Influential LA photographer James Welling merges photos of dancers, modernist architecture and landscapes in one of his most beautiful series to date. ‘Choreograph,’ currently on view at David Zwirner Gallery, derives its brilliant colors from intense Photoshop experimentation and its dynamism from the ghost-like images interacting on Welling’s unique stage. (In Chelsea through January 16th).
James Welling, 7809, inkjet print, 42 x 63 inches, 2015.
New York photographer Gillian Laub’s photographs of segregated high school dances in small-town Georgia (which continued until 2010) have appeared twice in national publications but still have the power to shock. They form the core of her current solo show at Benrubi Gallery in Chelsea, along with this image of two men who chose public humiliation – walking the streets with signboards for hours a day – over jail time. (Through June 27th).
Gillian Laub, Public Shaming, 2013.
Brooklyn-based Danish artist Joachim Koester channels the wild west in a distinctly avant-garde way in his absorbing video installation, The Place of Dead Roads, in which dancers dressed as grubby gunslingers move around an eerie boarded-up space as if locked in a tense shootout, all without weapons or an obvious enemy. (At Chelsea’s GreenNaftali through Feb 14th).
Joachim Koester, The Place of Dead Roads, HD video installation, color, sound, 33:30 min, 2013.
Trained in dance, Brooklyn-based artist Jennifer Paige Cohen translates her experience with bodies in movement into lively sculptures made with colorful plaster-cast garments that echo arrangements of body parts. (At Nicelle Beauchene Gallery on the Lower East Side through Nov 9th).
Jennifer Paige Cohen, Let the Sunshine In (The Flesh Failures), sweater, plaster, stucco, 2013.
The title of New York sculptor Mark di Suvero’s latest monumental steel sculpture, ‘Luney Breakout,’ says it all. Resembling a zany all-elbows-and-knees character with wild swooping hair, the 22 foot tall piece is either mad, exuberant or both. (At Paula Cooper Gallery’s 534 West 21st Street location, through Oct 22nd.)
Mark di Suvero, Luney Breakout, 22 ft, 3 inches, x 22 ft, 6 inches x 12 ft, 6 inches, steel, 2013.
