In 1968, Bruce Nauman videoed himself slowly pacing down a narrow corridor, swinging his hips with each step into a pose reminiscent of Donatello’s bronze David sculpture. Once again, Nauman posits the human body – now older and fragmented by a screen with multiple splits – as subject for art in a new series of videos at Sperone Westwater Gallery, also on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. (On the Lower East Side through Oct 29th).
Seventeen taxidermy molds of foxes, deer and caribou by iconic conceptual artist Bruce Nauman are poised like an acrobatic troupe but are more creepy than entertaining. Nauman ups the discomfort by keeping them hairless to suggest that they’ve experienced an unnamed brutality. (At Gagosian Gallery’s 821 Park Ave location through Feb 21st).
Bruce Nauman, Animal Pyramid, polyurethane foam, iron, wood, and wire, 144 x 84 x 96 inches, 1989.
Stepping out of the elevator at Gagosian Gallery’s uptown, Madison Ave location, the roar of rushing water is immediate and surprisingly loud. Around the corner, squeezed into the main 6th floor exhibition space, is iconic conceptual artist Bruce Nauman’s sculpture of 97 cast bronze fish spouting water from their bodies as if they’d been hunted by rifle as well as hook and line. Elegant in photos, the mechanics of the piece – trailing tubes, a leaky basin, wires – dominate the in-person experience, creating typically Nauman-esque disconcertion. (‘One Hundred Fish Fountain’ is at Gagosian Gallery through Aug 31st).
