PPOW Gallery in Chelsea has some pretty pompous door greeters in the form of Judy Fox’s charmingly absurd, anthropomorphized ‘Large Octopus’ sculptures, subtitled ‘Dowager’ and ‘Elder.’ At around 2.5 and 3.5 feet high the duo are impressively large to be crafted in Fox’s signature terracotta & casein materials but small enough to present more of an amusement than a threat. (Through Dec 15th).
The Brooklyn Museum will open its doors tomorrow, a day after Sandy hit the city. In a cheeky, colorful display there, Moroccan-born, Paris-based artist Mounir Fatmi presents fifty skateboards covered in Islamic prayer rugs. Titled ‘Maximum Sensation,’ the installation begs the question of where we find heightened consciousness – in faith, sport or both? (On long-term installation in the Contemporary Art Galleries).
Nina Chanel Abney says she’s ‘living in an age of information overload,’ and her new paintings prove the point by piling up disguised references to mass media content, from politics to advertising. This detail – from an over 20-foot long mural titled ‘I Dread to Think’ – surprisingly jumbles race, religion and gender in two female deities. (At Kravets/Wehby Gallery and Anna Kustera Gallery on 21st Street in Chelsea through Nov 24th).
Mark Bradford is back with more of the mixed media collage/decollage canvases that have made his reputation as a leading contemporary abstract artist, like this mixed media on canvas piece, ‘We May Be Running Out of a Past.’ His latest solo show at Chelsea’s Sikkema Jenkins & Co opened this evening, showcasing eight huge, vibrantly colored pieces that don’t evidence a new direction for the artist but do explain his popularity. (Through Dec 15th .)
In the 90s, Zhan Wang caused a stir in China by intervening in the landscaping around new, modern buildings by replacing natural rock formations with his large, chrome-covered stainless steel scholars rocks. In the atrium of 590 Madison Ave, the ‘stones’ are in keeping with the glass wall and bamboo plantings, but they still have a ghostly, shape-shifting presence.
Strapped for cash to buy art supplies after a trip to Africa in the early 80s, Al Taylor started fashioning sculptures from material found on the street, transferring his usual work on paper and canvas to three dimensions. Cans & Hoops – fashioned from plastic hula hoops, tin cans & wire – allows his 2-D drawings to come alive in real space. (At David Zwirner Gallery, through Oct 27th).
With over 200 solo shows to his credit, Chuck Close is one of America’s best known artists, and he’s still pushing the boundaries of his craft. His latest solo show at Pace Gallery’s 534 W. 25th Street space features oil paintings, watercolors made with a printer and other works, including this portrait of artist Kara Walker made with oil and a felt hand stamp. (Through Dec 22nd.)
Mickalene Thomas’s ‘Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe: Les trois femmes noires,’ rethinks Manet’s 1863 original by substituting three black women for Manet’s two men and a nude woman. Manet’s version was rejected by the Salon, while Thomas’s rhinestone bedecked beauties headline her current show at the Brooklyn Museum (Through Jan 20th.)
Further to yesterday’s post, Ai Weiwei’s activism continues at Mary Boone’s Chelsea gallery with ‘Forge’ an installation of twisted pieces of rebar. Though the print and carefully arranged, twisted pieces of metal on the floor appear to be calligraphic abstractions, they’re created from pieces of metal retrieved from shoddily constructed schools that collapsed in the 2008 earthquake, killing thousands of children. (Through 21st.)
In Chinese, ‘river crab’ sounds like a euphemistic term used to describe censorship, so when artist and human rights activist Ai Weiwei learned in 2010 that his newly built studio was to be demolished by the local government, he hosted a protest feast at which 10,000 river crabs were served. This installation of 2,500 handmade ceramic crabs at Mary Boone Gallery’s Fifth Ave & 57th Street space recalls that event and demonstrates WeiWei’s insuppressible resistance. (Through Dec 21st.)
Alessandro Pessoli’s painted figures usually look like they’ve emerged from a dream or hallucination; these absurdly phallic Maiolica ceramic sculptures, fittingly titled Sancho Panza & Don Chiscotte, lack the typical atmospheric surroundings of Pessoli’s paintings, but their lighthearted vibrant colors and mobile-like hanging lend them an amusing whimsy. (At Chelsea’s Anton Kern Gallery through Oct 20th.)
As Sally Mann recovered from an accident in which she was thrown from and pummeled by her dying horse in ’06, she turned to self-portraiture to create haunting ambrotypes like this one. Streaking, blurring, over and underexposures mar the images, speaking movingly to the damage inflicted on their subject. (At Edwynn Houk Gallery on Fifth Ave & 57th Street through Nov 3rd.)
Gordon Parks’ iconic photographs spanned the worlds of fashion, celebrity and social documentary from this 1949 photo of Ingrid Bergman on location for the filming of Roberto Rossellini’s ‘Stromboli’ to a photo from the ’56 Segregation Series that demonstrates the respectable normality of Mr & Mrs Albert Thornton in their living room in Mobile Alabama. Both are on view at Howard Greenberg Gallery on 57th Street through Oct 27th.
Smashed gallery windows and a wall plowed down by a shiny cart set a restive mood for Andra Ursuta’s latest solo show at Ramiken Crucible on the Lower East Side. Totemic female torsos crafted from a mix of concrete and manure and marble statues of a Romanian gypsy woman awaiting deportation from France are weighed down and beautified by jewelry made from coins. Partly informed by a story of Romanian witches casting a curse on their government, the show’s female characters stubbornly resist tidy concepts of national identity. (Through October 21st.)
You don’t even have to be a dog lover to appreciate William Wegman’s videos with his Weimaraners May Ray and Fay Ray. Here, the duo watches an off-screen ball with rapt attention, creating a mesmerizing, slow-motion dance performed with the utmost concentration. See this video and more early Wegman videos at Salon 94 Freemans on the Lower East Side. (Through Oct 27th).
Conceived of by accident when a shirt used as a glue rag dried into an arresting form, Matt Johnson’s Wifebeater is as pedestrian and delicately ephemeral as a plastic bag in the wind. At least on first glance. A closer look reveals Johnson’s trademark twist of using unlikely materials to make his sculpture. This t-shirt is made of bronze. (At Chelsea’s 303 Gallery through Nov 17th.)
From dyeing fabric to altering the weave of burlap, Brooklyn-based artist Anya Kielar harnesses an assortment of techniques to create her monumental ‘Women’ now on view at Rachel Uffner‘s Lower East Side gallery. Totemic goddesses and folksy females on floating screens transcend the everyday, literally becoming larger than life. Join Merrily next Saturday the 13th, 2-4pm on a tour of this show and more on the Lower East Side.
For two and a half months in 2010, during every hour the Museum of Modern Art was open, performance artist Marina Abramovic sat silently facing a chair filled by a steady stream of visitors. Photographer Marco Anelli was there with her, capturing the thoughtful, blank and tearful faces of each participant as they engaged in a wordless exchange with the artist. (Anelli’s ‘Portraits in the Presence of Marina Abramovic is at Chelsea’s Danziger Projects through Oct 27th).
Lips and eyes fill Team Gallery’s 47 Wooster St space in SoHo where Sam Samore (whose 1973 ‘Suicidist’ photos were featured here yesterday) continues to summon filmic moments, offering seduction on an enormous scale. Here, Lips Tower (#7) resembles a stacked sculpture by Minimalist Donald Judd, though the serial units – lips – are the antithesis of the Minimalists’ cold aesthetic.
Thirty-nine years ago, artist Sam Samore killed himself by asphyxiation, stabbing, overdose, and in an amusingly absurd twist, being buried head first in a sandbox. Photos of these grisly, staged deaths from his 1973 ‘The Suicidist’ series and many more line the walls of SoHo’s Team Gallery recalling film stills both familiar and bizarre. (At Team Gallery’s 83 Grand Street location through October 27th).
Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe’s latest feat of installation art takes visitors through a series of rooms, transporting us into both strange and familiar worlds. This show is the talk of the town, art-wise, and is a stop on this Saturday afternoon’s Chelsea Gallery Tour, 2-4pm. For more info, see the scheduled tours page. (At Chelsea’s Marlborough Gallery through Oct 27th).
The young British artist Lynette Yiadom-Boakye was a standout in last spring’s New Museum Triennial. She’s back with a show of new paintings at Chelsea’s Jack Shainman Gallery titled ‘All Manner of Needs’ in which solitary subjects gaze out at us with searching eyes. (Through October 13th.)