Tag: text

Lawrence Weiner in front of the Whitney Museum

The Whitney’s social distancing markers are more artful than most…or so it appears in front of the museum where conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner’s manhole cover aligns with the line to get in the museum.  Commissioned in 2000 by the Public Art Fund, the cover is one of many that were installed around Union Square, Washington Square Park and other downtown locations through early 2011.  Reading ‘In direct line with another and the next,’ the text relates to the city grid and its residents moving though urban spaces together, a theme never more relevant than now.

Tauba Auerbach at Paula Cooper Gallery

Helix, wave and vortex forms have inspired Tauba Auerbach to create an array of painting, glass sculpture, woven work, video and more informed by natural forms and logical systems.  The ‘Ligature Drawings’ in her latest solo show at Chelsea’s Paula Cooper Gallery consider joined and curving forms, exploring language as a system of structured meaning.  (On view through Dec 15th).

Tauba Auerbach, installation view of Ligature Drawings, ink on paper with date stamp, each approx. 34 x 27 inches, 2016 – ongoing.

Beryl Korot at Bitforms

This 1980 painting on hand-woven linen by video art pioneer Beryl Korot (seen in detail) demonstrates the language she devised, based on the grid of woven cloth.  The text is based on the account of the Tower of Babel in Genesis, an account in which language fragments.  For Korot, Babel offers a chance to consider the ways that language and technology relate to human behavior.  (On view at Bitforms through May 20th).

Beryl Korot, detail of Babel 2, acrylic on hand-woven linen, 72 x 38.75 inches, 1980.

Kay Rosen at Alexander Gray Associates

Often political, never shy, Kay Rosen’s text-based wall art is bold and outspoken at Alexander Gray Associates.  Just four letters speak volumes in this installation titled ‘White House v. America.’  (On view in Chelsea through April 7th). 

Kay Rosen, White House v. America, paint on wall, dimensions variable, 2018.

Lesley Dill at Nohra Haime Gallery

Lesley Dill describes Emily Dickinson’s poems as having a physical effect on her as she experienced ‘an ocean of images’ while reading.  Similarly, Dill’s series of sculptural characters now on view at Nohra Haime Gallery in Chelsea are covered and overpowered by their own words.  The show includes figures like John Brown and Sojourner Truth – who were driven by powerful experiences of the spiritual world. (On view in Chelsea through March 17th).

Lesley Dill, [foreground] Northern Blast (Edward Taylor), oil stick, ink, thread on fabric, wooden shoe lasts, 100 x 23 x 1 inches, 2017 and [background] Omnipotence Enough (Emily Dickinson), oil stick on fabric, 95.5 x 22 x 1 inches, 2017.