Globe-trotting photographer and writer Teju Cole’s new book ‘Blind Spot’ explores perception through shots including this grid of curtained balconies in Beirut, an image that suggests diversity packed into a small space. Alongside is a text in which Cole bemoans a lost roll of film while acknowledging that his original viewing experience is what he most values. (On view at Steven Kasher Gallery through August 11th).
In a 1979 collaboration with Pierre Cardin, Lebanese artist Huguette Caland created these and other caftans that continue her focus on the female form. In the foreground, ‘Tete-a-tete,’ represents the melding of two bodies as one. (At Chelsea’s Lombard Freid Gallery through Dec 20th).
Huguette Caland, Tete-a-tete, thread on fabric, 73 x 19 x 12 inches, 1971.
Exiled from Beirut and living in San Francisco and Paris, octogenarian artist Etal Adnan has devoted many paintings, including this soothing view, to consideration of Marin County’s Mount Tamalpais as it is constantly transformed by weather and light conditions. (At Callicoon Fine Arts on the Lower East Side through May 23rd).
Etel Adnan, Untitled, oil on canvas, 8 x 10 inches, 2012.
Berlin-based artist Simon Fujiwara created this gender-reversing picture as part of a meandering investigation into a now-lost photo of his globe trotting, show-girl mother in the arms of a stranger on a beach in Beirut. With very little information to go on, Fujiwara goes on, casting actors to reconstruct the old photo while musing on family history. (At Chelsea’s Andrea Rosen Gallery through Aug 9th).
Detail from Simon Fujiwara’s exhibition ‘Studio Pieta (King Kong Komplex),’ at Andrea Rosen Gallery, July 2013.
