For sheer ambition, not much in Chelsea beats New York artist Jacob Hashimoto’s wondrous ‘Skyfarm Fortress’ at Mary Boone Gallery. Thousands of paper and wood ‘kites’ create a space that looks like fantasy architecture or a structure pulled into reality form the digital realm. (Through Oct 25th).
Jacob Hashimoto, Skyfarm Fortress, acrylic, paper/Dacron, wood, dimensions variable, 2014.
Titled ‘(In)Security,’ this detail-view of an enticing if creepy new painting by New York artist Ross Bleckner offers the unnerving suggestion that we’re being watched, albeit by a range of characterful eyes. (At Mary Boone Gallery in Chelsea through April 26th).
Ross Bleckner, “(In)Security,” 27 x 144 inches, oil/linen, 2013-14.
Japanese artist Tomoo Gokita’s stark black and white portraits of anonymous women (sometimes accompanied by male companions with zig-zag patterned heads) belies their ambiguous identities. ‘Sham Marriage’ deliciously includes a hand-like shape pointing off-stage. (At Chelsea’s Mary Boone Gallery through March 1st.)
Tomoo Gokita, Sham Marriage, 90” x 72,” acrylic gouache, charcoal, gesso/linen, 2013.
In the mid-80s, photographer Robert Polidori started photographing the palace of Versailles, focusing not on its opulence but on the realities presented by over 300 years of wear and tear. The story is told in the details, as in images like these details of well-used doorways, blown up into gorgeous, light suffused prints. (At Mary Boone Gallery, Chelsea through Oct 26th).
Robert Polidori, Door Detail, Attique du Midi, Versailles & Door Detail, Galerie Basse, Versailles, c-print, 2005/2013.
British artist Marc Quinn has referred to his gargantuan bronze seashell sculptures as Venus’ pedestal (from Botticelli’s famous painting), a spiraling symbol of the world in motion, and a ‘symbol of a woman’s sex.’ Towering at over eight feet high, what they most symbolize (along with Jeff Koons’ and Paul McCarthy’s current Chelsea shows) is enormous production values. (At Mary Boone Gallery through June 29th).
Marc Quinn, Map of the Space-Time Continuum, bronze, 2013.
