Tag: chelsea galleries

Kang Seok Ho at Tina Kim Gallery

The short lag times between reading late artist Kang Seok Ho’s paintings at Tina Kim Gallery as abstractions and then understanding them as representations of the human body generates little thrills of discovery.  In this untitled painting, the energy of the bold floral pattern is overwhelming; a second later, two arms to either side resolve vivid leaf-like shapes into the pattern on a skirt, seen from behind.  Abstraction becomes decoration, fine art becomes fashion, and flatness turns into curving form in just seconds while reading this vibrant and monumental painting.  In selected paintings from c. 20 years at Tina Kim, radical cropping (Kang worked from photos he took or found in mass media sources) allowed the artist to zero in on bodies without faces, the better to put the focus on form over identity.  Inspired by Asian landscape painting, Kang connected his contemporary vision of life with histories of rendering the natural world, rooting observations of the now with enduring imagery from the past.  (On view through July 29th in Chelsea).

Kang Seok Ho, Untitled, oil on canvas, 92 ½ x 80 ¾ inches, 2005.

Markus Linnenbrink at Miles McEnery Gallery

Stripes run across the walls, down the paintings and around a ball-like sculpture in Markus Linnenbrink’s explosively colorful show at Miles McEnery Gallery in Chelsea. Painted in two days, a dripping horizontal pattern across the gallery wall sets off Linnenbrink’s signature candy-colored works in epoxy resin and leads the eye back into the gallery toward a variety of work created by building up or cutting into layers of solidified epoxy resin.  In the foreground, a ball made from layers of cast resin encases discarded ephemera from everyday life gathered by friends and family of the artist, a happy emblem of experiences accumulated along life’s way. (On view in Chelsea through July 22nd).

Markus Linnenbrink, COLDWORLDGOODMANBITEBACK, epoxy resin, pigments, objects, 36 inches diameter, 2023.

Chryssa at the Dia Foundation

When she arrived in New York from Athens, young Greek artist Chryssa was so taken by Times Square that she was inspired to create assemblages from neon and signage that capture the color and excitement of street life.  Stocked with loans from MoMA, the Walker Art Center and other major museums, the artist’s first show in the US since the 80s, now at the Dia Foundation in Chelsea, makes a strong case for her importance to New York’s downtown art scene in the 60s and 70s. Resembling a combination of street signs and printing plates for mass publication, Chryssa’s Americanoom suggests or actually includes words (‘zoom,’ ‘run,’ ‘new,’ and ‘café’) that give voice to a bustling city. (On view through July 23rd).

Chryssa, Americanoom, aluminum, steel, stainless steel and neon, 1963.

Rose B. Simpson at Jack Shainman Gallery

Because they’re hollow, ceramic artist Rose B. Simpson’s sculptures “hold space,” she explained in a recent interview with Vogue.  She went on to say, “I often think about the space inside as holding intention; I want them to go out and do work in the world and be vessels for that intention I’m putting out there.” Three large vessel-like sculptures in Simpson’s current exhibition at Jack Shainman Gallery are a powerful presence, marked by signs that relate to specific meaningful ideas for the artist, representative of her internal thought processes and development.  Titled ‘The Road Less Traveled,’ Simpson’s show introduces this already very successful artist to New York audiences as a maker who follows her own way.  (On view in Chelsea through April 8th).

Rose B. Simpson, (foreground) Vital Organ: Stomach, clay, twine, grout, 91”, 2022, (background) Reclamation IV, clay, steel, lava and bone beads, leather, grout, 88 x 15 x 13 inches, 2022.

Minerva Cuevas at Kurimanzutto

‘In Gods we Trust,’ is the provocative title of Minerva Cuevas’ new exhibition at Chelsea’s Kurimanzutto Gallery, a show featuring sculptures of pre-Hispanic deities and vintage magazine ads promoting powerful multi-national oil companies.  Here, a priest of Tlazolteotl, an Aztec deity associated with lust and excess, sits on the pages of financial newspapers, an oil-like substance applied to his mouth and dripped on his arms.  The interrelation of power and oil (a substance also used by pre-Hispanic cultures) also appears in the artist’s huge and damning wall mural featuring nature-inspired corporate logos of companies that have helped bring about climate crisis.  (On view in Chelsea through April 15th).

Minerva Cuevas, Tlazolteotl Priest, foamular, acrylic paint and financial newspapers, ’22 – ‘23