Just as this fifty-foot-long sculpture by Glenn Kaino at Pace Gallery multiplies and extends Olympic gold winner Tommie Smith’s raised fist on the podium at the 1968 Olympics, the athlete’s gesture for social justice continues to impact protest in and beyond the sports world. The installation – Kaino’s first at Pace Gallery – comes on the heels of his ‘Pass the Baton’ NFT project, through which digital renderings of a baton used by Smith in record-breaking races have been sold to raise funds for activist organizations. The piece is on view through Saturday, but if you don’t catch it at Pace Gallery, an earlier, larger sculpture from the Bridge series will go on view next year in the Smithsonian’s permanent collection in Washington DC. (On view through June 11th in Chelsea).
Tag: 1968
James Turrell at Pace Gallery
From this single-projection light work from 1968 now on view at Pace Gallery to his stunning transformation of the Guggenheim Rotunda into a light installation in 2013 James Turrell suggest that light can manifest in physical form. Juke Green – glowing an emerald green that suffuses the room with color – conjures a giant gem or a portal into another world. (At Pace Gallery’s 534 West 25th Street location.)
Isamu Noguchi at Pace Gallery
Isamu Noguchi’s red ‘Octetra’ sculpture from 1968 is a standout for color alone in Pace Gallery’s current exhibition of the 20th century modernist’s sculpture. Designed for a playground, it was inspired by Noguchi’s regard for his friend Buckminster Fuller’s notion of the tetrahedron as the primary building block of nature. (At Pace Gallery’s 508-510 West 25th Street location through March 21st).
Isamu Noguchi, Octetra, cement, paint, 8’ 7 ½ inches x 9’ 10” x 8’ 7,” 1968.