Context is everything when it comes to Gaylen Gerber’s ‘collaborative’ artworks, including this Nigerian cowrie shell currency basket and a Makonde mask from Mozambique/Tanzania from mid-20th century, which the artist has titled ‘Support’ and covered in white oil paint. Questions of whose work is whose and whether Gerber is defacing, erasing or enhancing the ‘supports’ mingles with thoughts of Picasso, et al’s appropriation of African art, all to provocative effect. (At Chelsea’s Wallspace Gallery through Feb 9th).
Tag: gallery tour
Air de pied-a-terre at Lisa Cooley Gallery
How do you morph a white-cube gallery into a revitalized, post-industrial space? Try Matthew Darbyshire’s vinyl banners, based on an architect’s rendering of public space. They create a pleasingly anodyne setting, perfect to host Darren Bader’s conceptual art piece in which plants and people converse with each other (or in the moment captured here, huddle over an iPhone.) (At Lisa Cooley Gallery, Lower East Side, through Feb 3rd).
Tour Chelsea Galleries with Merrily this Saturday, 11am – 1pm
Discover Chelsea’s newest gallery and more this Saturday (11am – 1pm) on Merrily’s first group gallery tour of the year! Iconic European artist Dieter Roth merged art and life to the point of exhibiting impressive chunks of his studio floor that bear the traces of decades of art making. Email merrily to reserve your spot: merrily@newyorkarttours.com. (If you’ve toured with Merrily before, take 25% off your ticket price!)
Sascha Braunig at Foxy Production
‘Nets’ by young, Maine-based painter Sascha Braunig blurs the boundaries between her subject and his/her background, begging the question of where this individual’s boundaries lie. Is (s)he real or virtual? What effects have applied? And where might we meet such a person? (At Chelsea’s Foxy Production, through Feb 9th).
Dieter Roth/Bjorn Roth at Hauser & Wirth Gallery
German-Swiss-Icelandic artist Dieter Roth (1930 – 1998) used natural materials like chocolate, cheese, bananas, sausages and rabbit dung to make sculptures and images that would blossom with new life as they aged. Here, assistants create chocolate casts of Roth’s famous chocolate or sugar self-portrait busts, as seen on the pallet. (At Chelsea’s Hauser & Wirth through April 13th).