Tag: Lower East Side galleries

Kevin Zucker at Eleven Rivington

 

Kevin Zucker, 'Rain (Paradise Cove Towers),' acrylic and toner on canvas, 2011.
Kevin Zucker, ‘Rain (Paradise Cove Towers),’ acrylic and toner on canvas, 2011.

Kevin Zucker’s new paintings of resort hotels in the rain might make us feel bad for the terrible weather on his travels…if he’d actually travelled.  Drawn together from various digital photos, imaginary scenes like ‘Rain (Paradise Cove Towers)’ resonate with recent work by other artists who have created ‘street photography’ from Google Street View.  However, as paintings, they seem to have more gravitas, regardless of how his dot technique emphasizes digital origins.  (At Eleven Rivington on the Lower East Side through Dec 22nd).

Kevin Zucker, 'Rain (Paradise Cove Towers),' acrylic and toner on canvas, 2011.
Kevin Zucker, ‘Rain (Paradise Cove Towers),’ acrylic and toner on canvas, 2011.

Pieter Schoolwerth at Miguel Abreu Gallery

Pieter Schoolwerth, After Troy 6, oil acrylic, giclee print and oil pastel on canvas, 2012.
Pieter Schoolwerth, After Troy 6, oil acrylic, giclee print and oil pastel on canvas, 2012.

Painter Pieter Schoolwerth rewrites art history with a new series of paintings that remake 17th century French painter Simon Vouet’s 1635 ‘Aeneas and His Family Fleeing Troy.’  Here, Aeneas, his invalid father and his small son crowd into one dynamic figure (created from digital printout, drawn lines and thick areas of painting) in an urgent escape.  (At Miguel Abreu Gallery, Lower East Side, through Dec 22nd).

Andra Ursuta at Ramiken Crucible

Andra Ursuta, installation at Ramiken Crucible, 2012.
Andra Ursuta, installation at Ramiken Crucible, 2012.

Smashed gallery windows and a wall plowed down by a shiny cart set a restive mood for Andra Ursuta’s  latest solo show at Ramiken Crucible on the Lower East Side.  Totemic female torsos crafted from a mix of concrete and manure and marble statues of a Romanian gypsy woman awaiting deportation from France are weighed down and beautified by jewelry made from coins.  Partly informed by a story of Romanian witches casting a curse on their government, the show’s female characters stubbornly resist tidy concepts of national identity. (Through October 21st.)

Valerie Hegarty at Nichelle Beauchene

Valerie Hegarty, Watermelon Tongue, canvas, stretcher, acrylic paint, modeling paste, paper, glue, foil, gauze, glue, thread, 2012.
Valerie Hegarty, Watermelon Tongue, canvas, stretcher, acrylic paint, modeling paste, paper, glue, foil, gauze, glue, thread, 2012.

This is one watermelon you do not want to eat…or be eaten by.  A giant lick of modeling paste extends from Valerie Hegarty’s repulsive ‘Watermelon Tongue,’ curbing the appetite and recalling ‘Little Shop of Horrors,’ one inspiration for this painting.  Hegarty was also thinking of last year’s news reports of exploding watermelons in China, which were mistakenly sprayed with growth accelerator.  Now do you want to know where your food comes from?  (At Nichelle Beauchene Gallery on the Lower East Side, through October 20th).

Teresita Fernandez at Lehmann Maupin Gallery

Teresita Fernandez, 'Untitled,' polycarbonate tubing, dimensions variable, 2012.
Teresita Fernandez, ‘Untitled,’ polycarbonate tubing, dimensions variable, 2012.

Teresita Fernandez created this sculpture on site at Lehmann Maupin’s Lower East Side location this summer, turning thousands of translucent, colored layers of polycarbonate into an installation evoking the lights of the aurora borealis.  (Through October 20th.)