Tag: collage

Mark Bradford at Hauser & Wirth

The monumental mixed media artwork ‘Manifest Destiny’ dominates the first room of Mark Bradford’s exhibition at Hauser & Wirth Gallery, its tattered surfaces giving it the feeling of a barely surviving relic, its huge scale making it unavoidable.  Emblazoned with a phrase, ‘Johnny Buys Houses,’ that brings to mind road-side signage for fly-by-night real estate operatives and titled after a term that describes relentless European expansion across the North American continent, the piece signals dubious practices with regard to land, property and ownership. (On view in Chelsea through July 28th).

Mark Bradford, Manifest Destiny, mixed media, dimensions variable, ’23.

David Gilbert at Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery

Patterns of sunlight and shadow falling over arrangements of cut paper and painted canvas give LA artist David Gilbert’s new work at Klaus Gallery an ephemerality that speaks to art as a process of making.  Calling him a ‘discerning scavenger of poignant and beautiful things,’ the gallery points out how Gilbert captures moments in which something special arises from arrangements of everyday objects.  In this image, a single pink bead and isolated dots of red color at top right add balance and interest to the predicament of the dove at center, which may or may not be captured by both painted and actual netting as it attempts to fly upward into the blue.  (On view in Tribeca through May 6th).

David Gilbert, Dove, archival inkjet print, 13 x 8.6 inches, 2023

Mary Lum at Yancey Richardson Gallery

Long walks through New York, Paris and London yield source material for Mary Lum’s complex photo and paint collages, now on view at Yancey Richardson Gallery in Chelsea.  Titled 11th Avenue, this piece features slices of urban architecture and facades that dynamically multiply the grid.  At center, Lum seamlessly turns a photo of metal piping into a flattened piece of paper that in turn guides our eye up and over a grey wall – all moves that keep our sense of space shifting in an engaging way.  (On view through Feb 26th).

Mary Lum, 11th Avenue, gouache, watercolor, acrylic, colored pencil, and photo collage on paper, 11 ¼ x 14 7/8 inches, 2021.

Raymond Saunders at Andrew Kreps Gallery

The hopscotch grid stands out in this painting by Raymond Saunders, now on view in the renowned Bay Area artist’s first New York solo show in 20 years at Andrew Kreps Gallery in Tribeca.  Evoking a childhood game drawn out on blacktop as well as marks on a chalkboard, references to growth, learning and play are reinforced by the work’s title, ‘Celeste Age 5 Invited Me To Tea.’  Two children’s drawings of a wayward cat and a reference to Carnegie Mellon alongside a watermelon (the artist attended Carnegie Institute of Technology) link to Saunders’ recurring themes relating to education and race.  (On view through Feb 12th).

Raymond Saunders, Celeste Age 5 Invited Me To Tea, mixed media on canvas, 104 x 83 1/8 inches, 1986.

Peter Sacks at Sperone Westwater

Made over months if not years, Peter Sacks’ multilayered works at Sperone Westwater are composed of layers of typewritten text, cardboard, paint, textiles from around the world and more.  Describing the mind as sedimentary in a 2019 New Yorker profile, Sacks layers meaning below the surface of each artwork, burying layers of imagery to convey the concept that more lies below, unseen.  Here, a piece from his ‘Above Our Cities’ series turns the skies into a colorful riot over the relatively small skyline below.  Is this a celebration? An apocalypse?  Both?  (On view on the Lower East Side through March 20th).

Peter Sacks, Above Our Cities 2, mixed media on canvas, 36 x 36 inches, 2020.