Mitchell-Innes & Nash gallery in Chelsea aims to prove that iconic Pop artist Tom Wesselman was not only a pioneer of pop culture imagery, but a technical innovator, from collaging billboard cutouts onto canvas to molding plastic paintings. Here, Smoker reminds us that Wesselman also used shaped canvases to isolate forms that here, make supposedly seductive lips look troubling. (In Chelsea through May 28th).
British Pop art icon David Hockney has said that there’s drama whenever more than one person appears in a picture, but his recent ‘photographic drawing’ seen here is less about human interaction than experimentation with perspective. Working in his LA studio, Hockney photographed friends, studio assistants and furniture (as well as his own paintings in the background) to create an intriguing, uncanny image composed of multiple different perspectives enhanced by digitally drawn-in shadows. (At Chelsea’s Pace Gallery through Jan 10th).
David Hockney, The Potted Palm, photographic drawing shown on a 55 inch Sony Ultra HD screen, 48 5/8” x 29 1/4’” x 2 5/8”, 2014.
Cleverly placed near the gallery entrance, late sculptor Louise Kruger’s bulky ‘Standing Dog’ could –for an instant – be mistaken as a real pet tagging along with gallery visitors. Other charmingly odd wood figures stand out amongst work in fabric and metal by an artist who developed her own unique folk/pop artistic language. (At Chelsea’s Lori Bookstein Fine Art through Oct 4th).
Louise Kruger, Standing Dog, pine, 27 x 16 x 38 inches, c. 1970-75.
Drawing on Japanese pop culture and a predilection for nature, Seattle-based Japanese artist Yumiko Kayukawa’s exhibition at Foley Gallery on the Lower East Side strikes a clever balance between irony and kitsch. (Through July 12th).
Yumiko Kayukawa, Ominugui (Cleaning), acrylic on linen, 22 x 18 inches, 2013.
