Marianne Vitale gives new meaning to life on the rails with her repurposed railway tracks as minimalist sculpture, steel junctions as totemic figures and now, a train engine housing resembling a gas-masked ghoul. Part of an exhibition that includes stacks of metal flangeway blocks that recall indecipherable letter shapes, Vitale’s art is anthropology – a search through remnants of a recently bygone era for clues to life in the not-so-distant past. (On view at Invisible Exports on the Lower East Side through June 24th).
Tag: skull
Katharina Fritsch at Matthew Marks Gallery
Katharina Fritsch’s latest large-scale sculptures of familiar objects blown up to huge proportions and presented in strikingly vibrant colors are as enigmatic and enticing as ever at Matthew Marks Gallery. We immediately confront our mortality in the first gallery, with a skull and egg acting as a reminder of death and a symbol of life about to start. (On view through Dec 22nd).
Mike Nelson in ‘Folk Devil’ at David Zwirner Gallery
Known for immersive environments including four conjoined Airstream trailers in his last solo show at 303 Gallery, British artist Mike Nelson has explained that his work is ‘ritualistic and votive.’ This minimalist, totemic character suggests the ease with which he transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary. (At David Zwirner Gallery’s 525 W. 19th Street location through Aug 9th).
Mike Nelson, Amnezi Skalk Kask, wood, plastic helmet and bones, 2012.