New York-based artist Woomin Kim describes Korean street markets with nostalgia, as places to hang out with friends or enjoy snacks. Accordingly, her textile works on view at Chelsea’s Susan Inglett Gallery depict market stalls as colorful and inviting places to buy everyday items or marvel at the abundance and variety of goods. Here, a ribbon store offers towers of stacked wares, alluring in their patterns and possibilities. (On view through July 29th.)
Angelo Filomeno’s latest works, now on view at Chart Gallery in his first New York solo show in seven years, lure visitors closer via bold color contrasts and a literal glow from his materials. Appearing to be ‘painted with a sewing machine,’ as the New York Times once put it, the embroidered works on silk shantung resemble painting in presentation and scale but are marked by a richness of color and abundance of light afforded by their material. Filomeno’s work never strays far from the theme of mortality; here, an iceberg illuminated by lightning brings our changing environment into focus. (On view through June 18th).
Renowned in the ‘60s for his hard-edge abstraction, Al Loving introduced softer geometries in textile works from the ‘70s, like this dynamic assemblage now on view at Garth Greenan Gallery in Chelsea. Inspired by African American quilting tradition and Romare Bearden’s collage, Loving created works of ripped, braided and dyed fabric, which the gallery likens to pennants, streamers, tattered flags and garments. In this piece, a colorful pattern spreads from the top right, traveling down and across a dark surface creating a feeling of work in progress and complex depth. (On view in Chelsea through May 7th.)
Eddie Rodolfo Aparicio’s ‘Holbein En Crenshaw,’ a rubber cast of a tree on a LA street dominates ‘The New Bend,’ a standout show of textile-related work curated by Legacy Russell at Chelsea’s Hauser & Wirth Gallery. Layered imagery including a highway exit sign, distorted wheel-like shapes, and advertisements crowd together on one side of this hanging piece, recreating the bombardment of information pedestrians and motorists experience on city streets. On the other side, the rough texture of the cast tree with its burls and imperfections suggests the difficulties of urban life, even for plants. Aparicio explains that his intention is to connect beleaguered, non-native trees to the reception of migrant workers in California while also recognizing the rootedness of both in LA life. (On view through April 2nd.)
At first glance, photos from Sally Gall’s Aerial series at Chelsea’s Winston Wachter Gallery create happy confusion; abstract shapes and vibrant colors lure us into trying to understand what’s being represented. After a longer look, what appeared to be sea life or flowers resolves into items seen from below on a clothes-line. Even after the ‘ah-ha’ moment of identification, Gall’s images continue to entice as colorful and complex abstractions. (On view in Chelsea through March 5th).
