Tag: artists

Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen at Paula Cooper Gallery

Is Claes Oldenburg’s Stradivarius any more sophisticated than his giant, soft hamburger from the 60s? Together with his collaborator and wife Coosje van Bruggen, Oldenburg collected and displayed drawings and models for the couple’s large-scale outdoor sculptures around their homes and studio. A selection now on view at Paula Cooper Gallery testifies to their whimsical sense of humor and love of music. (In Chelsea through Dec 19th).

 Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Sliced Stradivarius – Rose, canvas, felt, wood, cord, hardware, painted with latex, 45 x 18 x 7 inches, 2003.

David Kennedy Cutler, Michael DeLucia, and David Scanavino at Derek Eller Gallery

David Scanavino’s vibrantly colored institutional floor tiles, Michael DeLucia’s tire images, carved out of MDF by a computer-controlled router, and David Kennedy Cutler’s elongated arm, created with pictures of a real hand, bring together images generated in the computer and realized in three dimensions. (At Chelsea’s Derek Eller Gallery through June 28th).

David Kennedy Cutler, Michael DeLucia, David Scanavino, To Be Titled, plywood and high pressure laminate, injet on cotton sateen and aluminum, tree branch, wood, spray paint, permalac, VCT tile, floor wax, MDF, glue, 2014.

The Last Brucennial

Sprawling and jam-packed with painting, sculpture, video and more, the ‘Brucennial’ – the biannual, tongue-in-cheek response to the Whitney Biennial organized by anonymous art collective ‘Bruce High Quality Foundation’ – is a hive of activity worth witnessing, especially as this version is billed as the ‘last’ Brucennial. (Through April 4th at 837 Washington Street, opposite the Standard Hotel.)

Installation view of the 2014 Brucennial, March 2014.

Justin Matherly at Paula Cooper Gallery

Known for cast concrete sculptures that relate to ancient literary or historical characters, often propped up on walkers, New York artist Justin Matherly was inspired by the Turkish archeological site of Nemrud Dagi to create these huge stelae (actually three sculptures end-to-end).  Accompanying monoprints featuring the site bring to mind Smithson’s site and non-site as Matherly forges a mental connection between us and a distance place and time. (At Paula Cooper Gallery’s 521 W. 21st Street location through April 27th).  

Justin Matherly, Handbook of inner culture for external barbarians (we nah beg no friend), concrete and ambulatory equipment, 2013.

Gert and Uwe Tobias at Team Gallery

Transylvanian twins Gert & Uwe Tobias offer more of the large-scale woodblock prints that have earned them widespread recognition in recent years in their solo show at SoHo’s Team Gallery.  In this untitled piece, a daybed with a circular, saw-blade-like ornament may have felled the caped jester on the floor…the mystery is provocative. (Through March 30th).  

Untitled (GUT/2053), colored woodcut on canvas, 2012