Xaviera Simmons, ‘Landscape (2 Women),’ in tête-à-tête at Yancey Richardson Gallery

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Xaviera Simmons, Landscape (2 Women), color photograph, 2007.
Xaviera Simmons, Landscape (2 Women), color photograph, 2007.

Xaviera Simmons is known for her portraits in America landscapes, but in ‘Landscape (2 Women)’ from 2007, her models contend with an urban environment consisting of a dramatic red wall that sends out conflicting associations that include love, anger, danger and a sense of urgency.  Simmons past series have sometimes featured subjects with skirts pulled over heads and assortments of objects hung around the waist like visual essays on identity; here, however, the womens’ differently aged bodies and their relationship are left to speak for themselves. (Included in tête-à-tête, curated by Mickalene Thomas at Yancey Richardson Gallery through Aug 24th.)

Bruce Nauman, ‘One Hundred Fish Fountain’ at Gagosian Gallery

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Bruce Nauman, One Hundred Fish Fountain, bronze fish suspended with stainless steel wire from a metal grid, 2005.
Bruce Nauman, One Hundred Fish Fountain, bronze fish suspended with stainless steel wire from a metal grid, 2005.

Stepping out of the elevator at Gagosian Gallery’s uptown, Madison Ave location, the roar of rushing water is immediate and surprisingly loud.  Around the corner, squeezed into the main 6th floor exhibition space, is iconic conceptual artist Bruce Nauman’s sculpture of 97 cast bronze fish spouting water from their bodies as if they’d been hunted by rifle as well as hook and line.  Elegant in photos, the mechanics of the piece – trailing tubes, a leaky basin, wires – dominate the in-person experience, creating typically Nauman-esque disconcertion.  (‘One Hundred Fish Fountain’ is at Gagosian Gallery through Aug 31st).

Guy Ben-Ner, ‘Stealing Beauty’ in ‘Idea is the Object’ at D’Amelio Gallery

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Guy Ben-Ner, 'Stealing Beauty,' video, 2007.
Guy Ben-Ner, ‘Stealing Beauty,’ video, 2007.

Imagine perusing bedroom sets in IKEA and finding a quarrelling married couple bedding down for the night.  Israeli artist Guy Ben-Ner is half of the couple starring in his own hilarious 18 minute 2007 video ‘Stealing Beauty’ that he shot without permission with a small camcorder in IKEA stores in New York, Berlin and Tel Aviv.  As he, his wife and two kids discuss the ramifications of capitalism on their family life, they pretend to read from the store’s libraries, shower in the bathroom and sip drinks in the kitchen, creating a provocative dissonance between public and private life and questioning the personal impact of political ideology. (‘Stealing Beauty is in ‘Idea is the Object’ at D’Amelio Gallery, Chelsea, through Aug 24th).

Lizzie Fitch, ‘Title TBD’ at Andrea Rosen Gallery

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Lizzie Fitch, Title TBD, wood, wood stain, ink on canvas, ink on paper, 2012.
Lizzie Fitch, Title TBD, wood, wood stain, ink on canvas, ink on paper, 2012.

Lizzie Fitch’s ‘Title TBD’ begs a few suggestions.  ‘Man power?’  ‘Guy stuff?’ The central panel’s car/power tool/DIY theme and a pile of spike-ended lumber that looks like its destined for fencing tries hard to conjure masculinity.  The piece tries so hard to look manly, it looks nothing like usual gallery fare (though it recalls Josephine Meckseper’s hot rod imagery).  ‘Feminine’ artwork abounds in New York galleries, so why so little that’s blatantly male? (At Andrea Rosen Gallery, Chelsea, through August 21st).

Erica Love & Joao Enxuto, ‘Anonymous Painting’ in ‘The Skin We’re In’ at Yossi Milo Gallery

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Erica Love & Joao Enxuto, from the series Anonymous Paintings, inkjet print on cotton canvas, 2012.
Erica Love & Joao Enxuto, from the series Anonymous Paintings, inkjet print on cotton canvas, 2012.

Can abstract art be used as a tool to resist Google’s efforts to map the world’s every nook and cranny?  Using screen grabs from Google Art Project’s museum walk-throughs, Brooklyn-based artists Erica Love and João Enxuto have launched a ‘counter archive’ of blurred images that have been obscured for copyright reasons. As large inkjet prints on cotton panels instead of tiny rectangles on a computer screen, they have a shimmering depth that recalls the 60s ‘Light & Space’ movement while pioneering a new medium somewhere between photography, installation and virtual art. (Love and Enxuto’s ‘Anonymous Paintings’ are included in ‘The Skin We’re In’ at Yossi Milo Gallery through August 31st.)