Because they’re hollow, ceramic artist Rose B. Simpson’s sculptures “hold space,” she explained in a recent interview with Vogue. She went on to say, “I often think about the space inside as holding intention; I want them to go out and do work in the world and be vessels for that intention I’m putting out there.” Three large vessel-like sculptures in Simpson’s current exhibition at Jack Shainman Gallery are a powerful presence, marked by signs that relate to specific meaningful ideas for the artist, representative of her internal thought processes and development. Titled ‘The Road Less Traveled,’ Simpson’s show introduces this already very successful artist to New York audiences as a maker who follows her own way. (On view in Chelsea through April 8th).
Tag: vessels
Shio Kusaka at David Zwirner Gallery
Arranged on a narrow runway of shiny copper plates, new ceramics by Shio Kusaka at David Zwirner Gallery enchant visitors with their color, pattern and subtle sense of humor. Led plate by plate into the gallery, visitors explore relationships between pairs of vessels or clusters of related forms. Further down the line, Kusaka injects a simplified anime aesthetic into ancient cylindrical Haniwa sculptural forms and elsewhere, riffs on neolithic Jomon period patterns. (On view through April 30th.)
Esteban Cabeza de Baca at Garth Greenan Gallery
Drawing on inspiration from his Spanish, Mexican, Apache and Zuni ancestry and the landscape of the American Southwest, Esteban Cabeza de Baca manifests spiritual and political concepts in paintings and sculpture now on view at Garth Greenan Gallery. The clay outline of a human form set before a mountainous landscape in this painting ‘Vessels’ also exists as a sculpture in gallery. Painted or in three dimensions, it signals an in-between state of existence, for Cabeza de Baca, a freedom in pursuing decolonized thought. (On view through March 13th. Masks and social distancing required).
Claudia Wieser at Marianne Boesky Gallery
Berlin-based artist Claudia Wieser takes the 1976 BBC drama ‘I, Claudius’ as inspiration for a gorgeous exhibition featuring wallpaper printed with towering busts from antiquity and a series of refined painted vessels atop a large ceramic tiled pedestal. Rather than tell a story or suggest particular meanings, Wieser evokes elegance and opulence using low-brow materials like wood and mirror-polished steel, perhaps a parallel to politically corrupt Roman rulers whose culture non-the-less produced prized artwork. (On view at Marianne Boesky Gallery in Chelsea through April 14th).
Tonico Lemmos Auad at CRG Gallery
Born in the Northern Brazilian city of Belem, home to an annual religious festival that draws millions of participants, artist Tonico Lemmos Auad creates a series of attractively simple, handmade, crocheted forms inspired by votive vessels. (At CRG Gallery on the Lower East Side through Oct 23rd).