Tag: david zwirner

Joan Mitchell at David Zwirner Gallery

David Zwirner Gallery’s current exhibition of work from museum and private collections by Joan Mitchell celebrates the late second generation abstract expressionist painter’s ability to suggest emotive landscapes through unique consideration of figure-ground relationships and bold color choices.  ‘Before, Again I’ from 1985 includes both orange tones that dominated her paintings in the early 80s and the cooler colors that evolved as a result of health challenges later in the decade.  Both palettes point to the inspiration she found in her gardens in Vetheuil, a town once home to Impressionist painter Claude Monet.  (On view through Dec 17th).

Joan Mitchell, Before, Again I, oil on canvas, 109 ½ x 78 inches, 1985.

Barbara Kruger at David Zwirner

Barbara Kruger’s iconic 1987 ‘I shop therefore I am’ image takes on new and damning forms in her powerful solo show at David Zwirner Gallery in Chelsea, where she updates the piece as a single channel video.  The graphic materializes as if composed of puzzle pieces which break apart and reassemble every 57 seconds with new, provocative texts, including, “I am therefore I hate” and “I sext therefore I am.”  Surrounded by wallpaper featuring hands holding imagery and messaging culled from the Internet, Kruger questions the values evidenced in contemporary culture and on-line discourse.  (On view in Chelsea through Aug 12th).

Barbara Kruger, Untitled (I shop therefore I am), single-channel video on LED panel, sound, 57 sec, 137 7/8 x 138 ¼ inches, 1987/2019.

Nora Turato at 52 Walker

‘Follow me you coward,’ reads an arresting command on the wall of Nora Turato’s current show at 52 Walker, along with the cliched, ‘a lifetime of action and adventure with no clock to punch,’ and tantalizing ‘all is forgiven.’ The show’s title, ‘Govern Me Harder,’ a puzzlingly submissive, perhaps masochistic demand was inspired by a sticker she saw in an Amsterdam dog park; other expressions were gathered from news, ads, online sources and, says the artist, her own thoughts.  In this enamel on steel panel, the last word of the sentence, ‘I sold it for million bells,’ derails expectations of a million dollar sale, leaving us in a thought-provoking lurch.  (On view in Tribeca through July 1st.)

Nora Turato, i sold it for million bells, vitreous enamel on steel in four (4) parts, overall: 94 ½ x 75 5/8 inches, 2022.

Shio Kusaka at David Zwirner Gallery

Arranged on a narrow runway of shiny copper plates, new ceramics by Shio Kusaka at David Zwirner Gallery enchant visitors with their color, pattern and subtle sense of humor.  Led plate by plate into the gallery, visitors explore relationships between pairs of vessels or clusters of related forms.  Further down the line, Kusaka injects a simplified anime aesthetic into ancient cylindrical Haniwa sculptural forms and elsewhere, riffs on neolithic Jomon period patterns. (On view through April 30th.)

Shio Kusaka, installation view of ‘one light year’ at David Zwirner Gallery, April 2022.

Portia Zvavahera at David Zwirner Gallery

Every morning, Zimbabwe-based artist Portia Zvavahera and her grandmother would recall and share their dreams, now, the artist paints imagery from her nocturnal subconscious to promote healing and reject negative energy.  In her first New York solo show at David Zwirner Gallery, spectral forms and owl-like figures surround the characters, representing both spiritual danger and deliverance.  (On view in Chelsea through Dec 18th).

Portia Zvavahera, Woman with owls, oil based printing ink and oil bar on canvas, 82 ½ x 68 ¼ inches, 2021.