In past work, German artist Michael Riedel has drawn his materials from texts on the web written about his own work, which he turned into exhibition wallpaper. For his current show at David Zwirner Gallery, he puts those images into PowerPoint and causes a ‘freezing’ between slides to create a new merger of information. (At David Zwirner Gallery’s 533 West 19th Street location through March 23rd).
Michael Riedel at David Zwirner Gallery, installation view, Feb 2013.
Italian artist Alighiero Boetti proved that conceptual art didn’t have to be visually dull with his Arazzi works – embroidered panels made by Afghan craftswomen in the 80s and 90s featuring Italian and Farsi text from poetry or sayings culled from around the world or authored by the artist. (At Chelsea’s Barbara Gladstone Gallery through March 23rd).
Alighiero Boetti, installation view of ‘La Forza del Centro,’ at Barbara Gladstone Gallery, Feb 2013.
To look at it, you’d never guess that Berlin-based Alicja Kwade’s miraculously curving wooden door was fashioned from a number of old doors cut up and seamlessly pieced together. The sculpture’s title, ‘Eadem Mutata Resurgo,’ or ‘I rise again, changed but the same,’ puts a weighty spin on Kwade’s clever reclamation of found materials but the piece nevertheless appears to be an almost magical portal into another world. (At Lisa Cooley through March 17th).
Alicja Kwade, Eadem Mutata Resurgo, wood, 2013.
British conceptual artist Lucy Skaer once left a diamond and a scorpion together on an Amsterdam street. ‘Us to Them V,’ a photo of Skaer comparing natural materials to French Post-Impressionist Eduoard Vuillard’s 1895 painting ‘Album’ in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, isn’t quite so dangerous. But it does make a strange juxtaposition that interrupts usual ways of thinking of 19th century art. (At Simone Subal Gallery the group show ‘It’s Over There,’ Lower East Side through Feb 10th).
LA video artist Doug Aitken, known for ambitious projects like his film projections on the exterior walls of MoMA and the Hirshhorn Museum, has created a smaller scale but no less intense installation piece for his latest show at 303 Gallery in Chelsea. The centerpiece is ‘Sonic Fountain,’ which allows drips to fall from the ceiling into a hole dug in the gallery floor in patterns that create a song that’s been likened to breathing. (Through March 23rd).