Spencer Finch at the Hill Art Foundation

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It’s impossible not to gaze out over 10th Ave or the greenspace of the High Line Park through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the Hill Art Foundation’s gorgeous two-story Chelsea gallery space.  Spencer Finch – an artist who has made a career of simulating natural phenomena in gallery settings using a diverse range of media from photography to installation – reverses the outward look, inviting nature into the space. Inspired by Claude Monet’s desire to “paint air,” Finch has created an installation that recreates his direct observation of the light and color of the famous Impressionist’s garden in Giverny.  (On view through March 4th).

Spencer Finch, Painting Air, glass, hardware, wall painting, dimensions variable, 2012.

Chiharu Shiota at Templon Gallery

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The huge line to enter Chiharu Shiota’s exhibition at Chelsea’s Templon Gallery last weekend speaks to the capacity of the Berlin-based Japanese artist to mesmerize audiences with the scale and intense labor of installations that elaborate on her ongoing theme of human connectivity.  A temporary installation fills the gallery’s front room, acting as portal to the rest of the exhibition and a place to marvel at the seemingly simultaneously chaotic and orderly network the artist created by suspending book pages in a web of thick white thread stapled to walls and floor.  Titled ‘Human Rhizome,’ the piece references an underground network of roots; in Shiota’s interpretation, the written word acts as an unseen communication network. (On view through March 9th).

Chiharu Shiota, Human Rhizome, thread and book pages, installation, ‘23

Ramekon O’Arwisters in ‘Pollen on a West Wind’ at Jason Jacques Gallery

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The organizing principle for Jason Jacques Gallery’s group show of innovative ceramic sculpture is not a theme but a place – all participating artists connect in some way to the Center for Contemporary Ceramics at California State University at Long Beach.  Ramekon O’Arwisters’ relationship to CSULB is less conventional and his work alluring for his creative appropriation of failed ceramic forms abandoned there into fabulously colorful and dynamic sculptures.  Inspired by an encounter with broken ceramics during a residency at the San Francisco dump, O’Arwisters added the material to his textile practice, creating exuberant yet compact compositions that energize the show.  (On view in Chelsea through March 25th).

Ramekon O’Arwisters, Cheesecake #9, fabric, ceramics from CSULB ceramic program, beads, pins, 20h x 11w x 11d, 2019.

Tania Perez Cordova at Tina Kim Gallery

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Titled ‘Precipitation,’ Tania Perez Cordova’s new body of work at Tina Kim Gallery manifests a rain shower in the gallery, thin gold-plated chains representing drops of water.  Falling from ceiling to floor through holes pierced in the leaves of artificial plants, the chains form straight lines that contrast the elegant curve of stems and leaves, creating a tension akin to a bow or the strings of a harp.  As visitors advance through the gallery, the number of chains increases to suggest a more intense downpour, inviting viewers to follow their instinct in interpreting and appreciating Perez Cordova’s poetic practice.  (On view in Chelsea through March 25th).

Tania Perez Cordova, Philodendron Stenolobum (70% chance of rain), iron, epoxy clay, plastic, acrylic, gold plated brass chain, patterns of leaf damage, ’22.
Tania Perez Cordova, (detail) Philodendron Stenolobum (70% chance of rain), iron, epoxy clay, plastic, acrylic, gold plated brass chain, patterns of leaf damage, ’22.

 

YZ Kami at Gagosian Gallery

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Son of a portrait painter, Iranian artist YZ Kami grew up speaking the language of portraiture, but as his art practice matured, the identity of his sitters became less important.  Now on view at Gagosian Gallery in Chelsea, enigmatic paintings of subjects known only to us by a name or descriptive identifier in the title represent specific individuals at close range who nevertheless feel as if they’re at a remove.  Indistinctly painted contours, a deliberate softening of outlines, give each character a sense of existing at another point in time, perhaps as a memory.  Downcast eyes suggest that the inner life is the subject of these intriguing but elusive paintings.  (On view in Chelsea through Feb 25th).

Isaac in Purple Shirt, oil on linen, 58 ½ x 36 inches, 2022.

Carrie Schneider at Chart Gallery

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Mariah Carey’s head dominates Carrie Schneider’s solo show at Chart Gallery in Tribeca; smiling and nodding, it is featured in a large 16mm color film projection, a still image and two impressively huge photos printed on paper rolls that total 400 feet in length.  Sampled from an interview in which Carey says in response to a question about Jennifer Lopez, ‘I don’t know her,’ Schneider’s work explores how a few seconds of footage can become a meme with an unending digital lifespan and how an evasion on Carey’s part resulted in a cascade of attention.  Schneider’s super-abundance of abstract imagery created via multiple exposures in a specially built camera generates its own kind of optical noise, a visual art parallel to celebrity culture.

Carrie Schneider, Voice’s Owner (I don’t know her), two unique chromogenic photographs made in camera, 20 x 4800 inches, installation dimensions vary, 2023.

Cannupa Hanska Luger at Garth Greenan Gallery

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Only a year and a half ago, Cannupa Hanska Luger’s standout show at Garth Greenan Gallery presented costumes and video that posited Native American practices of adaptability in the environment as a model in a world increasingly effected by climate change.  Luger’s back again already with a strong new body of work that reminds viewers of Native American ingenuity via a series of paintings in the form of large-scale tipis, which the gallery calls ‘spaces of resistance.’  Decorated with graphics reminiscent of art painted on WWII airplanes – large eyes and a set of shark teeth – the tipis are ironically not tools to alter or possess the land but instead to remain mobile within it.  (On view through Feb 25th).

Cannupa Hanska Luger, Blood Lust, acrylic on canvas and mixed media, 109 x 190 inches, 2022.

Rachel Eulena Williams at Nicelle Beauchene Gallery

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Strips of painted and dyed acrylic canvas are reassembled in this dynamic composition by Rachel Eulena Williams in ‘My Way: A Gathering’ at Nicelle Beauchene Gallery in Tribeca.  Featuring work by Gee’s Bend Quiltmakers and younger Black female artists in touch with their artistic forebears’ legacy, this group exhibition is a visual feast of pattern and color.  (On view through Feb 18th.)

Rachel Eulena Williams, Fall Scrap Flag, acrylic on canvas, dye canvas and polyester, 68 x 73 inches, 2022.

Mikey Yates in ‘The Midnight Hour’ at The Hole

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Young Kansas City based artist Mikey Yates, whose ‘Summer Walker’ is a standout at The Hole’s current night-themed group exhibition, paints tranquil scenes that include a family making art together at the dining room table and women chatting at night on a rooftop.  Such scenes – whether populated by solitary people or multiple individuals – argue the pleasures and importance of domestic life.  Though the individual in this painting walks alongside a highway in relative isolation, light from the streetlamp, a yellow hydrant and glowing neon sign in the distance create a sense of well-being and purpose.  (On view through Feb 18th).

Mikey Yates, Summer Walker, oil, acrylic and oil stick on canvas, 40 x 30 inches, 2022.

Katherine Bernhardt at Canada NYC

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Known for the ‘stupid, crazy, ridiculous, funny patterns’ (a 2014 show title) of her paintings, Katherine Bernhardt’s new work at Canada NYC continues to amuse with repeating images of Bart Simpson at his most irreverent.  Dropping his shorts and flanked by two giant smoking cigarettes, the day-glo cartoon character is an emblem of provocation and yet hard to take seriously. Bernhardt finds more contrast in each paintings’ combination of street-art channeling spray-painted outlines vs washy acrylic staining that signals considered painterly abstraction.  To those who might worry about the seriousness of Bernhardt’s series, the painting’s title applies: ‘Don’t have a cow, man.’ (On view through Feb 25th).

Katherine Bernhardt, Don’t have a cow, man,’ acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 60 x 48 inches, 2022.

Marlon Mullen, Untitled at JTT Gallery

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Marlon Mullen‘s paintings, now on view at JTT Gallery, take imagery from art magazine covers and other art-related publications and filter it, altering graphic elements and text to transform the original image into something highly personal.  An artist with autism spectrum disorder who does not communicate verbally, the import of Mullen’s carefully rendered text is amplified.  Mullen’s project is also poignant for its focus on images – magazine covers – that have a great deal of cultural importance when fresh but are quickly replaced by new images/covers.  With his bold and imaginative interpretations, Mullen extends the life of these moments in art history while forcing recognition of their fleeting relevance.  (On view in Tribeca through Feb 11th).

Marlon Mullen, untitled, acrylic on canvas, 48 x 40 inches, 2022.

Cynthia Talmadge at Bortolami Gallery

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The streetscape in this painting by Cynthia Talmadge at Bortolami Gallery is a rendition of the gallery’s actual Tribeca location, but created in a pointillist painting style, the place doesn’t quite seem real.  Appropriately, each picture depicts a scene in the imagined life of ‘Alan Smithee,’ a pseudonym used in place of a real film director’s name when (s)he has lost creative control of a film and disowns it.  Talmadge pictures Smithee in various Hollywood haunts (the Scientology Celebrity Center, the Beverly Hilton) and later in New York as he ditches his west coast lifestyle and disastrous film career in favor of a shot at Broadway.  Redemption eludes Smithee but the story – also told with details of Smithee’s life on the cover of various issues of Playbill – entices with its conflict between big dreams and dashed hopes.  (On view in Tribeca through Feb 25th).

Cynthia Talmadge, Maserati (39 Walker), oil and canvas with wood frame, 30 x 24 inches, 2022.