Alex Anderson at Deli Gallery

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

Roses float through the air in Alex Anderson’s wall-mounted earthenware sculpture at Deli Gallery, evoking a romantic daydream. But whimsy turns to horror as it becomes apparent that the flowers are being severed from their stems by flying needle-like forms, resulting in tiny spurts of blood that suggest human, not plant anatomy.  Presented on a mirror-like form (other shapes resemble serving platters and emoji hearts), in which we should expect to see our reflection, the piece prompts self-examination. Set against blue skies and wispy clouds, the piece warns of vulnerability in the virtual realm.  (On view in Tribeca through May 7th).

Alex Anderson, Stratospheric Destruction of Romance, earthenware, glaze, gold luster, 21 x 17 x 2 inches, 2022.

Rosa Barba at Luhring Augustine Gallery

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Rosa Barba’s ‘Language Infinity Sphere,’ a form created from old letterpress blocks now on view at Luhring Augustine’s Tribeca space, speaks with its circular form to the ongoing output of these blocks over the years. Other text-related work in the show includes handwritten words on a filmstrip that rotates around a lightbox cube and a 35mm film depicting images and text from the Library of Congress’ massive campus, the largest media archive in the world.  Language appears in unexpected forms in this show, even as marks on the landscape in a film showing disposal sites for radioactive material in the western U.S.  (On view through May 21st).

Rosa Barba, Language Infinity Sphere, lead letters on steel, unique, diameter 18 1/8 inches, 2018.

Xiao Wang at Deanna Evans Projects

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In an Instagram post, Brooklyn-based artist Xiao Wang wrote, “I consider adding highlights as one of the most joyful moments in painting.”  The pleasure is all ours in observing the light as it illuminates the gingko leaves and rests on his model’s cheek in this standout piece from the artist’s solo show at Deanna Evans Projects. Featuring moody, nighttime paintings populated by young people, semi-obscured by plants and bouquets, the new paintings make nature an active participant in each scene.  (On view in Tribeca through May 28th).

Xiao Wang, Streetlight, oil on canvas, 16 x 12 inches, 2021.

Veronica Ryan at Paula Cooper Gallery

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In her solo show at Paula Cooper Gallery, Monserrat-born, England-based artist Veronica Ryan engages themes of global movement and trade with humble materials including fruits, seeds and other organic matter.  Ryan has pointed out that familiar foods bring people together to share meals and memories; she has also incorporated materials like ash from the Soufrière Hills volcano, which has covered the town in which she was born.  Pleasure and trauma also meet in this pile of stoneware cocoa beans, a product that brings happiness to many, sometimes at the expense of enslaved workers. (On view in Chelsea through May 28th).

Veronica Ryan, Cocoa Passion in Tandem, ceramic stoneware, pigment, volcanic ash, jute rug, overall: height variable x 70 7/8 x 70 7/8 inches, 2021.

David Aipperspach at Chart Gallery

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The paintings in Philadelphia-based artist David Aipperspach’s current solo show at Tribeca’s Chart Gallery, ‘Prologue to a Garden Dark’ anticipate the slow end of a summer’s day by blending light and color from different times in a single scene. At the show’s entrance, a small painting tracks the path of the sun as it sinks though a grid of darkening colors, acting as a Rosetta stone for the same color shifts that appear in rectangles of stacked colors inset in the paintings.  Acting as ‘clocks,’ the rectangles break into tranquil scenes, acting as abrupt reminders of the passage of time.  (On view through April 30th in Tribeca).

David Aipperspach, 4-7pm, oil on canvas, 84 x 72 inches, 2021.

Nora Turato at 52 Walker

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‘Follow me you coward,’ reads an arresting command on the wall of Nora Turato’s current show at 52 Walker, along with the cliched, ‘a lifetime of action and adventure with no clock to punch,’ and tantalizing ‘all is forgiven.’ The show’s title, ‘Govern Me Harder,’ a puzzlingly submissive, perhaps masochistic demand was inspired by a sticker she saw in an Amsterdam dog park; other expressions were gathered from news, ads, online sources and, says the artist, her own thoughts.  In this enamel on steel panel, the last word of the sentence, ‘I sold it for million bells,’ derails expectations of a million dollar sale, leaving us in a thought-provoking lurch.  (On view in Tribeca through July 1st.)

Nora Turato, i sold it for million bells, vitreous enamel on steel in four (4) parts, overall: 94 ½ x 75 5/8 inches, 2022.

Thomas Bayrle at Gladstone Gallery

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The vast scale of the three artworks in Thomas Bayrle’s current solo show at Gladstone Gallery’s cavernous 21st Street gallery speaks to the huge public profile of his subjects:  the Pope, Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Kim Kardashian.  Composed of repeated images arranged to create a portrait, Bayrle’s ‘superforms’ mimic the repetition of information via mass media and suggest that a person’s identity is formed by their messaging.  In this case, Kim Kardashian’s persona merges with the means of disseminating it – the iPhone.  (On view in Chelsea through April 23rd).

Thomas Bayrle, Kim Kardashian, pencil, acrylic and fine art pigment print on paper, mounted on gallery cardboard, 41 x 37 1/8 inches, 2021.

Margarita Cabrera in Group Exhibition at Jane Lombard

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The artists in ‘say the dream was real and the wall imaginary,’ Jane Lombard Gallery’s excellent group exhibition organized by curator and critic Joseph R. Wolin, deftly negotiate cultural boundaries in contexts that vary from imaginary cities to remote villages.  Margarita Cabrera’s cacti are a standout; known for her ongoing collaborations with immigrants in the Southwestern U.S., Cabrera creates plants crafted from border patrol uniforms and invites Mexican migrants to embroider them with emblems that communicate personal histories.  Featuring designs including an American flag, stick figure portraits of family members, a church building and more, the sculptures communicate shared values and dreams.  (On view through April 23rd in Tribeca).

Margarita Cabrera and collaborators, Space in Between – Nopal #5, border patrol uniform fabric, copper wire, thread and terra cotta pot, 50 x 51 x 49 inches, 2016.

Andre Cadere at Ortuzar Projects

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Paris-based conceptual artist Andre Cadere’s multi-colored rods seem unobtrusive now, but they caused a stir in the 70s when he brought them into other artists’ exhibitions and positioned them in public places.  Featured in an exhibition of Cadere’s work from the 60s and 70s at Ortuzar Projects, the hand carved bars were composed of wood segments with color patterns that the artist would disguise with a deliberate ‘error;’ the artist intended them as a means of merging painting and sculpture as well as a way to bring art into the public realm.  Here, a bar positioned in the corner of a NYC subway mimics the train’s poles and exudes personality.  (On view in Tribeca through May 14th).

Andre Cadere, (one from) New York City 1975, archival pigment prints (group of 30), 9 7/8 x 11 ¾ inches framed, ed 4 of 5, 1975.

Shio Kusaka at David Zwirner Gallery

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Arranged on a narrow runway of shiny copper plates, new ceramics by Shio Kusaka at David Zwirner Gallery enchant visitors with their color, pattern and subtle sense of humor.  Led plate by plate into the gallery, visitors explore relationships between pairs of vessels or clusters of related forms.  Further down the line, Kusaka injects a simplified anime aesthetic into ancient cylindrical Haniwa sculptural forms and elsewhere, riffs on neolithic Jomon period patterns. (On view through April 30th.)

Shio Kusaka, installation view of ‘one light year’ at David Zwirner Gallery, April 2022.

Al Loving at Garth Greenan Gallery

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Renowned in the ‘60s for his hard-edge abstraction, Al Loving introduced softer geometries in textile works from the ‘70s, like this dynamic assemblage now on view at Garth Greenan Gallery in Chelsea.  Inspired by African American quilting tradition and Romare Bearden’s collage, Loving created works of ripped, braided and dyed fabric, which the gallery likens to pennants, streamers, tattered flags and garments.  In this piece, a colorful pattern spreads from the top right, traveling down and across a dark surface creating a feeling of work in progress and complex depth. (On view in Chelsea through May 7th.)

Al Loving, Untitled, mixed media on canvas, 83 x 106 inches, 1975.

Uuriintuya Dagvasambuu at Sapar Contemporary

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Even if you’re tired of Zoom meetings, you’ll be tempted to join Mongolian artist Uuriintuya Dagvasambuu’s online gathering in this painting at Sapar Contemporary, part of her New York solo show debut.  Featuring a woman in traditional dress, flower stalks composed of tiny humans an undersea woman with her pet dog and more, each painted video frame is an introduction to a fascinating earthly or mystical world.   (On view in Tribeca through April 30th.)

Uuriintuya Dagvasambuu, Zoom Meeting, acrylic on canvas, 55 1/8 x 55 /18 inches, 2021.

Walton Ford at Gagosian Gallery

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Though the tiger in this prep study for Walton Ford’s painting Chay, now on view in his solo show at Gagosian Gallery, looks ferocious, it represents an animal that is injured and seconds away from finding relief. Tragic misunderstandings or false assumptions about animals throughout history inform Ford’s large watercolor, gouache and ink drawings.  In the finished painting (also included in the show), a tiger leaps into a pool of water, ropes trailing from his body in a reenactment from a Vietnamese folk tale about how a farmer’s trickery results in the tiger’s stripes.  (On view in Chelsea through April 23rd).

Walton Ford, Tiger Study for Chay, watercolor, pen and ink on paper, 9 x 12 inches, 2022.