Late Austrian artist Franz West depicts Biblical characters Cain and Abel in a standoff in this typically pop-colored, messy abstract sculpture from 1986 at Chelsea’s Gagosian gallery. Using abjection and humor West makes their iconic conflict seem odd and not a little pathetic. (Through July 18th).
Franz West, Cain ova Incontro ad Abele, epoxy resin, lacquer, steel, 1986.
Scenes from different continents look oddly similar in Sze Tsung Leong’s mesmerizing ‘Horizons’ show at Chelsea’s Yossi Milo Gallery. Here, a photo of Havana rubs shoulders with a shot from Paris, linking two unlikely cities by their dense landscape and domed architecture. (Through July 11th).
Sze Tsung Leong, installation view of ‘Horizons,’ at Yossi Milo Gallery, June 2014. Right: La Habana Vieja II, 2010. Left: Quartier Latin, Paris, 2008.
In response to the disastrous 2008 Sichuan earthquake that killed thousands of school children in their shoddily constructed schools, Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei constructed this snake of backpacks as a memorial. Below, a pile of porcelain river crabs indirectly stands in for censorship and recalls a huge feast of crab initiated by Ai Wei Wei as a protest against limitations on free speech. (At the Brooklyn Museum through August 10th).
Ai Wei Wei, Snake Ceiling, backpacks, 2009. He Xie, 3,200 porcelain crabs, 2010.
Though gestural strokes dominate new ‘paintings’ by Barcelona-based artist Meyer Vaisman, all have been created with inkjet on industrial plywood with stretcher bars made to look like the back of a canvas. Though the work is abstract, the imagery is based on Vaisman’s signature. (At Eleven Rivington on the Lower East Side through July 3rd).
Meyer Vaisman, Artist’s Signature: llehctiM naoJ, 5773, AFGA UVI ink on popular plywood, 2014.
LA-based art star Sterling Ruby turns his signature, stalactite-like urethane sculptures into quasi-Greek columns with a backdrop painting recalling American quilting traditions, tie-dying, Color Field painting and the colors of the US flag. Grand themes abound in an ambitious show that treats icons of art and history with a provocative mix of reverence and distain. (At Hauser & Wirth Gallery through July 25th).
Sterling Ruby, (foreground) Pillars, PVC pipe, foam and urethane, (rear) FLAG (4791) bleached and dyed canvas and elastic, 2014.
