Matthew Fisher’s tidy waves look like carefully coiffured heads rising from the deeps and arranged in careful rows, like a school picture or choir rehearsal in the light of an apocalyptically weird sun. (At Chelsea’s New York Center for Art and Media Studies through April 12th.)
Andrew Masullo prefers the term ‘stuff maker’ to ‘artist’ as a way of describing his practice. Crowns, teeth, mountain ranges and more come to mind with this tiny 5×7 inch canvas with its zippy orange, ardent red and preppy pink/green color combo. (At Chelsea’s Mary Boone Gallery through April 27th.)
Andrew Masullo, ‘5404,’ 5” x 7,” oil/canvas, 2011-12.
Romanian artist Adrien Ghenie often paints historical figures from Hitler to Darwin, blotting out their features in aggressive smears of paint. Here, a woman’s comfortable, bourgeois home-life comes under attack as the furniture appears to explode or dissolve into pools of paint as she sends a helpless glance heavenward. (At Pace Gallery’s 534 West 25th Street location through May 4th).
Adrien Ghenie, Pie Fight Interior 8, oil on canvas, 2012.
Transylvanian twins Gert & Uwe Tobias offer more of the large-scale woodblock prints that have earned them widespread recognition in recent years in their solo show at SoHo’s Team Gallery. In this untitled piece, a daybed with a circular, saw-blade-like ornament may have felled the caped jester on the floor…the mystery is provocative. (Through March 30th).
Untitled (GUT/2053), colored woodcut on canvas, 2012
Sylvie Fleury’s 1998 video ‘Walking on Carl Andre,’ features women’s feet as they pose on ‘60s Minimalist icon Carl Andre’s signature metal floor plate sculptures. In this updated version, she allows visitors to try on a pair of heels and strut their stuff on an Andre replica in a feminizing collaboration that turns his masculine, industrial art product into a catwalk. (At Salon 94 Bowery through April 27th.)
Sylvie Fleury, installation view of ‘It Might as Well Rain Until September,’ at Salon 94 Bowery, March 2013.
Assembled over time on the floor of his studio from Home Depot paint color samples and traces of studio debris, William Cordova’s colorful paper grids bear witness to his own history of studio activity while alluding to the culture and history of the people of the Andes through a resemblance to the Wiphala flag. (At Sikkema Jenkins & Co through April 6th).
William Cordova, untitled (cuntisuyo), 2013; untitled (chinchasuya), 2011; untitled (tupac katari) 2011-12; untitled (antisuya), 2013. All mixed media collage on paper.
The figures in Rita Ackermann’s new paintings at Hauser & Wirth’s 69th Street location appear to materialize from the deep, their outlines like veins seen through flesh or marble. Ghostly characters with pointy pixy noses and saucer-shaped eyes, they walk the line between benevolent and menacing. (Through April 20th).
Rita Ackermann, ‘Fire by Days Blues VII,’ spray paint, oil pigments and rabbit skin glue on canvas, 2013.
Political corruption inspired these monumental sculptures by German artist Thomas Schutte, located at the southern corner of Central Park and Fifth Avenue. Tied together, the characters are unable to escape each other, though their construction on three stilt-like legs suggests that what precarious balance they do have is due to their fractious unity. (On view through August 25th. For more info, visit the Public Art Fund.)
Thomas Schutte, ‘United Enemies,’ bronze, 2011.
To celebrate the centenary of the late Philip Guston’s birth, McKee Gallery is showing key later work by the artist who is known for his unnerving cartoonish figures such as this duo in Klan hoods who navigate urban streets with a car full of bodies at sunrise. (At 745 Fifth Ave, through April 20th)
Philip Guston, ‘Dawn,’ oil on canvas,1970.
Peter Blum Gallery marks its first show at its new 57th Street gallery (as it says goodbye to its Chelsea and SoHo locations), with Rosy Keyser’s adventurous ‘paintings,’ assembled from materials as diverse as bamboo and rusty, corrugated steel. (Through April 20th).
Rosy Keyser, ‘Hungry Shepherd, Honeypot,’ left panel: enamel, spray paint and rope on steel. Right panel: dye enamel, bamboo, and polycarbonate on aluminum and wood on canvas. 2013.
Hope Gangloff’s pasty-skinned subjects are likened to hip updates on Egon Schiele’s or Gustave Klimt’s characters but the men and women in her latest solo show at Chelsea’s Susan Inglett Gallery – like this picture of ‘Lydia (The Tattooed Lady)’ – seem to be having a lot more fun. (Thanks to Nancy on last Saturday’s tour for a link to Groucho Marx’s ode to Lydia!) (Through March 23rd).
Hope Gangloff, Lydia (The Tattooed Lady), acrylic/canvas, 2013.
Wolfgang Laib’s fourteen-foot high ziggurat dominates Sperone Westwater’s narrow main gallery with its hefty slabs of fragrant beeswax. Titled, ‘Without Beginning and Without End,’ Laib creates his architecture in the form of an ancient structure, while using a natural material made by bees in their own building process. (On the Lower East Side through March 30th)
Wolfgang Laib, ‘Without Beginning and Without End,’ beeswax, wooden understructure, 2005.
Mark Dion’s vitrine-based sculptures often evoke the wonder of the 16th-18th century ‘Wunderkammer,’ or cabinet of curiosities. In this sculpture, the centerpiece of his current show at Chelsea’s Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, the ‘wunder’ of this cast replica of a manatee skeleton is overshadowed by a polluted sea-bed of tar-covered consumer goods below. (Through April 13th).
Mark Dion, Trichechus manatus latirostris, plastic skeleton, tar, found objects in steel and glass case, 2013.
You have to shout to be heard above the roar of dyed-black water pouring into vast steel containers in Polish artist Miroslaw Balka’s installation at Barbara Gladstone Gallery. Whether it conjures environmental destruction (with the oil-like appearance of the water) or suggests larger industrial processes, the installation, titled ‘The Order of Things,’ generates unease. (At Barbara Gladstone’s 21st Street location in Chelsea through March 30th).
Miroslaw Balka, 2 x (350 x 300 x 300), 36 x 36 x 29/The Order of Things, steel, water, pumps, plastic, rubber, water, food coloring and wood, 2013.
Painting gets the last laugh in Polish artist Wilhelm Sasnal’s new body of work which focuses on Kodak, its products, logos and marketing of the ‘Kodak moment.’ Now, the former photographic giant’s film products are reduced to memories and arresting color contrasts rendered in oils. (At Anton Kern Gallery through April 6th.)
Wilhelm Sasnal, Kodak Black, oil on canvas, 2012.
In his show at Chelsea’s Jack Shainman Gallery, Barkley L. Hendricks updates his reserved 1969 ‘Lawdy Mama’ beauty with a decidedly more confident woman in the 2011 ‘Triple Portrait: World Conqueror.’ (Through April 6th).
Triple Portrait: World Conqueror, oil, aluminum leaf, variegation leaf and combination gold leaf on linen canvas, 2011.
Dana Hoey’s photographed cast of her own head looks so lifelike (despite being chipped and mottled), it’s eerie. Why not just display the cast? In the photo, the head is perfectly lit to suggest the raking light of a sunset and framed to force a reckoning with the ageless figure. (At Petzel through March 30th).
Dana Hoey, Me Dead, inkjet print, 2012.
Both Rubenesque and strong, caryatid-like females by New York sculptor Allyson Vieira update classical Greek architectural tradition by hoisting steel I-beams instead of plain lintels, suggesting that today’s new glass and steel structures will one day find themselves ancient. (At Laurel Gitlen on the Lower East Side through March 24th).
Allyson Vieira, Weight Bearing III, drywall, screws, steel, 2012.
Veteran minimalist Olivier Mosset’s arresting yellow wall, up-and-comer Jacob Kassay’s geometric shape created from leftover canvas scraps, and conceptual pioneer Lawrence Weiner’s artwork consisting of an instruction to remove a 36” x 36” square from the drywall offer three strategies for saying a lot with a little. The three converse amongst themselves at Andrea Rosen’s intimate new 544 W. 24th St location. (Through March 23rd).
Jacob Kassy, Olivier Mosset, Lawrence Weiner, Installation view at Andrea Rosen Gallery, March, 2013.
El Anatsui’s shimmering, undulating wall sculptures made of repurposed bottle caps are uniformly stunning, but previous experience of individual pieces won’t prepare you for the Ghana-based artist’s huge installation in the Brooklyn Museum’s fifth floor galleries. Titled ‘Gli’ (Wall), sheets of aluminum and copper wire materials were inspired by visits to walled cities of Berlin, Jerusalem and Notsie (in Togo) but offer a delicate and diaphanous take on the idea of barriers. (Through August 4th).
El Anatsui, ‘Gli (Wall),’ aluminum and copper wire, 2010.
Austrian artist Martin Roth’s interest in nature has led him to raise ducklings in his studio and grow grass on Persian rugs for past projects. His latest show at Louis B. James Gallery on the Lower East Side has a surprise twist (spoiler alert!) in which a bonsai tree upstairs is nurtured by the live, recorded sounds of birds, fish and these lively crickets in the basement gallery. (Through April 13th.)
Martin Roth, ‘Untitled (Bonsai)’ installation view at Louis B. James Gallery, March 2013.
What does it take for a minimal painting to stand on its own strengths, with no explanation or apparent associations to build a context for understanding? New York-based Suzan Frecon’s abstractions ask this question, offering pure color, shape and surface to absorbing effect. (At David Zwirner’s 525 West 19th St location through March 23rd).
Suzan Frecon, composition in four colors, trial 3, oil on panel, 2009.
“With Nozkowski, a good, slow look-’n’-solve is part of the fun,” Tyler Green of Modern Art Notes has observed in response to Nozkowski’s puzzle-like paintings. Packed with familiar yet alien forms, they translate the everyday world into abstraction. (At Pace Gallery’s 508 West 25th Street location through March 23rd).
Thomas Nozkowski, Untitled (9-22), oil on linen on panel, 2012.
David Zwirner Gallery opened its new five-story, 30,000 square foot gallery with the perfect artwork to highlight architecture by Annabelle Selldorf. Eight-foot square pieces from Dan Flavin’s 1966-71 ‘European Couples’ series (titled after Europeans he considered influential) turn light into an artistic medium, washing every white wall in color. (At David Zwirner’s 537 West 20th Street location through March 16).
Dan Flavin, untitled (to Janet and Allen), pink fluorescent light, 1966-71.
Shinique Smith’s fabric sculptures bring to mind the way we fashion our identities through clothing, even when her bright bunches of used garments are bunched together and hung from the ceiling. Here, the artist turns her work jeans into a Hans Bellmer-esque assemblage of biomorphic shapes that touch on body image and the sensuous. (At James Cohan Gallery, Chelsea through March 16).
Shinique Smith, Soul Elsewhere, artist’s clothing, fiber-fil and rope, 2013.
Tam Van Tran is known for dynamic, sculptural wall installations created from usual materials (spirulina and chlorophyll colored stapled paper artworks a verdant green in past work). At Ameringer McEnery Yohe in Chelsea, Tran’s new works literally move, as copper foil catches the breeze and hints at palms moving in West Coast winds, which inspired this series. (Through March 16th).
Tam Van Tran, detail from ‘Palm Shrapnel,’ copper foil, palm leaf, and cardboard on canvas, 2012.
In past work, German artist Michael Riedel has drawn his materials from texts on the web written about his own work, which he turned into exhibition wallpaper. For his current show at David Zwirner Gallery, he puts those images into PowerPoint and causes a ‘freezing’ between slides to create a new merger of information. (At David Zwirner Gallery’s 533 West 19th Street location through March 23rd).
Michael Riedel at David Zwirner Gallery, installation view, Feb 2013.
Trevor Paglan’s latest project ups the ante on artistic ambition; a series of one hundred images titled ‘Last Pictures’ was etched on a disk and affixed to a communications satellite that went into space last November, creating a selective portrait of mankind’s nature and history for all or none who may see it. Here, a gallery visitor examines unselected images from Paglan’s shortlist. (At Metro Pictures in Chelsea, through March 9th).
Trevor Paglen, ‘The Last Pictures’ installation view, Feb 2013 at Metro Pictures.
Gavin Kenyon seems to be channeling influences from Hans Bellmer’s disturbing dolls to Senga Nengudi’s organic sack-like shapes in his new series at Ramiken Crucible on the Lower East Side. The show’s untitled centerpiece was created by casting the insides of faux fur coats, which have left tufts of hair on the surface of this prettily colored, carcass-like beast of a sculpture. (Through March 3rd).
Gavin Kenyon, untitled, dyed plaster, fur, 2013.
Italian artist Alighiero Boetti proved that conceptual art didn’t have to be visually dull with his Arazzi works – embroidered panels made by Afghan craftswomen in the 80s and 90s featuring Italian and Farsi text from poetry or sayings culled from around the world or authored by the artist. (At Chelsea’s Barbara Gladstone Gallery through March 23rd).
Alighiero Boetti, installation view of ‘La Forza del Centro,’ at Barbara Gladstone Gallery, Feb 2013.
To look at it, you’d never guess that Berlin-based Alicja Kwade’s miraculously curving wooden door was fashioned from a number of old doors cut up and seamlessly pieced together. The sculpture’s title, ‘Eadem Mutata Resurgo,’ or ‘I rise again, changed but the same,’ puts a weighty spin on Kwade’s clever reclamation of found materials but the piece nevertheless appears to be an almost magical portal into another world. (At Lisa Cooley through March 17th).
Alicja Kwade, Eadem Mutata Resurgo, wood, 2013.
