Young LA-based artist Zachary Leener’s quirky abstract ceramic sculptures stand out in two New York group shows this month. At Wallspace Gallery in Chelsea, this beautifully glazed piece evokes the human body, truncated phallic forms and lab equipment. (Also at Rachel Uffner Gallery on the LES. At Wallspace through Feb 14th).
Zachary Leener, glazed ceramic, 14 x 12 x 13 inches, 2014.
Soap bubbles – a delight to both the young and the old – are the basis for Berlin-based artist Jiri George Dokoupil’s work on show at Paul Kasmin Gallery. Since the early 90s, the artist has experimented with various combinations of soap, pigment and other materials to create permanent traces of ephemeral beauty. (through Feb 7th).
Jiri Georg Dokoupil, Untitled, soap-lye and pigments on canvas, 98 ½ x 118 1/8 inches, 2014.
In the past, British artist Anya Gallaccio has left red gerbera flowers to rot, covered walls with chocolate and placed a 32-ton block of ice to melt in a disused pump station, all as part of an art practice based on experimentation and manipulation of natural materials. In these stone pieces, she considers longer spaces of time – the effect of heat and pressure on minerals over the millenia. (At Lehman Maupin Gallery on the LES through Feb 15th.)
Anya Gallaccio, installation view at Lehman Maupin Gallery, (foreground) Lay my head, lavignes (stripes), mount ashen, texas cream, black granite and green chirt, 51 x 56 x 48 inches, 2014.
In British sound artist Susan Philipsz’s new installation at Chelsea’s Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, boldly redacted FBI documents overlay quickly penciled archival scores by composer Hanns Eisler. An LA-based refugee from Nazi Germany, his branding as a communist prevented his scores from accompanying Charlie Chaplin’s ‘The Circus.’ Here, wall-mounted documents like this one are joined by a 12-channel sound installation that plays selections from his film compositions, daring viewers to find a note of sedition. (Through Feb 14th).
Susan Philipsz, from the Part File Score series, digital print and silk screen print on canvas, 74 ½ x 59 x 1 2/3 inches, 2014.
A 70s style motorcycle merges with a camouflage carpet in front of a geometric patterned wall in Tyson Reeder’s ‘Chopper,’ one of several new canvases that look like a teenager’s careful drawing of an object or place that’s desirable but out of reach. (At Canada on the Lower East Side through Feb 15th).
Tyson Reeder, Chopper, mixed media on paper on canvas, 52 x 71 inches, 2014.