One hundred artists on two museum floors make the Museum of Art and Design’s ‘NYC Makers’ one of the busiest in town with lots to discover and explore. For these garments, conceptual artist Caroline Woolard and designer Lika Volkova recycled unwanted paintings by various artists into chic, mobile canvases. (Through October 12th).
Part of a series of images shot in Egyptian museums, this intriguing 2009 image by British photographer Jason Larkin could have been taken decades ago. It appears to tell of information forgotten and marginalized. (At Chelsea’s Flowers Gallery through August 30th).
Jason Larkin, Museum 11, #3, archival pigment print, 30 x 30 inches, 2009.
In response to the disastrous 2008 Sichuan earthquake that killed thousands of school children in their shoddily constructed schools, Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei constructed this snake of backpacks as a memorial. Below, a pile of porcelain river crabs indirectly stands in for censorship and recalls a huge feast of crab initiated by Ai Wei Wei as a protest against limitations on free speech. (At the Brooklyn Museum through August 10th).
Ai Wei Wei, Snake Ceiling, backpacks, 2009. He Xie, 3,200 porcelain crabs, 2010.
Shredded and twisted fabric create the bark on a 60-foot tall tree by renowned street artist Swoon that fills the Brooklyn Museum’s fifth floor rotunda. The tree anchors a stunning installation that features huge portraits of the artist’s friends and family along with rag-tag boats that once plied the waters in New York and Venice. (On view through August 24th).
Swoon, installation view of ‘Submerged Motherlands,’ at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, April – August, 2014.
Hiroshi Sugimoto’s photographs of natural history dioramas – ongoing since the 70s – challenge viewers to find the line between real and represented. They also point out how the museum’s role in displaying these animals has changed in the face of habitat loss and endangerment. (On view at Pace Gallery through June 28th).
Hiroshi Sugimoto, Polar Bear, gelatin silver print, 47 x 58 3/4”, 1976.
