Thomas Bayrle at Gladstone Gallery

The vast scale of the three artworks in Thomas Bayrle’s current solo show at Gladstone Gallery’s cavernous 21st Street gallery speaks to the huge public profile of his subjects:  the Pope, Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Kim Kardashian.  Composed of repeated images arranged to create a portrait, Bayrle’s ‘superforms’ mimic the repetition of information via mass media and suggest that a person’s identity is formed by their messaging.  In this case, Kim Kardashian’s persona merges with the means of disseminating it – the iPhone.  (On view in Chelsea through April 23rd).

Thomas Bayrle, Kim Kardashian, pencil, acrylic and fine art pigment print on paper, mounted on gallery cardboard, 41 x 37 1/8 inches, 2021.

Ellen Harvey at Danese Corey

Did you capture the perfect eclipse picture as the moon passed in front of the sun in parts of the U.S. last August? For the many whose cameras let them down, Ellen Harvey’s sculpture – a hand-engraved on rear-lit Plexiglas mirror rendition of an iPhone – not only yields a picture of the pivotal moment but also recalls the frustrated efforts of unprepared cell phone photographers last summer. (On view at Danese Corey Gallery in Chelsea through Dec 23rd).

Ellen Harvey, iPhone Eclipse, laser and hand-engraved rear-lit Plexiglas mirror, 6.125 x 3 x .625 inches, 2017.