For his biggest New York solo show to date at Sperone Westwater on the Lower East Side, fashion designer turned artist Helmut Lang continues to work with industrially shredded garments from his archive, which were accidently destroyed by fire. Strange creatures, birch trees and industrial processes come to mind in these mediated organic forms. (Through Feb 21st).
Helmut Lang, installation view of Untitled sculptures in resin, pigment and mixed media, 2010-2013 or 2012–2013.
Game show contestants and reality TV personalities are the subject of John Miller’s paintings and this sculpture at Mary Boone Gallery in Chelsea. Moments of supposedly ‘real’ emotion accompany paintings of empty, dramatically tacky game stages, conjuring a bizarre world of fakeness. (Through Feb 28th).
John Miller, Public Display, 68 x 58 x 58 inches, acrylic/wood, formica, 2013.
Pulling source images from the web, young Brooklyn artist Nolan Simon copies them to canvas, framing each one with painted, trompe l’oeil masking tape like an analogue version of open windows on a computer screen. While the technique doesn’t radically update collage, Simon has an eye for intriguingly odd juxtapositions. (At 47 Canal on the Lower East Side through Feb 15th).
Nolan Simon, Commonwealth, oil and acrylic on canvas, 48 x 36 inches.
Chinese art group ‘Polit-Sheer-Form Office’ asks what that collectivity means today in China in light of trends toward individualism and consumption. Here, in a painting at their Queens Museum show, they riff on Cultural Revolution propaganda posters that featured happy workers gathering around Mao, substituting themselves cheerfully tucking into a communal dish. (Through March 18th).
Polit-Sheer-Form Office, Polit-Sheer-Form-16, oil on canvas, 2007.
Brooklyn-based artist KATSU is known for semi-abstract paintings created by drone; here at The Hole, a cluster of ceramic drone sculptures periodically disappears in a cloud of vape-generated smoke. (On the Lower East Side through Feb 22nd).
KATSU, Ceramic drone swarm, ceramic stoneware, 15 x 15 x 3 inches, 2014-2015.