New York gets a chance to see select sculptures made by some of 1,500 participants in Swiss artist Urs Fischer’s retrospective at LA’s Geffen Contemporary last summer. Select pieces have been cast in bronze and are on view at Gagosian Gallery’s atmospheric Lower East Side pop-up in an old Chase bank. (Through May 23rd).
Urs Fischer, mermaid (in middle ground of photo), cast bronze, 40 ½ x 48 x 84 inches, 2014.
Belgian photographer Maroesjka Lavigne’s New York solo debut features landscapes half obscured by snow and Icelandic locals who look as if they’re hiding something; here, disturbed water turns a swimmer’s face into a blank mask. (At Robert Mann Gallery in Chelsea through May 17th).
Maroesjka Lavigne, Phantom, Krossneslaug, Westfjords, 2011.
‘Dolly meets the Greek’ by London-based artist Jill Mason assembles unconnected elements – Princess Di hair, a cartoon ear and a scrap piece of siding painted with waves – to create a funny, cheeky portrait befitting a surreal romance novel. (At Nicelle Beauchene Gallery on the Lower East Side through May 18th).
Jill Mason, Dolly meets the Greek, oil on canvas, 55 x 47 ¼ inches, 2013.
During a residency at LA’s Getty Research Institute, photographer David Maisel photographed x-rays made by the conservation department, turning documents of artworks into the artworks themselves and morphing scientific enquiry into ghostly images that suggest mysterious objects. (At Yancey Richardson Gallery through May 10th).
David Maisel, History’s Shadow AB17, archival pigment print, 40 x 30 inches, 2010.
Painter Jackie Saccoccio blurs the lines between abstraction and representation in huge new paintings that respond to well-known art historical portraits with complete abstraction. In the foreground, the sumptuous colors and extravagant patterns in Saccoccio’s piece parallel the decoration and costume of a well-to-do young woman in Domenico Ghirlandaio’s 1488 portrait of Giovanna Tornabuoni. (At Eleven Rivington through May 18th).
Jackie Saccoccio, Profile (GT Concave), oil and mica on linen, 106 x 79 inches, 2014.
There’s little subtlety in Robert Longo’s massive, 17 ft tall U.S. flag that appears to sink into Petzel Gallery’s floor and is subtitled ‘The Pequod’ after the ship destroyed by Ahab’s mad quest for vengeance on Moby Dick. (In Chelsea through May 10th).
Robert Longo, Untitled (The Pequod), steel, wood, wax and pigment, 207 x 192 x 12 inches, 2014.
The dubiously sincere phrase ‘Love Your Work!’ inspires an update on a series of paintings begun in the 90s by Rochelle Feinstein at On Stellar Rays. Written forwards and backwards against an envy-green background in earnestly slanting script and missing an ‘I’ that might give it more gravity, the three word phrase speaks volumes. (On the Lower East Side through May 11th).
Rochelle Feinstein, Love Your Work (detail), fresco, 1999.
Caught up in painting dynamic geometric shapes one day in his studio, Argentinian artist Guillermo Kuitca went beyond the canvas and painted his studio walls. With that experience as inspiration, he created a walk-in room that surrounds the viewer on all four sides with a cubist cascade of shapes. (At Sperone Westwater on the Lower East Side through June 21st).
Guillermo Kuitca, Untitled, oil on wood; four-panel installation, 102 3/8 x 176 x 124 inches, 2014.
In his latest series ‘Postcards from Nowhere,’ Brazilian artist Vik Muniz magnifies the thrill of getting a postcard (an experience which the Internet age may be consigning to the past) by collaging together postcards blown up to huge scale (seen here in detail). (At Chelsea’s Sikkema Jenkins & Co through May 10th).
Vik Muniz, detail from New York Postcard (Postcards from Nowhere), digital c-print, 71 x 111.5 inches, 2014.
Guido van der Werve’s 2007 video ‘Nummer acht’ is a standout in Marlborough Gallery’s excellent ‘Lone Tree,’ a show dedicated to artists inspired by 19th century painter of the sublime landscape, Caspar David Friedrich. The Dutch artist walked about 10 meters in front of a towering ice-breaker off the frozen coast of Finland, suggesting bravery and folly in equal measure in one lone individual. (In Chelsea through May 3rd.)
Guido Van Der Werve, Nummer acht, Everything is going to be alright, 16mm to HD, 10 minutes, 10 seconds, 2007.
To celebrate the publication of Rackstraw Downes’ writings since 1983, Betty Cunningham Gallery has curated an exhibition of his work, including this typically ordinary landscape made remarkable by whizzing wires and rising radio towers that strain to burst out of the frame. (In Chelsea through May 3rd).
Rackstraw Downes, At the Confluence of Two Ditches Bordering a Field with Four Radio Towers, oil on canvas, 46 x 48 inches, 1995. (Collection of Louis-Dreyfus Family).
Minimalist icon Robert Mangold continues to explore ways of painting around a void in this recent ring painting, which moves the eye around by juxtaposing an angular side and curved side while suggesting hula-hoop-like movement with an off-center white line. (At Pace Gallery’s 510 West 25th Street location through May 3rd).
Robert Mangold, Compound Ring II Variant (White Line), 2012.
Phrases like, ‘One is not born but rather becomes a woman,’ from feminist pioneer Simone de Beauvoir or actor Roseann Barr’s to-the-point observation that ‘Nobody gives you power you just take it,’ appear in Egyptian-born, Harlem-based artist Ghada Amer’s latest show at Chelsea’s Cheim and Read Gallery. Here, a bronze sculpture with text in Arabic extends the conversation to women in the Arab world. (Through May 10th).
Ghada Amer, foreground sculpture: The Words I Love the Most, bronze with black patina, 60 x 60 x 60 inches, 2012. Background painting on the right: The Big Black Bang – RFGA, acrylic, embroidery and gel medium on canvas, 102 x 132 inches, 2013.
Once loved, now up on blocks, this childhood relic looks like it’s headed for the dump if it doesn’t disintegrate first. However, like the rest of the work in this unassuming exhibition by LA-based sculptor Kristin Morgin, it’s an eye-teasing triumph made entirely of unfired clay. (At Chelsea’s Zach Feuer Gallery through May 3rd).
Kristen Morgin, Madonna with Tricycle, unfired clay, paint, ink, wood, wire, 20 x 16 x 28 inches, 2013.
Part of the Museum of Art and Design’s exhibition ‘Out of Hand,’ which showcases art and design made using digital fabrication, this extraordinary sweatshirt was created by scanning a model’s body, digitally modeling a garment that relates personally in some way to the model (in this case, a man fascinated by a story of a boy raised by a wolf), CNC laser cutting the fabric and hand assembling. (Through June 1st).
The T/Shirt Issue, No 419 from Digital Portraits Series, jersey, iron-on interface, 2008.
LA painter Laura Owens mashes together levels of reality in this huge, untitled painting, blending an inspirational phrase, a rather grotesque character pouring lemonade from his faucet-nose, a bike wheel (Duchamp homage?), a grid of varying size and thickness and a finger swipe pattern over all of it, suggesting that meaning is being uncovered or wiped away. (At Greene Naftali Gallery through April 26th).
Laura Owens, Untitled, flashe, silkscreen inks, oil, acrylic, charcoal, bike wheel and gesso on linen, 108 x 84 inches, 2014.
Strikingly beautiful photos by Dusseldorf-based photographer Elger Esser of the Giardino di Ninfa, located south of Rome, mark a return for the artist to the south of Italy, where he grew up. Situated around the abandoned ancient city of Ninfa and enhanced with English landscape elements, the garden is the definition of enchanting. (In Chelsea at Sonnabend Gallery through April 26th).
Elger Esser, Ninfa – (Kallisto), Directprint, AluDibond, Shellac, 79 7/8 x 100 ¾ inches, 2013.
Drawing on his Native American roots and life in downtown New York (where he’s lived for over 30 years), Brad Kahlhamer creates a new culture populated by figures based on Hopi katsina dolls and enigmatic heroes. (At Jack Shainman Gallery’s 20th Street location through April 26th).
Brad Kahlhamer, background: American Horse, acrylic, ink, spray paint and pencil on bed sheet, 94 ½ x 72 ½ inches, 2014. Foreground: Next Level Figures, wood, wire, bells, leather, acrylic, mirrors, spray paint, 2014.
Born to Georgia sharecroppers, based in New York, the late American painter Benny Andrews used his personal history to address injustice in works like this chilling painted collage of a monstrous hunter and his beastly hound. It’s a standout in the excellent ‘Rising Up/Uprising’ at Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, a show commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. (In Chelsea through May 3rd).
Benny Andrews, Hunters, 1989, oil on canvas with painted fabric collage and zipper, 72 1/8 x 52 inches.
LA-based photographer Matthew Brandt uses old technology to make up-to-date photographs in his latest show at Chelsea’s Yossi Milo Gallery. For this image of a pre-historical creature, he coated an aluminum plate with tar from the La Brea Tar Pits, covered it with a negative he shot of the fossil, and exposed it to light to record a fixed image. (Through May 10th).
Matthew Brandt, La Brea B2, heliograph made with tar from the La Brea Tar Pits, Los Angeles, California, on aluminum, unique, 2013.
Late German artist Martin Kippenberger stepped into the role of the living, dying, hopeful and lost by portraying different characters from Gericault’s Raft of the Medusa in his 1996 series of paintings and these photos, shot by his wife Elfie Semotan. (At Skarstedt Gallery, Upper East Side, through April 26th).
Martin Kippenberger, photographs by Elfie Semotan, installation view of ‘Raft of the Medusa’ at Skarstedt Gallery, April 2014.
Berlin-based artist couple Nina Römer and Torsten Römer travel the world photographing youth subcultures doing their own thing; here, two girls strut their Japanese street fashions. (At Freight and Volume, Chelsea, through April 26th.)
Römer & Römer, Face to Face, 79 x 104 inches, 2010.
Created from recycled materials, Rob Fischer’s ‘Good Weather (Glass House)’ on view at Chelsea’s Derek Eller Gallery offers bare bones living with a utilitarian kitchen and basic loft bedroom as well as an opportunity to commune with your surroundings, whether urban more info
or rural. (Through April 19th).
Rob Fischer, Good Weather (Glass House),’ glass, steel, screenprint ink, acrylic and latex paint, construction adhesive, wood floor, lights, wires, 175 x 223 x 126 inches, 2014.
When hundreds of dealers from around the world converge at an art fair, how do they set themselves apart? At Art Basel Miami, Simon Preston Gallery brought their gallery doors with them per Vienna-based artist Hans Schabus’s instructions. Back in New York, with new doors installed outside, Schabus displayed the earlier versions, along with a rendering of the temporary plywood exterior and a drawing that questioned the importance of a gallery’s local setting. (On the Lower East Side through April 14, 2014).
Hans Schabus, installation view of ‘Lower East Side,’ at Simon Preston Gallery, March, 2014.
After visiting a chilling display of human bones at a cloister in Rome, Viennese artist Erwin Wurm adapted his signature ‘One Minute Sculptures’ (for which individuals pose with everyday objects in creative ways) into ‘One Minute Forever’ memento mori with a humorous twist. (At Chelsea’s Lehmann Maupin Gallery through April 19th).
Erwin Wurm, One Minute Forever (Bucket), epoxy resin, polyurethane, wood, metal, buckets, unique, 2013.
Titled ‘(In)Security,’ this detail-view of an enticing if creepy new painting by New York artist Ross Bleckner offers the unnerving suggestion that we’re being watched, albeit by a range of characterful eyes. (At Mary Boone Gallery in Chelsea through April 26th).
Ross Bleckner, “(In)Security,” 27 x 144 inches, oil/linen, 2013-14.
Two tumbling cans of caffeine free Diet Coke with enlarged text freefall through copper-colored fields in LA-based artist Brenna Youngblood’s large painting. The work suggests a chemical process on copper akin to Warhol’s piss paintings but using a spray of soda instead. (At Jack Tilton Gallery on the Upper East Side, through April 19th).
Brenna Youngblood, DKNY (Classic), mixed media on wood panel, 72 3/16 x 47 ½ inches, 2014.
As we leave behind winter’s bleakness, Olaf Breuning’s whimsical ‘Clouds’ sculpture at the corner of 60th Street and Fifth Ave poised to come into its own as the park comes to life. Roll on spring! (Exhibition by Public Art Fund at Doris C. Freedman Plaza through August 24th).
Olaf Breuning, Clouds, polished and painted aluminum and steel, 2014.
The rainbow and landscape paintings, blue carpet and cat towers bedecked with fake fruit in LA-based artist Friedrich Kunath’s latest solo show at Chelsea’s Andrea Rosen Gallery are an invitation to ponder what meaning can emerge from such disparate if colorful trappings. A gallery statement suggests Kunath is offering, ‘An invitation into a perpetual joke.’ (Through April 26th.)
Friedrich Kunath, installation view of at Andrea Rosen Gallery, March 2014 including ‘Meloncholy Towers’ and work from the series, ‘I was thinking about what a friend had said, I was hoping it was a lie,’ 2013-14.
Guangdong-born Stanford professor Xie Xiaoze expands his ‘Chinese Library’ series with huge new paintings of tattered, scholarly books. The show also includes paintings of politically sensitive images from Chinese social media giant Weibo relating to corruption, environmental damage and more. (At Chelsea’s Chambers Fine Art through April 12th).
Xie Xiaoze, Chinese Library No. 57, oil on canvas, 48 x 74 ¼ inches, 2014.
As old buildings come down and new luxury condos go up along the High Line in Chelsea, an exhibition of American photographer Berenice Abbott’s WPA-sponsored ‘Changing New York’ photos from the 30s at Howard Greenberg Gallery puts the transformation in the context of the city’s constant evolution. This picture memorializes a modest business now replaced by the residential towers of Peter Cooper Village at the other (east) end of 23rd Street. (In the 57th Street area, through April 12th).
Berenice Abbott, Henry Maurer, 420-422 East 23rd Street, looking southeast, Manhattan, June 14, 1938, gelatin silver print; printed c. 1938, 7 5/8 x 9 5/8 inches.
New York ceramic artist Kathy Butterly’s new work at 57th Street gallery Tibor de Nagy demonstrates her inexhaustible ability to invent new, evocative forms for both standard vessels and abstract shapes. Though less than 9 inches high, the tiny artworks are powerful. (Through April 12th).
Kathy Butterly, Chatter (foreground), clay, glaze, 6 x 7 x 4 1/8 inches, 2013.
As part of a residency at Philadelphia’s Fabric Workshop and Museum, New York artist Mika Tajima created textiles with a fascinating back story. Taking recordings from factories using Jacquard looms (a precursor to digital) and from server co-location sites (representing new technologies), she translated the sound waves into patterns woven on fabric which was then mounted on acoustic panels to create an object that simultaneously is cutting edge and historical. (At Eleven Rivington on the Lower East Side through April 13th).
Mika Tajima, Negative Entropy (Caledonia Dye Works, quad), cotton, wood, acoustic baffling felt; made in collaboration with the Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, 78 x 54 inches, 2014.
A stand out in the last Whitney Biennial for slides made by aging and distressing film stock (even burying it in dirt for a specified time), Luther Price shows recent slides and work from this 80s in this sobering show that suggests humans who have experienced similarly devastating processes. (At Participant, Inc. on the Lower East Side through April 13th).
Luther Price, installation view of ‘The Years Made Flies,’ (foreground: ‘Ground Piece One (Five Life Size Figures), 1982-83, plastic, metal, dirt) at Participant, Inc., March 2014.
San Francisco-based artist Jim Campbell works with sophisticated technology to make low-res images that offer a fragment of the information we’re used to in the HD age; yet images like this one of a yellow cab whizzing by hold viewers’ attention by capturing the recognizable action of the street. (At Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery through April 19th. Also at the Museum of the Moving Image in Long Island City through June 15th.)
Jim Campbell, Untitled (Commuters), LEDs, metal, wire, custom electronics, 43 x 63 x 18 ½ inches, 2014.
A giant hare, titled after the constellation Lepus, sits tethered to a mobile suspending what appear as fragments of patterned cloth colored shades of night-blue in a new work by Anne Chu at Tracy Williams, Ltd in Chelsea. Skinned and with fur, alert yet stationary, the hare seems as momentarily suspended between states as the mobile. (Through April 19th).
Anne Chu, Lepus, leather, metal, ceramic, 2014.
A bird woman, eerie twins and a girl with branches growing out of her body are just some of the odd characters populating Swedish artist Klara Kristalova’s show of evocative new ceramic sculpture at Lehmann Maupin Gallery on the Lower East Side. Inspired by folk tales, daily life, movies and even overheard conversations, the psychologically charged figures hint at intriguing stories. (At Lehmann Maupin Gallery through April 26th. Kristalova is also showing at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin on Madison Ave through April 12th).
Klara Kristalova, Birdwoman, glazed stoneware, 2013.
Sprawling and jam-packed with painting, sculpture, video and more, the ‘Brucennial’ – the biannual, tongue-in-cheek response to the Whitney Biennial organized by anonymous art collective ‘Bruce High Quality Foundation’ – is a hive of activity worth witnessing, especially as this version is billed as the ‘last’ Brucennial. (Through April 4th at 837 Washington Street, opposite the Standard Hotel.)
Installation view of the 2014 Brucennial, March 2014.
Belgian artist Peter Buggenhout presents a New York audience with two of his well-known ‘Blind Leading the Blind’ sculptures through the 19th of this month in Chelsea. Composed of wrecked industrial or construction materials covered in dust, and appearing to be the remnants of some long-ago disaster, they represent a chaotic but forgotten past. (At Barbara Gladstone Gallery, 21st Street location, through April 19th).
Peter Buggenhout, installation view of ‘Caterpillar Logic II,’ March 2014, Barbara Gladstone Gallery.
Before his untimely death in 2002 at age 35, Berlin-based artist Michel Majerus was hailed as a quintessential information age artist, mixing images and info from unrelated sources to suggest a stew of influences more than a coherent statement. Here, Andy Warhol’s discount Raphael abuts an ecstatic youth from an ad, suggesting two takes on transcendent experiences. (At Matthew Marks Gallery‘s 522 West 22nd Street location).
Michel Majerus, o.T. (69), acrylic on cotton, two panels, each: 119 ¼ x 93 ¼ inches, 1994.
Sheila Hicks’ brightly colored, sculptural waterfall of cords now on view at the Whitney Biennial may have more dramatic impact, but this installation at Sikkema Jenkins of 98 balls shaped by wrapping string around fabric – all found materials – has a quiet but no less enchanting appeal. (At Chelsea’s Sikkema Jenkins through April 5th).
Sheila Hicks, Lares and Penates, found materials, 98 elements, 117 x 115 x 5 inches, 1990 – 2013.
This new, candy-bright abstract by Joanne Greenbaum suggests maps, calligraphic squiggles, spirographs and more; it’s a standout in a lively show of Greenbaum’s new abstractions. (At Rachel Uffner Gallery on the Lower East Side through April 20th).
Joanne Greenbaum, Untitled, oil, acrylic and ink on canvas, 90 x 80 inches, 2014.
New York artist Elaine Cameron Weir’s latest show ‘Venus Anadyomene’ at the Lower East Side gallery Ramiken Crucible offers an irresistible take on the ancient Greek tale of Venus rising from the sea. Real clamshells with customized neon bring to mind beach-side dive bars while incense rising over a flame adds a spiritual element. (Through April 6th).
Elaine Cameron Weir, installation view of ‘venus anadyomene’ at Ramiken Crucible, March 2014.
Using Volkswagen Beetle ads from the ‘50s to ‘70s and the 3D modeling program Rhino, New York-based conceptual artist Kelly Walker brings flat images of a real life object into the 3D world in literal sculptural shapes like this one in the foreground, which whimsically recalls a different mode of transportation – the paper airplane. (At Paula Cooper Gallery’s 521 West 21st Street space through March 29th).
Kelly Walker, Bug_156S, four-color process silkscreen on aluminum, 2013-14 (foreground).
At eleven by eleven feet, New York painter Pat Steir’s monumental pours of pigment, oil and turpentine create glowing sheets of color in deep spaces that beckon and offer to engulf the viewer. (At Chelsea’s Cheim and Read Gallery through March 29th).
Pat Steir, Green, Orange and Mica, oil on canvas, 11 x 11 feet, 2013.
For his latest series, ‘Sacrifice Your Body,’ New York based photographer Roe Ethridge took a trip to his mom’s hometown in Belgrade, Florida, gathering images that loosely suggest a relationship between mother and son. Here, a phone off the hook suggests a receiver dropped in surprise. (At Chelsea’s Andrew Kreps Gallery through March 29th).
Roe Ethridge, Yellow Phone, c-print, 34 ¾ x 45 7/8, 2013.
Invited to show at LA’s MoCA in 1997, Jorge Pardo built an off-site house as his exhibition (where he now lives with his family). His latest design-as-living space can be seen at Petzel Gallery, where ‘Spare Bedroom’ offers a sanctuary-like space-within-a-space reminiscent of bedroom-nooks built into lofts but with a stained-glass look suggesting something more like a choir loft. (In Chelsea through April 5th).
Jorge Pardo, Spare Bedroom, mixed media, 2014.
Beijing-based artist Xu Bing is a star of the Met’s excellent ‘Ink Art’ exhibition, which features important work by prominent Chinese artists of the past few decades who have maintained a link with China’s traditional calligraphic and painting traditions. Here, Xu’s Book from the Sky submerses visitors in a sea of Chinese characters (with over a thousand unique variations) yet comes to question tradition and the relay of information by the fact that all are illegible. (At the Metropolitan Museum of Art through April 6th).
Xu Bing, Book from the Sky, ca 1987-91, installation of hand-printed books and ceiling and wall scrolls printed from wood letterpress type; ink on paper.
Polish artist Pawel Althamer opens up his exhibition at the New Museum to contributions from the public by providing paint, paper and smocks to the many, many visitors who want to leave their mark. (On the Lower East Side through April 13th).
Pawel Althamer, installation view of ‘Draftsmen’s Progress’ at the New Museum, March 2014.
Brooklyn artist Beth Krebs’ provocatively surreal object – a suggestion of two half-exposed bodies conjoined erotically or otherwise and traversed by a mini-pathway or guideline for cutting – is part of a new body of work worth seeing at the Lower East Side’s Station Independent Projects (through April 6th).
Beth Krebs, Rift and Slip, fired clay, pastel and tape, 12 x 9 x 10 inches.
Chelsea newcomer Klein Sun Gallery is giving visitors who loved the debut of Chinese sculptor Li Hongbo’s paper sculptures a treat. Extended to March 22nd, the exhibition has been rehung with new, larger sculptures including these two female figures constructed of paper carefully glued together sheet by sheet then carved with hand tools by the artist.
Li Hongbo, installation view at Klein Sun Gallery, Chelsea, March 2014.
Rudolf Stingel paints the sublime in his latest body of work, but from a distance. Working from vintage, found photos of his birthplace – Merano, Italy – the artist faithfully copies distortions from the camera, marks of age from the prints and then leaves the canvases on the floor of his studio, building in physical and conceptual distance between his New York audience and the Alps. (At Gagosian Gallery’s 21st Street location through April 19th).
Rudolf Stingel, Untitled, oil on canvas, 132 x 180 ¾ inches, 2010.
The contrast between the two x’s in New York artist David Shaw’s ‘Gem’ – pristine vs weathered, dull vs glittering, -makes the eye bounce back and forth between these two seemingly casually placed sculptures, creating a lively show in Feature’s entryway gallery. (On the Lower East Side through March 23rd).
David Shaw, Gem, wood, aluminum, holographic laminate, rope; two parts, 135 x 60 x 3 inches each, 2013.
In one of Chelsea’s more cheerful shows of the moment, New York-based artist Dan McCarthy presents paintings of happy musicians accompanied by birds and ‘Facepots,’ one of which smiles through its tears. (At Anton Kern Gallery through March 22nd).
Dan McCarthy, installation view at Anton Kern Gallery, February 2014.
1960s Minimalism, though influential, isn’t best remembered for its humor. LA-based sculptor Lisa Williamson injects lightheartedness into her stream-lined shapes, suggesting giant wall-mounted hairpins or attractively colored surgical tools. (At Laurel Gitlen Gallery on the Lower East Side through March 15th).
Lisa Williamson, ‘Bump, Bob’ (on the right) and ‘Bump, Hairpin’ (on the left), both acrylic on powder-coated steel, 80 x 14 x 4 inches.
Using multiple silicone molds of flounders and a man, Lucy Kim pieces together a vibrantly colored, wonderfully mixed up image of a guy who appears to be ‘sleeping with the fishes,’ but is still posing semi-seductively with his rubbery, flattened thumb tucked into the waistband of his underpants. (At Lisa Cooley Gallery on the Lower East Side through March 15th).
Lucy Kim, He Left with the Flounders, oil paint, various plastics, spray paint on dibond panel, 64 x 48 inches, 2014.
Though New York artist Red Grooms created this gallery-filling installation replicating an alley near his downtown studio over twenty years ago – to bring some ‘quintessential New York funk’ to Marlborough Gallery’s London location – its shady hustle and bustle and maniacal truck driver still look contemporary. (At Marlborough Gallery’s Lower East Side location through March 23rd.)
Red Grooms, ‘The Alley,’ wood, foam, and mixed media, dimensions variable, 1984-5.
Many artists aim to get a reaction from their audience; New York artist Dove Bradshaw elicits one from her materials, applying chemicals to silver or water to salt, for example. In 1996, she began work on the piece pictured here, ‘Waterstone,’ by training a constant slow drip of water on limestone; it continues to the present day. (At Chelsea’s Corey Danese Gallery through March 15th).
Dove Bradshaw, Waterstone, limestone, separatory funnel, water, 12 x 12 x 12 inches, 1996 to present.
Between a five-foot wide wax mushroom (rear) and a scrappy dream-catcher, strings of yarn suspend dried mushrooms, hinting at psychedelic interpretations for Michele Segre’s intriguingly odd assemblages. (At Derek Eller Gallery in Chelsea through March 15th).
Michele Segre, Self-Reflexive Narcissistic Supernova, metal, yarn, thread, wire, plastic bags, plastic lace, papier-mache, photos, screws, acrylic, modeling clay, wood, beeswax, dried mushrooms, 2013.
In collaboration with woodworker Josh Finn, iconic Minimalist artist Robert Morris has been creating replicas of his 1960s sculptures. Currently on view at Chelsea’s Sonnabend Gallery, this gracefully curving form recalls Morris’ 1961 ‘Box for Standing,’ (a replica is included in the show), suggesting a more exulted place to position yourself, akin more to an art-filled niche than the ‘tub’ to which its title refers. (Through March 15th).
Robert Morris, Tub, alder, 80 ½ x 39 ½ x 20 inches, 2013.
Over a period of two years, Palestinian artist Emily Jacir visited Jerusalem’s Jewish National and University Library, surreptitiously phototographing books that once belonged to Palestinians, now labeled as ‘Abandoned Property.’ Lining the walls of Chelsea’s Alexander and Bonin Gallery, her photos highlight notations, insertions and other personal touches. (Through April 5th).
Emily Jacir, ex libris, installation, public project and book, 2010-12.
Known for her unnerving, expressionist renditions of fashion models, New York painter Katherine Bernhardt steps into new territory with food-centric pattern paintings whose collective title, ‘Stupid, Crazy, Ridiculous, Funny Patterns’ accurately introduces their surprising, bold and humorous nature. (At the Lower East Side’s Canada Gallery through March 9th).
Katherine Bernhardt, Steaming Hot Coffee and Cigarettes and Pizza, acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 2013.
Pocket Utopia on the Lower East Side and Hansel and Gretel Picture Gallery in Chelsea don’t just have their unusual names in common; they’re both showcasing work and happenings by Pocket Utopia founder and New York artist Austin Thomas. Thomas rescues and transforms paper, books and other aged materials; here, a book cover titled ‘Castle’ becomes a shelter, a tent, a minimal sculpture and a testament to a book well-used. (Through March 15th).
Austin Thomas, Castle, 20 x 14 inches, photographic print, 2014.
Once, LA-based artist Sarah Cain created work primarily in abandoned buildings. In her current site-specific installation at Galerie Lelong, she pushes painting far beyond the edge of the canvas, creating an eye-catching sprawl of color and form at the back of the gallery. (In Chelsea through March 15th).
Sarah Cain, hypnic jerk, site-specific installation, 2014.
Titled ‘Wonder,’ New York artist Kiki Smith’s latest solo show at Pace Gallery includes a magnified sculpture of hoarfrost (along with a rabbit), jacquard tapestries of a nude in a tree and soaring eagles all of which posit nature as a source of astonishment and pleasure. (In Chelsea at Pace’s 510 West 25th St location through March 29th).
Kiki Smith, installation view of ‘Wonder,’ in foreground, ‘Hoarfrost with Rabbit,’ stainless steel, 2014, at Pace Gallery, March 2014.
In a distinctly contemporary update on Sylvia Sleigh’s iconic ‘70s nude male, Robin F. Williams’ new show ‘Sons of Pioneers’ features men who seem to have opted out of the go-getter mentality of their fathers; non-aggressive poses suggest a passive ideology traditionally identified as female. (At Chelsea’s PPOW Gallery through March 15th).
Robin F Williams, Gold Panner, 72 inch diameter, oil on canvas, 2013.
Though she lives in New York, Lisa Sanditz’ attention is on the country, with a new series of paintings that consider food production and sculptures inspired by Arizona cactus farms. Here, fanciful rainbow cacti in muted colors face off through Styrofoam cups like those that farmers use to protect cactus branches from cold. (At Chelsea’s CRG Gallery through March 15th).
Lisa Sanditz, Rainbow, glazed ceramic, planters, cinderblocks, plywood, rocks, 20 x 22 ½ x 8 inches, 2014.
Late New York artist Candy Jernigan’s ’99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall’ brings to mind an apothecary’s shelves, though tags reading ‘Guinness Dark,’ and ‘Colt 45’ for example, suggest that these are more contemporary medicines, gathered from LES streets (along with the crack vials and cheez doodles in other artworks) in the 80s. (At GreeneNaftali through March 15th).
Candy Jernigan, ’99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall’ (detail), beer, glass vials, packing tags and Plexiglas shelves, 48 x 14 x 3 ½ inches, c. 1988-89.
Leslie Wayne’s new series ‘Paint/Rag’ demonstrates how it’s possible to make a painting made from paint alone. By troweling colors one on top of the other on a surface of wet paint, then folding the sheet, Wayne creates gorgeous drapes of solid color. (At Jack Shainman Gallery’s 24th Street location through March 22nd).
Leslie Wayne, Paint/Rag #31, oil on panel, 14 x 9 x 4 ½ inches, 2013.
Poised like Venus lying in the grass or hiking semi-nude with a walking stick and an open flannel shirt, Pennsylvania-based artist Rebecca Morgan’s self-portraits are skillfully crafted, hilarious takes on rural stereotypes. Here, she changes gears, donning a ‘depression blanket’ to ward off the chill and the mental state her far-away look suggests. (At Chelsea’s Asya Geisberg Gallery through March 29th).
Rebecca Morgan, Depression Blanket, oil and graphite on panel, 28” x 22,” 2014.
Exposed in its confining crib, this body-sized stick of butter (actually beeswax) by American sculptor Robert Gober is perfectly formed but slightly repulsive. Scattered apples, meticulously crafted in wood are all-American (recalling apple pie or Johnny Appleseed) but suggest that temptations lurk from the earliest days of life. (At Matthew Marks Gallery’s 523 West 24th Street location).
Robert Gober, Untitled, wood, paint, beeswax, 50 ½ x 53 ¼ x 28 inches, 1993-2013.
Color Field painter Sam Gilliam’s unstretched canvas from 1970 is a standout in Michael Rosenfeld Gallery’s current exhibition ‘Beyond the Spectrum: Abstraction in African American Art, 1950-1975’ for taking the space of a painting into the space of the gallery. Like a huge paint rag or a giant apron, this piece from 1970 evokes an object with use-value, hung momentarily on the wall. (In Chelsea through March 8th).
Sam Gilliam, One Thunder, acrylic on unstretched canvas, 70 x 23 x 11 inches, 1970.
Known for her lovingly painted renditions of architecture and industrial equipment created in a single, long sitting, Josephine Halvorson has turned her attention to her more immediate surroundings in her new Massachusetts home. Using paint to render a door covered with chipped paint, Halvorson’s knowing play with her material is a pleasure to experience. (At Sikkema Jenkins & Co through March 1st).
Josephine Halvorson, Woodshed Door, oil on linen, 70 x 35 inches, 2013.
Powered by small fans at the bottom of wall-mounted glass tubes, Ping-Pong balls play a solitary game as they whiz up and down in Ohio-based artist Erwin Redl’s mesmerizing installation at Chelsea’s Bitforms Gallery. (Through March 15th).
Erwin Redl, Levitate (thirty-one), suspended glass tubes, fans, Ping-Pong balls, microprocessor, 11 x 31 x 1 ft, 2014.
Iconic abstract sculptor Richard Tuttle has turned his focus to textiles in his exhibition at Pace Gallery’s 57th Street location, a prelude to his October 2014 commission for the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall. Here, a seemingly casually placed brown fabric at center sets off the texture and color of a branch at bottom while a colorful pattern of material roughly wrapped around a life-ring-like shape draws the eye in. (Through March 15th).
Richard Tuttle, Looking for the Map 10, fabric, branch, paint and plastic, 39” x 24” x 10 1/2,” 2013 – 14.
As a kid, LA-based British artist Kour Pour grew up watching his dad repair and work with carpets in his rug shop. He continues the tradition, after a fashion, by silkscreening carpets from auction catalogues onto canvas, then painting and sanding the images into something entirely new. (At Untitled Gallery through Feb 23rd).
Kour Pour, detail from ‘Kour Pour’ at Untitled Gallery Jan 2014, acrylic on canvas over panel, 96 x 72 inches.
Energy drinks, green tea tins and more consumer packaging form the basis of semi-retired fashion photography icon David LaChapelle’s latest series, ‘Refineries.’ Working with professional model builders, LaChapelle makes our consumption of fossil fuels – and the materials create from them – personal. (At Chelsea’s Paul Kasmin Gallery through March 1st.)
David LaChapelle, Land Scape Riverside, chromogenic print, 71 x 93 inches, 2013.
Montreal-born, Long Island City based sculptor David Altmejd once again excites the senses by filling Chelsea’s Andrea Rosen Gallery with one of his trademark vitrine-like sculptures. Throughout the sculpture, hands appear to manipulate various materials, suggesting the act of creation, while fake fruits and armies of ants bring to mind decay. (Through March 8th).
David Altmejd, The Flux and the Puddle, installation view at Andrea Rosen Gallery, Feb 2014, mixed media, 2014.
Roughly translated to ‘among other things,’ Mark Fox’s ‘Inter Alia’ assembles snippets of pop culture image and text in a sculpture that appears remarkably to hover next to the gallery wall. (At Robert Miller Gallery through Feb 22nd).
Mark Fox, Inter Alia, ink, marker, watercolor, pencil on paper with archival tape, 21 ½ x 16 ½ inches, 2013.
Inspired by early Christian and Mesopotamian building practices that imbued built structures with spiritual meaning, young Brooklyn-based artist Jeff Landman transformed timbers from a Pennsylvania barn into furniture-like platforms for transcendent experience for his first solo show at Tracy Williams, Ltd. (In Chelsea through Feb 22nd).
Jeff Landman, installation view of ‘Working on a Building,’ with ‘Bed,’ white oak, linen, 2013 in the foreground. Tracy Williams, Ltd., Feb 2014.
‘Eager,’ Allison Schulnik’s new stop-motion animation starts with restrained dancing figures and quickly ups the pace as nature itself joins in the dance with flowers bursting forth in bloom and swaying with exuberant fecundity. (At Chelsea’s ZieherSmith through Feb 22nd.)
Allison Schulnik, still from ‘Eager,’ clay-animated, stop-motion video, 8 min, 30 sec, ed of 5, 2014.
Though Minimalist artist Dan Flavin’s fluorescent light tubing sculputres are well-known, his editioned work on paper is less often exhibited. At David Zwirner Gallery’s 20th Street Chelsea location, this scrolled handmade paper is a cylinder on a different scale but one whose color is as electric as his signature works. (Through March 1st).
Dan Flavin, untitled, double-sided color aquatint printed in violet and yellow on Twinrocker handmade paper, rolled and stitched, 7 3/8 x 30 x 8 1/8 inches, 1994.
Small and meticulously handmade, New York artist Lori Ellison’s untitled ink on notebook paper drawings on view at McKenzie Fine Art on the Lower East Side jettison high production values in favor of an absorbingly obsessive art practice. (Through Feb 16th).
Lori Ellison, Untitled, ink on notebook paper, 11 x 8 ½ inches, 2013.
Fans of Marilyn Minter’s super realist paintings – and their sullied glitz – will want to catch her early work included in the group exhibition ‘Bad Conscience’ at Chelsea’s Metro Pictures. Here, ‘Spill’ from 1976 conveys the ‘ugh’ feeling of encountering a spilled drink on institutional linoleum. (Through Feb 22nd).
Marilyn Minter, Spill, oil on canvas, 60 x 60 inches, 1976.
John Ahearn’s plaster sculptures have memorably captured moments of New York street life for decades. Chelsea’s Alexander and Bonin Gallery is showing Ahearn’s portrait sculptures from the 1980s, made in his South Bronx studio. Here, a couple share a tight embrace that suggests struggle as much as devotion. (Through Feb 22nd).
Luis and Virginia Arroyo, acrylic on plaster, 19 ¾ x 25 ¾ x 10 3/4, 1980.
Iconic Process artist Lynda Benglis excites the senses with a new selection of ceramic sculptures hand formed from tubes and slabs of clay. (At Chelsea’s Cheim & Read through Feb 15th).
Lynda Benglis, Untitled, glazed ceramic, 20 x 16, 12 inches, 2013.
Known for using evocative materials to create sculptural mediations on the African diaspora, Atlanta-based artist Radcliffe Bailey has upped the ante in his recent exhibition at Chelsea’s Jack Shainman Gallery, where he’s exhibiting this startling taxidermied croc who appears to climb his way past memorial-like markers with dates and initials. (At Jack Shainman’s 24th Street location through Feb 15th).
Radcliffe Bailey, On Your Way Up, tarp, crocodile and steel, 120 x 106 x 10 inches, 2013.
If these photographs of farm workers holding tools of their trade look like they’re wearing masks, it’s due in part to artist Jackie Nicherson’s desire to make documentary photography that doesn’t exploit its subject. Instead, her recent series, ‘Terrain,’ shot on Southern and East African farms, zeros in on part-hidden individuals to focus attention one of Africa’s biggest industries. (At Jack Shainman Gallery’s 20th Street location through Feb 15th).
Jackie Nickerson, installation view of ‘Terrain,’ at Jack Shainman Gallery, February, 2014.
New York based artist Park McArthur’s installation of ramps she’s recently used – from a splintered board to a sturdy new ramp – to access art spaces and her residential building in downtown Manhattan tell a succinct and eye-opening tale of unintentional discrimination. (At Essex Street Gallery through Feb 23rd).
Park McArthur, installation view of ‘Ramps,’ at Essex Street Gallery, Jan 2014.
Titles like ‘Ministry of Hate’ (pictured here) and ‘Hill and Dale, Black-Ops’ reveal dark themes behind Sue Williams’ latest, vibrantly colored paintings. Each work in her solo show at Chelsea’s 303 Gallery includes abstracted representations of the WTC, comingled with bodies in an oblique comment on life during the War on Terror. (Through Feb 22nd).
Sue Williams, Ministry of Hate, oil and acrylic on canvas, 72 x 84,” 2013.
Bodies and furniture become one in New York artist Robert Fontinelli’s huge drawings, touching on materialism and how we define our personalities through design choices. Here in Feature, Inc’s front windows, two men merged with theater seats and each other suggest two identities becoming one. (On the Lower East Side through Feb 16th).
Robert Fontinelli, Twinks in Prouve Amphitheater Seats, 2014.
Working from collages and digitally manipulated photos, New York artist Angelina Gualdoni merges still life and abstraction to captivating effect. This painting pits a ghostly assemblage created from red and yellow color zones in the foreground against a silhouetted plant in tropical colors behind, neither of which seem to settle in their places. (At Asya Geisberg Gallery, through Feb 15th).
Angelina Gualdoni, Rooms, oil and acrylic on canvas, 47” x 52,” 2013.
For his first solo gallery show in New York since his retrospective at the Whitney Museum in fall ’12, New York based artist Wade Guyton returns to his signature style with digitally created, minimalist ‘paintings’ printed in an epic battle with his Epson printer. (At Chelsea’s Petzel Gallery through Feb 22nd).
Wade Guyton, Untitled, Epson UltraChrome K3 inkjet on linen, 2014 (one painting on each wall, both with the same title, materials and date.)
Working by the light of a lamp or with no artificial light at all, Milwaukee-based artist John Riepenhoff has created his night sky paintings in the city and country. Explaining that he can’t see much of what he’s doing while he’s painting, each is a surprise in the morning. (At Marlborough Gallery, Lower East Side through Feb 9th.)
John Riepenhoff, Plein Air (Isle of Eigg), acrylic on canvas, 2013.
Tempting and repulsive at the same time, this table loaded with cakes, fruit, petits fours and other delectables crafted from porcelain by young Brooklyn-based artist Jessica Stoller equate the female body with excess via eye-popping abundance. (At PPOW Gallery through Feb 8th).
Jessica Stoller, Still Life, porcelain, china paint, luster, mixed-media, 65 x 47 x 23 ½,” 2013.
Rotting fruits in bright hues, fiddlehead ferns, flowers, egg casings, leaves and other natural materials in various states of decay form the gorgeous palette and patterns of Tanya Marcuse’s new photo series at Julie Saul Gallery in Chelsea. (Through Feb 22nd).
Tanya Marcuse, Fallen No 439 (seen here in detai)l, pigment print, 37 ¾ x 48,” ed 1/7, 2013.
Critics have unanimously praised Sarah Crowner’s colorful installation, ‘The Wave’ at Lower East Side Gallery Nicelle Beauchene, for chasing away the winter blahs with a gorgeous aqua-colored tile, stage-like floor. Here, Crowner quotes textile designs from Alexander Girard that enhance the folksy beauty of this installation. (Through Feb 2nd).
Sarah Crowner, installation view of ‘The Wave’ at Nicelle Beauchene Gallery, Jan 2013.
Photos of anonymous women, taken from the early days of photography to the 1920s, line the walls of Jack Hanley Gallery as part of Dutch artist Mathilde Ter Heijne’s testament to the gradually improving status of women. On the back of each is a biography of a woman well-known in her time for advancing women’s causes. Visitors can take one away for inspiration. (On the Lower East Side through Feb 2nd).
Mathilde Ter Heijne, installation view of ‘Woman to Go,’ at Jack Hanley Gallery, January 2014.
