Like Freud, Mickalene Thomas’ couch has made her famous. Normally appearing as a colorful, patchworked backdrop in Thomas’ photos and paintings of lounging African-American beauties (seen on the back wall), it’s a character of its own in this retro living room, transplanted to Chelsea’s Aperture Foundation. (Through March 17th).
Sculptor Francis Upritchard and her designer husband Martino Gamper ask in a collaborative installation of their respective work, just what you’d do if a scrawny spinosaurus were to run across your dining table? Gamper’s playful patterning and richly colored fabrics and Upritchard’s quirky dinosaur cast the scenario in whimsy and pull out a chair for us to join in. (At Anton Kern Gallerythrough Feb 20th).
Francis Upritchard, Paper Spinosaurous, papier-mache, metal armature and modeling, 30 x 101 9/16 x 18 1/8 inches, 2014. Martino Gamper, Black and White Table, linoleum, blockboard, walnut, 107 x ¾ x 39 2/3 inches, 2015. Ice Cream Chairs, steel structure and upholstery, 19 ½ x 15 ¾ x 32 ½ inches, 2015.
Bjorn Braun, Untitled, sunflower seed, oat flakes, wheat,
juniper seed, peanuts, honey and flour, 2015.
Digital technology allows us to picture everything in amazing detail, so how do you choose your subject matter as a professional photographer? Wolfgang Tillmans answers this question by continuing to zero in on the exceptional and mundane, picturing his day-to-day world (portraits of friends, laundry piles) and international travels in prints both tiny and monumental in a characteristic salon-style hanging which seems to evoke the randomness of life. (At David Zwirner Gallery through Oct 24th).
Wolfgang Tillmans, installation view of ‘New York Installation PCR’ at David Zwirner Gallery, September, 2015.
‘My sculptures speak of life…among spirits,’ says Warsaw-based sculptor Roman Stanczak, whose carefully destroyed bedside table at LES Bureau Gallery suggests a particularly haunted mental state. (Through Oct 25th).
Roman Stanczak, From 2nd to 3rd, wooden cupboard, wood chips, 22.75 x 38 x 39.25 inches, 2015.
