Tag: yancey richardson

Victoria Sambunaris at Yancey Richardson Gallery

Two tiny backpackers could almost go unnoticed in the bottom center of this photograph by Victoria Sambunaris, on view at Yancey Richardson Gallery, if Sambunaris had not framed them so carefully on the curving pathway of Death Valley National Park from her vantage point above.  Though dwarfed by natural surrounds, human presence is unmissable in the artist’s new work focusing on the California desert.  Expecting to encounter these landscapes as wastelands, Sambunaris instead witnessed all manner of human activity from camping caravans to dune buggy riding, made all the more attractive during the pandemic, when she traveled to make this body of work. (On view in Chelsea through Feb 18th).

Victoria Sambunaris, Untitled, (Zabriskie Point), Death Valley National Park, California, 2021. Chromogenic print, 39 x 55 inches.

Mary Ellen Bartley at Yancey Richardson Gallery

Mary Ellen Bartley’s photographs are not about the objects she pictures; blue-toned hardcover books are shot in ways that challenge spatial perception, for example, while a stack of paperbacks with multi-colored edges becomes a geometric abstraction.  These transformations of ordinary objects into unique and thought-provoking arrangements of color and form connect Bartley with work by 20th century Italian artist Giorgio Morandi, who famously spent decades painting images of vessels as he explored the possibilities of representation.  Begun during a residency at the Casa Morandi in Bologna and interrupted by the onset of the pandemic, Bartley’s new work at Yancey Richardson Gallery features books from Morandi’s library.  Like Morandi, Bartley delays our reading of each picture’s components, sometimes by obscuring its components in a way that excites interest in the contents of the volumes and the possibilities of perception.

Mary Ellen Bartley, Large White Bottle and Shadow, archival pigment print, ed of 7, 28 x 37 inches, 2022.

Guanyu Xu at Yancey Richardson Gallery

Born and raised in Beijing, Chicago-based artist Guanyu Xu was unable as a youth to openly express his queer identity.  Returning from the US to Beijing to visit, he transformed his parent’s apartment with photo installations that tell the story of his identity in some of its complexity.  Captured in photos, the arrangements appear to be digitally collaged but are in fact staged in real time and space, temporarily occupying an environment in a fleeting moment of openness that took place while his parents were away from their home. (Originally planned to be on view to the public in Chelsea at Yancey Richardson Gallery through April 4th, Xu’s work can be see on the gallery’s website and his own website.)

Guanyu Xu, My Desktop, archival pigment print, 26 ½ x 32 1/2, 2019.

Sara Abbaspour in ‘Transcript’ at Yancey Richardson Gallery

Intimacy between people, whether between figures seen in quiet moments in public or this energetic engagement between a toddler and adult in a domestic setting, drives Sara Abbaspour’s probing, black and white photos.  A standout in Yancey Richardson Gallery’s show of 2019 Yale MFA Photography grads, curated by James Welling, Abbaspour explains that her aim is to treat physical locations as ‘mental space.’  (On view in Chelsea through August 23rd).

Sara Abbaspour, Untitled, archival pigment print, 26 5/8 x 35 1/8 inches, 2019.

Sharon Core at Yancey Richardson Gallery

From a pastry case featuring a banana split crafted from burlap, plaster and paint to a monumental canvas hamburger, Claes Oldenburg’s sculpted foodstuffs are familiar favorite foods made alarming through their size and materials.   Photographer Sharon Core explores the attraction and repulsion of Oldenburg’s ‘60s classics (including the burger and ice cream) to great effect in her show at Chelsea’s Yancey Richardson Gallery by hand-crafting and photographing a selection of Oldenburg dishes using real food.  In contrast to perfectly-presented delectables commonly featured on social media, Core’s edible recreations of Oldenburg’s artworks initially attract, then repulse, questioning just what we want from food these days.  (On view through July 3rd).

Sharon Core, USA Flag, Fragment, archival pigment print, 40 x 50 7/8 inches, 2019.