The Haas Brother’s zany show of comical, beaded sculpture at Chelsea’s Marianne Boesky Gallery announces the duo’s foray into the fine art world. Having made a hit in the design community for the past decade with otherworldly furnishings, the twins collaborated on the new work with collaborators, Monkeybiz, to present an assortment of odd creatures and eccentric plant-life in a brilliantly painted, eye-popping setting. (On view through Oct 26th).
Zanele Muholi’s ‘Somnyama Ngonyama’ (Hail the Dark Lioness) photo series features the South African activist and artist modeling dramatic outfits that on closer inspection turn out to be composed of everyday household items. Muholi’s source image for this beaded panel created with fellow South African artist Morgan Mahape involved a headdress crafted from donut-shaped scouring pads, an important detail that’s less apparent here. Muholi’s softer look and averted gaze are less confrontational than the series’ other powerful images but the piece reads as a tribute to an artist who uses her own body to challenge perceptions and prompt reflection. (On view in ‘African Spirits’ at Yossi Milo Gallery through August 23rd).
In South African artist Nicholas Hlobo’s cut canvas artworks, ribbons refer to the feminine while leather points to the masculine. In this detail of a larger work, the ribbons and the canvas they hold together defy gender assignment in curves and openings that evoke the body and geography. (On view in Chelsea at Lehmann Maupin Gallery through August 24th).
Jamal Nxedlana’s portrait of South African stylist Bee Diamondhead leaps off the wall in Aperture Gallery’s ‘Summer Open,’ offering a tantalizing glimpse of South Africa’s fashion elite. (On view in Chelsea through August 16th).
In a sequence of six photos by South African artist Robin Rhode, an acrobatic mathematician contorts his body to project a ‘Lute of Pythagoras,’ a series of pentagrams locked together in pleasing mathematical proportion. At the gallery entrance, Rhode quotes Swiss architect and urban planner Le Corbusier’s assertion that humanity attempts to save itself from chaos through geometry. Rhode’s efforts to better humanity by joining art and geometry feel poignantly quixotic. (On view at Lehmann Maupin Gallery in Chelsea through Feb 24th).
