To celebrate the publication of Rackstraw Downes’ writings since 1983, Betty Cunningham Gallery has curated an exhibition of his work, including this typically ordinary landscape made remarkable by whizzing wires and rising radio towers that strain to burst out of the frame. (In Chelsea through May 3rd).
Rackstraw Downes, At the Confluence of Two Ditches Bordering a Field with Four Radio Towers, oil on canvas, 46 x 48 inches, 1995. (Collection of Louis-Dreyfus Family).
Minimalist icon Robert Mangold continues to explore ways of painting around a void in this recent ring painting, which moves the eye around by juxtaposing an angular side and curved side while suggesting hula-hoop-like movement with an off-center white line. (At Pace Gallery’s 510 West 25th Street location through May 3rd).
Robert Mangold, Compound Ring II Variant (White Line), 2012.
Phrases like, ‘One is not born but rather becomes a woman,’ from feminist pioneer Simone de Beauvoir or actor Roseann Barr’s to-the-point observation that ‘Nobody gives you power you just take it,’ appear in Egyptian-born, Harlem-based artist Ghada Amer’s latest show at Chelsea’s Cheim and Read Gallery. Here, a bronze sculpture with text in Arabic extends the conversation to women in the Arab world. (Through May 10th).
Ghada Amer, foreground sculpture: The Words I Love the Most, bronze with black patina, 60 x 60 x 60 inches, 2012. Background painting on the right: The Big Black Bang – RFGA, acrylic, embroidery and gel medium on canvas, 102 x 132 inches, 2013.
Once loved, now up on blocks, this childhood relic looks like it’s headed for the dump if it doesn’t disintegrate first. However, like the rest of the work in this unassuming exhibition by LA-based sculptor Kristin Morgin, it’s an eye-teasing triumph made entirely of unfired clay. (At Chelsea’s Zach Feuer Gallery through May 3rd).
Kristen Morgin, Madonna with Tricycle, unfired clay, paint, ink, wood, wire, 20 x 16 x 28 inches, 2013.
Part of the Museum of Art and Design’s exhibition ‘Out of Hand,’ which showcases art and design made using digital fabrication, this extraordinary sweatshirt was created by scanning a model’s body, digitally modeling a garment that relates personally in some way to the model (in this case, a man fascinated by a story of a boy raised by a wolf), CNC laser cutting the fabric and hand assembling. (Through June 1st).
The T/Shirt Issue, No 419 from Digital Portraits Series, jersey, iron-on interface, 2008.
