Tag: Kasmin Gallery

Daniel Gordon at Kasmin Gallery

Unlike classic Dutch still life, Daniel Gordon’s ‘Philodendron with Sardines and Lobster’ at Kasmin Gallery lacks the typical superabundance of a table piled high with fruit, meats and other delicacies, allowing for a more focused appreciation of the artist’s detailed, hands-on production of each item on display. After finding or taking a photograph of each object he intends to depict, Gordon prints images of the object, cutting and gluing them over forms that are placed into an arrangement of similarly crafted objects and then photographed to produce the final image.   Because they’ve originated in photographic images, lobster, fish, plant and vase on the one hand look believable as a flat image and yet are obviously 3-D renderings.  The space of the image is temporarily unclear, the medium blurred, creating pleasurable moments of uncertainty. (On view through June 3rd).

Daniel Gordon, Philodendron with Sardines and Lobster, pigment print with UV lamination, 49 7/8 x 40 inches, 2023.

Ana Pellicer in ‘Shades of Daphne’ at Kasmin Gallery

Titled ‘Shades of Daphne,’ Kasmin Gallery’s current group exhibition celebrates ‘resistance and revolt’ of figures who’ve changed forms, a la Daphne of Greek mythology, who morphed into a tree before being accosted by Apollo.  Mexican artist Ana Pellicer’s ‘Purepecha Rattlesnake,’ a giant chain and pendant, is intended as jewelry for the Statue of Liberty, a conceptual aspect of  the work that changes our idea of the statue’s identity.  Crafted using 500-year-old copperworking techniques from Michoacan, Mexico, Pellicer suggests that Lady Liberty has sophisticated tastes.  (On view in Chelsea through Feb 22nd).

Ana Pellicer, Purepecha Rattlesnake, woven copper chain with cast copper pendant, 185 x 25 ¼ x 7 7/8 inches, 1995.

Anya Kielar in ‘Somatic Markings’ at Kasmin Gallery

How do individuals, particularly women, live up to the roles society offers them and how do they shape those identities? Fluidity between these two positions is at the heart of Kasmin Gallery’s new group show Somatic Markings, a selection of work by seven artists whose unconventional depictions of the human body invite rejection of binaries.  Here, Anya Kielar’s shadow box sculpture ‘The Actress’ features a figure soliloquizing before a disembodied eye.  Inspired by Greek and Roman relief painting and shallow medieval carving among other sources, the title figure is cramped by her surroundings and depicted in such willowy forms that she appears infinitely capable of adaptation and change. (On view in Chelsea through Dec 23rd).

Anya Kielar, The Actress, paint, linen fabric, foam, aqua resin, wood and plexiglass, 40 ¼ x 30 ½ x 8 inches, 2020.

Vanessa German at Kasmin Gallery

Both ‘blue jeans’ and ‘the blues’ are listed as materials in Vanessa German’s towering sculpture ‘Sad Rapper,’ the title piece of her current solo show at Chelsea’s Kasmin Gallery.  Not only a visual artist but a poet and performer, German creates descriptions of her assembled sculptures that double as poetic reflections on the thought processes behind the work.  Dressed in blue and standing on a platform of red and white stripes, this figure represents a less easily recognized ‘American’ character, one covered in prayer bundles but laden with society’s expectations. (On view through Oct 22nd).

Vanessa German, Sad Rapper, wood, tar, 75 pounds of old blue jeans, the blues, sorrow, cuz in 1983 rappers could be bad but could not be sad— or gay, holiness, salt, a groan, tears, African blue and white cloth, love, meanness, the way that it feels to need to cry but not be able to cry— for an exceptionally long time, convinced of muscle instead of tenderness, grief, yarn, twine, loneliness, old blue bed sheets, heartbreak and lying about it, canvas, prayer beads, shame, black pigment, delusion, love, love, love, you gonna be ok ni$$a, you ain’t alone homie, it’s ok, just go’on ahead and be broken for a little while, shit~ life is hard sometimes, red and white paint, foam, ptsd, glue, plaster, heat, 78 x 48 x 40 inches, 2022.

Cynthia Daignault at Kasmin Gallery

Visiting Gettysburg National Military Park can amount to moving from one memorial to another, but Cynthia Daignault’s new series of paintings at Kasmin Gallery, inspired by the Civil War battlefield, focus not on the built environment but the natural world.  Called ‘a rumination on the meaning of site and time’ by the gallery, Daignault’s work features ‘witness trees,’ which were alive in the 1860s and are still in place today.  Surrounded by graves, the trees operate outside of a human timeframe and offer an alternative perspective on historic events.  Painting titles include terms like ‘synecdoche’ or ‘chiaroscuro,’ suggesting that parts of an image can tell a larger story or that events exist in shades of light and dark.  Here, ‘Gettysburg (Stereoscopic)’ nods to the popular 19th century photographic technique that creates depth by presenting two near identical images side-by-side.  (On view through Jan 8th. Note holiday hours and closures.)

Cynthia Daignault, Gettysburg (Stereoscopic), oil on linen, 30 x 60 inches, 2021.