There’s more amazing artwork in New York than we can feature! Join Merrily on a small group gallery tour and be inspired by all that the city’s galleries have to offer. Please visit New York Art Tours’ website for a schedule and to book your spot.
Andrea Zittel in MoMA’s 53rd Street Window
For her last Chelsea solo show in the fall, Andrea Zittel’s carpet, garments, and wall hangings asked how many ways a rectangle can be manipulated to create art & design. In MoMA’s 53rd Street windows, her quasi-minimalism object/humanoid characters sport coverings that could be dress or artwork.
Monika Sosnowska and the Public Art Fund
Monika Sosnowska’s ‘Fir Tree,’ a 40 foot tall steel sculpture currently located at the southeast entrance to Central Park is just a step beyond the park’s trees but is more in keeping with the solid, man-made structures surrounding the park. It belongs to neither world, however, and its lack of cheer and melted, post-disaster appearance lend it an ominous intrigue. (Through Feb 17th).
Wolfgang Tillmans at MoMA
The Museum of Modern Art recently rehung its contemporary art galleries, making room for an entire room of work by photography trailblazer Wolfgang Tillmans. It includes this recent experimental abstraction created by chemical processes in the darkroom and thirty iconic photos of European youth culture, displayed in a typically unconventional arrangement.
Alicja Kwade at Harris Lieberman Gallery
It’s easy to lose track of time while visiting galleries, but not at Chelsea’s Harris Lieberman Gallery, where Berlin-based artist Alicja Kwade amplifies the sound of eight pocket watches, hung from the gallery ceiling. This spare installation entices viewers to wander through chains and wires, analog and digital components that prompt consideration of our place in time and space. (Through Jan 12th.)
Ed Ruscha at Gagosian Gallery
Ed Ruscha’s legendary artist book ‘Twentysix Gasoline Stations’ (1963) zeroed in on banal subject matter to question its importance in American culture. In his latest solo show at Gagosian Gallery’s 24th Street location, Ruscha continues to pursue both books and paintings in works like Gilded, Marbled and Foiled, a painting that considers this book as a physical object more than a means of communication. (Through Jan 12th.)
Keltie Ferris at Mitchell-Innes & Nash
‘Fresh, direct and very much of this moment,’ is how the New York Times described Brooklyn artist Keltie Ferris’ show of large, digital-looking handmade oil and acrylic paintings at Chelsea’s Mitchell-Innes & Nash. Blurs of sprayed paint suggest a plane’s vapor trail while carefully painted pixel-like blocks of yellow-orange color lend the painting a jumpy energy. (Through Jan 12th.)
Tal R at Cheim & Read
Danish painter Tal R translates the world into more vibrant colors in paintings which give everyday places a fairground appeal, albeit a slightly foreboding one. In ‘The Minute,’ the biomorphic shapes of the clouds suggest strange happenings while a dark corner looks like the folded corner of a book page. (At Chelsea’s Cheim & Read Gallery through January 12th.)
Wade Guyton at the Whitney Museum of American Art
Ever struggle to print something from the computer? Wade Guyton heroizes the process, creating his artwork by devising images on his computer, then battling to run his linen supports through large printers. The untitled piece on the left started as an x typed on his screen; the multi-panel piece on the right as the word ‘us.’ (At the Whitney Museum through 1/13.)
Jeff Zimmerman at the Museum of Art & Design
Elegant and sinister at the same time, Jeff Zimmerman’s hand-blown and hand-shaped glass light sculptures from 2009 are now on view as part of the Museum of Art and Design’s ‘Playing with Fire: 50 Years of Contemporary Glass.’ If you enjoy learning and sharing about contemporary art and design, consider volunteering as a MAD Docent; training begins this spring.
Ellie Murphy in ‘To Be a Lady’ at 1285 Avenue of the Americas Art Gallery
Ellie Murphy’s ‘Omega Female’ is a standout in ‘To Be A Lady,’ a diverse group show of work by 45 female artists at the 1285 Avenue of the Americas Art Gallery. Using acrylic yarn, cotton, and steel in one of her signature large yarn sculptures, Murphy creates a figure as totemic as it is folksy, suggesting a anthropomorphized sea creature with long tentacles as well as a prairie settler with brown braid and print-patterned, pillow-like head. (Through Jan 18th).
Gary Simmons at Metro Pictures
In a 20-year retrospective of his work at Chelsea’s Metro Pictures Gallery, Gary Simmons’ ‘Stardust, Blizzard’ from 2006 is a standout. Simmons turns two terms for cocaine into beautiful but haunting text images using his signature, hand-smearing technique. (Through Jan 19th.)
El Anatsui at Jack Shainman Gallery
In advance of Ghanaian artist El Anatsui’s show of monumental works at the Brooklyn Museum opening early next month, Chelsea’s Jack Shainman Gallery is currently showing elegant new, quasi-textile artworks created from the artist’s signature material – metal sourced from recycled liquor bottles. (through Jan 19th).
Philip Worthington’s ‘Shadow Monsters’ at MoMA
The party continues in the Museum of Modern Art’s atrium (which this fall has housed group dance sessions and a monumental garage sale) with British designer Philip Worthington’s interactive installation, ‘Shadow Monsters.’ When visitors stand in front of a lightbox, vision recognition software tracks their movements and adds teeth, tongues, eyes and more to their shadows in two huge projections on the atrium walls. (Through January 2nd.)
Nicholas Party at Salon 94 Freemans
Artist Nicholas Party is aptly named considering his mixed media installation, ‘Dinner for 24 Dogs’ which he designed for a dinner party at Salon 94 this fall. Seen here afterwards at Salon94’s Freemans Alley space, 24 hand painted ceramic plates that once held artistically arranged edibles rest on a sliced, patterned table while wooden dogs wait patiently below to support the diners who complete this participatory artwork. (At the LES’s Salon 94 Freemans through Dec 22nd).
Rodney Graham at 303 Gallery
Rodney Graham is the artist behind this brightly colored lightbox titled ‘Sunday Sun, 1937,’ but who is the character hidden by the Technicolor funnies surrounded by gentile flowers on wallpaper and bedspread? Male or female, kid or adult, this character maintains his/her private world of reading pleasure with an upturned paper. (At 303 Gallery, Chelsea, through Dec 21st).
Mario Merz at Sperone Westwater Gallery
The sheer size of ‘Wandering Songs I (Canti errabondi I)’ from 1983 makes it a standout in ‘Mario Merz: Major Works from the 1980s’ at Sperone Westwater Gallery on the Lower East Side. The Arte Povera artist’s natural materials abound in an oil painting of leaves and pine cones on a 25’ long canvas, accompanied by a block of beeswax formed around a tree branch. The contrast between nature depicted (the painting), sampled (the branch) and made (wax made by bees) gives the piece its energy. (through Dec 22nd).
Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’ at MoMA
Here’s a look at Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream,’ a version of the iconic artwork from 1895 in pastel-on-cardboard, currently installed at the Museum of Modern Art. Recently purchased at auction for nearly $120 million, its owner has anonymously loaned it to the museum for six months. (Arrive early to avoid a new nonmembers line just to get into the fifth floor galleries.)
Bernadette Corporation at Artists Space
Does anything say ‘elegant urban funky construction worker’ like a workman’s shirt with embroidered logo, workman’s jeans, a fur coat and a chicken bone necklace? This outfit from artist collective Bernadette Corporation’s mid-90s fashion label turns the street into a runway by merging everyday fashions with haute couture. (BC’s retrospective is in SoHo at Artists Space through Dec 16th).
Mark Barrow at Elizabeth Dee Gallery
Artist Mark Barrow and textile designer Sarah Parke (partners in art and life) turn the weave of a canvas into a work of art itself by devising loom patterns from red, green and blue thread to make a support. Barrow then applies additional paint to the surface in tiny dot patterns creating a kind of secondary artwork on top of the woven fabric. (At Elizabeth Dee Gallery, Chelsea through Dec 15th.)
Huang Yong Ping at Barbara Gladstone Gallery
Headless animals wander in and out of a bamboo cage-like structure while a giant deity collapses into pieces in Chinese-French artist Huang Yong Ping’s latest installation at Barbara Gladstone’s 21st Street gallery. The piece feels a little too eerie and apocalyptic for its cynical title, ‘Circus.’ (through Jan 19th.)
Carl Andre at Paula Cooper Gallery
Four parallel rows of twenty-five Western Red Cedar timbers extend out from the walls of Chelsea’s Paula Cooper Gallery in Carl Andre’s 1977 piece ‘Redoubt.’ As much as it suggests a stronghold, the piece also recalls architectural ruins on the order of Roman ruins near Hadrian’s Wall. (through Dec 15th).
Fred Tomaselli at James Cohan Gallery
This collage by Fred Tomaselli (seen here in detail), is hidden away in James Cohan Gallery’s back viewing room but has been a big attention grabber on tours lately, and no wonder. Its color, pattern and mesmerizing detail give your eyes (all 20 of them?) and brains a workout.
Isabella Kirkland at Feature, Inc.
Titled ‘Nova: Canopy,’ this meticulously detailed painting by Isabella Kirkland (an artist and a research associate in the department of aquatic biology at the California Academy of Sciences) brings together plants and creatures found in the rainforest canopy, though not all in the same geographic location. All discovered in the past twenty years, they’re a powerful testament to earth’s profusion. (At Feature, Inc’s group show ‘Punt’ on the Lower East Side through Dec 22nd.)
Kutlug Ataman at Sperone Westwater
Step into the entrance of Turkish artist Kutlug Ataman’s latest solo at Sperone Westwater and you step into the flow of the Iguazu Falls in Argentina…or at least a projection of them in ‘Mayhem,’ a seven channel installation on screens and the floor. Ataman explains the piece as a response to the Arab Spring as it symbolizes cleansing and destroying power. (At Sperone Westwater on the Lower East Side through Dec 22nd).
Leo Villareal on the 6 train platform at Bleeker
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).
Daniel Joseph Martinez at Simon Preston Gallery
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.)
Kent Rogowski at Jen Bekman Gallery
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 at Galerie Lelong
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 at Salon94 Bowery
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.)
Mickalene Thomas Landscape at Lehmann Maupin
Mickalene Thomas is having her moment in New York, with gallery shows at Lehmann Maupin Gallery in Chelsea and on the Lower East Side while her retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum continues. This landscape, now on view on the Lower East Side and titled ‘Vertical View of Jardin D’Eau’ was inspired by Thomas’ residency at Monet’s residence and garden at Giverny, home of his famous water lilies. (At Lehmann Maupin Gallery through Jan 5th).
‘The Art of Scent’ at the Museum of Art & Design
Though it looks like a mini-version of a Doug Wheeler Light & Space installation crossed with a urinal and an abstracted cleavage, this wall indentation (designed by architecture firm Diller, Scofidio & Renfro) is the receptacle for an artwork that is scent alone. It is one of twelve concoctions on display in the Museum of Art & Design’s ‘The Art of Scent’ and is called L’Eau d’Issey after designer Issay Miyake, who commissioned a scent that would suggest water. (Through Feb 24th, 2013).
Trenton Doyle Hancock at James Cohan Gallery
For a decade, Trenton Doyle Hancock’s busy, messy and captivating collages told the tales of his invented creatures – the Mounds and the Vegans. He leaves those characters behind in his latest solo show at Chelsea’s James Cohan Gallery, but not before making this disconcerting self-portrait in which his eye and mostly removed face emerges from the open maw of a screaming, striped Mound. (through Dec 22nd)
Alice Channer at Lisa Cooley Gallery
London-based artist Alice Channer’s sculpture ‘Backbone’ makes the best use of stirrup pants ever. Cast in polyurethane resin and paired with aluminum bars, they elegantly slink across the gallery floor towards two huge vertical banners featuring elongated shampoo bottles. (At Lisa Cooley Gallery on the Lower East Side through Dec 23rd).
Dan Perjovschi at Lombard-Freid Gallery
Romanian artist Dan Perjovschi’s window installation at Chelsea’s Lombard-Freid Gallery remains from pre-Hurricane Sandy, though his installation of politically attuned drawings made directly on newpaper front-pages had not yet opened when this photo was taken – exactly three weeks after the storm. It’s a poignant plug for critical thinking.
Edward & Nancy Kienholz’s ‘The Ozymandias Parade’ at Pace Gallery
Installation art pioneers Edward & Nancy Kienholz’s 1985 sculpture ‘The Ozymandias Parade’ is heartfelt and bitter enough to give pause to both post U.S. presidential election gloaters and wound-lickers. Depicting a national leader and his deputy falling from horses and a top ranking general riding an elderly taxpayer’s back, it also reveals the results of a poll taken this fall prior to the installation asking, “Are you happy with your government?’ The answer was ‘no.’ (At Pace Gallery, 510 West 25th Street through Dec 22nd).
Join one of Merrily’s final art gallery tours of 2012!
Join me on one of my final art gallery tours of 2012! On Dec 1st, 2-4pm, we’ll be seeing the best that Chelsea has to offer. The next day, Sunday Dec 2nd, 10:30am – 12pm, I’ve added an additional tour of ‘Regarding Warhol’ at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. On December 8th, 11am – 1pm (a new time), we’ll check out the highlights of New York’s more experimental galleries on the Lower East Side. And as always, if you can’t join me on a tour, I’m glad we can see ‘an outstanding artwork a day’ together on Facebook!
Anish Kapoor at Barbara Gladstone Gallery
Anish Kapoor’s concave sculptures, like this untitled stainless steel and lacquer disk currently at Chelsea’s Barbara Gladstone Gallery (24th Street location), are austere and elegant, a complete contrast to the lively Gangnam style video he recently released in support of artist/activist Ai Weiwei and Amnesty International. It’s worth another Gangnam parody just to see clips from dancing staff at MoMA, the Whitney, Guggenheim, and Gladstone Gallery and more.
Barnaby Furnas at Marianne Boesky Gallery
Whale-lovers beware at Barnaby Furnas’ latest solo show at Marianne Boesky Gallery in Chelsea – riffing on Herman Melville’s ‘Moby Dick’ and Jonah’s cetacean misadventure, Furnas’s new paintings picture whalers in total, gory triumph. Inspired by the fact that whale oil provided light for lamps, Furnas bathes a tattered Jonah in celestial light as he reaches shore, prepared to follow a new path. (Through Dec 21st).
Peter Stichbury at Tracy Williams, Ltd.
Xavier Gravas is adrift in the contemporary, communication-saturated world. Consternation bows the perfect swoosh of his arching eyebrows. His full lips are set grimly together. He is an invented character that his creator, Aukland-based artist Peter Stichbury, calls a ‘Superfluous Man.’ Haunted by a sense of insignificance, Xavier peruses personal perfection to exquisite and troubling effect. (At Chelsea’s Tracy Williams, Ltd., through Dec 22nd).
Charles Ray Self Portrait at Matthew Marks
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
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
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
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).
Martha Rosler’s Meta-Monumental Garage Sale at MoMA
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).
Phyllida Barlow at Hauser & Wirth
Constructed of layers of cardboard, plywood, foam and felt, Phyllida Barlow’s untitled column sculptures at Hauser & Wirth are monumental without being macho. Bright, enticing colors and soft materials humanize these minimalist stacks. (At Hauser & Wirth, 32 East 69th Street through 12/22).
Eberhardt Havekost at Anton Kern Gallery
Eberhard Havekost’s painting ‘Ocean’ is once again on display as Chelsea’s Anton Kern Gallery reopened today, post-Sandy. It’s a standout in a show about Havekost as artist and consumer, who transforms an enviable body (sourced from a German ad) into a mottled obstacle to the paradisiacal scene behind. (Through Dec 15th).
Hellen van Meene at Yancey Richardson Gallery
Chelsea is slowly coming back to life, post-Sandy. Yancey Richardson Gallery just reopened a show of panorama photos by Hellen van Meene including this portrait of an exquisite girl in a dilapidated interior, taken in Heiloo, Netherlands in ’08. (Though Nov 24th.)
Barb Choit at Rachel Uffner Gallery
Faded posters of ‘fade’ hairdos headline Barb Choit’s latest solo show, ‘Fade Diary.’ Featuring non-professional models, they recall yearbook photos, anthropological studies and mug shots while documenting faded fashions. In another photo, a model sporting a red glove echoes past styles while reflecting the present day NYC street in an image that has resonance with Lee Friedlander’s store-front photos currently uptown at Pace Gallery. (At Rachel Uffner Gallery, Lower East Side through Dec 23rd.)
Pieter Schoolwerth at Miguel Abreu Gallery
Painter Pieter Schoolwerth rewrites art history with a new series of paintings that remake 17th century French painter Simon Vouet’s 1635 ‘Aeneas and His Family Fleeing Troy.’ Here, Aeneas, his invalid father and his small son crowd into one dynamic figure (created from digital printout, drawn lines and thick areas of painting) in an urgent escape. (At Miguel Abreu Gallery, Lower East Side, through Dec 22nd).
Chuck Close at Pace Prints, 57th Street
Technique rather than subject matter (he’s painted portraits for over thirty years) drives interest in Chuck Close’s recent artwork. For this remake of his iconic ‘Mark’ (’78-’79), Close layered gesso on the paper and screenprinted a grid. Using a dowel with felt on the end, each square is hand stamped three times with different colors. Factor in a week’s drying time for each layer and it’s no wonder that edition of 40 is still being printed. (At Pace Prints, 57th Street through Nov 21st.)
John Baldessari at Marian Goodman Gallery
Conceptual artist John Baldessari pairs song lyrics with images abstracted from canonical paintings in his latest series of paintings. The odd angle of this deer’s head gives its source away as an 1867 hunting scene by Gustave Courbet. The hunt looks more comical than gruesome in Baldessari’s version, though on reflection maybe both deer and fly should be spared. (At Marian Goodman Gallery, 57th Street, through Nov 21).
Lee Friedlander, ‘Nudes’ at Pace Gallery
John Szarkowski, MoMA’s photography director for nearly 30 years, called Lee Friedlander’s nude photos, “… the most unblinkingly, unreservedly candid descriptions of other people’s bodies that serious photography has produced.” Pace Gallery proves his point with a show of photos from the late 70s to the early 90s that practically interrogate female bodies in their intensity. (On 57th Street through Dec 22nd).
Lee Friedlander at Pace/MacGill
Photographer Lee Friedlander returns to his roots by shooting reflective store windows with a 35mm camera in his latest series, titled ‘Mannequin.’ Here, a building’s façade tries to impose its grid on a Dolly-Parton-haired good-time girl while a curtain and rod at the top complicates ideas of public and private space. (At Pace/MacGill Gallery, 57th Street through Dec 22nd).
‘Regarding Warhol’ at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Andy Warhol’s Cow Wallpaper and Silver Clouds, originally created for a solo show at Leo Castelli Gallery in 1966, reunite in the final room of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s ‘Regarding Warhol’ exhibition for a jolt of interactive fun. Join Merrily on Sunday, Nov 18th (10am – 11:30am) for a small group tour of this blockbuster show. (Space is limited to six participants. $40pp. To make a reservation, please email merrily@newyorkarttours.com.)
Olafur Eliasson at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery
Though not many of Olafur Eliasson’s projects are going to measure up to the impact of his past large-scale artworks (creating waterfalls on New York City’s East River or a sun in the Tate’s Turbine Hall), his latest solo show at Chelsea’s Tanya Bonakdar Gallery features this simple but mesmerizing display of three fountains, lit by strobes, which turn moving water into seemingly static sculptures. (through Dec 22nd).
Judy Pfaff at Ameringer McEnery Yohe Gallery
Judy Pfaff’s new sculptures, on view at Chelsea’s Ameringer McEnery Yohe Gallery, channel Lynda Benglis’s neon colors and puffy forms, Louise Bourgeois’ or Yayoi Kusama’s profusion of phallic protrusions, and the commanding presence of a more recent wall-mounted Frank Stella. Yet the profusion of optical seduction is typical Pfaff, as seen in pieces like ‘The Path to the Center was Clearly Marked’ (2012), an over 7ft wide tour de force created from honeycomb cardboard, pigmented expanded form, melted plastics, fluorescent and incandescent light. (Through November 10th.)
Joel Meyerowitz at Howard Greenberg Gallery
Today, Joel Meyerowitz chatted with visitors to Howard Greenberg Gallery on the occasion of a show of his street photographs from the 60s and 70s, which include iconic shots like his couple in camel colored coats walking through NYC steam, the odd spectacle of a fallen man on a Paris sidewalk, and this eccentric human/cat threesome from New York’s 1964 Easter Parade. (On 57th Street through December 1st).
Glenn Ligon at Luhring Augustine Gallery
Glenn Ligon’s ‘Double America’ occupies its own room at a show of the artist’s text-based neon artworks made since ’05, enhancing the impact of a high-wattage piece that brings to the fore division and binary oppositions in this country. (At Chelsea’s Luhring Augustine Gallery through December 8th).
Seth Price at Petzel Gallery
Known for vacuum forming objects (masks, a bomber jacket) in polystyrene, Seth Price explores new sealing options with giant fabric envelopes in his latest solo show – the inaugural exhibition in Petzel Gallery’s beautiful (pre-flood anyway) new 18th Street location. Printed with patterns derived from financial businesses like Capital One and Paychex logos, the envelopes suggest an unclear but persistent connection between art and commerce. (Through Dec 22nd.)
Judy Fox at PPOW Gallery
PPOW Gallery in Chelsea has some pretty pompous door greeters in the form of Judy Fox’s charmingly absurd, anthropomorphized ‘Large Octopus’ sculptures, subtitled ‘Dowager’ and ‘Elder.’ At around 2.5 and 3.5 feet high the duo are impressively large to be crafted in Fox’s signature terracotta & casein materials but small enough to present more of an amusement than a threat. (Through Dec 15th).
Mounir Fatmi, ‘Maximum Sensation’ at the Brooklyn Museum
The Brooklyn Museum will open its doors tomorrow, a day after Sandy hit the city. In a cheeky, colorful display there, Moroccan-born, Paris-based artist Mounir Fatmi presents fifty skateboards covered in Islamic prayer rugs. Titled ‘Maximum Sensation,’ the installation begs the question of where we find heightened consciousness – in faith, sport or both? (On long-term installation in the Contemporary Art Galleries).
Nina Chanel Abney at Kravets/Wehby Gallery & Anna Kustera Gallery
Nina Chanel Abney says she’s ‘living in an age of information overload,’ and her new paintings prove the point by piling up disguised references to mass media content, from politics to advertising. This detail – from an over 20-foot long mural titled ‘I Dread to Think’ – surprisingly jumbles race, religion and gender in two female deities. (At Kravets/Wehby Gallery and Anna Kustera Gallery on 21st Street in Chelsea through Nov 24th).
Mark Bradford at Sikkema Jenkins & Co
Mark Bradford is back with more of the mixed media collage/decollage canvases that have made his reputation as a leading contemporary abstract artist, like this mixed media on canvas piece, ‘We May Be Running Out of a Past.’ His latest solo show at Chelsea’s Sikkema Jenkins & Co opened this evening, showcasing eight huge, vibrantly colored pieces that don’t evidence a new direction for the artist but do explain his popularity. (Through Dec 15th .)
Zhan Wang in the 590 Madison Ave Atrium
In the 90s, Zhan Wang caused a stir in China by intervening in the landscaping around new, modern buildings by replacing natural rock formations with his large, chrome-covered stainless steel scholars rocks. In the atrium of 590 Madison Ave, the ‘stones’ are in keeping with the glass wall and bamboo plantings, but they still have a ghostly, shape-shifting presence.
Al Taylor at David Zwirner Gallery
Strapped for cash to buy art supplies after a trip to Africa in the early 80s, Al Taylor started fashioning sculptures from material found on the street, transferring his usual work on paper and canvas to three dimensions. Cans & Hoops – fashioned from plastic hula hoops, tin cans & wire – allows his 2-D drawings to come alive in real space. (At David Zwirner Gallery, through Oct 27th).
Chuck Close at Pace Gallery
With over 200 solo shows to his credit, Chuck Close is one of America’s best known artists, and he’s still pushing the boundaries of his craft. His latest solo show at Pace Gallery’s 534 W. 25th Street space features oil paintings, watercolors made with a printer and other works, including this portrait of artist Kara Walker made with oil and a felt hand stamp. (Through Dec 22nd.)
Mickalene Thomas at Brooklyn Museum
Mickalene Thomas’s ‘Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe: Les trois femmes noires,’ rethinks Manet’s 1863 original by substituting three black women for Manet’s two men and a nude woman. Manet’s version was rejected by the Salon, while Thomas’s rhinestone bedecked beauties headline her current show at the Brooklyn Museum (Through Jan 20th.)
Ai Weiwei at Mary Boone Gallery, Chelsea
Further to yesterday’s post, Ai Weiwei’s activism continues at Mary Boone’s Chelsea gallery with ‘Forge’ an installation of twisted pieces of rebar. Though the print and carefully arranged, twisted pieces of metal on the floor appear to be calligraphic abstractions, they’re created from pieces of metal retrieved from shoddily constructed schools that collapsed in the 2008 earthquake, killing thousands of children. (Through 21st.)
Ai Weiwei at Mary Boone Gallery
In Chinese, ‘river crab’ sounds like a euphemistic term used to describe censorship, so when artist and human rights activist Ai Weiwei learned in 2010 that his newly built studio was to be demolished by the local government, he hosted a protest feast at which 10,000 river crabs were served. This installation of 2,500 handmade ceramic crabs at Mary Boone Gallery’s Fifth Ave & 57th Street space recalls that event and demonstrates WeiWei’s insuppressible resistance. (Through Dec 21st.)
Alessandro Pessoli Sculpture at Anton Kern Gallery
Alessandro Pessoli’s painted figures usually look like they’ve emerged from a dream or hallucination; these absurdly phallic Maiolica ceramic sculptures, fittingly titled Sancho Panza & Don Chiscotte, lack the typical atmospheric surroundings of Pessoli’s paintings, but their lighthearted vibrant colors and mobile-like hanging lend them an amusing whimsy. (At Chelsea’s Anton Kern Gallery through Oct 20th.)
Sally Mann at Edwynn Houk Gallery
As Sally Mann recovered from an accident in which she was thrown from and pummeled by her dying horse in ’06, she turned to self-portraiture to create haunting ambrotypes like this one. Streaking, blurring, over and underexposures mar the images, speaking movingly to the damage inflicted on their subject. (At Edwynn Houk Gallery on Fifth Ave & 57th Street through Nov 3rd.)
Gordon Parks at Howard Greenberg Gallery
Gordon Parks’ iconic photographs spanned the worlds of fashion, celebrity and social documentary from this 1949 photo of Ingrid Bergman on location for the filming of Roberto Rossellini’s ‘Stromboli’ to a photo from the ’56 Segregation Series that demonstrates the respectable normality of Mr & Mrs Albert Thornton in their living room in Mobile Alabama. Both are on view at Howard Greenberg Gallery on 57th Street through Oct 27th.
Andra Ursuta at Ramiken Crucible
Smashed gallery windows and a wall plowed down by a shiny cart set a restive mood for Andra Ursuta’s latest solo show at Ramiken Crucible on the Lower East Side. Totemic female torsos crafted from a mix of concrete and manure and marble statues of a Romanian gypsy woman awaiting deportation from France are weighed down and beautified by jewelry made from coins. Partly informed by a story of Romanian witches casting a curse on their government, the show’s female characters stubbornly resist tidy concepts of national identity. (Through October 21st.)
William Wegman at Salon94 Freemans
You don’t even have to be a dog lover to appreciate William Wegman’s videos with his Weimaraners May Ray and Fay Ray. Here, the duo watches an off-screen ball with rapt attention, creating a mesmerizing, slow-motion dance performed with the utmost concentration. See this video and more early Wegman videos at Salon 94 Freemans on the Lower East Side. (Through Oct 27th).
Matt Johnson at 303 Gallery
Conceived of by accident when a shirt used as a glue rag dried into an arresting form, Matt Johnson’s Wifebeater is as pedestrian and delicately ephemeral as a plastic bag in the wind. At least on first glance. A closer look reveals Johnson’s trademark twist of using unlikely materials to make his sculpture. This t-shirt is made of bronze. (At Chelsea’s 303 Gallery through Nov 17th.)
Anya Kielar at Rachel Uffner Gallery
From dyeing fabric to altering the weave of burlap, Brooklyn-based artist Anya Kielar harnesses an assortment of techniques to create her monumental ‘Women’ now on view at Rachel Uffner‘s Lower East Side gallery. Totemic goddesses and folksy females on floating screens transcend the everyday, literally becoming larger than life. Join Merrily next Saturday the 13th, 2-4pm on a tour of this show and more on the Lower East Side.
Marco Anelli at Danziger Projects
For two and a half months in 2010, during every hour the Museum of Modern Art was open, performance artist Marina Abramovic sat silently facing a chair filled by a steady stream of visitors. Photographer Marco Anelli was there with her, capturing the thoughtful, blank and tearful faces of each participant as they engaged in a wordless exchange with the artist. (Anelli’s ‘Portraits in the Presence of Marina Abramovic is at Chelsea’s Danziger Projects through Oct 27th).
Sam Samore at Team Gallery, part II
Lips and eyes fill Team Gallery’s 47 Wooster St space in SoHo where Sam Samore (whose 1973 ‘Suicidist’ photos were featured here yesterday) continues to summon filmic moments, offering seduction on an enormous scale. Here, Lips Tower (#7) resembles a stacked sculpture by Minimalist Donald Judd, though the serial units – lips – are the antithesis of the Minimalists’ cold aesthetic.
Sam Samore, 1973, at Team Gallery
Thirty-nine years ago, artist Sam Samore killed himself by asphyxiation, stabbing, overdose, and in an amusingly absurd twist, being buried head first in a sandbox. Photos of these grisly, staged deaths from his 1973 ‘The Suicidist’ series and many more line the walls of SoHo’s Team Gallery recalling film stills both familiar and bizarre. (At Team Gallery’s 83 Grand Street location through October 27th).
Jonah Freeman & Justin Lowe at Marlborough Gallery Chelsea
Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe’s latest feat of installation art takes visitors through a series of rooms, transporting us into both strange and familiar worlds. This show is the talk of the town, art-wise, and is a stop on this Saturday afternoon’s Chelsea Gallery Tour, 2-4pm. For more info, see the scheduled tours page. (At Chelsea’s Marlborough Gallery through Oct 27th).
Lynette Yiadom-Boakye at Jack Shainman Gallery
The young British artist Lynette Yiadom-Boakye was a standout in last spring’s New Museum Triennial. She’s back with a show of new paintings at Chelsea’s Jack Shainman Gallery titled ‘All Manner of Needs’ in which solitary subjects gaze out at us with searching eyes. (Through October 13th.)
Gelitin at Greene Naftali Gallery
‘You break it, you buy it’ does not apply at the Austrian art collective Gelatin’s latest solo show at Greene Naftali in Chelsea, where the point is to send art objects flying in order to ‘finish’ them. Pressing the pedal to send objects like these crashing to the floor feels as wrong as dropping a baby, regardless of their artistic merit (or lack thereof). (Through Nov 13th.)
Valerie Hegarty at Nichelle Beauchene
This is one watermelon you do not want to eat…or be eaten by. A giant lick of modeling paste extends from Valerie Hegarty’s repulsive ‘Watermelon Tongue,’ curbing the appetite and recalling ‘Little Shop of Horrors,’ one inspiration for this painting. Hegarty was also thinking of last year’s news reports of exploding watermelons in China, which were mistakenly sprayed with growth accelerator. Now do you want to know where your food comes from? (At Nichelle Beauchene Gallery on the Lower East Side, through October 20th).
3-D Form at the New Museum of Contemporary Art
What’s at the cutting edge of visual art animation? Check out the New Museum’s answer to that question – the on-line only exhibition, ‘3-D Form,’ which features four artists whose human characters dance, flirt and float as they occupy strange realms of cyberspace. (Through October 17th.)
Ai Weiwei at Carolina Nitsch
One thousand hand-painted, porcelain sunflower seeds made in Jingdezhen, China are on offer at Carolina Nitsch as part of a show of work (80s NYC photos and Qing Dynasty chairs) by dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. Once a metaphor for the Chinese populace following their leadership as the sunflower follows the sun, these remnants of Weiwei’s five ton installation at Tate Modern suggest that it’s the artist who is followed so closely as his popularity continues to rise. (At Carolina Nitsch through Nov 3rd.)
Andrea Zittel at Andrea Rosen Gallery
Why is one textile hung carefully on a wall for display while others are put on the floor for everyday use? Andrea Zittel’s latest solo show, designed by her and crafted by weavers from around the country, digs into the question of why we want both beautifully designed objects with use value and objects to rever as fine art. Zittel created this carpet to fill the floor of her yet-to-be-built 12 x 16 foot cabin. (At Andrea Rosen Gallery, Chelsea, through October 27th).
Toba Khedoori at David Zwirner Gallery
Toba Khedoori is known for her monumental paintings on paper devoid of human subjects, but in her latest show at Chelsea’s David Zwirner Gallery, she makes a major shift to small-scale oils on canvas. The size change lessens the works’ dramatic impact but a mood of still isolation remains, prompting writer Julian Bismuth to compare each new work to, “…a puzzle piece removed from its set and held up to the light.” (Through October 27th).
Tatzu Nishi at Columbus Circle with the Public Art Fund
Ever think Christopher Columbus would invite you over to his place? Something like that is happening on Columbus Circle, starting tomorrow, as the Public Art Fund opens Japanese artist Tatzu Nishi’s ‘Discovering Columbus.’ After climbing six flights of stairs, visitors who’ve reserved free, timed passes can lounge in a furnished living room constructed atop a scaffolding that surrounds the 13-foot tall sculpture from 1892. (Through November 18th. Passes available at publicartfund.org.)
Julian Hoeber at Harris Lieberman Gallery
LA artist Julian Hoeber’s first NY solo show features a recreation of an old roadside attraction, a ‘gravitational mystery spot’ in which the laws of gravity were altered. Inside a plywood and metal-framed cube, the trick is a simple sloping floor and ceiling which non-the-less demonstrates how easily our perception can be tricked. (At Harris Lieberman, Chelsea through October 20th).
Teresita Fernandez at Lehmann Maupin Gallery
Teresita Fernandez created this sculpture on site at Lehmann Maupin’s Lower East Side location this summer, turning thousands of translucent, colored layers of polycarbonate into an installation evoking the lights of the aurora borealis. (Through October 20th.)
Martha Friedman at Wallspace
You use tools to make art, but can you make art out of studio tools? Martha Friedman gives it her best shot, transforming a rather impersonal object – the wedge – into mysteriously totemic towers punctuated with flaccid, pizza-paddle shapes in day-glo orange silicone rubber. (At Chelsea’s Wallspace Gallery through October 20th).
Erik Parker at Paul Kasmin Gallery
‘Bye Bye Babylon,’ the title of Erik Parker’s latest solo show at Paul Kasmin Gallery, and his subject matter – edenic landscapes teeming with psychedelic flora – suggest he’s left the city for greener pastures. In fact, he’s still Brooklyn-based but uses the exotic locales he depicts to take a mental break from urban life. (Through October 13th). For more fuchsia skies and purple seas, check out Paul Kasmin’s website.
Nancy Davidson at Betty Cunningham Gallery
Before you get to the giant inflated and conjoined rear ends, you have to pass under ‘Carnivaleyes’, a pair of 3 x 4 ½ foot wide peepers made from latex, fabric and rope by Nancy Davidson. Slightly risqué with their net-stocking-like lids, they seem a little vexed with their oddball neighbors in Davidson’s solo show at Chelsea’s Betty Cunningham Gallery. (Through October 6th). Check out Davidson’s odd bodies on her website.
Paul Pfeiffer at Paula Cooper Gallery
Paul Pfeiffer continues to manipulate footage of sporting events in his latest solo show at Chelsea’s Paula Cooper Gallery; though he makes welcome forays into new areas, the show’s most entertaining piece collages footage of basketball games from the 50s through the 90s, only with the players and ball digitally removed. What’s left are bright lights and a ghostly, swishing net as Pfeiffer turns a popular game into a magic act. (Through October 13th).
‘The Feverish Library’ at Friedrich Petzel Gallery
Books – in colorful grids on the floor, piled on a remainders table, preciously designed and placed far out of reach on high shelves and in many more guises – fill Friedrich Petzel Gallery’s biblio-centric group show, ‘The Feverish Library’ (organized in cooperation with Matthew Higgs). Rachel Whiteread’s plaster, polystyrene and steel ‘Untitled (Sequel III)’ from 2002 lends a note of gravitas and mystery to the show by recording only the cast space around a bookshelf. (In Chelsea’s Friedrich Petzel Gallery through Oct 20th).
Adam Cvijanovic at Postmasters Gallery
Known for his nature-inspired, mural-sized dramas affixed to the gallery wall, Adam Cvijanovic doesn’t disappoint in his first New York solo show since ’08. At 15 x 65 feet, the show’s centerpiece, ‘Discovery of America’ is a trompe l’oeil triumph, appearing to bring a prehistoric, Rocky Mountain scene into a wall-splintering conflict with an image of human settlers racing across the plains all of which appears to take place in a messy art studio. (at Postmasters, Chelsea through October 13th).
Leonardo Drew at Sikkema Jenkins & Co.
The new art season officially roared to life again this week with dozens of major shows opening in the last few nights. Leonardo Drew’s installation at Chelsea’s Sikkema Jenkins & Co is one of the outstanding offerings thanks to a huge, gallery-filling installation composed of rough lengths of burnt wood as well as more tidy but no less ambitious wall relief sculptures. (Through October 12th.)
Anish Kapoor, ‘Untitled,’ at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
There aren’t many artworks at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that could be described primarily as ‘fun.’ Anish Kapoor’s ‘Untitled’ from 2007 falls into that category by creating a surprising visual experience as tiny, polished stainless steel tiles on a concave form reflect viewers’ images as a blurry multitude of shapes. London-based Kapoor’s best known works in the US (Chicago’s Cloud Gate, for example) make viewers aware of their surroundings. At the Met, Kapoor’s piece is surprisingly intimate and thoroughly amusing. (On view in the 2nd floor Modern and Contemporary Art Galleries).
Alighiero Boetti at the Museum of Modern Art
Alighiero Boetti’s gorgeous installation in the MoMA’s atrium defies Sol LeWitt’s oft-quoted 1967 remark about conceptual art that ‘all of the planning and decisions [for a work of art] are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair.’ In ‘Mappa’ from the 70s and 80s (on the back wall) and kilims from 1993 (in the foreground) Boetti commissioned his artwork from Afghan craftswomen, ensuring that execution shares the spotlight with conceptual content while recalling Minimalist seriality and Jasper Johns’ proto-Pop.