New Yorkers used to seeing abandoned and decrepit bikes are likely to get a kick out of Polish artist Alicja Kwade’s twisted racer in City Hall Park. Like her curving wooden door that we saw on Lower East Side tours last Feb/March, she took the original apart, reformed it and pieced it back together to create an object of whimsy and wonder. (Through December 13th).
Alicja Kwade, Journey without Arrival (Raleigh), stainless steel, aluminum, rubber, plastic components, 2012/13.
British sculptor Gary Webb mixes high and low references with his 22’ high aluminum sculpture ‘Buzzing It Down’ at City Hall Park, which nods equally to elegant modernism a la Brancusi’s Endless Column and plastic preschool linking toys. (Through December 13th).
Gary Webb, ‘Buzzing it Down,’ cast aluminum, paint, 2012.
In a more intimately-scaled followup to Swiss-American artist Ugo Rondinone’s powerful installation of stone characters at Paula Cooper Gallery this spring, the artist revives his recurring clown figure as a performer at City Hall Park. Even asleep, this character is imposing and mysterious with his colorful nylon costume, collar of feathers and thick shawl. (Through December 13th).
Ugo Rondinone, dog days are over, performance, 1996/2013.
It’s going to be hard to appreciate major late 20th century minimalist Daniel Buren’s characteristic indoor painted installations after seeing his gorgeous pavilion in City Hall Park, which allows visitors to literally walk into fields of color and interact with spaces projected by the sun onto the ground and pavilion floor. (Through December 13th).
Daniel Buren, Suncatcher, powder-coated steel, glass, vinyl, 2013.
LA sculptor Evan Holloway uses one of art history’s most iconic artworks, a 4.5 inch high fertility goddess from approximately 22-24,000 BC, as decorative inspiration for a huge, slender bronze ring in City Hall Park. The shifts between a tiny but fulsome female on a huge but slim ring are provocative and amusing; you’ll also get a rare glimpse of the sculpture’s back view. (Through December 13th).
Evan Holloway, ‘Willendorf Wheel,’ bronze, 2013.
One of the city’s best exhibitions of the moment isn’t in a gallery…the Public Art Fund’s exhibition ‘Lightness of Being’ at City Hall Park brings together an outstanding array of sculpture that surprises with its materials, sizes or concepts. This week, we’ll check it out, starting with this distorted tractor by Australian-American artist James Angus, which not only looks odd in its über urban environment, but is given another twist by digital distortions in the manufacturing process. (Through December 13th).
James Angus, ‘John Deere Model D,’ painted steel, painted cast iron, 2013.
Brooklyn-based artist Orly Genger is known for sculpture and installations involving knitting, but she outdoes herself in Madison Square Park with an installation made by knotting 1.4 million feet of nautical rope collected on the East coast and arranged in undulating waves around the park’s trees. (Though Sept 8th).
Orly Genger, ‘Red, Yellow and Blue,’ installation view at Madison Square Park, nautical rope & paint, July 2013.
The roughly cut blocks of Allyson Vieira’s sculptures resemble the caryatids of Greek architecture but in an updated, futuristic way. We enjoyed versions made with drywall at Laurel Gitlen Gallery on last March’s Lower East Side tour, but it’s perfect to see them outdoors in proximity to a Greek-style façade at Brooklyn’s Metro Tech Center. (Through Sept 16th).
Allyson Vieira, ‘Weight Bearing V, Weight Bearing VI, Weight Bearing VII,’ 2012.
As New York galleries take a break in the final weeks of summer, New York Art Tours heads to the city’s parks and public places to enjoy our lively public art scene. Here’s a sculpture that several of you mentioned when we toured Jeff Koons’ show of giant balloon dog sculptures this spring. Koons’ ‘Balloon Flower’ outside of 7 WTC in downtown Manhattan is a hit with kids on this sunny summer day.
Jeff Koons, Balloon Flower, mirror polish stainless steel with transparent color, installation view in park of 7 WTC, July 2013.
Jennifer Cohen’s ‘White Line’ is as poised as a ballerina en pointe, but its meaning is given an extra charge by being included in Yancey Richardson Gallery’s summer group show titled, ‘Desire,’ which showcases work by female artists adopting a female gaze. (In Chelsea through August 23rd).
Jennifer Cohen, White Line, bronze, copper tubing, plaster and paper pulp, 2013.
Jackie Gendel’s bathers cast hard stares or fall into melancholy sleep, their prone bodies acting as stand-ins for dunes under a darkening sky. (At Chelsea’s Morgan Lehman Gallery through Aug 23rd).
Jackie Gendel, At the Beach, water dispersed pigment and vinyl on canvas, 2013.
The sobriety and simplicity of Imran Qureshi’s Roof Garden installation at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a sharp contrast to previous Met roof projects (like the Starn brothers’ climbable bamboo labyrinth in 2010). Partly in response to deadly bombings in Lahore, Qureshi paints the roof’s floor and walls with blood-red paint splatters and beautifully rendered floral motifs. (At the Met through Nov 3rd.)
Imran Qureshi, installation view of ‘The Roof Garden Commission: Imran Qureshi,’ at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, July 2013.
A dark geometric shape appears to do battle with two biomorphic entities in Elizabeth Murray’s 1982 canvas at Chelsea’s Cheim & Read Gallery. Part of an exhibition showcasing abstract painting in the 80s, its attention-grabbing drama and size (over ten feet tall) excite the imagination. (Through Aug 30th).
Elizabeth Murray, Sentimental Education, oil on canvas, 127 x 96 inches, 1982.
Known for crafting historical art and furnishings as if they’d been partly destroyed, Brooklyn artist Valerie Hegarty has astoundingly transformed several rooms in the Brooklyn Museum’s Cane Acres Plantation Dining Room to look as if disaster has struck, turning a gentile space into a riot of gunshot holes, destroyed food and flapping crows. (In the 4th floor Period Rooms at the Brooklyn Museum through Dec 1st).
Valerie Hegarty, installation view of ‘Valerie Hegarty: Alternative Histories’ at the Brooklyn Museum, July 2013.
Bruce High Quality Foundation (an anonymous collective of Brooklyn artists) show off their light-hearted but ambitious practice at the Brooklyn Museum, including these vitrines housing crudely recreated selections from the Met’s Greek and Roman galleries. The installation recalls the age-old student practice of perfecting one’s art by copying in museums though these renditions of the Met’s ancient masterpieces are decidedly folksy and imperfect. (Through Sept 22nd).
‘The Greek and Roman Collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art,’ Play dough, cardboard, wood, acrylic, polystyrene foam, 2013.
Working to music (including like Patti Griffin’s ‘One Big Love,’ after which the series was titled) and restricting her painting to shaped surfaces like this draped rag, New York artist Leslie Wayne explains that she was seeking to capture the ‘eureka moment,’ when inspiration takes over and a piece ‘works.’ (At Chelsea’s Jack Shainman Gallery through Aug 17th).
Leslie Wayne, One Big Love #63 (Paint/Rag #5), oil on panel, 2011.
Anne Chu lifts her chubby cherub straight out of 18th century Rococo painting, then gives it a makeover. Decorative splashes of paint and a flag bearing an indistinct face question this putti’s celestial purpose. (At Chelsea’s Lehmann Maupin Gallery through Aug 16th).
Anne Chu, Putti with Flag, ceramic, stone, fabric, metal, 2001.
For many artists, being offered an exhibition in a Chelsea gallery would feel like winning the lottery. For his first show at Andrew Edlin’s Chelsea gallery, New York artist David Jelinek takes the daring step of filling the space not with his own creations but with a symbol of hope aroused and then dashed – a scattering of discarded losing lottery tickets strewn on the gallery floor. (Through Aug 17th).
David Jelinek, installation view of ‘Money Down,’ at Andrew Edlin Gallery, July 2013.
Charlotte Posenenske permanently gave up art making for sociology in 1968, just a year after creating the plans for this modular sheet metal sculpture that could be configured in a variety of ways. Here, the piece resembles a ventilation shaft that questions the necessity of use value in art while fetishising industrial design. (At Miguel Abreu Gallery on the Lower East Side through Aug 17th).
Charlotte Posenenske, Series D Vierkantrohre (Square Tubes), sheet steel, dimensions and configuration variable, 1967/2009.
If it isn’t obvious that New York artist Aric Obrosey’s paper artwork ‘Hand Production Lines’ involves a lot of work, hand cut motifs repeated to form lace-like chains come together to depict a giant work glove. Created for the Museum of Art and Design’s ’09-’10 exhibition featuring cut paper artworks, the piece involves a mind boggling amount of detail and took nine months to complete. (At McKenzie Fine Art on the Lower East Side through Aug 17th).
Aric Obrosey, Hand Production Lines, cut paper, 41 ½ x 59 ½ inches, 2009. Photo courtesy of McKenzie Fine Art.
Viewers have to look at just the right angle down a long, thick piece of Plexiglas to spy Hank Willis Thomas’ minstrel, a photo of a man painted half black and half white, then literally doubled by the material. Like similar characters photographed by the artist, a seemingly clear cover obstructs a clear view, a metaphor for how perceptions of race can obscure identity. (At Jack Shainman Gallery’s 24th Street space through Aug 17th).
Hank Willis Thomas, ‘Invisible Man,’ Plexi block and a digital c-print on aluminum, 2013.
Further to yesterday’s post, another standout at Matthew Marks Gallery is this quilt by legendary (and pseudonymous) quilter Rosie Lee Tompkins. Titled ‘Three Sixes,’ it follows Tompkins’ practice of making her quilts as a prayer for a loved one; in this case commemorating three relatives’ birthdays that involve the number six. (At Matthew Marks Gallery’s 522 W. 22nd St space through Aug 16th).
Rosie Lee Tompkins, Three Sixes, polyester double-knit, polyester knit, broadcloth, ottoman, poplin, wool jersey with muslin backing, 1987.
American folk tradition inspired Matthew Marks Gallery’s summer group show ‘Roving Signs,’ which includes this editioned sculpture by Rachel Harrison that conjures apple picking over Apple Macs and can-do crafting over mass consumption. (At Matthew Marks Gallery’s 522 W. 22nd St space through Aug 16th).
Rachel Harrison, Apple Multiple, artificial fruit and sewing pins, 2008.
Berlin-based artist Simon Fujiwara created this gender-reversing picture as part of a meandering investigation into a now-lost photo of his globe trotting, show-girl mother in the arms of a stranger on a beach in Beirut. With very little information to go on, Fujiwara goes on, casting actors to reconstruct the old photo while musing on family history. (At Chelsea’s Andrea Rosen Gallery through Aug 9th).
Detail from Simon Fujiwara’s exhibition ‘Studio Pieta (King Kong Komplex),’ at Andrea Rosen Gallery, July 2013.
In his latest solo show at Chelsea’s Luhring Augustine Gallery, British artist William Daniels continues to walk the line between abstraction and representation in new paintings for which he constructed, photographed, then painted arches made of aluminum foil. (Through Aug 16th).
William Daniels, Untitled, 42 3/8 x 41 ¾ inches, oil on board, 2013.
On two cold, grey sheets of lead, Spanish-born artist Carlos Vega depicts a tree bearing lively fruit represented by used postage stamps – icons drawn from a diverse array of cultures and times. (At Jack Shainman’s 20th St location through Aug 17th).
Carlos Vega, detail of ‘Ivory Tower,’ stamps and oil paint on lead, 2012.
Is this vacationer’s vacant stare an expression of total relaxation or haunting anxiety? Sketchy hands and underdeveloped legs put the focus on this man’s shadowy head and torso in ‘Another Side of Bad Blake,’ a drama wrapped in a portrait by Brooklyn painter Daniel Heidkamp. (At Chelsea’s Morgan Lehman Gallery through Aug 23rd.)
Daniel Heidkamp, ‘Another Side of Bad Blake,’ oil on canvas, 2012.
British artist Brian Griffith’s teddy bear tent is hands down one of the most fun sculptures on view in Chelsea right now. You can’t go inside the tent and weenie roasts aren’t allowed, but the piece does suggest a very imaginative band of travelers. (At David Zwirner Gallery‘s 525 W. 19th Street location through Aug 9th).
Brian Griffiths, The Body and Ground (Or Your Brittle Smile), canvas, scenic acrylic paint, rope, webbing, fiberglass pole, metal poles, vintage travel souvenir patches, net fabric, tarpaulin, duct tape, tread, string, sand, and fixings, 2010.
Brooklyn-based artist Virginia Overton combines the city and country in her untitled project next to Chelsea’s High Line park by parking a pickup truck with a bricked in bed and a scene of flying ducks in the back window on the top of an Edison ParkFast stack. (Next to the High Line at West 20th Street through Aug 8).
Virginia Overton, Untitled, pickup truck, bricks, 2012.
Used archery targets, repaired flea market antiques, still life paintings and more inform LA-based artist Ricky Swallow’s practice of putting everyday objects through a series of transformations. Here, bronze vessels cast from cardboard and applied with what looks like a ceramic glaze conjure lily pads and Aladdin’s lamp. (At Chelsea’s Casey Kaplan Gallery through Aug 2nd).
Ricky Swallow, Staggered Vessel with Rings, patinated bronze, 2013.
