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).
