In his show at Chelsea’s Jack Shainman Gallery, Barkley L. Hendricks updates his reserved 1969 ‘Lawdy Mama’ beauty with a decidedly more confident woman in the 2011 ‘Triple Portrait: World Conqueror.’ (Through April 6th).
Triple Portrait: World Conqueror, oil, aluminum leaf, variegation leaf and combination gold leaf on linen canvas, 2011.
Dana Hoey’s photographed cast of her own head looks so lifelike (despite being chipped and mottled), it’s eerie. Why not just display the cast? In the photo, the head is perfectly lit to suggest the raking light of a sunset and framed to force a reckoning with the ageless figure. (At Petzel through March 30th).
Dana Hoey, Me Dead, inkjet print, 2012.
Both Rubenesque and strong, caryatid-like females by New York sculptor Allyson Vieira update classical Greek architectural tradition by hoisting steel I-beams instead of plain lintels, suggesting that today’s new glass and steel structures will one day find themselves ancient. (At Laurel Gitlen on the Lower East Side through March 24th).
Allyson Vieira, Weight Bearing III, drywall, screws, steel, 2012.
Veteran minimalist Olivier Mosset’s arresting yellow wall, up-and-comer Jacob Kassay’s geometric shape created from leftover canvas scraps, and conceptual pioneer Lawrence Weiner’s artwork consisting of an instruction to remove a 36” x 36” square from the drywall offer three strategies for saying a lot with a little. The three converse amongst themselves at Andrea Rosen’s intimate new 544 W. 24th St location. (Through March 23rd).
Jacob Kassy, Olivier Mosset, Lawrence Weiner, Installation view at Andrea Rosen Gallery, March, 2013.
El Anatsui’s shimmering, undulating wall sculptures made of repurposed bottle caps are uniformly stunning, but previous experience of individual pieces won’t prepare you for the Ghana-based artist’s huge installation in the Brooklyn Museum’s fifth floor galleries. Titled ‘Gli’ (Wall), sheets of aluminum and copper wire materials were inspired by visits to walled cities of Berlin, Jerusalem and Notsie (in Togo) but offer a delicate and diaphanous take on the idea of barriers. (Through August 4th).
El Anatsui, ‘Gli (Wall),’ aluminum and copper wire, 2010.