‘Klaus on Paper,’ a concisely curated, attractively presented five-artist exhibition of paintings and drawings on paper by Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery stands out among the many new on-line outlets for art. Liz Luisada’s contributions continue to consider the importance of grids and webs; in this painting from her summer ’18 solo show at the gallery, Luisada suggests that human activity creates and causes movement in each system.
Critic John Yau hits the nail on head when he describes Gladys Nilsson’s ability to ‘keep the viewer looking in ways that are both pleasurable and challenging.’ In her 1984 watercolor ‘Lightly There,’ Nilsson sets up a seemingly flirtatious engagement between two masculine and feminine characters against a backdrop of folks high-mindedly going about their business, noses to the air. Extra-long limbs – oddly allowing the man on the left to reach between his legs to pick up a tiny passenger – are just the beginning of the eccentric proportions and asymmetries of bodies, hair and facial features that lend Nilsson’s characters their intrigue and bait us to question what’s going on. (On view in ’36 Works on Paper’ at Garth Greenan Gallery in Chelsea through August 9th).
Before late Swiss artist David Weiss joined forces with Peter Fischli to become the charmingly eccentric duo Fischli and Weiss, he traveled widely, drawing as he went. Also inspired by underground comics, Weiss produced drawings like this tongue-in-cheek take on Giacometti’s famously reduced figure, currently on view at Matthew Marks Gallery’s 24th Street location. (On view through April 6th).
Human-created pollution vies with a vividly colored frog to attract the eye in Alexis Rockman’s 2012 watercolor titled ‘Effluent,’ now on view at Sperone Westwater Gallery. Rockman’s artful activism appears alongside new field drawings from New Mexico of plants and animals from the region that are extinct, living or threatened. (On view on the Lower East Side through August 3rd).
British Columbia based artist Tim Gardner revisits his college-day haunts in vibrant, precise watercolors of a surprisingly tranquil New York, now on view at 303 Gallery. A Statue of Liberty with stars brightly shining above (light pollution magically banished), a quiet (!) High Line park and a subway station with a train arriving are magical moments. This bike messenger (actually waiting at a light?) helps interpret the scale of the pleasingly symmetrical terracotta-colored building framing the scene. (On view in Chelsea through July 13th).
