Rashid Johnson at Hauser & Wirth

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest ShowPosted on Comments are Disabled

A host of fractured figures, relatives to the artist’s signature box-headed, grimacing characters, greet visitors to Rashid Johnson’s latest show at Chelsea’s Hauser & Wirth Gallery.  Described by their past titles as ‘anxious men,’ Johnson’s new people bear titles relating to their brokenness, as if the damage to their psyche’s or bodies has become more profound.  The show climaxes in Johnson’s new film ‘The Hikers,’ in which two men meet while ascending or descending a mountain in Colorado, enacting a dance that expresses their anxiety and extends the theme into the three-dimensional world.  (On view through Jan 25th).

Rashid Johnson, Two Standing Broken Men, ceramic tile, mirror tile, spray enamel, bronze, oil stick, branded red oak flooring, black soap, wax, 95 ¾ x 71 7/8 x 3 inches, 2019.

Addie Wagenknecht in ‘Embedded Parables’ at Bitforms Gallery

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As machines take over tasks formerly performed by people, Addie Wagenknecht’s programmed Roomba has complicated the role of the artist.  In her past work using Yves Klein blue, the Roomba replaced the female bodies Klein used as paintbrushes. Here, the machine paints using a mix of art media (linseed oil and turpentine), grooming products (cosmetics, botox and perfume) and stimulants (wine, tequila and CBD oil) suggesting the symbolic expressive potential of non-traditional art media.  (On view in ‘Embedded Parables’ at Bitforms on the Lower East Side through Jan 19th).

Addie Wagenknecht, Night to Morning, linseed oil, turpentine, cosmetic pigments, oolong tea, white wine, tequila, CBD oil, botox, JULIETTE HAS A GUN Not a Perfume perfume, lubricant, 81 x 41 inches, 2019.

Daniel Richter at GRIMM Gallery

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When German painter Daniel Richter radically switched painting styles c. 2015, moving from newspaper or history book-inspired representational scenes to more expressionistic scenarios, he explained that he wanted to get away from the ‘theater stage,’ and from ‘…knowing what I’m about to do.’  His recent paintings at GRIMM Gallery feature powerful, abstracted encounters between unknown actors, creating dramas that go beyond a particular moment in time.  Here, two figures emerge from a dark background locked in combat against a dramatically lit sky, their large scale suggesting an apocalyptic encounter between the toga-clad character on the left and the alien-like combatant with elongated, insectoid leg on the left.  (On view on the Lower East Side through Jan 4th).

Daniel Richter, UNSER DER TAG, oil on canvas, 90 ½ x 70 7/8 inches, 2019.

Rosson Crow at The Hole NYC

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LA based painter Rosson Crow’s recreation of the Garden of Eden, seen here in detail and part of her current show ‘Trust Fall’ at The Hole, was inspired by a creationism theme park that looked more like a cheap film set than an idyllic landscape.  Splashed and dripped paint on the canvas surface makes it clear this is a painted representation, alluding to notions of ‘fake’ and ‘real’ that define political discourse today.  Meanwhile, a Greek-inspired urn abandoned in the foliage reading ‘how does it feel to want?’ speaks to contemporary concerns about extremes of wealth and poverty.  (On view on the Lower East Side through Dec 29th).

Rosson Crow, Garden of Eden Recreation, acrylic, spray paint, photo transfer, oil and enamel on canvas, 96 x 120 inches, 2019.

 

 

Hernan Bas at Lehmann Maupin Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest ShowPosted on Comments are Disabled

‘No one had really made a painting of’ the character in The Pundit before, Hernan Bas explains of his image of a young news anchor lost in thought.  Though the news cycle pervades the day-to-day, journalists rarely appear as subject matter in the Chelsea galleries, never mind at the center of a newsroom turned geometric abstraction, making this painting feel like a discovery.  (On view at Lehmann Maupin Gallery through Jan 4th).

Hernan Bas, The Pundit, acrylic and chroma key on linen, 84 x 72 inches, 2019.

Namsa Leuba in ‘The New Black Vanguard’ at Aperture Foundation

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Award-winning photographer Namsa Leuba points to her Swiss Guinean heritage as inspiration for a practice that takes her around the globe making images that she calls ‘documentary fictions.’  A standout in Aperture’s eye-poppingly vibrant show of fashion-related photography, ‘The New Black Vanguard,’ curated by Antwaun Sargent, Leuba’s work illustrates the show’s desire to show off ‘new perspectives…on race and beauty, gender and power.’  (On view in Chelsea through Jan 18th).

Namsa Leuba, Sarah, Lagos, Nigeria, 2015. Designers : Torlowei, Ituen Basi. Series : NGL.

Chen Fei at Galerie Perrotin

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest ShowPosted on Comments are Disabled

Beijing-based artist Chen Fei channels Dutch still life in his painting of tempting foodstuffs but substitutes dumplings for bread and banana leaf wraps for grapes.  He cites Renaissance historian Vasari to question whether still life can be as engaging as portraiture, forcing the issue by presenting figurative painting in the downstairs gallery and still life upstairs.  While the large-scale nude characters downstairs steal the show with their unconventional personalities, the still lifes still wow with their sheer abundance.  (On view at Perrotin on the Lower East Side through Dec 21st).

Chen Fei, detail from Painting of Harmony, acrylic, gold and silver foil on linen mounted on board, 39 3/8 x 78 ¾ inches.

Baseera Khan at Simone Subal Gallery

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A broken column constructed of foam core and covered by custom handmade silk Kashmiri rugs in Baseera Khan’s current show at Simone Subal Gallery suggests an empire toppled, its segments like gears in a massive, defunct machine.  Instead of dominating visitors with its huge size though, the pillar entices thanks to its decorative patterns and appears mysteriously futuristic due to its liquid-looking resin core.  Fascinating remnants entice us to consider the historical past as complicated and unknown, suggesting new legacies for the future.  (On view on the Lower East Side through Dec 22nd).

Baseera Khan, installation view of ‘snake skin’ at Simone Subal Gallery, Nov 2019.

Li Songsong at Pace Gallery

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Shortly after his grandfather died, Beijing-based artist Li Songsong began painting this portrait of him absorbed in a personal moment.  Using a thick oil painting technique that obscures detail, the artist explains that he nevertheless captured the essence of the man.  The takeaway for the artist was to observe how painting can embody truths that the artist himself may not even want to acknowledge.  (On view at Pace Gallery in Chelsea through Dec 21st).

Li Songsong, Civil Rather Than Military, oil on canvas, 82 11/16” x 8’ 6 3/8”, 2018.

Yayoi Kusama, Ladder to Heaven at David Zwirner Gallery

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The line to enter Yayoi Kusama’s latest mirror-lined infinity room at David Zwirner Gallery stretches around the block, but you can walk right up to her infinity mirror, ‘Ladder to Heaven.’  Look up and visitors are presented with an endless (theoretical) climb or, conversely, a bottomless descent, suggesting that our fate is in our own hands.  (On view in Chelsea through Dec 14th).

Yayoi Kusama, Ladder to Heaven, steel, LED lights, mirrored glass, honeycomb aluminum, and plastic, 154 xx 59 inches, 2019.

Peter Halley at Greene Naftali Gallery

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Inspired by the city grid, jail cell windows, high-rise buildings and other structures designed to regulate and control human activity, Peter Halley’s Neo-Geo abstraction has exceeded into own regulatory bounds in a dramatic, maze-like installation at Chelsea’s Greene Naftali Gallery.  Up and down stairs, around blind bends and through an eye-popping assault of day-glo color, visitors find their way through an environment that feels as if we’d stepped into one of Halley’s paintings.  Here, a painting composed of stacked forms has an altar-like presence at the top of a vividly green staircase.  (On view through Dec 20th).

Peter Halley, installation view of ‘Heterotopia II’ at Greene Naftali Gallery, Nov 2019.

Tomma Abts, IV at David Zwirner

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Known since the 90s for exploring the myriad possibilities of geometric abstraction, Tomma Abts continues to innovate while adopting slightly larger, shaped canvases that showcase more boldly shape-shifting patterning.   Here, the bottom quarter of the painting appears to sheer away from the bent, folded and upward tilting bands above.  With a curving wave breaking the entire composition into new color sequences, Abts appears to embrace visual complexity for its own sake, offering viewers a pleasurably engaging visual experience.  (On view at David Zwirner Gallery in Chelsea through Dec 14th).

Tomma Abts, IV, oil on canvas, 34 ¾ x 25 1/8 inches, 2019.

Lee Bae at Perrotin Gallery

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Korean-Parisian artist Lee Bae’s medium is more than a means to an end.  Since buying a cheap bag of charcoal as a cash-strapped new arrival to the French art scene in 1990, Lee’s interest in the medium has expanded to drawings, sculpture and 2-D mosaics of polished charcoal.  He points to the role of charcoal in Korean culture (from art medium to building material) to connect to age-old tradition to his production today.  At Perrotin Gallery’s spacious upstairs space, the artist has installed sculptures of Korean pine turned to charcoal in his own kiln, a month-long process which results in a piece of material with endless possibilities.  (On view through Dec 21st.)

Lee Bae, installation view of ‘Promenade’ at Galerie Perrotin, Nov 2019.

Ebony G. Patterson at Hales Gallery

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Gardens are sites of beauty and loss in Ebony G. Patterson’s rich, cut-paper collages currently on view at Hales Gallery in Chelsea.  Draped forms mimic hanging roots and abundant flora that obscure personal items (a doll, a purse) belonging to individuals who are not present.  Cut and ripped holes in the assemblage speak to violence that has turned a lush environment into a funerary display.  (On view through Dec 20th).

Ebony G Patterson, detail of ‘…below the crows, a blue purse sits between the blades, shoes among the petals, a cockerel comes to witness…’, digital print on archival watercolor paper with hand-cut and torn elements, fabric, poster board, acrylic gel medium, feathered butterflies, costume jewelry, 110 x 98 x 6 inches, 2019.

Howardena Pindell at Garth Greenan Gallery

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After a devastating car accident left her with acute memory loss, Howardena Pindell reconstructed her life and memories from postcards and photos she’d gathered over the previous decades.  This mixed media collage (seen in detail) from 1980-81 marked the beginning of her Autobiography series, for which she combined printed images, paint and a compliment of her signature circular chads of material to regain her life.  (On view at Garth Greenan Gallery in Chelsea through Dec 14th).

Howardena Pindell, detail of Autobiography: Oval Memory #1, mixed media collage on paper, 13 x 32 x 3 inches, 1980-81.

Walead Beshty Installation at Petzel Gallery

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Many artists work with fascinating methods on which they, unfortunately, don’t elaborate.  Walead Beshty’s latest installation at Petzel Gallery swings to an almost opposite extreme, detailing the contents of his studio in over five thousand images picturing tools and objects that have contributed in some way to his production as an artist.  Each cyanotype is the product of a simple photographic process that renders objects in white against a treated blue background of newspapers, boxes, personal correspondence and more.  Originally commissioned by London’s Barbican Art Center in 2013, the installation (seen only in part at Petzel Gallery) still speaks powerfully to the incredible amount of unseen labor behind today’s art production.  (On view in Chelsea through Dec 14th).

Walead Beshty, installation view of “A Partial Disassembling of an Invention Without a Future: Helter-Skelter and Random Notes in Which the Pulleys and Cogwheels Are Lying Around at Random All Over the Workbench” at Petzel Gallery, Nov, 2019.