Carlos Motta Collaboration at PPOW Gallery

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

Beautifully shot and installed in Tribeca’s PPOW Gallery, Columbian artist Carlos Motta’s ‘Air of Life’ video installation is reached by passing by sculpture crafted by Indigenous Brazilian craftsman Higinio Bautista. This particular collaboration began with Bautista’s retelling of a legend of shamans who transformed into animals to protect the people and land.  He prompted Motta to draw the figures, which Bautista then carved.  Once past the protective deities, gallery visitors take in soaring views of the Amazon while watching Indigenous South American musicians, activists, and community leaders explain their work in a c. 42 minute presentation on a screen and two monitors.  Commissioned for an exhibition related to Indigenous representation now on view at Museo de Arte Miguel Urrutia in Bogota, the works in the show give insight into to the lives of those working to protect tradition.  (On view through Oct 7th).

Carlos Motta, installation view of ‘Air of Life’ at PPOW Gallery, Sept 2023. Sculpture in the foreground: Carlos Motta and Higinio Bautista, Shaman Anteater, carved wood, 43 ¼ x 15 ¾ 16 ½ inches.

Uuriintuya Dagvasambuu, Security 1 at Sapar

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

Standing in a circle of flames or wearing a crown of skulls, Buddhist protector deities can manifest in terrifying ways.  Mongolian artist Uuriintuya Dagvasambuu’s guardians, now on view in her solo show at Sapar Contemporary in Tribeca, are more obviously benevolent. Wearing Converse with her armor, this enlightened female figure holds a lotus as a symbol of her state of awareness while gazing forward with confidence.  Perched on an outcrop of land instead of the typical lotus and supported below by the flower of the edelweiss plant, a hardy species found from the Himalayas to Mongolia, Dagvasambuu’s figure engages tradition from a contemporary perspective with humor and respect.  (On view through Oct 10th).

Uuriintuya Dagvasambuu, Security 1, acrylic on canvas, 2023.

Wolfgang Tillmann at David Zwirner Gallery

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

‘Fold Me,’ German photographer Wolfgang Tillmans first solo show at David Zwirner Gallery in New York since his blockbuster MoMA retrospective last year, embraces the concept of the fold – the antithesis of linearity.  In the curves of a river shot from overhead or the crumpled forms of a dropped item of clothing, the artist subtly positions the viewer to question defined boundaries and the distinctions between inside and out.  In this piece, ‘Lennartz Factory Washroom,’ Tillmans pictures orderly rows of sinks in the washroom of a tool manufacturer in his hometown of Remsheid.  With this subject matter, Tillmans himself cycles back to a place he once lived in, disrupting the idea of an artist leaving never to return.  Though the room’s design is an exercise in repetition – like factory labor itself – with recurring sets of sinks, arrangement of windows, rows of pipes and lighting fixtures on the ceiling and a grid of floor tiles, the picture comes alive with towels that break the uniformity.  (On view in Chelsea through Oct 14th).

Wolfgang Tillmans, Lennartz Factory Washroom, inkjet print on paper mounted on Dibond aluminum in artist’s frame, 2023.

Robert Lugo at R and Company

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

Philadelphia-based self-styled ‘village potter,’ artist, poet and activist Robert Lugo makes his NY solo show debut at R and Company with an exhibition inspired by art history and his own life experiences.  Known for his ceramic vessels that feature renowned African Americans (many grace the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s vibrant Afro-Futurist period room), this show includes portraits of Lugo’s community members modeled after relief sculptures by Renaissance artist Andrea della Robbia and vessels that resemble Greek amphora but feature scenes from the artist’s childhood neighborhood.  Painted in the orange and black colors of prison uniforms, this striking vessel depicts mass tire theft in the neighborhood.  (On view through Oct 27th).

Robert Lugo, The Day We Had Church and Tires Were Stolen, from the Orange and Black series, glazed stoneware, 2023.

Roy Lichtenstein, Bauhaus Stairway Mural at Gagosian

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

Created for the atrium of the theatrical management agency Creative Arts Agency’s IM Pei designed headquarters in 1989, Roy Lichtenstein’s Bauhaus Stairway Mural dominates a single cavernous room at Gagosian Gallery in Chelsea.  Featuring the artist’s signature Benday dots and primary colors that imitate commercial printing techniques, the painting remakes Oscar Schlemmer’s famous 1932 painting of students at the Bauhaus, the famous pre-WWII German school of art and design.  Though the original was created in response to the Nazi closing of the school, Lichtenstein’s streamlined forms and bright colors on a huge scale suggest a more positive outlook on the upward movement of arts and ideas.  (On view through Dec 22nd).

Roy Lichtenstein, Bauhaus Stairway Mural, oil and magna on canvas, 26 x 5 ¾’ x 17’ x 11 ¾ inches, 1989.

Njideka Akunyili Crosby at David Zwirner Gallery

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

In an oasis of plants and a richly colored and patterned domestic environment, LA-based artist Njideka Akunyili Crosby poses with her baby on lap, looking out to meet the viewer’s eye in a standout piece in her current solo show at David Zwirner Gallery.  As a self-portrait as artist and mother, Akunyili Crosby projects poise and confidence amid a superabundance of imagery from Nigerian media sources, a signature element in her work. Using transfers on paper (in addition to acrylic, colored pencil and collage) Akunyili Crosby assembles photos from the worlds of Nigerian music, fashion, sports, culture and more into collages.  Taking the form of plants, architecture and more, the artist fashions influence into images that speak to her identity as both a Nigerian and an American.  (On view in Chelsea through Oct 28th).

Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Still You Bloom in This Land of No Gardens, acrylic, colored pencil, collage, and transfers on paper, 2021.

Jacob Hashimoto at Miles McEnery Gallery

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

At first glance, the entrance to Jacob Hashimoto’s installation at Miles McEnery Gallery appears to be blocked by a super abundance of paper and bamboo disks, his signature material.  No one pauses for a moment though, before climbing the gallery stairs and whipping out a phone to photograph the strings of shapes that form a cloud overhead.  Called ‘kites’ by the artist, the forms are heavier than the airborne toys but resemble them in their paper on frame structure, sense of lightness and potential for movement.  Austere in black and white tones that echo the gallery architecture, the installation is restrained yet exuberant, balanced yet dynamic.  (On view through Oct 21st).

Jacob Hashimoto, installation view of ‘The Disappointment Engine,’ at Miles McEnery Gallery, Sept 2023.

Nina Canell at 303 Gallery

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

Swedish artist Nina Canell has explained that sculpture is ‘an encounter,’ meaning that the atmosphere created by a piece and its materials will drive interest.  In the artist’s first solo show at 303 Gallery in Chelsea, unusual works involving fossils and conveyors achieve this goal, prompting curiosity via strange juxtapositions.  In this piece titled ‘Mother of Dust,’ a moving conveyor belt dominates the gallery; positioned just above the belt, a broom pushes along a handful of pearls.  As large as the sculpture is, the interest is in the point at which broom and pearls meet and the constantly moving, changing pattern of pearls generated by the device.  Canell’s interest is in geology, time and the interventions of humans in nature; although humans are absent here, their presence is indicated by the broom’s work – a process that has been set in motion and left to play out as it will.  (On view through Oct 28th).

Nina Canell, Mother of Dust, pearls, broom, modified conveyor belt, 280 x 35 x 23 inches, 2023.

Jeffrey Gibson at Sikkema Jenkins & Co

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

From its vibrant, patterned wall mural to the abundance of vivid paintings in saturated color, Jeffrey Gibson’s solo show at Sikkema, Jenkins & Co is one of the most eye-catching exhibitions in Chelsea. Titled ‘Superbloom,’ in reference to an especially bountiful appearance of wildflowers, the show features work in Gibson’s signature formats, including beaded punching bags, which invite admiration not violence, and patterned paintings recalling Native American design and bearing phrases taken from pop songs or various texts.  In this piece on painted elk hide titled and including the text SPIRIT AND MATTER, viewers encounter a central circular form recalling both a meditative diagram and a target.  (On view in Chelsea through Oct 21st).

Jeffrey Gibson, SPIRIT AND MATTER, acrylic paint on elk hide inset in custom wood frame, 2023.

Laure Prouvost at Lisson Gallery

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

When female octopi guard their eggs, they stop feeding themselves, dying as their babies mature.  Multimedia artist Laure Prouvost’s latest solo show at Lisson Gallery celebrates this selfless participation in the cycle of life and connects it with human nurturing via combined imagery of human breasts and octopus arms.  Huge cephalopod limbs emerge from a layer of sand scattered on the floor, inviting gallery visitors into a tactile underfoot experience while observing suction cups that occasionally resemble breasts or in one case, end in a breast-shaped lamp.  Prouvost’s surreal mix of animal and human bodies foregrounds the importance of touch, feeling and sensuous enjoyment.  (On view in Chelsea through Oct 14th).

Laure Prouvost, installation view of ‘Laure Prouvost: Stranded By Your Side,’ at Lisson Gallery, Sept 2023.

Denzil Forrester at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

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

Denzil Forrester’s vibrant club painting – one of his 1980s depictions of London’s reggae and dub scene – stands out at the entrance to the Met Museum’s newly rehung contemporary art galleries for its color and movement.  Featuring a DJ on the left and a dancer moving so energetically (s)he’s a blur on the right, the painting captures the way music and people have turned a place into a state of mind.

Dezil Forrester, Dub, oil on canvas, 1985.

Pepon Osorio at the New Museum

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

When he had a son in the 90s, Puerto Rico-born artist Pepon Osorio started thinking of how to raise him without perpetuating unwanted ideas about masculinity. This consideration (and a commission from Real Art Ways in Connecticut) led the artist to create the multi-media installation ‘No Crying Allowed in the Barbershop,’ now on view at the New Museum in a solo survey show presenting Osorio’s work from the 90s to today.  Originally installed in a working-class Puerto Rican neighborhood in Hartford, CT, the installation sprang from community conversations identifying barber shops as places where “…ideas surrounding machismo are formed and performed in Latinx culture from generation to generation.”  Overwhelming in its decorative detail, the recreated barbershop builds a powerful and absorbingly complex picture of male identity formation from the influence of actors, sports heroes and other public figures to the car culture alluded to in wall-mounted hubcaps.  (On view through Sept 17th).

Pepon Osorio, installation view of ‘No Crying Allowed in the Barbershop (En la barberia no se llora), mixed mediums and video installation, 1994.

Gabriel Chaile on the High Line

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

Inspired by pre-Columbian ceramics in his native country of Argentina, Gabriel Chaile’s High Line sculpture ‘The Wind Blows Where it Wishes’ turns a vessel-shape into a living form with a delicate face positioned both front and back on the neck.  Made from steel and adobe, the sculpture recalls ancient handcrafting processes while being protected and animated by an undulating ribbon of dark metal which ends at the front in two small hands holding a tube-like instrument.  Towering yet humble, an object yet miraculously living, Chaile’s enchanting sculpture uniquely engages the park’s visitors.  (On view on the High Line over 24th Street through April ’24).

Gabriel Chaile, The Wind Blows Where it Wishes, adobe and steel, 2023.