A horizon line made of charcoal surrounds visitors to Teresita Fernandez’s haunting installation of burnt and burning landscape at Lehmann Maupin Gallery on the Lower East Side. Though Fernandez has explained that she wants to question the reality of the ‘virgin’ landscape described by early European settlers in North America by pointing to existing slash and burn farming methods, this handsome installation tantalizingly offers many interpretations. (On view through May 20th).
Dutch artist Erik Van Lieshout recreates newspaper protests of demonstrations between Dutch-nationalists and Muslim factions in Holland in vinyl and charcoal at Anton Kern Gallery. A provocateur who The Guardian recently called ‘The Ali G of Art’ for his disregard for social convention, Van Lieshout’s drawings impressively channel the aggression and adrenaline of street confrontation. (In Chelsea through Feb 28th).
Erik Van Lieshout, Untitled, charcoal, acrylic and vinyl on paper, 59 1/8 x 107 7/8 inches, 2014.
