Created during quarantine but using faces and feet crafted 20 years ago, Sharif Bey’s small but forceful Boilermaker sculptures layer references to the artist’s personal history as a maker and art history. Formed from a vessel fired with nails and shards to resemble a nkisi nkondi power figure, ‘Boilermaker: Fidel’ references a working-class beer cocktail and Bey’s father’s job as a Pittsburgh boilermaker. The artist identifies the central focus of his work as an investigation of how power manifests; his hybrid sculptures encourage complex understandings of power and influence. (On view at Albertz Benda Gallery in Chelsea through March 27th. Masks and social distancing required).
Tag: pittsburgh
Vanessa German at Pavel Zoubok Gallery
Pittsburgh-based artist Vanessa German assembles a stunningly arrayed army of folk characters for her current show at Chelsea’s Pavel Zoubok Gallery. The figure in the foreground holds a lantern aloft as if to metaphorically light the way forward; a mother with an astounding headdress of ceramic devotional sculpture holds her limp child to the right; a figure at back speaks for social justice by holding up a stop sign. (Through Nov 30th).
Andy Warhol in ‘Pearlstein/Warhol/Cantor’ at Betty Cunningham
Sixteen years before his solo debut at LA’s Ferus Gallery, Andy Warhol was just another art student at Carnegie Tech. Here, the whimsical character, if not the elegantly wavering line of his later commercial illustrations is prefigured in a student assignment from 1946. (At Betty Cunningham Gallery on the Lower East Side through Feb 13th).
Andy Warhol, Kids on Swings, tempera on board, 31 x 26 7/8 inches, 1946.