Off-the-wall artwork isn’t unusual on the Lower East Side, but artist Daniel Canogar’s flexible LED screen-sculptures give new meaning to the phrase. In a solo show at Bitforms Gallery, Canogar employs grids of LEDS on flexible backing to display undulating patterns, derived from real-time environmental data, from temperature to seismic activity. (On the Lower East Side through Oct 14th).
Son a Thai diplomat, globe-trotting artist Rirkrit Tiravanija has traveled the world for much of his life. On tables covered in rich, purple felt, copper reproductions of the artist’s passports from throughout the years glint in the abundant sunlight of Gavin Brown’s Grand Street gallery like bars of precious metal. (On view through Oct 28th).
Lewis Hine’s early 20th century photos of young women employed in Boston’s textile mills – which aimed to show the deleterious effects of their labor on their bodies – accompany images like this magnification of a textile fragment in Lisa Oppenheim’s latest show at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery. By zeroing in on this fragment of fabric, Oppenheim aims to reduce the distance created in industrial production between bodies and the products of their labor. (In Chelsea through Oct 21st).
Intercut with circus and festival ads and excerpts from Allen Ginsberg’s ‘Howl,’ Allen Ruppersberg’s pointed yet ambiguous texts – one asks, ‘Is one thing better than another?’ – question the status quo in eye-catching day-glo color. (At Greene Naftali Gallery in Chelsea through Oct 21st).
Emily Mae Smith’s huge sea creature is a monumental iceberg waiting to surprise mariners drawn in by the tiny sirens – fantasia brooms morphed into mermaids – atop her head. Both the visible femmes fatale and the lurking, pouty-lipped presence suggest visible and hidden forces to be reckoned with. (On view at Simone Subal Gallery on the Lower East Side through Oct 29th).
Glittery sequins meet antique quilts in Sanford Biggers’ first solo show at Marianne Boesky Gallery, where the artist synthesizes folk tradition and minimalism in this wall hanging titled ‘Ooo Oui.’ (On view in Chelsea through Oct 21st).
Kazuko Miyamoto’s ‘Female I’ reclines along the floor of Zuricher Gallery like a taught, transparent odalisque, a shifting combination of representational form and pure abstraction that rethinks minimalism’s relationship to the organic world. (On the Lower East Side through Oct 22nd).
Oversized wineglasses, cups, a fork and other objects litter worktables in Amanda Ross-Ho’s latest solo show at Chelsea’s Mitchell Innes & Nash, where the LA based artist spent August making paintings of clock faces (see the normal-sized glass holding goldfish crackers at middle right). Based on vintage paper clock surfaces that she purchased from eBay and used for note-taking, the clocks unmoor time (Ross-Ho recently lost her long-term studio) and the surreally enlarged elements from everyday life become inexplicably important. (On view through Oct 14th).
Sandblasted posters anchored by wood dowels by Ishmael Randall Weeks speak to the eroding effects of time, yet the entropy he evokes speaks more of uncovering the forgotten past than obliterating it. (At Van Doren Waxter through Oct 28th).
The U.S.’s dark and violent past continues to inspire Kara Walker’s new paintings and drawings; here, Walker presents a portrait of Grandison Harris, a 19th century man enslaved and assigned to rob graves to supply the classrooms of anatomy students at a Georgia medical college. After the Civil War, financial constraints forced his decision to return to the college and continue to supply bodies until his eventual death and burial in the same cemetery that he revisited in his working life. (On view in Chelsea at Sikkema Jenkins & Co. through Sept 16th).
Photographer Trevor Paglen’s past images of surveillance culture (NSA data centers, drone images) zeroed in on info and images gathered by the authorities. For his latest show at Metro Pictures, Paglen turns his attention to pictures analyzed via artificial intelligence. In this detail of a wall of photos, the artist Hito Steyerl posed for hundreds of portraits that were analyzed by facial-analysis algorithms, turning age, emotional state, gender and more into a set of numbers. (On view in Chelsea through Oct 21st).
Bayne Peterson’s dyed plywood sculpture brings to mind an abacus, cairns, written script or a kid’s bead and wire toy. Now more complex in their patterning and overall shape, Peterson’s new sculptures at Kristen Lorello Gallery on the Lower East Side also owe their inspiration to still life painting and historical vessels. (On view through Oct 14th).
Though it looks like a memorial to the landline, Christian Marclay’s ‘Boneyard,’ now on view at Paula Cooper Gallery, is from 1990, part of a selection of past work by the artist addressing one of his signature themes. (On view in Chelsea through Oct 7th).
This knock-out image of peonies assembled from hand-cast crayons opens Ohio-based artist Christian Faur’s latest solo show at Kim Foster Gallery. Also including an unmissable umbrella covered in human hair and a surprisingly robust U.S. flag crafted from currency, this exhibition has a high ‘wow’ factor. (On view in Chelsea through Oct 7th).
Tiffany Chung’s meticulous maps plot migration crises around the world, turning conflict into art that informs. In this detail from an eleven-foot long embroidered world map at Tyler Rollins Fine Art, circles stand in for groups of internally displaced people offering a glimpse into the magnitude of global upheaval. (On view through Oct 21st in Chelsea).
Like fuzzy slippers or stuffed animals, Beijing-based artist Lin Tianmiao’s woven wool forms look comfortable and harmless. On closer inspection, this room-sized installation of text on carpets in English and Chinese at Galerie Lelong represents a collection of words used to describe women, from the derogatory to the empowering. Titled ‘Protruding Patterns,’ the piece encourages visitors to walk among ideas that have manifested as form. (On view through Oct 21st in Chelsea)
As the Zambezi River spills out across the landscape on the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia at Victoria Falls, so spreads a glass-marble replica by Maya Lin across the walls, floor and ceiling of Pace Gallery. Reflections of light through the glass give the ‘water’ a sparkling quality that argues for the preciousness of one of earth’s most value resources. (On view on 25th Street in Chelsea through Oct 7th).
Best known for ‘paintings’ composed of hundreds of cut pieces of colorful cloth arranged on the floor, Polly Apfelbaum has expanded to the walls with colorful, abstract ceramic panels that complement carpets bearing a graphic from a 1963 book titled ‘The Potential of Woman.’ Though the female heads on the floor have no mouth (having been spoken for in the book), the riotously colorful wall-mounted ceramic sculptures – which Apfelbaum explains are like portraits – have plenty to say. (At Alexander Gray Associates in Chelsea through Oct 21st).
French artist Nathalie Boutte captures the allure of the unknown past in her collage recreations of 19th century daguerreotypes and historical photos. Here, Boutte remakes Seydou Keita’s well-known 1958 portrait of a hip young Malian man using strips of paper covered with varying amounts of text. The effect (seen here in detail) is to blur Keita’s sharply clear image, suggesting that the passage of time diminishes the potential to see the subject clearly. (At Yossi Milo Gallery in Chelsea through Oct 21st).
“Looking at art is a free experience,” says painter Leslie Wayne, meaning that it doesn’t have to cost a thing, but also questioning how freely we look at something new. The title piece for the show, ‘Free Experience,’ relies on the associations we bring to its colorful, patterned drapery of oil-skins that recalls flags, modernist textiles and more. (At Jack Shainman Gallery in Chelsea through Oct 21st).
Brooklyn artist and AIDS activist Joyce McDonald conveys a powerful sense of peace and acceptance in small, terra cotta sculptures currently on view in the Museum of the City of New York’s ‘AIDS at Home: Art & Everyday Activism.’ (On view through Oct 22nd on the Upper East Side).
The late Canadian Inuk artist Annie Pootoogook’s domestic scenes are sometimes tranquil, sometimes violent, but this portrait drawing of her grandmother, the artist Pitseolak Ashoona, radiates calm. (On view at the National Museum of the American Indian through Jan 8th).
Amsterdam and Berlin-based artist Katja Novitskova juxtaposes the celestial and terrestrial realms with large aluminum sculptures featuring images of the earth (created with compiling satellite data) paired with shots of worms, lizards, bacteria and more. With their scale altered, the earthly creatures look otherworldly; Novitskova uses this disorientation as a reminder that though easily overlooked, the smallest organisms can make a big impact. (Presented by the Public Art Fund. On view at City Hall Park through Nov 9th).
Japanese artist Tanabe Chikuunsai IV created this stunning woven bamboo sculpture on-site at the entrance to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s current show of bamboo art from the Abbey Collection, announcing the amazing craftsmanship and inventiveness on display in this exhibition. (On view through Feb 4th).
Sascha Braunig is best known for paintings of quasi-human figures that seem to merge with a digital backgrounds, so her sculpture ‘Giantess’ on the High Line – set in a natural environment – is something of a fun surprise, begging the question of who would wear these huge, spur-bedecked heels. (On view through March 2018 near 24th/25th Street).
Dale Chihuly’s large-scale glass sculptures are a dramatic addition to the New York Botanical Garden’s lush grounds this summer. Here, crystal shapes cast from polyurethane resin complement the patinated bronze ‘Fountain of Life’ sculpture, creating a bold contrast between old and new that complements both. (On view through Oct 29th).
Known for sometimes-monumental installations of fiber art, Paris-based American artist Sheila Hicks has transformed the wilder northern reaches of the High Line with an ambitious, twisting arrangement of fabric-covered tubes. Primary colors and cable-like forms complement the construction-site aesthetic of the neighborhood as the development of Hudson Yards continues apace.
From the 1980s to the present day, Comme des Garcon’s Rei Kawakubo has defied conventional dualities; in this dress – affixed with a giant teddy bear, she merges childhood and adulthood in a riot of frills, flowers and fun. (At the Metropolitan Museum of Art through Sept 4th).
A display of one hundred wedding photos from various photo studios in Wisconsin in the late 1800s at Ricco Maresca Gallery is a fascinating look into past dress and conventions. While most couples stare stoically ahead, betraying no hint of happiness, this groom and bride – decked out in abundant flowers – charm with their hesitant smiles. (On view in Chelsea through Sept 19th).
Simple furnishings and pleasing complementary colors in this gouache on paper painting by Maira Kalman recall Van Gogh’s Spartan but intensely colored Arles room. Titled ‘The approach to style is by way of plainness, simplicity, orderliness, sincerity,’ Kalman’s room illustrates a dictate by Strunk and White in their iconic writer’s guide. One of a group of 57 illustrations for ‘The Elements of Style’, published with Kalman’s paintings in 2005,’ it turns writerly concision into a lifestyle. (On view in Chelsea at Julie Saul Gallery through Sept 16th).
