Tag: lower east side

Arghavan Khosravi at Rachel Uffner Gallery

Beautiful women and lush gardens contrast oppressive symbols like balls and chains or large metal keys in Arghavan Khosravi’s latest paintings at Rachel Uffner Gallery.  Here, ‘Patiently Waiting,’ features an explosive device with ambiguous consequences if used – will freedom or destruction result?  Similarly, Khosravi’s gardens can be read in contradictory terms as commentary on life in her home country, Iran.  The gallery explains, they “…represent the possibilities for respite afforded by private life or the image of utopian paradise promised by religious fundamentalism.”  (On view on the Lower East Side through June 5th).

Arghavan Khosravi, Patiently Waiting, 2021, signed and dated verso, acrylic and cement on cotton canvas wrapped over shaped wood panel, wood cutout, polyester rope, 53 1/2 x 58 1/8 x 12 inches.

Matt Bollinger at Zurcher Gallery

‘This is the American dream gone wrong’ declared a review of past work by Matt Bollinger whose paintings were inspired by the people and places of the artist’s home state, Kansas.  Bollinger is back with new work at Zurcher Gallery featuring electric colors that run counter to his usual muted tones, but which make the the weariness of his characters all the more noticeable.  Even when they’re in public, Bollinger’s characters are alone, caught in a moment of reflection and looking devastated.  (On view on the Lower East Side through April 29th.  Masks and social distancing are required.)

Matt Bollinger, Countdown, flashe and acrylic on canvas, 48 x 38 inches, 2021.

Malia Jensen at Cristin Tierney Gallery

Malia Jensen explores the idea of getting closer to nature in a literal way by placing sculpture resembling body parts into remote Oregon landscapes.  In 2019, the artist carved a hand, foot, head, breast and a stack of donuts (representing the stomach) from livestock salt licks and positioned them and several motion-triggered cameras in places where they’d be altered over time by animals and weather.  A year later, she collected the sculptures and cast them in glass, creating artworks now on view at Cristin Tierney Gallery that demonstrate ‘beauty in our vulnerability.’ (On view on the Lower East Side through April 3rd. Masks and social distancing are required.)

Malia Jensen, Foot, kiln-cast glass, etching ink, white oak, reclaimed fir, 8 x 13 ½ x 11 ½ inches, 2020.

Peter Sacks at Sperone Westwater

Made over months if not years, Peter Sacks’ multilayered works at Sperone Westwater are composed of layers of typewritten text, cardboard, paint, textiles from around the world and more.  Describing the mind as sedimentary in a 2019 New Yorker profile, Sacks layers meaning below the surface of each artwork, burying layers of imagery to convey the concept that more lies below, unseen.  Here, a piece from his ‘Above Our Cities’ series turns the skies into a colorful riot over the relatively small skyline below.  Is this a celebration? An apocalypse?  Both?  (On view on the Lower East Side through March 20th).

Peter Sacks, Above Our Cities 2, mixed media on canvas, 36 x 36 inches, 2020.

Ragna Bley at Downs and Ross Gallery

Color pools and flows in Oslo-based artist Ragna Bley’s acrylic on sailcloth paintings at Downs and Ross, offering a lushly colored alternative to drab, late-winter New York.  Inspired by marine biology and the endlessly fascinating shallows and depths of the sea, each painting complicates the reference to water with its dynamism and color.  (On view on the Lower East Side through March 6th).

Ragna Bley, Undertow (Heat), 2020. Acrylic on sailcloth, 59 × 37 1/2 inches