Nancy Shaver marshaled work by twenty-four artists to create ‘Quilt,’ a wall collage of Shaver’s own fabric panels and works in other media which spreads out over Derek Eller Gallery’s walls like a kudzu of patterns and pop culture references. (On the Lower East Side through Aug 19th).
Under the direction of photographer Sandro Miller, actor John Malkovich plays a series of unexpected roles in a recent body of work at Chelsea’s Yancey Richardson Gallery. As Warhol’s Marilyn, Arthur Sasse’s Albert Einstein and here, Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother, Malkovich’s face makes some of art history’s most iconic images eerily unfamiliar. (Through July 8th).
Since lifting it from the bulletin board of a Thai ceramic factory 30 years ago, Swiss artists Fischli and Weiss have reproduced this motivational list in different locations and formats over the years, most recently installing it on Houston Street in Manhattan. From the simple instruction to ‘do one thing at a time’ to the more profound challenge to ‘distinguish sense from nonsense,’ the advice encapsulates the artists’ credo to ask questions and embrace the absurd. (On Houston St at Mott Street through May 1st. For more info, see Public Art Fund or visit the artists’ retrospective at the Guggenheim.)
How can an artist pay homage to his/her influencers? John Riepenhoff’s ‘Group Show’ walks the line between flattery and offense by recreating artworks in the style of his contemporaries and predecessors. At the show’s entrance, legs make a stand for a space-bending geometric abstraction (actually painted) by Susie Rosmarin. (At Chelsea’s Marlborough Gallery through Feb 6th).
John Riepenhoff, Art Stand (legs), wood, wire, cloth, shoes, fiberglass and clamp, 50 x 14 x 26 inches, 2014. Susie Rosmarin, Grey and White (painting), acrylic on canvas, 48 x 48 inches, 2015.
Painter Mark Barrow and textile designer Sarah Parke collaborate on painted, hand loomed fabrics that are so labor intensive, they’ll blow your mind. Here, the duo dye fabric, then reweave either the warp or the weft into a different material, thread by thread. (At Elizabeth Dee Gallery through October 24th).
Mark Barrow and Sarah Parke, detail of Reweave 7, hand dyed linen, 19 x 17 inches, 2015.
