Tag: waves

Alex Israel at Greene Naftali Gallery

Known for huge paintings of sunsets, giant sculptures of dark sunglasses and other emblems of life in Los Angeles, Alex Israel continues to channel the allure of Hollywood and its environs with wave paintings and a fantasy street scene sculpture at Greene Naftali Gallery.  Titled ‘Sunset Coast Drive,’ the 44-foot-long strip of fictional and real buildings includes Israel’s own studio at one end and his favorite burger place at the other.  In the foreground of this photo, Israel revives a mural he painted on a building in Venice, CA before it was painted over.  The rest of the gallery is dominated by vividly colored acrylic on fiberglass panels depicting crashing waves inspired by Hokusai and surfing logos.  Their bright colors are alluring, but abstracted to the point of resembling reaching hands, the waves may be less innocuous than they first seem.  (On view in Chelsea through June 25th).

Alex Israel, Sunset Coast Drive (detail), 26 x 528 x 43 inches, 2022.
Alex Israel, Waves, acrylic on fiberglass, 99 x 99 inches, 2022.

Robyn O’Neil at Susan Inglett Gallery

‘American Animals,’ an uncannily orderly yet apocalyptic vision of the heads of white men subsumed by waves of water or hair, dominates Robyn O’Neil’s current solo show at Susan Inglett Gallery.  Known for drawings that feature multitudes of middle-aged men wreaking various kinds of havoc, O’Neil suggests with this enormous drawing that the men are receiving their comeuppance, perhaps from a feminine force engulfing them with hair or from nature, overcoming them with waves of water.  Who are the men?  Why is their response to calamity so strangely passive?  O’Neil keeps us guessing with provocative questions. (On view in Chelsea through June 4th).

Robyn O’Neil, American Animals, graphite on canvas, 103 x 140 inches, 2020 – 2022.

Sally Saul at Rachel Uffner Gallery

Sally Saul’s new ceramics at Rachel Uffner Gallery engage today’s difficult times with humor by bringing out the absurdity in some of our anxieties.  Here, waves defy nature to encircle one swimmer and finger-like peaks rise up in to threaten unwanted contact.  On the other hand, the small size and delicate nature of the waves make them look almost playful.  (On view on the Lower East Side through Jan 30th.  Masks and social distancing are required).

Sally Saul, Troubled Waters, clay and glaze, 12 ½ x 28 x 17 inches, 2020.

Ara Peterson at Derek Eller Gallery

Wave patterns appear to literally rise up from the surface of Ara Peterson’s acrylic-on-wood surfaces. Here, a shifting spectrum of hot and cool colors ripples like the surface of water. (At Derek Eller Gallery through Dec 23rd).

Ara Peterson, Untitled, acrylic on wood, 40 x 65 x 2 inches, 2015.
Ara Peterson, Untitled, acrylic on wood, 40 x 65 x 2 inches, 2015.