Bruce High Quality Foundation at The Brooklyn Museum

Bruce High Quality Foundation (an anonymous collective of Brooklyn artists) show off their light-hearted but ambitious practice at the Brooklyn Museum, including these vitrines housing crudely recreated selections from the Met’s Greek and Roman galleries.  The installation recalls the age-old student practice of perfecting one’s art by copying in museums though these renditions of the Met’s ancient masterpieces are decidedly folksy and imperfect.  (Through Sept 22nd).

‘The Greek and Roman Collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art,’ Play dough, cardboard, wood, acrylic, polystyrene foam, 2013.

El Anatsui at The Brooklyn Museum

El Anatsui’s shimmering, undulating wall sculptures made of repurposed bottle caps are uniformly stunning, but previous experience of individual pieces won’t prepare you for the Ghana-based artist’s huge installation in the Brooklyn Museum’s fifth floor galleries.  Titled ‘Gli’ (Wall), sheets of aluminum and copper wire materials were inspired by visits to walled cities of Berlin, Jerusalem and Notsie (in Togo) but offer a delicate and diaphanous take on the idea of barriers.  (Through August 4th).  

El Anatsui, ‘Gli (Wall),’ aluminum and copper wire, 2010.

Mickalene Thomas at Brooklyn Museum

Mickalene Thomas, Le Dejeuner sur l'herbe:  les trois femmes noires, 2010.
Mickalene Thomas, Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe: les trois femmes noires, 2010.

Mickalene Thomas’s ‘Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe:  Les trois femmes noires,’ rethinks Manet’s 1863 original by substituting three black women for Manet’s two men and a nude woman. Manet’s version was rejected by the Salon, while Thomas’s rhinestone bedecked beauties headline her current show at the Brooklyn Museum (Through Jan 20th.)