Category: Features & Commissions

Huang Yong Ping at Barbara Gladstone Gallery

What Huang Yong Ping’s ‘Bank of Sand, Sand of Bank’ lacks in subtlety it makes up for in presence, filling Barbara Gladstone Gallery’s 21st Street Chelsea location with 20 tons of sand and concrete molded to resemble the former HSBC Bank in Shanghai.  Once a symbol of opulence, here an omen of potential economic collapse, the hulking neoclassical building was used as a government building after the Chinese revolution and has since been adopted as home by the Pudong Development Bank.  (On view through June 9th).

Huang Yong Ping, installation view of ‘Bank of Sand, Sand of Bank’ at Gladstone Gallery, May 2018.

Sarah Peters at Van Doren Waxter

Sarah Peters takes her stylized bronze head sculptures to a newly disquieting level in her current exhibition at Van Doren Waxter on the Lower East Side.  Riffing on Greek dramatic masks, ancient Assyrian or Akkadian heads, and sex dolls, figures heads like this one embody ziggurat-like architectural form, as if place and priestess had merged into one haunting figure.  (On view on the Lower East Side through June 2nd).

Sarah Peters, Floating Head, bronze, 11 x 19 x 9 inches, 2016.

Ursula von Rydingsvard at Galerie Lelong

Sculptor Ursula von Rydingsvard describes this wall mounted cedar relief sculpture as beginning ‘gently then growing belligerent’ as its rows of cavities expand and lose their form closer to the floor.  On the flip side of aggressive, the carved wood forms are characterized by a softness that suggests disintegration.  Rising, falling and sliding along the wall, this sculpture’s shapes appear to be in constant motion.  (On view at Galerie Lelong in Chelsea through June 23rd).

Ursula von Rydingsvard, Oziksien, cedar, 145 x 123 x 30 inches, 2016.

Takashi Murakami at Perrotin

It can be easy to focus on the bright, pop side of Takashi Murakami’s production, even as his cute, anime-inspired characters sprout fangs.  His current solo show on all three floors of Perrotin’s Lower East Side gallery continues to probe darker sides of life (a strain in his work that’s grown since Japan’s 2011 tsunami and earthquake) by engaging with select paintings by Francis Bacon.  Here, Bacon’s famous painting of rival and friend Lucian Freud is springboard for Murakami’s own alternative characters – multi-eyed alien creatures that suggest humor and menace in equal measure.  (On view through June 17th).

Takashi Murakami, Untitled, acrylic, gold and platinum leaf on canvas mounted on aluminum frame, h: 197.8 x l: 147.5 cm (each), 2018.

Mayumi Lake at Miyako Yoshinaga Gallery

Using patterns scanned and printed from her collection of vintage kimonos, Chicago-based artist Mayumi Lake creates floral abstractions – adding a fringe of beads and other elements – that mix tradition and contemporary life.  Designed to resemble huge flowers that might decorate a sacred place, the blooms grow in size and color in proportion to life’s difficulties.  (On view at Miyako Yoshinaga Gallery in Chelsea through May 25th).

Mayumi Lake, Unison (Orgel-Merry), pigment print, imitation gold leaf, plastic, wire and wood, 43 x 33 inches, 2017.