Titled ‘Hereafter,’ LA-based artist Matthias Merkel Hess’s first New York solo show features a roomful of beautiful, handmade, ceramic objects that replicate everyday items…ones you might choose to be entombed with if you were buried in the ancient Egyptian manner. (At Salon 94 Freemans on the Lower East Side through August 9th).
Matthias Merkel Hess, installation view of ‘Hereafter’ at Salon 94, June 2013.
To her repertoire of vessel shapes and flat ceramic wall pieces, Betty Woodman adds carpets created from ceramic off-cuts she calls ‘bones’ in her latest solo show at Salon94 Freemans on the Lower East Side. She uses every available piece of gallery real estate (ceiling next?) to immerse visitors in colorful exuberance in both 2-D and 3-D space. (Through June 14th).
Betty Woodman, installation view at Salon94 Freemans of ‘Windows, Carpets and Other Paintings,’ May 2013.
Cuban artist Kcho grew up traveling between his home on an island off the coast of Cuba and the mainland, and boats – ‘keys’ to unlocking the ‘door’ of the sea – are a frequently recurring subject. This one is a standout in the Museum of Art & Design’s ‘Against the Grain’ group exhibition of cutting edge art & design made from wood. (Through Sept 15th).
Kcho (Alexis Leyva Machado), R.E.C. (Rectifying the Course), wood, 2006.
Though it looks like a mini-version of a Doug Wheeler Light & Space installation crossed with a urinal and an abstracted cleavage, this wall indentation (designed by architecture firm Diller, Scofidio & Renfro) is the receptacle for an artwork that is scent alone. It is one of twelve concoctions on display in the Museum of Art & Design’s ‘The Art of Scent’ and is called L’Eau d’Issey after designer Issay Miyake, who commissioned a scent that would suggest water. (Through Feb 24th, 2013).