‘60s performance art gets a radical update in LA-based artist Channing Hansen’s algorithm-derived hand-knit constructions at Susan Inglett Gallery. Conceived of as instructions or ‘scores,’ each artwork in his latest solo show is a kind of event; the 2-D pieces are shaped by an algorithm trained to produce ‘Channing Hansen artworks,’ based on the characteristics of his previous work. (On view in Chelsea through Oct 16th. Masks required).
It’s not unusual to consider where and how our everyday consumer goods were manufactured, but Amsterdam-based design team Studio Drift goes deeper. Via their ‘Materialism’ project – samples of which are now on view in Pace Gallery’s current tech-friendly group show – Drift practices a kind of reverse engineering by breaking down light bulbs, cell phones and water bottles, as well as historic weapons and this bicycle, into component parts which are then displayed as pleasingly tidy arrangements of colorful cubes. Guessing what each piece represents is an engaging game that ultimately prompts viewers to question how much we know about the goods we consume. (On view on 25th Street in Chelsea through April 24th).
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).
At the center of Rashid Johnson’s ‘architectural grid work,’ classically trained pianist Antoine Baldwin plays jazz compositions on a piano fixed high in the structure. Complex and intriguing sounds merge with an arrangement of evocative objects – plants in planters hand-made by the artist, blocks of shea butter, stacks of books relating to African-American culture and early video work by Johnson. Together they continue the artist’s theme of freedom and anxiety experienced by African-American men in America, offering escape through lush greenery (signaling travel to a warmer land) and abundant reading material (liberation for the mind) or imprisonment by a rigid grid. (At Hauser & Wirth Gallery through Oct 22nd).
Ryan Mrozowski, Untitled (Orange), acrylic on linen, 50 x 56 inches, 2015.
