Oct 30th in Chelsea. Masks required).
Anthony Cudahy, Anti-bausor tree (protected sleepers, wolf’s-bane and spider around), Oil on canvas, 96 x 72 in, 2021.
A charred tree trunk overtaken by a crystalline-looking mass or spreading fungal growth dominates Pierogi Gallery’s Lower East Side space. At close range, the lightly colored substance materializes into thousands of tiny 3-D printed human figures locked in what could be combat or an interconnected embrace, acting out love-hate relationships en masse. With the piece, New York State artist Jonathan Schipper contemplates the consequences of human drives, specifically consumption, that come at the cost of our habitat. (On view on the Lower East Side through Jan 12th).
Jonathan Schipper, At Any Given Moment, wood, UV cured resin, approx. 53 (h) x 131 (w) x 55 (d) inches, 2019.
