Tag: retrospective

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.

Hans Haacke at Paula Cooper Gallery

If you can’t get to politically-oriented artist Hans Haacke’s New Museum retrospective before it closes on Jan 26th, check out his huge pack of Marlboros in Paula Cooper Gallery’s tiny 21st St vitrine-like space, a sculpture about the relationships between art, politics and commerce.  Made in 1990, the piece highlights cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris Company’s contradictory support both for the arts and for North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms, who was famously critical of government support for the arts.  Each five-foot long cigarette features a copy of the constitution (the company offered to supply a copy to anyone who asked), while the packaging bears the statement that the company’s ‘fundamental interest in the arts is self-interest.’  (On view through Jan 25th).

Hans Haacke, Helmsboro County, silkscreen prints and photographs on wood, cardboard and paper, 30 ½ x 80 x 47 ½ inches, 1990.

Pipilotti Rist at the New Museum

Swiss video artist Pipilotti Rist shouts for help in several languages, adding, ‘I am a worm and you are a flower!’ as she reaches up from a burning pit of lava in this 1994 video at the New Museum.  Part of Rist’s retrospective exhibition, it’s a tiny but powerful appeal to our empathic natures. (On the Lower East Side through Jan 15th).

Pipilotti Rist, Selbstlos im Lavabad (Selfless in The Bath of Lava)(Bastard Version), single-channel video and sound installation, color, on mobile phone; 6:20 min, 1994.
Pipilotti Rist, Selbstlos im Lavabad (Selfless in The Bath of Lava)(Bastard Version), single-channel video and sound installation, color, on mobile phone; 6:20 min, 1994.

Jeff Koons at the Whitney Museum

Jeff Koons’ name is synonymous with high production values and what the New York Times called ‘art for billionaires and oligarchs.’ Despite the exclusivity, most Koons works are designed to appeal, from the flowering sculpture currently installed at Rockefeller Center to this stainless steel heart and aluminum Playdoh pile at the Whitney Museum where the artist is currently enjoying a career retrospective. (Through October 19th).

Jeff Koons, Hanging Heart (Violet/Gold), 1994-2006, mirror-polished stainless steel with transparent color coating.

Elaine Reichek at Zach Feuer Gallery

In this conceptual artwork from 1990, New York artist Elaine Reichek pairs a source photo of a Native American teepee with her own knitted version of it, picturing a marginalized culture with a marginalized craft.  Does the homey feel of knitted objects connect with the feelings conjured by this home?  Reichek’s unassuming objects ask complicated questions.  (At Zach Feuer Gallery through Dec 21st).  

Elaine Reichek, Painted Blackfoot, knitted wool yarn and oil on gelatin silver print, 1990.