Tag: contemporary art

Carrie Moyer’s ‘Pirate Jenny’ at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is switching up its contemporary galleries regularly these days in an exciting change from past years.  For the last month, this lush, abstract painting by Brooklyn-based painter, writer and activist Carrie Moyer has enticed mezzanine visitors, celebrating Pride Month and offering up pure visual pleasure.  Titled ‘Pirate Jenny,’ the piece refers to a song in Bertoldt Brecht and Kurt Will’s ‘Three Penny Opera’ about a hotel maid who triumphs over her scornful fellow townspeople, sailing away to happiness.

Carrie Moyer, Pirate Jenny, acrylic, glitter, and graphite on canvas, 2012.

Jonathan Baldock at Nicelle Beauchene Gallery

Describing his new stoneware vessels at Nicelle Beauchene Gallery as ‘imperfect reliquaries,’ London-based artist Jonathan Baldock imprints the cylindrical forms with evidence of his own hand and adds cast body parts and funereal herbs.  In additional sewn works, 3-D heads emerge from flat felt and hessian textile backgrounds, staging a miraculous entrance from the picture into real space.  Likewise, the uncanny ceramic forms suggest an unknowable quality to the human body and its manifestations.  (On view in Tribeca through April 2nd).

Jonathan Baldock, Scuffle, stoneware and glaze filled with rosemary, 22 x 14 x 13 inches, 2022.

Peter Alexander at Pace Gallery

After an over two-decade hiatus from sculpture-making, late west coast Light and Space artist Peter Alexander came back strong, creating cast forms that appear to glow.  Pace Gallery’s current show of these works from ’11 to ’20 features this eighteen-foot-long installation of urethane strips.  Varying in width and color, the parallel pieces create an irregular rhythm that excites the senses.  (On view through March 19th).

Peter Alexander, Heard it Through the Grapevine, urethane, 77 x 18’ 1” overall installed, 2019.

Cornelia Parker’s Transitional Object (PsychoBarn) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

British artist Cornelia Parker merges the all-American image of the red barn with the equally iconic exterior of Norman Bates’ house from Hitchcock’s Psycho in her delightfully eerie Roof Garden commission at the Met. Constructed from an old barn and consisting of only two facades, the home invites comparison to the largely vacant 432 Park Ave that dominates the skyline in the background. (At the Metropolitan Museum of Art through Oct 31st).

Cornelia Parker, installation view of ‘Transitional Object (PsychoBarn)’ at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Roof Garden Commission, through Oct 31st.
Cornelia Parker, installation view of ‘Transitional Object (PsychoBarn)’ at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Roof Garden Commission, through Oct 31st.

Timothy Wehrle at PPOW Gallery

You won’t find wholesome fantasies of life in the American heartland in Iowan artist Timothy Wehrle’s surreal pencil drawings at Chelsea’s P.P.O.W. Gallery. Under rain clouds, a severed head acts as momento mori, while an upside down shoe studded with nails suggests a painful journey. (Through April 16th).

Timothy Wehle, Head Portrait (shoe), pencil on paper, 10 x 9 inches, 2014.
Timothy Wehle, Head Portrait (shoe), pencil on paper, 10 x 9 inches, 2014.