Titled ‘Playground,’ this piece by architect turned modernist sculptor Tony Smith was inspired by ancient mud-brick buildings. Two public installations of the sculpture in Beverly Hills, CA and Rochester, NY entice visitors to go through the opening but in New York, visitors to Chelsea’s Matthew Marks Gallery are invited to appreciate at a little more of a remove. (Through April 18th).
Tony Smith, Playground, steel, painted black, 64 x 128 x 64 inches, 1962.
California-based ceramic artist Cheryl Ann Thomas uses the age-old technique of building a vessel from coils of clay, but Thomas’ coils are so fragile, her pots collapse in the kiln. The results are textile-like forms that seem to embody motion. (At Danese Corey through August 1st).
Cheryl Ann Thomas, Relics 300-303, porcelain, 21 x 24 x 27 inches, 2012.
Julie Becker’s mixed media sculpture from 2000 brings a slice of LA into NYC by suggesting a block of West Sunset Blvd complete with weeds, a lost slipper and a drawing advertising a street art competition. It’s a quirky, anything’s possible kind of city view that’s fast disappearing from Chelsea. (At Chelsea’s GreeneNaftali Gallery through October 5th.)
Julie Becker, 1910 West Sunset Blvd, mixed media sculpture, 2000.
In the latest iteration of a project started in the early 80s, Allan McCollum has invited Joshua Tree, California based artist Andrea Zittel to collaborate on a show of his ‘plaster surrogates,’ or plaster casts that stand in for paintings. Here, Zittel sketches out a rough landscape of hills and desert colors in an avant-garde twist on landscape painting. (At Pezel Gallery in Chelsea through Oct 5th).
Allan McCollum, installation view of ‘Plaster Surrogates Colored and Organized by Andrea Zittel,’ at Petzel Gallery, Sept 2013.
