Known for using evocative materials to create sculptural mediations on the African diaspora, Atlanta-based artist Radcliffe Bailey has upped the ante in his recent exhibition at Chelsea’s Jack Shainman Gallery, where he’s exhibiting this startling taxidermied croc who appears to climb his way past memorial-like markers with dates and initials. (At Jack Shainman’s 24th Street location through Feb 15th).
Radcliffe Bailey, On Your Way Up, tarp, crocodile and steel, 120 x 106 x 10 inches, 2013.
Explaining that his carefully color-calibrated combinations of shapes are meant to evoke both fragmentation and interconnectedness, Philadelphia-based artist Odili Donald Odita applies his characteristic geometric abstractions directly to the walls creating an optical AND physical impact. (At Jack Shainman Gallery through Nov 16th).
Odili Donald Odita, Rain Forest acrylic latex wall paint, dimensions variable, 2013.
We knew that there was big money in the art world, but Kerry James Marshall makes it explicit with his installation of coins, constructed in brass. Though the value of the coins adds up to $.99, the piece’s title reveals that fabrication costs were approximately $136,000. And the selling price? The gallery “…would prefer to not have that published,” a position that reinforces Marshall’s point that culture and money are entwined, sometimes secretly. (At Chelsea’s Jack Shainman Gallery through Oct 12th).
Kerry James Marshall, 99 cent piece (One hundred thirty six thousand dollars in change), cast resin with brass overlay, 2012.
Viewers have to look at just the right angle down a long, thick piece of Plexiglas to spy Hank Willis Thomas’ minstrel, a photo of a man painted half black and half white, then literally doubled by the material. Like similar characters photographed by the artist, a seemingly clear cover obstructs a clear view, a metaphor for how perceptions of race can obscure identity. (At Jack Shainman Gallery’s 24th Street space through Aug 17th).
Hank Willis Thomas, ‘Invisible Man,’ Plexi block and a digital c-print on aluminum, 2013.
In his show at Chelsea’s Jack Shainman Gallery, Barkley L. Hendricks updates his reserved 1969 ‘Lawdy Mama’ beauty with a decidedly more confident woman in the 2011 ‘Triple Portrait: World Conqueror.’ (Through April 6th).
Triple Portrait: World Conqueror, oil, aluminum leaf, variegation leaf and combination gold leaf on linen canvas, 2011.
