Using acrylic, oil and bleach on linen, LA painter Pamela Jorden combines the colors of day and night in a dramatic tondo that draws us into summery pink, yellow and blue zones while actively repelling our approach in angular dark areas. Drawing her painterly vocabulary from the history of abstraction, Jorden aims to rethink landscape, referencing varied sources, from J.M.W. Turner to tide pools. (On view at Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery on the Lower East Side through May 6th).
Will Cotton’s paintings of models and confectionery merge erotic desire and the temptation of sweets; here, sugar wins out as a tower of cake takes center stage at the International Print Center in Chelsea. If this looks like a sculpture that won’t age well, don’t be fooled; this indulgent stack of goodies is made of handmade paper – a standout in the Print Center’s show of American hand paper-making since the 60s.
A lone palm stands peaceful and unmolested above the collision of man-made material and nature photography that is Letha Wilson’s ‘Steel Face Concrete Bend (Kauai Palm)’ at GRIMM on the Lower East Side. Inside a steel frame, concrete printed with a landscape photo abuts an actual photographic print as man and nature messily come into contact. (On view through April 22nd ).
The human figure emerges gracefully from marble, bronze and wood in Pace Gallery’s major exhibition of Barbara Hepworth’s sculpture from the 30s to the 70s. In the foreground, ‘One, Two, Three (Vertical)’ from 1974 frames this view of towering sculpture from Hepworth’s totemic Family of Man series – an ‘Ancestor’ on the left and ‘Bridegroom’ in the back. (On view in Chelsea through April 21st).
Teresita Fernandez’s show last spring at Lehmann Maupin featured an American landscape constructed of charcoal, maps burned into paper and a ceramic wall panel featuring raging flames. Currently on view on Chelsea, ‘Fire (United States of America),’ forcefully continues Fernandez’s consideration of the US landscape as contentious and combustible. (On view in Chelsea through May 5th).
The title of Sam Moyer’s ‘Spencertown’ (seen here in detail) refers to the New York town where iconic painter Ellsworth Kelly lived and worked before his death in 2015. Bold geometric shapes – constructed of marble and painted canvas – also hint at a fascination with Kelly’s practice of reducing real-world objects and scenes to an abstract language. Here, Moyer pushes the idea a step further by incorporating actual fragments of the 3-D world in her artwork. (At FLAG Art Foundation in Chelsea through May 19th).
Ancient and 20th century, Chinese and European cultural heritage come into direct contact in XU ZHEN’s sculpture of a Tang Dynasty warrior holding Brancusi’s ‘Sleeping Muse.’ Currently part of an exhibition at James Cohan Gallery that has transformed the exhibition space into a garden with walking paths that replicate protest marches, the piece aims to provoke conversation on many levels. (On view on the Lower East Side through April 22nd).
In his latest show at Marianne Boesky Gallery, Barnaby Furnas morphs Grant Woods’ iconic American Gothic (now on view at the Whitney) into an eerie portrait of pitchfork-clutching quadruplet sisters defined by their flatness and conformity. Other paintings feature charging bison and Mt Rushmore, summoning iconic ‘American’ imagery to question what that means now. Even Furnas’ new experiments in painting technique – he has worked with the research group ARTMATR to digitally replicate his labor-intensive paint application techniques – align with the sense that these robotic characters lack a human element. (On view in Chelsea through April 14th).
How would a rag rug inspire a ceramic sculpture? Francesca DiMattio’s huge porcelain and stoneware sculptures mimic the shaggy surface of a Moroccan boucherouite rug, a technique aided by her use of a garlic press to extrude clay. Mixing references to art history and decorative arts, DiMattio’s new work is a riotous assertion of history’s continued presence in today’s art and design. (On view on the Lower East Side at Salon94 Bowery through April 21st).
Rock climbers at sunset, a windswept beach and a wildly colored tropical lagoon are literally on the mind of this character by Erik Parker at Mary Boone Gallery. Experienced or received notions of the world literally construct identity in this psychedelic portrait. (On view in Chelsea through April 21st).
Though abstract, Marsha Cottrell’s ‘Environments’ series suggest aerial views of a cityscape or a tangram puzzle. Printed layer over layer with variations in each printing, the image appears to be shrinking away from us in space while blocking an intriguing portal. (On view through April 21st at Van Doren Waxter on the Lower East Side).
Citing Alexander Calder’s mobiles and Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ beaded sculptures as touch-points, Jean-Michel Othoniel presents ‘black tornados’ at Perrotin on the Lower East Side. Made of aluminium beads threaded onto a steel armature, the glittering twisters reflect light and suggest movement while presenting natural phenomenon as glamorous ornament. (On view on the Lower East Side through April 15th).
Known for her 3-D printed human figures, Karin Sander’s ‘Kitchen Pieces’ first offer a puzzle – is the fruit real or meticulously made? Sander isn’t beating Zeuxis, the ancient Greek artist who painted grapes so believably that the birds tried to eat them. The grapes and other fruit and veg attached to the wall with specially made nails are real. The process of searching for evidence of this –which is surprisingly difficult to discern – is the takeaway. (On view at Carolina Nitsch through April.)
