Walton Ford is back at Chelsea’s Paul Kasmin Gallery with more of his signature large watercolors focusing on the fraught relationship throughout history between man and animal. Here, he recalls a medieval tale of a retreating poacher who scattered reflective balls to confuse a tigress. (Through June 21st).
Walton Ford, The Tigress, watercolor and gouache on paper, 60 x 120 inches, 2013.
A bird woman, eerie twins and a girl with branches growing out of her body are just some of the odd characters populating Swedish artist Klara Kristalova’s show of evocative new ceramic sculpture at Lehmann Maupin Gallery on the Lower East Side. Inspired by folk tales, daily life, movies and even overheard conversations, the psychologically charged figures hint at intriguing stories. (At Lehmann Maupin Gallery through April 26th. Kristalova is also showing at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin on Madison Ave through April 12th).
Klara Kristalova, Birdwoman, glazed stoneware, 2013.
London-based artist Raqib Shaw turns the martyrdom of Sebastian into high drama in this painting of the saint bound with flowering vines and besieged by a cloud of beastly cherubs. Even the blood-red poppies are as threatening as they are beautiful. (At Pace Gallery through Jan 11th. Check website for holiday season opening hours.)
Raqib Shaw, St Sebastian of the Poppies, oil, acrylic, glitter and rhinestones on Birch wood, 60,” 2011-12.
New York based-Scandinavian artist Simen Johan’s latest photos from his ongoing series, ‘Until the Kingdom Comes’ are stronger than even, offering seamless images of animals inserted into landscapes that would be alien to them, as with these giraffes (shot in a U.S. zoo), whose heads are lost in the fog of landscapes from Turkey, Bali & Iceland. (At Chelsea’s Yossi Milo Gallery through Dec 7th).
Simen Johan, Untitled #172, digital c-print, 2013.
One of the highlights for me of last weekend’s 2013 Fashion District Arts Festival was discovering Susan Siegel’s fantastical oil paintings of domesticated animals playing the role of well-appointed Gainsborough-like ladies and gents in lush natural settings. Siegel excels at giving her subjects subtly readable personalities in works that gently poke fun at the excesses of 18th century self-fashioning.
Susan Siegel, Solitary Goat (Blue), 30” x 24”, oil on canvas, 2011.
