This 1980 painting on hand-woven linen by video art pioneer Beryl Korot (seen in detail) demonstrates the language she devised, based on the grid of woven cloth. The text is based on the account of the Tower of Babel in Genesis, an account in which language fragments. For Korot, Babel offers a chance to consider the ways that language and technology relate to human behavior. (On view at Bitforms through May 20th).
Often political, never shy, Kay Rosen’s text-based wall art is bold and outspoken at Alexander Gray Associates. Just four letters speak volumes in this installation titled ‘White House v. America.’ (On view in Chelsea through April 7th).
Richard Artschwager’s two-foot tall wooden exclamation point – which shapes artistic language out of the forms of language itself – adds a note of excitement to Jane Lombard Gallery’s summer group show. (On view in Chelsea through July 28th).
Brooklyn-based, Sri-Lanka raised artist Nadia Haji Omar has found inspiration for her abstract forms in Tamil, Sinhala, Arabic and French letter forms. This untitled dye and acrylic canvas nods to language as much as to natural forms found in the water or under a microscope. (At Kristen Lorello Gallery on the Lower East Side through June 12th).
Karl Haendel, Radcliffe, pencil on paper with shaped frame, 67 ½ x 89 ½ inches, 2015.
