Tag: matthias merkel hess

Amy Bessone & Matthias Merkel Hess at Salon94 Freemans

Ceramic artists Amy Bessone and Matthias Merkel Hess meet in Salon94 Freemans for a two-person show juxtaposing her female torsos, shaped as empty vessels (maybe vases?), and his containers derived from everyday items like paint buckets and wastebaskets. Bessone’s containers pick up on the long association between vessels and the female body in art history, and provocatively change Hess’s work by their proximity. (On the Lower East Side through August 21st).

Installation view of Torsos and Buckets, featuring work by Amy Bessone and Matthias Merkel Hess, July 2015.

Matthias Merkel Hess at Salon 94 Freemans

Titled ‘Hereafter,’ LA-based artist Matthias Merkel Hess’s first New York solo show features a roomful of beautiful, handmade, ceramic objects that replicate everyday items…ones you might choose to be entombed with if you were buried in the ancient Egyptian manner.  (At Salon 94 Freemans on the Lower East Side through August 9th).  

Matthias Merkel Hess, installation view of ‘Hereafter’ at Salon 94, June 2013.

Matthias Merkel Hess at Louis B. James

Matthias Merkel Hess, Eagle 1 Gallon, moon blue, ceramic with glaze, 2012.
Matthias Merkel Hess, Eagle 1 Gallon, moon blue, ceramic with glaze, 2012.

On the subject of ceramics (see yesterday’s post about Takuro Kuwata), Matthias Merkel Hess takes an amusing position on aesthetics vs use value in contemporary ceramics with these beautiful gas cans.  (At Louis B. James, Lower East Side through Feb 22nd. )