Category: Features & Commissions

Marianne Vitale at Invisible Exports

Marianne Vitale gives new meaning to life on the rails with her repurposed railway tracks as minimalist sculpture, steel junctions as totemic figures and now, a train engine housing resembling a gas-masked ghoul.  Part of an exhibition that includes stacks of metal flangeway blocks that recall indecipherable letter shapes, Vitale’s art is anthropology – a search through remnants of a recently bygone era for clues to life in the not-so-distant past.  (On view at Invisible Exports on the Lower East Side through June 24th).

Marianne Vitale, Skull, repurposed train engine parts, 49 x 42 x 8 inches, 2018.

Yun-Fei Ji at James Cohan Gallery

Amid lush landscapes, bundles of household goods and furniture await removal in Yun-Fei Ji’s watercolor paintings of rural China.  As the government relocates huge numbers of country-dwellers to urban areas, the artist zeros in on individuals and their belongings in the process of being uprooted.  (On view at James Cohan Gallery’s Lower East Side location through June 16th).

Yun-Fei Ji, detail of The Family Belongings, watercolor and ink on Yuan paper mounted on silk, 15 ½ x 26 ¼ (unframed), 2011.

Sanle Sory at Yossi Milo Gallery

Fatoumata shows off a new braided hairstyle in this portrait by Burkina Faso photographer Sanle Sory, whose photo studio attracted the young and fashionable of Bobo-Dioulasso for decades after opening in 1960.  In dozens of images taken from the 60s to the 80s, now on view at Yossi Milo Gallery in Chelsea, Sory captures the lively self-styling of the country’s youth post-independence, calling photography ‘a witness to everything, a kind of proof of life.’ (On view through June 23rd).

Sanle Sory, Fatoumata nouvellement tressee, gelatin silver print, paper : 20 x 16 inches, 1978.

Cayce Zavaglia at Lyons Wier Gallery

Cayce Zavaglia pushes realism into new territory in her stunningly deft embroidered portraits of friends and family.  Long stitches become smooth lengths of hair while tiny dense ones create the interplay of light and color on skin.  Here, Hudson’s youthful face and textured plaid shirt stand out against an electric, lime-colored background.  (On view in Chelsea at Lyons Wier Gallery through June 2nd).

Cayce Zavaglia, Hudson, hand embroidery: crewel wool on Belgian linen with acrylic background, 15.5 x 13.25 inches, 2017.

Mernet Larsen at James Cohan Gallery

Perspective is unmoored in Mernet Larsen’s discombobulating scene of a high-level government meeting. The sense of disorientation suits an array of stiff, featureless leaders who with their flat physiques look as if they might go in whichever direction the wind blows. (On view at James Cohan Gallery’s Chelsea location through June 16th).

Mernet Larsen, Cabinet Meeting, acrylic and mixed media on canvas, 61 x 65 ¼ inches, 2017.