Tag: piano

Angel Otero at Hauser & Wirth Gallery

Featuring a piano from his studio, a former church building in the Hudson Valley, this vibrant painting by Angel Otero is a standout among his new work at Hauser & Wirth Gallery.  Otero once created abstract images from sheets of dried oil paint; he now employs a combination of techniques from paint on canvas to collaged paint, resulting in thick, complex surfaces that suggest layers of memories.  Inspired by recollections of his upbringing in Puerto Rico, ‘Concerto’ acknowledges the personal resonance of objects like dentures in a glass, a large cooking pot or the magical suggestion of a school of goldfish filling the air.  (On view in Chelsea through Dec 23rd).

Angel Otero, Concerto, oil paint and fabric collaged on canvas, 95 x 95 x 1 ½ inches, 2022.

Rashid Johnson at Hauser & Wirth Gallery

At the center of Rashid Johnson’s ‘architectural grid work,’ classically trained pianist Antoine Baldwin plays jazz compositions on a piano fixed high in the structure. Complex and intriguing sounds merge with an arrangement of evocative objects – plants in planters hand-made by the artist, blocks of shea butter, stacks of books relating to African-American culture and early video work by Johnson. Together they continue the artist’s theme of freedom and anxiety experienced by African-American men in America, offering escape through lush greenery (signaling travel to a warmer land) and abundant reading material (liberation for the mind) or imprisonment by a rigid grid. (At Hauser & Wirth Gallery through Oct 22nd).

Rashid Johnson, Antoine’s Organ, black steel, grow lights, plants, wood, shea butter, books, monitors, rugs, piano, unique installation, 480.1 x 858.5 x 321.9 cm, 2016.
Rashid Johnson, Antoine’s Organ, black steel, grow lights, plants, wood, shea butter, books, monitors, rugs, piano, unique installation, 480.1 x 858.5 x 321.9 cm, 2016.

Walter Marchetti in ‘ambient’ at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery

This vegetable-strewn Steinway grand piano was the standout in Tanya Bonakdar Gallery’s otherwise spare summer group show, ‘ambient.’  It’s abundance is a foil to the hauntingly minimal musical piece ‘Natura Morta’ by Italian avant-garde composer and artist Walter Marchetti which experimental musician Alex Waterman played in the show’s first week.  (In Chelsea through July 26th).  

Walter Marchetti, Natura Morta, Steinway and Sons concert grand piano, selection of produce, 10-page handwritten manuscript of Walter Marchetti’s ‘Natura Morta,’ 1988.