Boasting ‘one of the largest column-free spaces for exhibiting art in the city,’ Hauser & Wirth’s spectacular new Chelsea location even has an impressive entrance. Work no. 1461 by British conceptual art titan Martin Creed is a permanent installation consisting of 2-inch wide adhesive tapes whose vivid colors lend visitors the energy to climb the stairs. Check back tomorrow for a peek upstairs.
In the late 60s, when the avant-garde sidelined painting for Minimalism, Performance and Conceptual art, Daniel Buren forged ahead with ‘painting’ that jettisoned aesthetic concerns. He hit on a formula that he’s used ever since, using vertical stripes 8.7cm in width in site specific installations that force reconsideration of their space. Petzel’s new 18th Street gallery space has barely had time to be considered (this is only the 2nd show there), but Buren’s work has never looked more attractive.
Ed Ruscha’s legendary artist book ‘Twentysix Gasoline Stations’ (1963) zeroed in on banal subject matter to question its importance in American culture. In his latest solo show at Gagosian Gallery’s 24th Street location, Ruscha continues to pursue both books and paintings in works like Gilded, Marbled and Foiled, a painting that considers this book as a physical object more than a means of communication. (Through Jan 12th.)
Four parallel rows of twenty-five Western Red Cedar timbers extend out from the walls of Chelsea’s Paula Cooper Gallery in Carl Andre’s 1977 piece ‘Redoubt.’ As much as it suggests a stronghold, the piece also recalls architectural ruins on the order of Roman ruins near Hadrian’s Wall. (through Dec 15th).
Never one to shy away from controversy, Daniel Joseph Martinez’s latest body of work at Simon Preston Gallery features a hunchbacked figure in a Pope’s mitre, praying on an Afghan prayer rug, and tattooed with ‘blasphemous inscriptions in Hebrew, Arabic and Latin’ (according to the gallery handout). Is this social commentary or overkill? (Through Dec 23rd.)