Tag: drawing

Zipora Fried at Sikkema Jenkins & Co

Though her lined-based, labor-intensive drawings have been described as resisting language in favor of the emotional potential of color, Zipora Fried’s own words best describe the inspiration for her latest work.  She explains that the ‘sky and mud colored lizards, soft-toned cicada shells, sunsets echoing exploding worlds…,” the tides and sands of Lamu Island, Kenya prompted her vivid color choices.  Short repeated pencil strokes and tonal variety make each image appear to shimmer in an unfixed meditation on her experience of the island.  (On view in Chelsea at Sikkema Jenkins & Co. through Jan 18th).

Zipora Fried, To Those Who Know How to Laugh, colored pencil on archival museum board, 80 x 54 inches, 2019.

Hannah Wilke at Ronald Feldman Gallery

Hannah Wilke’s two drawings of herself as an angel after Renaissance artist Albrecht Durer, now on view at Ronald Feldman Gallery in SoHo, stand out among photo, video and sculpture from the 70s to the early 90s by the feminist art icon.  Although known for having defied feminist conventions by displaying her own body in provocative ways; here, Wilke’s audience gazes on her profile not her figure as she manifests as a celestial being.  Recalling Durer’s engraving ‘Melancholia,’ in which a female angel represents the artist’s melancholy, Wilke expressionist version offers a more freeing vision.  (On view in SoHo through Nov 30th).

Hannah Wilke, (detail of) Self-Portrait as Angel with Durer Wing, Nov 1, 1976.

Karl Wirsum at Derek Eller Gallery

Chicago Imagist Karl Wirsum’s gender ambiguous, robotic characters are an odd mix of human and alien, bionic and freighted by imperfect human bodies.  This character – a standout in Derek Eller Gallery’s showcase of 50 years of Wirsum’s drawing – has proportions calculated to puzzle and amaze, from tiny eyes and little apple core mouth that contrast a complex and angular nose to broad shoulders that set off a pair of small feet. (On view on the Lower East Side through Nov 10th).

Karl Wirsum, Lambs Cloth Muscle Toppsie from the Land of the Silly Forgottens, color pencil on board, c. 1987.

Marco Maggi at Josee Bienvenu Gallery

It took a good part of the summer for Uruguayan artist Marco Maggi to install his immersive installation at Josee Bienvenu Gallery in Chelsea, yet it’s possible to visit the gallery and not even notice the artwork.  Maggi employed his signature technique of cutting tiny geometric shapes and strips from adhesive paper and adhering them to the wall in his latest show, but he keeps the gallery lights off, forcing viewers to employ flashlights to hunt for the work.  As the show’s subtitle, ‘From Obscurantism to Enlightenment’ suggests, Maggi wants viewers to enjoy the process of looking, slowing down and letting enlightenment unfold.  (On view through Nov 11th).

Marco Maggi, installation view of ‘Initialism (From Obscurantism to Enlightenment)’ at Josee Bienvenu Gallery, Oct, 2019.

Sopheap Pich at Tyler Rollins Fine Art

This nearly ten-foot high bamboo and rattan sculpture by Sopheap Pich is a standout in the second iteration of the Cambodian artist’s two-part solo show at Tyler Rollins Fine Art in Chelsea.  Inspired by a Louis MacNeice poem about reconciling opposites, Pich suggests seed pods and lungs with a piece that is 2-D, 3-D and larger than life.  (On view through April 19th).

Sopheap Pich, Dyad, wood, bamboo, rattan, wire, 117 ¾ x 65 ¼ x 12 ¼ inches, 2019.