Cage-based artworks from the ‘60s to the early ‘80s by late, Paris-based Japanese artist Tetsumi Kudo at Andrea Rosen Gallery demonstrate human estrangement from nature. Despite the bright colors, a heart shape, plastic flowers and the label reading ‘Bonheur,’ happiness seems far from this abject couple’s experience. (In Chelsea through Nov 16th).
Austrian Pop artist Kiki Kogelnik lays out bodies for view in ‘Cold Passage,’ an oil painting that offers and denies access to its subjects by abstracting heads into round emoji-like circles (though the painting is from 1964) and silhouetted bodies as if they’re flat cutouts or crime scene chalk outlines. (At Simone Subal Gallery through Feb 7th).
Kiki Kogelnik, Cold Passage, oil and acrylic on canvas, 59 ¾ x 48 inches, 1964.
The rhythmic concentric rings in calming cool colors in this painting by Cuban artist Luis Martinez Pedro might bring to mind drops of water falling on the surface of the water, but don’t be too sure. The work features in a group show of art by ‘The Ten,’ a group formed in the late 50s of concrete artists in Cuba who resisted depicting forms from nature. (At David Zwirner Gallery through Feb 20th).
Luis Martinez Pedro, Aguas territorials (Territorial Waters), oil on canvas, 39 9/16 x 30 ½ inches, 1964.
Janet Fish, Plantains in a Box, oil on canvas, 44 x 44 inches, 1969.
Late Bay Area painter Joan Brown’s self-portrait at age 31 includes her dog and third husband (artist Gordon Cook) standing outside the San Francisco Opera House. Hovering on a sidewalk that recalls a conveyor belt and an inverted red carpet, Brown and her partner pause stiffly in an urban landscape curiously devoid of other people. (At George Adams Gallery in Chelsea).
Joan Brown, Gordon, Joan and Rufus in Front of S.F. Opera House, oil on canvas, 2 panels, 80 x 30 5/8 inches and 80 x 60 inches, 1969.
