Guangdong-born Stanford professor Xie Xiaoze expands his ‘Chinese Library’ series with huge new paintings of tattered, scholarly books. The show also includes paintings of politically sensitive images from Chinese social media giant Weibo relating to corruption, environmental damage and more. (At Chelsea’s Chambers Fine Art through April 12th).
Xie Xiaoze, Chinese Library No. 57, oil on canvas, 48 x 74 ¼ inches, 2014.
As old buildings come down and new luxury condos go up along the High Line in Chelsea, an exhibition of American photographer Berenice Abbott’s WPA-sponsored ‘Changing New York’ photos from the 30s at Howard Greenberg Gallery puts the transformation in the context of the city’s constant evolution. This picture memorializes a modest business now replaced by the residential towers of Peter Cooper Village at the other (east) end of 23rd Street. (In the 57th Street area, through April 12th).
Berenice Abbott, Henry Maurer, 420-422 East 23rd Street, looking southeast, Manhattan, June 14, 1938, gelatin silver print; printed c. 1938, 7 5/8 x 9 5/8 inches.
New York ceramic artist Kathy Butterly’s new work at 57th Street gallery Tibor de Nagy demonstrates her inexhaustible ability to invent new, evocative forms for both standard vessels and abstract shapes. Though less than 9 inches high, the tiny artworks are powerful. (Through April 12th).
Kathy Butterly, Chatter (foreground), clay, glaze, 6 x 7 x 4 1/8 inches, 2013.
As part of a residency at Philadelphia’s Fabric Workshop and Museum, New York artist Mika Tajima created textiles with a fascinating back story. Taking recordings from factories using Jacquard looms (a precursor to digital) and from server co-location sites (representing new technologies), she translated the sound waves into patterns woven on fabric which was then mounted on acoustic panels to create an object that simultaneously is cutting edge and historical. (At Eleven Rivington on the Lower East Side through April 13th).
Mika Tajima, Negative Entropy (Caledonia Dye Works, quad), cotton, wood, acoustic baffling felt; made in collaboration with the Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, 78 x 54 inches, 2014.
A stand out in the last Whitney Biennial for slides made by aging and distressing film stock (even burying it in dirt for a specified time), Luther Price shows recent slides and work from this 80s in this sobering show that suggests humans who have experienced similarly devastating processes. (At Participant, Inc. on the Lower East Side through April 13th).
Luther Price, installation view of ‘The Years Made Flies,’ (foreground: ‘Ground Piece One (Five Life Size Figures), 1982-83, plastic, metal, dirt) at Participant, Inc., March 2014.
