New media takes a turn for the traditional in David Hockney’s new series at Pace Gallery, for which his iPad drawings are displayed as prints. Still, the Brit art icon’s colors remain vibrant, transforming the English countryside with fantastical, south-of-France brightness. (At Pace’s 508 West 25th Street space in Chelsea through Nov 1st).
David Hockney, The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011 (twenty eleven) – 5 May, 2011, iPad drawing printed on paper, 55” x 41 ½”
A room eighty feet long is condensed into 18 feet in Roxy Paine’s latest uncanny scene from his Diorama series – an airport security checkpoint crafted entirely in maple wood, devoid of humans and presented for contemplation. (At Chelsea’s Marianne Boesky Gallery through October 18th).
Roxy Paine, Checkpoint, maple, aluminum, fluorescent light bulbs, and acrylic prismatic light diffusers, 14 ‘ h x 26’ – 11” w x 18’ – 7 1/2” d, 2014.
Nick Cave’s latest body of work – filling both of Jack Shainman’s Chelsea galleries – was inspired when Cave was stunned to find a spittoon in the shape of a African-American man’s head at a flea market. Since then, he’s collected similar figures, like this lawn jockey who recalls the legend of a slave boy who froze to death while holding a lantern for George Washington’s historic Delaware River crossing. Standing on a shoe-shine chair and surrounded by a shrine-like collection of bric-a-brac, Cave repositions an icon from America’s troubled past. (On view through Oct 11th).
Nick Cave, Fear Not, Therefore (detail), mixed media including cast-iron figure, shoe shine chair, ceramic birds, strung beads and metal flowers, 77 x 44 x 30 inches, 2014.
Bouchra Khalili’s video installation in the New Museum’s Arab art exhibition movingly documents the travels and travails of immigrants coming to Europe without papers. The tales of their setbacks and successes are mesmerizing. (Through Sept 28th).
Bouchra Khalili, The Mapping Journey Project, eight videos, color, sound, 2008-11.
Trinidad-born artist Romy Scheroder explains that she was thinking of the strictures of colonial culture (wood) vs adaptation by the population (rubber bands) in her sculpture Skin (seen here in the background). Despite the serious subtext, two mirrored chairs delight in the foreground with a joyful dance. (At the Museo del Barrio through September 6th).
Romy Scheroder, Mirror, Mirror, found chairs, 2014.
