Marianne Vitale at Invisible Exports

Marianne Vitale gives new meaning to life on the rails with her repurposed railway tracks as minimalist sculpture, steel junctions as totemic figures and now, a train engine housing resembling a gas-masked ghoul.  Part of an exhibition that includes stacks of metal flangeway blocks that recall indecipherable letter shapes, Vitale’s art is anthropology – a search through remnants of a recently bygone era for clues to life in the not-so-distant past.  (On view at Invisible Exports on the Lower East Side through June 24th).

Marianne Vitale, Skull, repurposed train engine parts, 49 x 42 x 8 inches, 2018.

Marianne Vitale at Invisible Exports

In a grouping of hand-painted wooden torpedoes, Marianne Vitale swaps out her signature bold, minimalist sculptures made with railway ties or battered wood for personalized weapons bearing ‘American’ symbols including USDA meat and Pollock-like swirls of paint. (At Invisible-Exports on the Lower East Side through Oct 16th).

 

Marianne Vitale, How’m-I-doin,’ pine, oil paint, hardware, approx. 13 x 8 x 8 feet, 2016.
Marianne Vitale, How’m-I-doin,’ pine, oil paint, hardware, approx. 13 x 8 x 8 feet, 2016.

Marianne Vitale at Zach Feuer Gallery

The romance of the rails infuses Marianne Vitale’s totemic figures constructed from disused railway crossings. To stand near them is to imagine the tons of freight that have clattered over them, heading off to distant places. (At Chelsea’s Zach Feuer Gallery through Dec 20th).

Marianne Vitale, Installation view of ‘Nine Worthies’ at Zach Feuer Gallery, Nov 2014.

Marianne Vitale at Zach Feuer Gallery

Marianne Vitale’s ‘Diamond Crossing’ at Zach Feuer Gallery is one of the most minimal and therefore surprising installations in Chelsea right now and consists entirely of a five-ton section of decommissioned railroad track meeting in a junction.  Like the burnt bridge and a bullet-riddled outhouse in her last show, it’s an iconic relic of the American landscape. (through June 15th).  

Marianne Vitale, Diamond Crossing, steel, installation view, 2013.