Though toppled, David Opdyke’s utility pole appears to be sprouting new growth, suggesting that man-made inventions can have a life of their own, or that (even old) technology is an unstoppable force. (At Magnan Metz Gallery through May 31st.)
David Opdyke, Secondary Growth Line Extension, reclaimed NJCP&L utility pole, Styrofoam, steel, resin, paint, glass insulator caps, 91 x 92 x 60 inches, 2014.
As part of her latest solo show titled ‘Divorce,’ New York artist Anicka Yi has installed two driers in the gallery. Open the doors, and a diffuser sprays a strong scent of fried foods blended with other odors to convey the repulsion of a foreign yet familiar smell left behind. (At 47 Canal through June 8th).
Anicka Yi, Washing Away of Wrongs, 2 stainless steel dryer doors, 2 fragrances, diffusers, plexiglass, 120 x 131 x 26.5 inches, 2014.
Moscow-born, NYC-based painter Sanya Kantarovsky’s latest paintings at Chelsea’s Casey Kaplan Gallery explore awkward and absurd relationships. This twisted dupe appears to be horrified as he willingly bends over to have his hand crushed by a green-booted figure. (Through June 21st).
Sanya Kantarovsky, L’appetit, oil, watercolor, pastel, oilstick on canvas, 47” x 35,” 2014.
Sam Moyer, known for working her canvases over with ink and bleach, pairs up weathered cloth (on top) with slabs of marble (below), making a knowing comparison between her own process art and nature’s rather slower processes. (At Rachel Uffner Gallery on the Lower East Side through June 8th).
Sam Moyer, Zola, stone, ink on canvas mounted to mdf panel, 80 x 69 x .75 inches, 2014.
Netherlands and Benin-based artist Meschac Gaba’s first solo show in the US includes these gaming tables, handmade in Benin, that allow visitors to take geopolitics into their own hands…at least as represented by foosball. (At Chelsea’s Tanya Bonakdar Gallery through June 7th).
Meschac Gaba, installation view at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery (upstairs), May 2014.
French artist Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster has long included clothing in her conceptual artworks; for her first show at Chelsea’s 303 Gallery, she displays items from her own wardrobe along with other ephemera (here, her drawing from 1981) as autobiography. (Through May 31st).
Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, detail of the installation ‘euqinimod & costumes’ at 303 Gallery, May 2014.
Known for artwork inspired by and interacting with architecture, Brazilian artist Carlito Carvalhosa fills two rooms of Chelsea’s Sonnabend Gallery with an installation of fluorescent lights, telephone poles and glassware that suggests a field of ungainly plants or delicately balanced, deconstructed architecture.
Carlito Carvalhosa, Possibility Matters, Poles, glasses, fluorescent lights, dimensions variable, 2014.
Quasi-familiar characters from art history, made repulsive by acrid colors with Fauve-like contrasts create uneasy new paintings at Gagosian Gallery by British artist Glenn Brown. Here, an unknown gentleman’s jaundiced, spotchy skin and cloudy eyes signal moral or physical disease. (At Gagosian’s 21st Street location through June 21st).
Glenn Brown, Reproduction, oil on panel, 53 1/8 x 39 ¾ inches, 2014.
Would you be willing to promise that you’ll always do what you say you’re going to do? How about signing a contract to that effect? At three stations in conceptual artist Adrian Piper’s latest solo show at Elizabeth Dee Gallery in Chelsea, the artist asks visitors to do just that. Here, you can agree to ‘always be too expensive to buy.’ (Through May 31st).
Adrian Piper, installation view of ‘The Probable Trust Registry’ at Elizabeth Dee Gallery, May 2014.
LA based artist Ry Rocklen takes self-branding into actual product marketing with a tongue-in-cheek installation of the clothing in his wardrobe, cast in porcelain or copper plated. A graffiti-covered door is also preserved for the ages with copper, silver and gold leaf infill turning the banal into the beautiful. (At Untitled Gallery on the Lower East Side through June 15th).
Ry Rocklen, installation view at Untitled, foreground: To be Titled (Tagged Door), wood door, hardware, copper leaf, silver leaf and gold leaf, 2014. Shoes: copper plating, 2013-14. Wall: Porcelain casts of clothing, 2008-14.
Claes Oldenburg & Coosje van Bruggen’s ‘Soft Harp’ is a standout in Paula Cooper Gallery’s current exhibition of music-themed visual art. Despite being hung out as if on a wash line or strung across a flagpole, the instrument retains its elegance and beauty. (In Chelsea through May 31st).
Claes Oldenburg & Coosje van Bruggen, Soft Harp, Scale C, Harp Sail, wood, steel, aluminum, clothesline, feathers, latext paint, 1992.
David Zwirner Gallery revisits the 1980s in ‘No Problem,’ a group show that tracks the mutual influence of the Cologne and New York art scenes during this era. It includes Jenny Holzer’s inflammatory essays – in-your-face rants once plastered around New York and included in a show at Monika Spruth Galerie in Cologne in 1985. (In Chelsea through June 14th).
Jenny Holzer, Inflammatory Essays, 1979-1982, offset posters on colored paper, 17 x 17 inches (each).
Just when he thinks he’s had enough of painting trees, Benjamin Butler – a Brooklynite transplanted to Vienna – finds a fresh approach to take or problem to solve as with ‘Green Forest,’ for which the merest suggestion of branches turns a pattern of stripes into a dense copse of trees. (At Klaus von Nichtssagend on the Lower East Side through June 8th).
Benjamin Butler, Green Forest, oil on linen, 23.6 x 19.7 inches 2013.
Named Hephaestus, after the god of fire and blacksmiths, this towering, skeletal sculpture by LA artist Matthew Monahan suggests that its power lies not in massive proportions but the ability to assemble an arresting totem from scrap. (At Anton Kern Gallery through June 28th).
Matthew Monahan, Hephaestus, patinated bronze, stainless steel, patinated rebar, 144 1/8 x 114 ¼ x 82 ¾ inches, 2013.
This 164-foot scroll by Vietnam-based artist Dinh Q Le depicts just one image – the immolation of a Buddhist monk in Saigon in 1963. Stretched out to great length, the scroll seems to add duration to the still photograph while connecting that event to current acts of extreme political protest. (At Chelsea’s PPOW Gallery through May 24th).
Dinh Q Le, The Scroll of Thich Quang Duc, 150 foot c-print scroll and gold lacquer box, 2013.
Shot in an architectural water feature in a Fort Worth park and displayed in Monya Rowe Gallery’s cramped, dusty basement, NJ-based artist Joe Pflieger’s abstract photo finds a perfectly atmospheric setting to evoke an aged, neglected monument. (On the Lower East Side through May 18th).
Joe Pflieger, Luxor, photo tex mounted on aluminum, 48 x 32 inches, 2014.
Exiled from Beirut and living in San Francisco and Paris, octogenarian artist Etal Adnan has devoted many paintings, including this soothing view, to consideration of Marin County’s Mount Tamalpais as it is constantly transformed by weather and light conditions. (At Callicoon Fine Arts on the Lower East Side through May 23rd).
Etel Adnan, Untitled, oil on canvas, 8 x 10 inches, 2012.
Brooklyn collage artist Fred Tomaselli’s first New York solo show since 2006 dazzles with images like this bird vs serpent standoff, set in a fiery swirl of red and orange under an improbably colorful night sky. The show also features New York Times front covers with photos altered to equally hallucinogenic effect. (At Chelsea’s James Cohan Gallery through June 14th).
Fred Tomaselli, Penetrators (Large), photo-collage, acrylic, resin on wood panel, 72 x 72 inches, 2012.
Drawing on funeral books featuring deceased forebears demonstrating their social status through their dress, Thai artist Jakkai Siributr deocrates civil service and military uniforms with a super abundance of awards that also point to animism and Buddhism as cultural touchstones. (At Chelsea’s Tyler Rollins Fine Art through May 31st).
Jakkai Siributr, C-10, military uniform, embellished with objects, 22 x 17 x 8 inches, 2014.
If making abundant free chocolate to give to gallery visitors seems like a blatant ploy to get people talking about your artwork, you’d be reading Oscar Murillo’s latest show at Chelsea’s David Zwirner Gallery correctly. The young, London-based Columbian artist intends visitors to his candy factory – operated by visiting Columbian staffers – to take some to share, spreading the conversation about migration and commerce. (Through June 14th).
Oscar Murillo, installation view of ‘A Merchantile Novel’ at David Zwirner Gallery, April 2014.
New York gets a chance to see select sculptures made by some of 1,500 participants in Swiss artist Urs Fischer’s retrospective at LA’s Geffen Contemporary last summer. Select pieces have been cast in bronze and are on view at Gagosian Gallery’s atmospheric Lower East Side pop-up in an old Chase bank. (Through May 23rd).
Urs Fischer, mermaid (in middle ground of photo), cast bronze, 40 ½ x 48 x 84 inches, 2014.
Belgian photographer Maroesjka Lavigne’s New York solo debut features landscapes half obscured by snow and Icelandic locals who look as if they’re hiding something; here, disturbed water turns a swimmer’s face into a blank mask. (At Robert Mann Gallery in Chelsea through May 17th).
Maroesjka Lavigne, Phantom, Krossneslaug, Westfjords, 2011.
‘Dolly meets the Greek’ by London-based artist Jill Mason assembles unconnected elements – Princess Di hair, a cartoon ear and a scrap piece of siding painted with waves – to create a funny, cheeky portrait befitting a surreal romance novel. (At Nicelle Beauchene Gallery on the Lower East Side through May 18th).
Jill Mason, Dolly meets the Greek, oil on canvas, 55 x 47 ¼ inches, 2013.
During a residency at LA’s Getty Research Institute, photographer David Maisel photographed x-rays made by the conservation department, turning documents of artworks into the artworks themselves and morphing scientific enquiry into ghostly images that suggest mysterious objects. (At Yancey Richardson Gallery through May 10th).
David Maisel, History’s Shadow AB17, archival pigment print, 40 x 30 inches, 2010.
Painter Jackie Saccoccio blurs the lines between abstraction and representation in huge new paintings that respond to well-known art historical portraits with complete abstraction. In the foreground, the sumptuous colors and extravagant patterns in Saccoccio’s piece parallel the decoration and costume of a well-to-do young woman in Domenico Ghirlandaio’s 1488 portrait of Giovanna Tornabuoni. (At Eleven Rivington through May 18th).
Jackie Saccoccio, Profile (GT Concave), oil and mica on linen, 106 x 79 inches, 2014.
There’s little subtlety in Robert Longo’s massive, 17 ft tall U.S. flag that appears to sink into Petzel Gallery’s floor and is subtitled ‘The Pequod’ after the ship destroyed by Ahab’s mad quest for vengeance on Moby Dick. (In Chelsea through May 10th).
Robert Longo, Untitled (The Pequod), steel, wood, wax and pigment, 207 x 192 x 12 inches, 2014.
The dubiously sincere phrase ‘Love Your Work!’ inspires an update on a series of paintings begun in the 90s by Rochelle Feinstein at On Stellar Rays. Written forwards and backwards against an envy-green background in earnestly slanting script and missing an ‘I’ that might give it more gravity, the three word phrase speaks volumes. (On the Lower East Side through May 11th).
Rochelle Feinstein, Love Your Work (detail), fresco, 1999.
Caught up in painting dynamic geometric shapes one day in his studio, Argentinian artist Guillermo Kuitca went beyond the canvas and painted his studio walls. With that experience as inspiration, he created a walk-in room that surrounds the viewer on all four sides with a cubist cascade of shapes. (At Sperone Westwater on the Lower East Side through June 21st).
Guillermo Kuitca, Untitled, oil on wood; four-panel installation, 102 3/8 x 176 x 124 inches, 2014.
In his latest series ‘Postcards from Nowhere,’ Brazilian artist Vik Muniz magnifies the thrill of getting a postcard (an experience which the Internet age may be consigning to the past) by collaging together postcards blown up to huge scale (seen here in detail). (At Chelsea’s Sikkema Jenkins & Co through May 10th).
Vik Muniz, detail from New York Postcard (Postcards from Nowhere), digital c-print, 71 x 111.5 inches, 2014.
Guido van der Werve’s 2007 video ‘Nummer acht’ is a standout in Marlborough Gallery’s excellent ‘Lone Tree,’ a show dedicated to artists inspired by 19th century painter of the sublime landscape, Caspar David Friedrich. The Dutch artist walked about 10 meters in front of a towering ice-breaker off the frozen coast of Finland, suggesting bravery and folly in equal measure in one lone individual. (In Chelsea through May 3rd.)
Guido Van Der Werve, Nummer acht, Everything is going to be alright, 16mm to HD, 10 minutes, 10 seconds, 2007.
To celebrate the publication of Rackstraw Downes’ writings since 1983, Betty Cunningham Gallery has curated an exhibition of his work, including this typically ordinary landscape made remarkable by whizzing wires and rising radio towers that strain to burst out of the frame. (In Chelsea through May 3rd).
Rackstraw Downes, At the Confluence of Two Ditches Bordering a Field with Four Radio Towers, oil on canvas, 46 x 48 inches, 1995. (Collection of Louis-Dreyfus Family).
