Ariana Papademetropoulos at Vito Schnabel Gallery

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

Taking inspiration from medieval tapestries including ‘The Hunt of the Unicorn’ at the Met Museum’s Cloisters, Ariana Papademetropoulos’ new paintings at Vito Schnabel’s Chelsea gallery feature a unicorn that struggles towards its own unique experience of freedom.  Here, set in a Renaissance-era wood paneled room, the mythical creature – who the artist sees as an alter-ego – rests on a bed that is simultaneously a watery landscape.  This glimpse into a parallel world and the mirror with an emerging face on the left of the painting suggest that the unicorn may have escape portals that will allow it to slip its confines. (On view in Chelsea through Jan 7th.  Note holiday closures this week.)

Ariana Papademetropoulos, Horror Vacui, oil on canvas, 91 ¾ x 108 ¼ inches, 2022.

Hew Locke’s Facade Commission ‘Gilt’ at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

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

As museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art continue to address accusations of improperly acquired artifacts, the museum’s façade commission of Hew Locke’s ‘Gilt’ is both appropriate and daringly self-critical.  Locke explains that his cast fiberglass sculptures, gilt to resemble valuable artworks, are a pun on ‘guilt’ and a prompt to consider how the objects in the museum have been gathered to satisfy our pleasure.  While a creature at the base of the vessel literally devours it, eyes at the top look on in witness and a figure inspired by an 8th century BCE ivory in the Met’s permanent collection ironically brings tribute to the Assyrian Empire.  (On view on the Met’s façade through May 30th, 2023).

Hew Locke, ‘Trophy 2’ in installation view of the Façade Commission ‘Gilt’ at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, fiberglass, stainless steel, gilding and oil-based paint, Dec 2022.

Tau Lewis at 52 Walker

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

Six monumental heads tower over visitors to Tau Lewis’ installation of totemic sculptures at 52 Walker in Tribeca, offering a conduit to encounter the divine.  Calling Lewis’ new pieces a ‘new mythology’ and a ‘corporeal arena for those who move between temporal and heavenly realms,’ the gallery presents itself as stage for interaction inspired by Yoruban mask dramas in which masks are worn and spiritually activated.  Too large for actual movement, the heads convey a powerful solidity while textures and colors created from Lewis’ use of salvaged textiles nevertheless suggest imminent movement and liveliness.  (On view in Tribeca through Jan 7th.  Note holiday closures this week.)

Tau Lewis, Homonoia, steel, enamel paint, acrylic paint and finisher, repurposed leather and suede, organic cotton twill, and coated nylon thread, 88 ½ x 68 x 26 ¼ inches, 2022.

Studio Job at R & Company

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

Too large even for the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, this hanging sculpture by Dutch design company Studio Job at R & Company in Tribeca pushes the scale of ornament to the max.  Inspired by the car that designer Job Smeets of Studio Job and his partner Rebecca Sharkey drove across the United States in 2019, the hanging bronze Cadillac Eldorado is one of several sculptures, including a huge light in the form of an Elvis jumpsuit and a breathtakingly dynamic Statue of Liberty set of drawers, that delight as they turn American pop icons into useful design objects. (On view through Jan 27th).

Eldorado, polished, hand-painted bronze, hand-formed glass, and silver and gold leaf, edition of 5 + 2 Aps and prototype, 2020-2022.

Carolyn Salas at The Hole NYC

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

A pair of long white legs tiptoe toward a hanging curtain on the right side of Carolyn Salas’ laser-cut aluminum sculpture ‘Gone’ at The Hole as if making a quick and quiet exit.  Behind, assorted disembodied heads, legs and vases suggest a crowded domestic environment from which our protagonist is slipping away to find her own space.  (On view in Tribeca through Dec 31st).

Carolyn Salas, Gone, 2022, powder-coated aluminum 3/8?, 102 x 144 inches.

Glenn Brown Paintings at Gagosian Gallery

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

Against a hazy, apocalyptic landscape, two conjoined heads rise from a spindly stalk of a neck in this painting by Glenn Brown at Chelsea’s Gagosian Gallery, their downward facing gazes suggesting the demure demeanor of women meant to be looked at.  The noir-romantic landscape and the women’s postures and youthful European features are recognizable from western art history.  But self-consciously constructed in individual brushstrokes of multicolored paint, they forgo the illusion of reality.  Positioned half in shadow, half in light, one with a halo, one without, Brown both withholds and illuminates their identities in a way that suggests constant morphing.  (On view in Chelsea through Dec 23rd).

Glenn Brown, We’ll Keep on Dancing Till We Pay the Rent, oil on panel, 78 ¾ x 55 ½ inches, 2022.

Firelei Baez, Olamina at James Cohan

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

Flowers, hair and a voluminous white dress obscure the features of the figure reclining across this densely patterned painting by Firelei Baez at James Cohan Gallery.  The title refers to Olamina, the highly empathic fictional character imagined by sci-fi novelist Octavia Butler, but here, the figure seems unburdened by her gift or our gaze.  Printed below the paint, on the canvas itself are numbers, a grid and a timeline that suggest the maps and documents that Baez frequently adopts and obscures as she brilliantly and flamboyantly asserts her own imagery over outmoded Euro-centric presentations of information.  (On view in Tribeca through Dec 21st).

Firelei Baez, Olamina (How do we learn to love each other while we are embattled), oil and acrylic on archival printed canvas), 86 3/8 x 114 ½, 1 ½ inches, 2022.

Kerry James Marshall, Exquisite Corpse at Jack Shainman

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

A pot of gold in this new painting by Kerry James Marshall symbolizes good fortune but rests near a skeleton’s arm, suggesting that someone’s luck has run out.  Such contrast is at the heart of the artist’s new show, Exquisite Corpse, at Jack Shainman Gallery in Chelsea. Titled after the Surrealist game invented in the 1920s, each of the exhibition’s drawings and paintings are divided into three or four rectangular zones and appear to have been completed by separate individuals who had no knowledge of what was drawn or painted by the previous game participants.  The conceit might seem humorous at first – Marshall winkingly signed his own name different ways and suggests that he’s playing a game in this series.  But operating with no knowledge of the past can have implications if the stakes are higher than a fun time with friends.  Beauty ideals, a (disappearing) house, or a pot of gold are mirage-like, unstable symbols, offering food for thought about contemporary life and perceptions.  (On view through Dec 23rd).

Kerry James Marshall, Untitled (Exquisite Corpse Pot of Gold), acrylic on PVC panel, 2021.

Pat Steir at Hauser & Wirth Gallery

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

A record number of monumental paintings are dominating Chelsea galleries this month; at just over thirty-seven feet long, Pat Steir’s ‘Blue River’ at Hauser & Wirth Gallery is one of the largest and most absorbing.  Painted in 2005 and hung along more recent work, the gallery explains that the piece is intended to point viewers’ minds toward the vastness and power of the universe.  Washes of blue and white running down the canvas suggest a waterfall while a red border to one side evokes a stage curtain, nodding to the fact that this extremely large rendition of a natural scene is filtered through human imagination.  (On view through Dec 17th.)

Pat Steir, installation view of Blue River, Hauser and Wirth Gallery, Nov 2022. Blue River, oil on canvas, 135 ¼ x 447 inches, 2005.

Alicja Kwade, Stella Sella at 303 Gallery

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

Gravity is an unnamed but ever-present material in Alicja Kwade’s symbolically (and literally) weighty sculptures.  On view in her current exhibition at 303 Gallery in Chelsea, a rocking chair cast in bronze is partially enveloped by stone and positioned in an enclosure made of glass bricks meant to represent the artist’s personal living space. Around the enclosure are mobiles titled ‘Heavy Skies’ that distribute the weight of various stones, a contrast to the lightness normally associated with such balanced arrangements.  Precarity meets inertia in the contrast between fragile glass and heavy stone, creating a tension that comes from wondering what change is to come.  (On view through Dec 17th).

Alicja Kwade, Stella Sella, bronze, stones, 38 5/8 x 19.69 x 39.76 inches, 2022.

Raphael Navot at Friedman Benda Gallery

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

Paris-based designer Raphael Navot’s furniture, now on view at Friedman Benda Gallery, begs to be touched. The gallery explains that the soft, curving forms of this couch, titled ‘Entwined,’ demonstrate the concept of comfort as something experienced both mentally and physically.  Though velvet upholstery resembles the surface of rock, and Navot intends to harken back to what the gallery calls the first furniture, ‘a pile of rounded rocks,’ the sheer tactility of the sofa’s sweeping curves makes softness irrelevant.  (On view in Chelsea through Dec 10th).

Raphael Navot, Entwined, velvet, bronze, fiberglass, 3D-milled foam, 36.75 x 56.25 inches, 2022.

Betty Woodman at David Kordansky Gallery

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

“I do like extravagance, so if I’m going to err, I usually err in that direction,” Betty Woodman once said in a recorded interview as she explained the processes behind her exuberant ceramic sculpture.  David Kordansky Gallery’s current show of Woodman’s work from the ‘90s demonstrates the artist’s unconventional take on painting, ceramics and sculpture, including this lively piece, ‘Sala da Pranzo.’  Elaborate handles create a striking silhouette and call attention to the space beyond the conventional cylinder, a vessel that could hold flowers but better acts as a surface for painting.  Among the abundant patterns are foliate shapes and scrolls against an orange background, recalling Greek motifs, and large circles that suggest stylized neolithic pottery designs. (On view in Chelsea through Dec 17th).

Betty Woodman, Sala da Pranzo, glazed earthenware, epoxy resin, lacquer and paint, 25 ¼ x 32 x 10 inches, 1995.

Joan Mitchell at David Zwirner Gallery

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

David Zwirner Gallery’s current exhibition of work from museum and private collections by Joan Mitchell celebrates the late second generation abstract expressionist painter’s ability to suggest emotive landscapes through unique consideration of figure-ground relationships and bold color choices.  ‘Before, Again I’ from 1985 includes both orange tones that dominated her paintings in the early 80s and the cooler colors that evolved as a result of health challenges later in the decade.  Both palettes point to the inspiration she found in her gardens in Vetheuil, a town once home to Impressionist painter Claude Monet.  (On view through Dec 17th).

Joan Mitchell, Before, Again I, oil on canvas, 109 ½ x 78 inches, 1985.