Charles Ray at Matthew Marks Gallery

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Charles Ray, Shoe Tie, solid stainless steel, 2012.
Charles Ray, Shoe Tie, solid stainless steel, 2012.

Charles Ray’s sculptural self-portrait is stunningly perfect – his body has the unflawed, fluid shine of poured mercury – and relentlessly banal – he sports an everyman physique and needs to tie a shoelace.  This first impression holds true to the man vs machine process he used to create the sculpture: a digital drawing is recreated as a clay sculpture which becomes the model for a computer controlled machine that sculpts the sculpture from a solid piece of steel. (At Matthew Marks Gallery on 22nd Street through Jan 12.)

Yinka Shonibare at James Cohan Gallery

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Yinka Shonibare, Revolutionary Kid (fox girl), mannequin, Dutch wax printed cotton, fibreglass, leather, taxidermy fox head, steel base plate, BlackBerry and 24 carat gold gilded gun, 2012.
Yinka Shonibare, Revolutionary Kid (fox girl), mannequin, Dutch wax printed cotton, fibreglass, leather, taxidermy fox head, steel base plate, BlackBerry and 24 carat gold gilded gun, 2012.

Yinka Shonibare’s crafty revolutionary looks set for success with money, guns and communications, as embodied by his ’12 ‘Revolution Kid (fox girl),’ spotted today in the back viewing room of Chelsea’s James Cohan Gallery.  Toting a blackberry and a 24 carat gold gilded gun and dressed in Shonibare’s signature Dutch-imported, ‘African’ textiles, she begs the question of who she is and who’s backing her.

Faking It: Manipulated Photography Before Photoshop

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Couple with Figure of Cupid, Unknown photographer, British, 1910s.
Couple with Figure of Cupid, Unknown photographer, British, 1910s.

From its invention, artists manipulated photographs to show what the camera couldn’t capture – from moving clouds to group portraits – and to produce a more interesting composition.  This unknown British artist’s photo from the 1910s in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s ‘Faking It: Manipulated Photography Before Photoshop’ exhibition shows true love, if not a true image.  (Through Jan 27th).

Kevin Zucker at Eleven Rivington

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Kevin Zucker, 'Rain (Paradise Cove Towers),' acrylic and toner on canvas, 2011.
Kevin Zucker, ‘Rain (Paradise Cove Towers),’ acrylic and toner on canvas, 2011.

Kevin Zucker’s new paintings of resort hotels in the rain might make us feel bad for the terrible weather on his travels…if he’d actually travelled.  Drawn together from various digital photos, imaginary scenes like ‘Rain (Paradise Cove Towers)’ resonate with recent work by other artists who have created ‘street photography’ from Google Street View.  However, as paintings, they seem to have more gravitas, regardless of how his dot technique emphasizes digital origins.  (At Eleven Rivington on the Lower East Side through Dec 22nd).

Kevin Zucker, 'Rain (Paradise Cove Towers),' acrylic and toner on canvas, 2011.
Kevin Zucker, ‘Rain (Paradise Cove Towers),’ acrylic and toner on canvas, 2011.

Martha Rosler’s Meta-Monumental Garage Sale at MoMA

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Martha Rosler, Meta-Monumental Garage Sale, installation view, 2012.
Martha Rosler, Meta-Monumental Garage Sale, installation view, 2012.

Martha Rosler’s ‘Meta-Monumental Garage Sale’ officially opens tomorrow at MoMA, allowing visitors to browse and buy second-hand clothes, furniture, home décor and more collected by the artist.  Though MoMA’s major art acquisitions make headlines, buying and selling is strictly behind the scenes;  here, Rosler puts consumption – the kind involving money AND aesthetics – center stage.  (Though Nov 30th, opens at 12pm).