The Metropolitan Museum of Art may be closed to deter the spread of COVID-19 but one of its most exciting new commissions is still on view outside. In never-filled niches designed to hold statuary, Wangechi Mutu has installed four bronze sculptures of powerful women wrapped in coiled garments that the artist describes as ‘living, tactile and fleshy’ but which also act protectively. Polished disks (here, at the back of this figure’s head) echo traditional ornament worn by women of status in many African cultures. Though inspired by caryatid sculptures in which women support a burden (from prestige stools to the Vanderbilt mantlepiece) these queenly and otherworldly figures are leaders, not servers. (On view outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art through June 8th, 2020).
Tag: bronze
Peter Voulkos at Burning in Water
Peter Voulkos’ influence is a constant presence in New York’s galleries if his actual rule-destroying ceramic sculptures are infrequently seen; Burning In Water’s current show of work from Voulkos’ ‘Stacks’ series manifests the artist’s deliberately imperfect forms. Patched, split and tilting to the side, ‘Big Ed’ exemplifies the energy and expression Voulkos brought to his art. Translation from the original ceramic to bronze adds durability to the dynamic. (On view in Chelsea through Sept 21st).
Sarah Peters at Van Doren Waxter
Sarah Peters takes her stylized bronze head sculptures to a newly disquieting level in her current exhibition at Van Doren Waxter on the Lower East Side. Riffing on Greek dramatic masks, ancient Assyrian or Akkadian heads, and sex dolls, figures heads like this one embody ziggurat-like architectural form, as if place and priestess had merged into one haunting figure. (On view on the Lower East Side through June 2nd).
Barbara Chase-Rimboud at Michael Rosenfeld Gallery
Inspired to reconsider Malcolm X’s ideology while participating in an Algerian arts festival in 1969, Barbara Chase-Rimboud began a series of bronze sculptures, titled after the activist, fourteen of which are now on view at Michael Rosenfeld Gallery. Created with a knotted silk base and bronze forms made by casting worked sheets of wax, the mix of materials signals strength and finery. (On view in Chelsea through Oct 28th).
Sascha Braunig in ‘Mutations’ on the High Line
Sascha Braunig is best known for paintings of quasi-human figures that seem to merge with a digital backgrounds, so her sculpture ‘Giantess’ on the High Line – set in a natural environment – is something of a fun surprise, begging the question of who would wear these huge, spur-bedecked heels. (On view through March 2018 near 24th/25th Street).