Matthew Wong at Cheim & Read Gallery

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

Celebrated late painter Matthew Wong escaped a dreary Edmonton winter in 2016 for an extended stay in LA, during which time he produced dozens of atmospheric paintings currently on view at Cheim & Read Gallery in Chelsea.  Light takes over this scene, a blazing celestial orb (is it the sun or reflected light from the moon?) dominating the view from a window.  A solitary, skeletal figure appears to look down at an equally lonesome sailboat below. Titled ‘Nostalgia,’ the painting suggests a look back from the next life.  (On view through Sept 10th).

Matthew Wong, Nostalgia, acrylic on canvas, 20 x 16 inches, 2016.

Kapwani Kiwanga at the New Museum

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

Paris-based artist Kapwani Kiwanga’s fifth floor exhibition ‘Off-Grid’ at the New Museum makes powerful use of the gallery’s high ceilings with two large-scale installations employing evocative materials.  Lengths of light-colored sisal hang in a curving grid to create what the museum calls a ‘warm cocoon,’ though with the piece, Kiwanga also references the freighted history of sisal in Tanzania, from colonial introduction to contemporary export.  The show’s other piece, a two-part combination of geometric mirrors and hanging beads, features surfaces spray coated with aluminum meticulously harvested from floodlight reflectors used by urban police forces.  The metallic surface reflects the gallery’s natural light, vs the light of nighttime surveillance.  (On view on the Lower East Side through Sept 5th).

Kapwani Kiwanga, installation view of ‘Off-Grid’ at the New Museum, July 2022.

Cecilia Vicuna at the Guggenheim Museum

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

Killed for objecting to mining and dam projects, Indigenous women activists Berta Caceres (top) and Maria Taant (right) are honored in Cecilia Vicuna’s ‘Liderezas (Indigenous Women Leaders)’ painting, now on view in Vicunas’ retrospective at the Guggenheim.  Made in 2022 for this exhibition, the painting also pictures Nemonte Nenquimo at center, who has successfully led her community in resisting the destructive advances of oil companies in the Ecuadorian Amazon, Chilean activist Elisa Loncon and Peruvian activist Maxima Acuna. Together, the museum explains, their arrangement forms the Southern Cross constellation, metaphorically guiding humans to exist harmoniously with each other and nature.  (On view through Sept 5th).

Cecilia Vicuna, Liderezas (Indigenous Women Leaders), oil on canvas, 2022.

Jake Clark at A Hug From The Art World

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

Children delight in balloons and bunnies frolic on a Central Park lawn in new ceramics by Australia-to-New York transplant Jake Clark at A Hug from the Art World.  Titled ‘At the Carlyle,’ Clark’s show is an homage to murals by Marcel Vertes’ in The Carlyle’s Café and the famed wall works by Ludwig Bemelmans (author of the Madeline children’s books) in the Bemelmans Bar.  Large, colorful and joyous, the focus of the ceramics is more on Clark’s vibrant interpretation of Bemelman’s illustration than The Carlyle’s dimly-lit spaces, fitting for a late summer show.

Jake Clark, Bemelmans Bar (Dancing Bunnies), glazed earthenware, 16.15 x 5.1 inches, 2022.

Sonia Gechtoff at 55 Walker

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

Wholly abstract yet suggesting recognizable forms, late painter Sonia Gechtoff’s canvases invite and resist interpretation simultaneously.  Successful from a young age with shows at the San Francisco Museum of Art (now SFMoMA) and the De Young Museum, Gechtoff’s move to New York’s male-oriented abstract expressionist art scene in the late 1950s slowed her career and recognition.  Her current retrospective at 55 Walker (run by Bortolami, kaufmann Repetto and Andrew Kreps Gallery) contributes to correcting the record of her importance, showcasing work from the ‘50s to 2017, the year before her death at age 91.  It includes ‘Celestial Red,’ a composition dominated by circular forms evoking the planets and moons of a solar system, and behind them all, a powerful, glowing celestial body not fully known or seen. (On view in Tribeca through Aug 26th).

Sonia Gechtoff, Celestial Red, acrylic on canvas, 77 ¾ x 78 in, 1994.

Naotaka Hiro at Bortolami Gallery

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

Framing an artwork is normally a secondary consideration to making it, but in Naotaka Hiro’s new works at Bortolami Gallery, the frame includes a wood panel onto which Hiro works directly.  After securing the panel a foot above the ground, Hiro lies underneath and records the position and movements of his body in acrylic, graphite, grease pencil and crayon.  The resulting abstraction continues the artist’s exploration of the body, specifically what can and cannot be seen except through camera or mirror.  Represented as gouges at center, striped and scale-like patterns and asterisk-like marks, the physical and spiritual aspects of the body merge in a unique self-portrait.  (On view in Tribeca through Aug 26th).

Naotaka Hiro, Untitled (3 Rings), acrylic, graphite, grease pencil, and crayon on wood, 58 1/8 x 42 x 2 in, 2022.

Zinaida at Sapar Contemporary

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

Centered on female experience and knowledge, Ukrainian artist Zinaida’s art practice has delved into traditional crafts and customs of remote rural communities in Western Ukraine.  Over years of research trips, the artist has come to know traditional craftswomen, such as a maker of goose feather bridal crowns who before passing away left the artist a partial crown and instructions to finish it. In this piece at Sapar Contemporary, the customary red necklace worn by a bride is enlarged into an ungainly adornment, turned dark as if blackened by fire representing ‘arid land, charred wood.’ (On view through August 26th).

Zinaida, Black Bride, 23 5/8 x 35 3/8 inches, 2022.

Gustav Hamilton in ‘(m)ad-libs’ at George Adams Gallery

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

Young Brooklyn-based artist Gustav Hamilton’s paintings in glaze on ceramic slabs have the solidity of sculpture and painting’s capacity to tell a story, making them standouts in George Adams Gallery’s summer group show.  Recurring archways in Hamilton’s work were inspired by Rene Magritte’s transitional states and here, add spatial complexity to what might be a rendering of a bird on a tomb-like slab or a bird seen out the window against a night sky.  Below, a volume titled ‘Guide to Essential Knowledge’ promises to ground readers in fundamental understandings of life. Propped up by Hamilton’s ceramic coffee-cup bookends (which actually exist elsewhere as sculpture) the artist mixes profundity and lightheartedness.  (On view in Tribeca through Aug 19th).

Gustav Hamilton, A Brief History, glazed ceramic, 16 ¼ x 13 x 2 ¼ inches, 2019 – 2021.

Marianne Huotari in Summer Group Show at HB381

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

Inspired by a Scandinavian rug-weaving tradition that produces thickly textured textiles, Finnish artist Marianne Huotari creates sculptures made of many small ceramic elements that she hand-sews together onto a metal frame with wire.  Now on view in HB381 Gallery’s summer group show, this piece resembles a standing figure.  On closer inspection, the variety of shapes that make up the piece’s surface recall leaves, fruits and other natural forms; titled ‘Summer Night’s Oasis,’ the sculpture seems to invent a new kind of fruitfulness and visual pleasure.  (On view in Tribeca through Aug 19th).

Marianne Huotari, Kesayon Keidas (Summer Night’s Oasis), glazed stoneware, hand-sewn, 55 h. x 25.5 inches dia., 2020.

Jeffrey Meris in ‘Eyes of the Skin’ at Lehmann Maupin Gallery

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

Growing plants became a refuge of sorts for New York based artist Jeffrey Meris during the early pandemic and the summer of 2020.  While caring for his growing collection of greenery, Meris delighted in how easily spider plants regenerate but at the same time compared the plant’s form to a firework. Making a connection to the unrest in 2020, Meris constructed armatures like this one in Lehmann Maupin’s summer group show ‘Eyes of the Skin,’ curated by Teresita Fernandez.  Referencing an explosion with the shape of the aluminum frame and bullets in the form of the plants’ ceramic pots, Meris’ message is nevertheless one of self-care and healing through nature.  (On view in Chelsea through Aug 12th).

Jeffrey Meris, Catch a Stick of Fire, aluminum, hardware, lightbulbs, sockets, ceramics, spider-leaf plants, water, light, oxygen, dimensions variable, 2021.

Julie Curtiss at the FLAG Art Foundation

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

Julie Curtiss does strange things with hair.  In past work, she’s covered faces, legs, animals and food with layers of wavy locks, making her subjects both repellant and slightly sinister.   Here, in a piece at the FLAG Art Foundation’s summer group exhibition, a straightforward hairstyle – middle part with straight bangs – signals menace.  Titled ‘Fangs,’ this hairdo is less scary than Medusa’s but might give a new acquaintance pause.  (On view in Chelsea through Aug 12th).

Julie Curtiss, Fangs, airbrushed acrylic and gouache on paper, 12 x 9 inches, 2020.

John Gerrard at Pace Gallery

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

John Gerrard’s 18’ tall installation at Pace Gallery, picturing a flag-shaped gas flare rising from the South Pacific Ocean near Tonga, speaks to climate crises on a massive scale.  The artwork is based on photos of the ocean taken by artist and activist Uili Lousi, but quickly departs from fixed images, using game engines to generate always-changing, non-time-based simulations.  The show’s other pieces – a portrait of the last passenger pigeon in the world and a huge traffic jam in LA – question where our consumption of resources is taking us.  (On view in Chelsea through Aug 12th).

John Gerrard, Flare (Oceania), simulation, installation dimensions variable, 2022.

Barbara Kruger at David Zwirner

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

Barbara Kruger’s iconic 1987 ‘I shop therefore I am’ image takes on new and damning forms in her powerful solo show at David Zwirner Gallery in Chelsea, where she updates the piece as a single channel video.  The graphic materializes as if composed of puzzle pieces which break apart and reassemble every 57 seconds with new, provocative texts, including, “I am therefore I hate” and “I sext therefore I am.”  Surrounded by wallpaper featuring hands holding imagery and messaging culled from the Internet, Kruger questions the values evidenced in contemporary culture and on-line discourse.  (On view in Chelsea through Aug 12th).

Barbara Kruger, Untitled (I shop therefore I am), single-channel video on LED panel, sound, 57 sec, 137 7/8 x 138 ¼ inches, 1987/2019.

Ahn Tae Won in Universes 5 at The Hole NYC

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

Korean artist Ahn Tae Won wanted to take something everyday and make it surreal; he happened upon a cat meme and was inspired to create this quirky in-the-round sculpture titled ‘Hiro is Everywhere,’ a standout in The Hole’s summer group show in Tribeca curated by Sasa Bogojev.  Appearing to be digital yet obviously a 3-D manifestation, this intriguingly odd sculpture speaks to the unknowability of cats. (On view through Aug 5th).

Ahn Tae Won, Hiro is Everywhere, acrylic on resin, 2022.