Titled ‘Winter,’ Viya Celmins first New York solo show in six years at Matthew Marks Gallery sees out the season with paintings featuring snow against dark backgrounds. Those familiar with the artist’s signature subject matter may identify the work as a night sky painting for which she is renowned, but what look like stars are in fact flakes of snow. Celmins has explained in an interview that she aims to wrestle something vast down into the space of the canvas, fixing it there. The new snow-related paintings suggest she’s taken the universe and transposed it into something positioned right before our eyes. In a further twist, the piece’s title, ‘Snowfall(coat)’ reveals that the snow is not actually seen in front of the darkness of night but has been pictured instead on a black coat. (On view in Chelsea through April 6th).
