Tag: political art

Barbara Kruger at David Zwirner

Barbara Kruger’s iconic 1987 ‘I shop therefore I am’ image takes on new and damning forms in her powerful solo show at David Zwirner Gallery in Chelsea, where she updates the piece as a single channel video.  The graphic materializes as if composed of puzzle pieces which break apart and reassemble every 57 seconds with new, provocative texts, including, “I am therefore I hate” and “I sext therefore I am.”  Surrounded by wallpaper featuring hands holding imagery and messaging culled from the Internet, Kruger questions the values evidenced in contemporary culture and on-line discourse.  (On view in Chelsea through Aug 12th).

Barbara Kruger, Untitled (I shop therefore I am), single-channel video on LED panel, sound, 57 sec, 137 7/8 x 138 ¼ inches, 1987/2019.

Rokni Haerizadeh in ‘A Storm is Blowing From Paradise’ at the Guggenheim Museum

Painting over You Tube video stills, Iranian artist Rokni Haerizadeh morphs familiar imagery into a setting for mythological creatures inspired by Persian tradition. Here, a building echoes the Guggenheim’s spiraling form but is surrounded by emergency vehicles, one of which has partially changed into a fish. (At the Guggenheim, in ‘A Storm is Blowing from Paradise: Contemporary Art of the Middle East and North Africa’ through Oct 5th).

Rokni Haerizadeh, one piece from the 24-part work ‘But a Storm is Blowing from Paradise,’ gesso, watercolor and ink on inkjet prints, 2014.
Rokni Haerizadeh, one piece from the 24-part work ‘But a Storm is Blowing from Paradise,’ gesso, watercolor and ink on inkjet prints, 2014.

Joan Linder at Mixed Greens

Joan Linder revisits the 1970s Love Canal toxic dumping scandal with a labor-intensive exhibition at Mixed Greens of meticulous drawings depicting the borders of the Buffalo landfill site as well as renderings of documents related to environmental degradation. In the gallery’s back room, notebooks stretching along every wall picture fences that keep the public way from ruined land, raising the question of what’s lurking here and elsewhere. (In Chelsea through Nov 14th).

Joan Linder, Hooker 102nd Street Book, ink on moleskin notebook, 5 books, 5 ½ x 3 ½ inches when closed; 5 ½ x 105 inches when opened, 2013.

Doris Salcedo at the Guggenheim Museum

Doris Salcedo’s interconnected concrete-filled wardrobes are a standout in her beautiful, somber show at the Guggenheim Museum; using personal possessions, Salcedo uses the furniture to speak to the suspended lives of political detainees and the ‘disappeared’ in her native Columbia. (Through October 12th).

Doris Salcedo, installation view of Untitled Works, 1989-2008, Sept 2015.

Roger Brown at DC Moore Gallery

The Gulf War, AIDS crisis, Savings and Loan collapse and more inspired Chicago Imagist artist Roger Brown’s paintings from the 80s and early ‘90s, including ‘Landscape with Dollar Sign,’ in which a huge dollar sign materializes from the clouds over two tiny human figures like a doomsday omen. (At DC Moore Gallery through July 31st).

Roger Brown, Landscape with Dollar Sign, oil on canvas, 48 x 72 inches, 1991.