Designer Cey Adams – former street artist and Founding Creative Director of Def Jam Recordings – memorializes victims of random gun violence in this site-specific mural at Chelsea’s Jane Lombard Gallery. (Through August 12th).
El Anatsui, Telesma, mixed media, found aluminum and copper wire, 96 x 116 inches, 2014.
Fred Wilson seems to bait his viewers by draining his show at Pace Gallery of color, presenting two austere bronzes in black and white, monochromatic flags from African and African diasporic countries, and more. The oversimplified dichotomy between black and white clashes with the variety of cultures represented by the sculpture and flags, encouraging a more nuanced engagement with racial difference. (In Chelsea through October 18th).
Fred Wilson, The Mete of the Muse, bronze with black patina and bronze with white paint, 2006.
LA-based art star Sterling Ruby turns his signature, stalactite-like urethane sculptures into quasi-Greek columns with a backdrop painting recalling American quilting traditions, tie-dying, Color Field painting and the colors of the US flag. Grand themes abound in an ambitious show that treats icons of art and history with a provocative mix of reverence and distain. (At Hauser & Wirth Gallery through July 25th).
Sterling Ruby, (foreground) Pillars, PVC pipe, foam and urethane, (rear) FLAG (4791) bleached and dyed canvas and elastic, 2014.
