Influential German painter Albert Oehlen’s huge, boldly messy paintings put representational drawing, expressionism, color experiments and more in the blender, challenging how much ‘bad’ a ‘good’ painting can accommodate. (At the New Museum through Sept 13th).
Installation view of Albert Oehlen: Home and Garden at the New Museum, July 2015.
This sculpture, one of iconic German artist Joseph Beuys’ best known works and part of an exhibition of his multiples from the collection of Reinhard Schlegel, taps into Beuys’ story of having been shot down in his plane in WWII, then rescued by Tartars who wrapped him in fat and felt. The iron runners connect man to earth, felt symbolizes warmth and security, while the disk of fat refers to energy. (At Mitchell-Innes & Nash through April 18th).
Joseph Beuys, Sled, sled, fat, felt, belts, torch, sled: 41 x 34 x 110cm, 1969.
Major Leipzig school artist Rosa Loy’s painting ‘Comfort’ loudly signals spring with giant snowdrops and rebirth with the strange orb emerging from a central figure who may have just risen from a hole in the ground. (At Friedman Benda Gallery through March 28th).
Rosa Loy, Trost, casein on canvas, 63 x 82.75 inches, 2009.
As a founder of the post-war European ‘Zero’ Group, Heinz Mack explored the effects of light and various reflective materials in an attempt to take his art back to an experimental stage, or conceptual ground zero. Here, a ‘light relief’ sends the eye shooting around a surface of raised patterns as the light conditions and reflections in the gallery define the viewing experience. (At Sperone Westwater Gallery on the Lower East Side through Dec 13th).
Licht-Relief (Pyramide), aluminum and wood, 29 1/8 x 34 x 2 5/8 inches, 2004.
Known for vivid paintings composed of layers or drips of resin, German artist Markus Linnenbrink takes his embrace of color a step further in his latest solo show at Chelsea’s Ameringer McEnery & Yohe by creating an installation in the gallery’s back room that allows visitors to walk right into a painting. (Through October 4th).
Markus Linnenbrink, installation view at Ameringer McEnery & Yohe, Sept 2014.
