Painter and Yale associate dean Sam Messer has long collaborated with writer Jonathan Safran Foer on artworks; here in a piece from 2008 titled ‘All the Animals,’ he paints Safran Foer, vegetarian and author of ‘Eating Animals,’ surrounded by playful (and grateful?) barnyard muses. (At Chelsea’s Fredericks & Freiser Gallery through July 31st).
Sam Messer, All the Animals, oil on canvas, 74 x 82 inches, 2008.
The title of Mona Hatoum’s ‘Stool III’ ignores the drama happening on top of the furniture as a blood-red glass form looks ready to shift weight and crash to the floor. Referred to in other of Hatoum’s artwork as cells and looking like internal organs, the precipitously arranged red shape implies an impending crisis. (At Chelsea’s Alexander and Bonin through July 24th).
Mona Hatoum, Stool III, painted metal and glass, 30 ½ x 16 x 14 ½ in, 2014.
Summer stripes dominate at Marian Goodman Gallery this summer where Gerhard Richter uses software to create patterns of thousands of lines in an eleven meter long digital artwork that runs perpendicular to richly colored wood columns by Anne Truitt. Beyond, Sol LeWitt’s 1985 ‘Wall Drawing #459 adds more bold color to the room with a shape-shifting asymmetrical pyramid. (On 57th Street through July 31st).
Installation view at Marian Goodman Gallery, June 2015.
Brookyn-based sculptor Carolyn Salas’ wonky minimalism hides a surprise – what appear to be metal sculptures are Aqua-Resin covered in graphite and Styrofoam cut-outs are Hydrocal. Stepping down the production values on ‘metal’ sculpture and upping the ante on Styrofoam make for a light-hearted game changer. (At Chelsea’s Koenig & Clinton through July 10th).
Carolyn Salas, installation view at Koenig & Clinton, June 2015.
The Gulf War, AIDS crisis, Savings and Loan collapse and more inspired Chicago Imagist artist Roger Brown’s paintings from the 80s and early ‘90s, including ‘Landscape with Dollar Sign,’ in which a huge dollar sign materializes from the clouds over two tiny human figures like a doomsday omen. (At DC Moore Gallery through July 31st).
Roger Brown, Landscape with Dollar Sign, oil on canvas, 48 x 72 inches, 1991.