Tag: columns

Mierle Laderman Ukeles at the Queens Museum of Art

Since the 70s, conceptual and performance art pioneer Mierle Laderman Ukeles mopped museum steps, shook the hand of every sanitation worker in New York and devised plans for the public to engage with the Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island, all in an effort to revalue the labor involved in maintaining our city, offices and homes. At the entrance to her 40+ year retrospective at the Queens Museum of Art, Laderman Ukeles plants this arch – made of donated work gloves and other items from local and federal agencies – as celebration of and homage to the work of keeping things running. (Through Feb 19th).

Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Ceremonial Arch IV, 5,000 + gloves donated from 10 urban organizations, in steel cages and on steel rods, situated over six columns wrought from materials donated from local and federal agencies, 1988/1993/1994/2016.
Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Ceremonial Arch IV, 5,000 + gloves donated from 10 urban organizations, in steel cages and on steel rods, situated over six columns wrought from materials donated from local and federal agencies, 1988/1993/1994/2016.

Nicole Wermers at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery

These assisted readymade sculptures by Nicole Wermers were inspired by awnings but have been fitted with custom textiles and turned to the side to create vertical columns. Their patterns recall post-war minimal painting a la Daniel Buren, but rolled up, their potential is hidden. (At Chelsea’s Tanya Bonakdar Gallery through July 29th).

Nicole Wermers, installation view of ‘Vertical Awnings’ at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, June 2016.
Nicole Wermers, installation view of ‘Vertical Awnings’ at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, June 2016.

Shirazeh Houshiary at Lehmann Maupin Gallery

Iran-born, London-based artist Shirazeh Houshiary offers twisting columns of anodized blocks as a contrast to the minutely detailed, veil-like patterns covering abstract paintings like the diptych in the background here.  Like twisters or stepping feet, they literalize an unidentified and unseen force. (At Lehmann Maupin’s Lower East Side location through Dec 28th).  

Shirazeh Houshiary, Eddy, anodized aluminum, 2013 (foreground) and Echo, pencil, pigments and black aquacryl on canvas and aluminum, 2013 (background).