Inspired by the Fujianese practice of adding an annual coat of lacquer to your coffin in old age, Beijing-based painter Wang Guangle adds layers of paint to his ‘Coffin Paint’ canvases to signify the passage of time. (At Pace Gallery, 510 West 25th Street, through Nov 1st).
Wang Guangle, (detail) Coffin Paint 140404, acrylic on canvas, 2014.
Art and science meet in Alyson Shotz’s otherworldly steel wire and glass bead sculpture at Derek Eller Gallery. Titled ‘Invariant Interval’ after the spaces between coordinates in a grid that measures spacetime, the piece achieves Shotz’s goal of “…investigating the basic forces that shape our entire physical and metal experience of life” while managing to look gorgeous at the same time. (In Chelsea through Nov 8th).
Alyson Shotz, installation view of Invariant Interval, stainless steel wire, glass beads and aluminum collars, 98 x 104 x 230 inches, Derek Eller Gallery, Oct 2014.
Beijing-based artist Liu Bolin pictures himself in this larger-than-life sculpture going through airport security. Contrary to the freedom of flying, the artist describes this gesture as abandoning independence and offering a prayer for safety. Covered in designs based on snack food packaging, Liu Bolin simultaneously suggests identity further compromised. (At Chelsea’s Klein Sun Gallery through Nov 1st).
Liu Bolin, Security Check No 1, acrylic on copper, 80 ¾ x 37 3/8 x 21 5/8 inches, 2014.
Titled ‘Chuck’ after his travelling salesman father, Houston-based artist Jeremy Deprez’s huge abstract painting takes its cue from a popular vertical stripe pattern in men’s dress shirts. Sized XXL (at over 14 feet long), the painting is a tour de force of optical illusion and gives new meaning to the concept of power dressing. (At Zach Feuer Gallery in Chelsea, through Nov 8th).
Untitled (Chuck), acrylic on canvas, 111 x 176 1/2, 2014.
This small exhibition of work by the Chinese dissident artist Ai Wei Wei at Chelsea’s Chambers Fine Art shows the artist continuing to work on themes related to the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan province. Here, a marble rendering of a twisted piece of metal rebar is placed on each casket, acting as memorial to the thousands of children who died when their shoddily constructed schools collapsed. (Through Nov 1st).
Ai Wei Wei, installation of ‘Rebar Casket and Marble Rebar,’ nos I – VIII, huali wood, marble and foam, 2014.
