Barbara Hepworth’s pierced organic abstractions, Henry Moore’s curvilinear reclining figures and the undulating forms of Chinese scholar stones come to mind when viewing Sarah Crowner’s attractive new bronze sculptures at Luhring Augustine Gallery’s Tribeca space. Reflecting Crowner’s vibrant paintings, which have fittingly vivid titles like ‘Red Oranges Over Orange with Curve,’ or ‘Violets Over Reds,’ the sculptures are enhanced by and enhance their environment. (On view through May 4th).
Inspired by traditional Korean ceramics, Chicago-based artist Dabin Ahn’s new paintings at 1969 Gallery combine art historical references with a feeling of wonder and whimsy. Painted like an apparition, the top section of this vessel hovers in lighter tones above the more solid-looking segment below. Perhaps once part of the decoration, the birds’ white wings continue the contour of the vase while they appear to cavort in mid-air. Materializing as if from memory or history, the vase may be broken, but its magical quality remains. (On view in Tribeca through April 20th).
‘Green Orchestra’ positions an apple, pear, watermelon and limes like a chorus line, while a mountainous pile of blueberries rises up behind four plums and half an apple in Silas Borsos’ paintings at Nicelle Beauchene Gallery. Featuring delightfully idiosyncratic arrangements of fruit that suggest table-top performances, Borsos’ paintings depart from traditional histories of still life in fanciful ways. Here, ‘Orange Peel Pyramid’ presents a sole segment of orange leftover from an orgy of peeling, alongside five blueberries nestled as delicately as robin eggs in discarded pulp. (On view in Tribeca through April 6th).
Warhol’s poppies, Roy Lichtenstein’s 1964 painting ‘Gullscape’ and a urinal recalling Duchamp’s ‘Fountain’ all make an appearance in Willie Stewart’s new 3-D, wall-mounted sculpture now on view at Nicelle Beauchene Gallery, signaling the artist’s intent to make something new from modern art samplings. Set upon a support that resembles a shelf or mantelpiece, Stewart’s Springer Spaniel represents the idea of the loyal family pet; paired with Warhol’s poppies, flowers associated with remembrance, the piece turns nostalgic and wistful. (On view through Nov 25th).
Boxers, golfers, tennis champs, martial arts practitioners and more sporting characters dominate the walls of The Hole Gallery’s two-gallery exhibition ‘Title XI,’ a reference to the 1972 government policy that prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex in federally funded education. Over fifty years later, the impact on women and girls has been profound with the gallery citing an expansion from 300,000 girls involved in high school sports to 3 million. Quinci Baker’s video ‘The Hindrance,’ revisits Venus Williams’ 1999 match in which falling hair beads resulted in a penalty, while Represent (I), crafted from collaged from hair beads, pays homage to the tennis great. (On view through August 27th in Tribeca and the Lower East Side).
