Tag: james cohan

Mernet Larsen at James Cohan Gallery

Fascinated for decades by Post-Impressionist artist Paul Cezanne, painter Mernet Larsen applies her own delightfully eccentric perspectival distortions to her French forebear’s iconic imagery in new work at James Cohan Gallery.  Larsen diversifies the cast of characters in ‘The Bathers (after Cezanne)’ adding bikinis to figures more robotic than robust and emphasizing artificiality in the human figures that replace Cezanne’s stabilizing triangle of trees in the original. A diving figure heading into flat waves akin to the slats in Japanese Bunraku puppet theater (which allow figures to move through water) and a woman to the left literally holding up the top of the painting add dynamism and complexity.  By alluding to Cezanne but shifting away from his focus and results, Larsen emphasizes the choices behind a painting’s design and nods to the many iconic painters who have moved beyond inspiration to find their own unique results.  (On view in Tribeca through March 16th).

Mernet Larsen, The Bathers (after Cezanne), acrylic and mixed media on canvas, 59 ¼ x 39 ½ inches, 2023.

Lindsay Adams in ‘Arcadia and Elsewhere’ at James Cohan Gallery

Spread over James Cohan Gallery’s three spaces, the immensely enjoyable group exhibition ‘Arcadia and Elsewhere’ features paintings of nature from the realist to the abstract, the mundane to the sublime.  Many pieces portray idyllic natural landscapes, other scenes get more complicated, especially when humans or their traces appear. Here, Lindsay Adams’ Lonely Fire excites feeling through the fiery tones of the background and the lush colors of individual flowers that stand apart from each other while contributing to a whole that speaks to the beauty of variety. (On view through Feb 10th).

Lindsay Adams, Lonely Fire, oil on canvas, 60 x 72 inches, 2023.

Yinka Shonibare at James Cohan Gallery

Known for sculpture and 2-D work that incorporates textiles originally inspired by Dutch wax printed fabrics, British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare gives new life to his signature material in pieces that resemble flying cloth at James Cohan Gallery.  Shonibare has explained that his new bronzes came from thinking about the wind that filled the sails of ships involved in transatlantic trade and forced migration in past centuries.  Now, the dynamic pieces resemble dancing forms as they elegantly and energetically swirl on their pedestals in the gallery.  (On view in Tribeca through Dec 22nd).

Yinka Shonibare, Abstract Bronze I, bronze sculpture, hand-painted with Dutch wax pattern, 78 ¾ x 57 ¾ x 49 ¾ in, 2023.

Firelei Baez at James Cohan Gallery

Flowers, hair and a voluminous white dress obscure the features of the figure reclining across this densely patterned painting by Firelei Baez at James Cohan Gallery.  The title refers to Olamina, the highly empathic fictional character imagined by sci-fi novelist Octavia Butler, but here, the figure seems unburdened by her gift or our gaze.  Printed below the paint, on the canvas itself are numbers, a grid and a timeline that suggest the maps and documents that Baez frequently adopts and obscures as she brilliantly and flamboyantly asserts her own imagery over outmoded Euro-centric presentations of information.  (On view in Tribeca through Dec 21st).

Firelei Baez, Olamina (How do we learn to love each other while we are embattled), oil and acrylic on archival printed canvas), 86 3/8 x 114 ½, 1 ½ inches, 2022.

Rose Cabat in ‘Painting in the Dark’ at James Cohan Gallery

Rose Cabat’s small ceramic forms go against the grain, literally, with their textured glazes and invitation to touch.  Though it’s not possible to pick up the artist’s signature ‘feelies’ now on view at James Cohan Gallery in Tribeca, color-coordinated groupings of beautifully glazed stoneware vessels are a delight to the eye.  Part of a group exhibition showcasing ceramics that can be appreciated in similar terms to abstract painting, the gallery likens each vessel as a stroke in a pointillist composition. (On view through Aug 5th).

Rose Cabat, Collection of 7 Feelies, glazed stoneware, tallest: 4 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 5 1/2 in, shortest: 1 3/4 x 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 in., ca 2012-2013.