Not every piece of art commissioned by the Metropolitan Transit Authority ends up looking great in the subway system, but that’s not the case with this instantly enticing new installation by noted light artist Leo Villareal titled ‘Hive (Bleeker Street)’ on the uptown 6 platform at Bleeker. Created from LED tubes, aluminum and stainless steel, the honeycomb patterned lights constantly shift color, creating a welcome distraction for worker bees. (On permanent display).
Never one to shy away from controversy, Daniel Joseph Martinez’s latest body of work at Simon Preston Gallery features a hunchbacked figure in a Pope’s mitre, praying on an Afghan prayer rug, and tattooed with ‘blasphemous inscriptions in Hebrew, Arabic and Latin’ (according to the gallery handout). Is this social commentary or overkill? (Through Dec 23rd.)
Why does Kent Rogowski’s light sculpture ‘I Can’t Stop Thinking About Yesterday’ strike me as having excellent gift potential (for the right situation)? Too bold to be a declaration of love, it could be a stunningly straightforward way of starting an apology. (At Jen Bekman on Spring nr Bowery, through Dec 9th).
Lin Tianmiao ‘s installation at Chelsea’s Galerie Lelong, titled ‘Badges,’ features sixty embroidered American and Chinese slang terms for women, most of which aren’t particularly flattering. When asked for a recent Artnews article if she’d call herself feminist, Lin’s great reply was “…in China, we don’t have that tradition…but no matter how you look at it…it is better to have respect in mind and equality in mind.” (through Dec 15th).
Jules de Balincourt’s soldiers have a dazed, world-weary expression and, like Andy Warhol’s ‘Triple Elvis,’ each has at least one shadow character in near proximity. In this detail from the larger painting ‘Off Base,’ the artist turns the mens’ face paint camouflage into Fauvist masks that resonate with a reinterpreted Matisse painting nearby. (At Salon94 Bowery, on the Lower East Side, through January 13th.)