At the start of Dutch artist Bas Jan Ader’s 19 second video, Fall 1, the artist perches on a chair on a roof. As we watch with increasing unease, he leans over until he causes himself to tumble to the ground below. Absurd yet emotionally jolting, Ader’s video portrays the artist as dare devil willing to take risks and foretells his eventual disappearance at sea during the creation of another event-as-artwork. (At Metro Pictures in Chelsea through Aug 5th).
Trees appear to dance and sway at the center of Beauford Delaney’s gorgeously curvy nature scene from c. 1945. As Fauvist colors turn the park into a riot of color, specifics of place or season feel beside the point. (At Michael Rosenfeld Gallery through Aug 5th).
Does abstract art tap into a subconscious human understanding of the order of the universe? Curator and artist, Matthew Ronay asks this question in Andrea Rosen Gallery’s summer group show. His own colorful wooden sculptures explore forms recalling (in his words) ‘alien deep sea creatures, glandular secretions, vibrating fields of energy, and tongues and protrusions on scales indeterminable.’ (In Chelsea through August 5th).
Brooklyn artist Deborah Brown reframes Picasso’s distorted, phallic-headed sculpture of Picasso’s lover Marie-Therese with wicked humor by imaging her in painted form, an innocent in traditional dress, frolicking in a garden. (At Mike Weiss Gallery in ‘School’s Out!’ through August 6th).
Simen Johan’s stunning image of sea lions (seen here in detail) has the creatures rising to the right in a digitally manipulated crescendo of activity. The composition and atmospheric background recalls Gericault’s famously dramatic 19th century shipwreck scene, ‘The Raft of the Medusa,’ though it is animals that embody intense emotion. (At Yossi Milo Gallery in Chelsea through Aug 10th).
