Tag: artists

Mujeres Muralistas Soi Noma in ‘The Precious Life of a Liquid Heart’ at the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art

This seven-foot painting on canvas by Soi Noma, a collective of female mural artists from the Shipibo-Conibo community in Lima, Peru adds a blast of color to the small but impactful group exhibition ‘The Precious Life of a Liquid Heart’ at the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art in Tribeca.  Addressing water crisis in Latin America and the spiritual importance of rivers and water bodies to indigenous communities, the show includes work by artists who decry environmental damage and others who focus on an appreciation of the natural world.  Soi Noma’s ‘Manifesto against Contamination’ mixes both approaches, employing kene, geometric patterns that express world views of the community, and images of animals to picture a come-back from contamination caused by oil companies. (On view through Feb 10th).

Mujeres Muralistas Soi Noma, Manifesto against Contamination, mixed media on canvas, triptych: 86 x 51 x 1/16 inches, 2022.

Bendt Eyckermans at Andrew Kreps Gallery

The dramatically-patterned drawn curtains in this painting by young Antwerp-based artist Bendt Eyckermans shut out the sun, but a sense of illumination is nevertheless strong in this symbol-laden interior scene at Andrew Kreps Gallery.  Working in the studio that both his artist father and grandfather have used before him, the youngest artist in a lineage that goes back at least five generations ponders his inheritance by picturing objects with meaningful history.  A sculpture reminiscent of his father’s work crouches on the table in this picture titled ‘The successor,’ while two figures on the left (one nearly hidden behind the other) presumably picture artistic forebears.  A green marble on the orange-toned carpet reads like a warning to self not to slip in their watchful presence.  (On view in Tribeca through June 18th).

Bendt Eyckermans, The successor, oil and ink on linen, 74 3/8 x 62 5/8 inches, 2021.

The Boyle Family at Luhring Augustine Gallery

In their first New York solo show in 40 years, the Boyle Family (father Robert Boyle, mother Joan Hills and their adult children Sebastian and Georgia Boyle) considers relationships between humans and the environment with wall mounted mini-landscapes.  Meticulous recreations of sites chosen at random, each ‘earthprobe’ is a recreation of a segment of the earth’s surface in an urban or rural area.  How to interpret these slices of mediated reality?  The Boyles explain that they want to consider whether it’s possible to look at the earth and not think of ‘myths and legends, art of the past or present, art and myths of other cultures.’ Thankfully, it seems it is not, as each will prompt historical connections and personal memories. (On view at Luhring Augustine in Chelsea through April 24th).

The Boyle Family, Kerb Study with Filled in Basement Lights and Cobbles, Westminster Series, mixed media, resin, fiberglass, C 66 x 66 inches, 1987

GCC at Mitchell-Innes & Nash Gallery

Against the backdrop of rapid urban development in the Persian Gulf countries, the artist collective GCC examines the parallel trends toward the pursuit of happiness and health. Here, a woman practices a new age, healing therapy on her son. They stand in sand, a symbol of the landscape, inside a racing track reminiscent of the region’s many new urban walkways. (At Chelsea’s Mitchell-Innes and Nash through Nov 23rd).

GCC, installation view of Positive Pathways (+), at Mitchell-Innes & Nash, Oct 2016.
GCC, installation view of Positive Pathways (+), at Mitchell-Innes & Nash, Oct 2016.

The Propeller Group at James Cohan Gallery

Vietnam-based artists The Propeller Group make a surprising connection between brass bands in New Orleans and Vietnam in a mesmerizing video created for the New Orleans biennial, Prospect 3. Here, a funeral band wades into the Mekong Delta, making an elaborate journey as they accompany the dead toward the afterlife. (At James Cohan Gallery on the Lower East Side through May 15th).

The Propeller Group, installation view of The Living Need Light, The Dead Need Music (2014) at James Cohan Gallery, April 2016.
The Propeller Group, installation view of The Living Need Light, The Dead Need Music (2014) at James Cohan Gallery, April 2016.