Tag: blue

Lorna Simpson at Hauser & Wirth

In the Arctic, ‘so much believed to be white is actually – strikingly – blue,’ writes award-winning American poet Robin Coste Lewis in a text applied to the wall at the entrance to Lorna Simpson’s solo show at Hauser & Wirth.  Titled ‘Darkening’ and featuring monumentally scaled paintings combining text and images from Ebony magazine, the AP and National Archives, the new work pictures bodies and icy landscapes commenting on, as Simpson has explained, ‘inhospitable conditions and how to survive those conditions.’  (On view in Chelsea through July 27th).

Lorna Simpson, Blue Turned Temporal, ink and screenprint on gessoed fiberglass, 102 x 144 x 1 3/8 inches, 2019.

Addie Wagenknecht at Bitforms

Yves Klein’s use of nude female models – daubed in his signature blue paint – as live paintbrushes increases in political incorrectness as the years go by. Now, Addie Wagenknecht has joined the ranks of artists who’ve responded with their own takes on Klein’s iconic objectification. Engaging a Roomba to paint as it skirted her nude body, Wagenknecht creates expressionist canvases with an algorithm and robot. (On view at Bitforms on the Lower East Side through Feb 11th).

Addie Wagenknecht, self-portrait – snow on cedar (winter), IKB dry pigment and resin on canvas, 80 x 90 inches, 2017.

Haegue Yang at Greene Naftali Gallery

Haegue Yang continues her ‘Trustworthy’ series – made from the patterned interiors of security envelopes – with this installation of abstract diagrams set against deeply soothing Yves Klein blue walls at Greene Naftali Gallery. Just as Klein offered a portal into the sublime, Yang points to the mystical with her eye-like shapes and totemic figure covered in bells. (In Chelsea through April 16th).

Haegue Yang, installation view of ‘Quasi-Pagan Minimal’ at Greene Naftali Gallery, March 2016.
Haegue Yang, installation view of ‘Quasi-Pagan Minimal’ at Greene Naftali Gallery, March 2016.

Chuck Close at Pace Gallery

For his latest show at Pace Gallery’s 534 West 25th Street location, Chuck Close continues to replicate mechanical processes by hand in huge self-portraits painted square by square in thin washes of red, blue or yellow paint. (Through Oct 17th).

Chuck Close, Self-Portrait IV, oil on canvas, 96 x 84 inches, 2014-15 (right) and Self-Portrait III, oil on canvas, 101 5/8 x 84 inches, 2014 (to the left).

David Korty at Wallspace

LA artist David Korty’s shelf-paintings assemble a set of shapes that combine both positive and negative cut-outs, brushstrokes and patterns, all basic components of the artist’s toolbox. (At Wallspace through March 28th).

David Korty, Blue Shelf #38, ink, paper, pencil, silkscreen and paint on canvas, 79 x 93 inches, 2015.