New York artist Elaine Cameron Weir’s latest show ‘Venus Anadyomene’ at the Lower East Side gallery Ramiken Crucible offers an irresistible take on the ancient Greek tale of Venus rising from the sea. Real clamshells with customized neon bring to mind beach-side dive bars while incense rising over a flame adds a spiritual element. (Through April 6th).
Elaine Cameron Weir, installation view of ‘venus anadyomene’ at Ramiken Crucible, March 2014.
Jackie Gendel’s bathers cast hard stares or fall into melancholy sleep, their prone bodies acting as stand-ins for dunes under a darkening sky. (At Chelsea’s Morgan Lehman Gallery through Aug 23rd).
Jackie Gendel, At the Beach, water dispersed pigment and vinyl on canvas, 2013.
Is this vacationer’s vacant stare an expression of total relaxation or haunting anxiety? Sketchy hands and underdeveloped legs put the focus on this man’s shadowy head and torso in ‘Another Side of Bad Blake,’ a drama wrapped in a portrait by Brooklyn painter Daniel Heidkamp. (At Chelsea’s Morgan Lehman Gallery through Aug 23rd.)
Daniel Heidkamp, ‘Another Side of Bad Blake,’ oil on canvas, 2012.
