At eleven by eleven feet, New York painter Pat Steir’s monumental pours of pigment, oil and turpentine create glowing sheets of color in deep spaces that beckon and offer to engulf the viewer. (At Chelsea’s Cheim and Read Gallery through March 29th).
Pat Steir, Green, Orange and Mica, oil on canvas, 11 x 11 feet, 2013.
For his latest series, ‘Sacrifice Your Body,’ New York based photographer Roe Ethridge took a trip to his mom’s hometown in Belgrade, Florida, gathering images that loosely suggest a relationship between mother and son. Here, a phone off the hook suggests a receiver dropped in surprise. (At Chelsea’s Andrew Kreps Gallery through March 29th).
Roe Ethridge, Yellow Phone, c-print, 34 ¾ x 45 7/8, 2013.
Invited to show at LA’s MoCA in 1997, Jorge Pardo built an off-site house as his exhibition (where he now lives with his family). His latest design-as-living space can be seen at Petzel Gallery, where ‘Spare Bedroom’ offers a sanctuary-like space-within-a-space reminiscent of bedroom-nooks built into lofts but with a stained-glass look suggesting something more like a choir loft. (In Chelsea through April 5th).
Jorge Pardo, Spare Bedroom, mixed media, 2014.
Beijing-based artist Xu Bing is a star of the Met’s excellent ‘Ink Art’ exhibition, which features important work by prominent Chinese artists of the past few decades who have maintained a link with China’s traditional calligraphic and painting traditions. Here, Xu’s Book from the Sky submerses visitors in a sea of Chinese characters (with over a thousand unique variations) yet comes to question tradition and the relay of information by the fact that all are illegible. (At the Metropolitan Museum of Art through April 6th).
Xu Bing, Book from the Sky, ca 1987-91, installation of hand-printed books and ceiling and wall scrolls printed from wood letterpress type; ink on paper.
Polish artist Pawel Althamer opens up his exhibition at the New Museum to contributions from the public by providing paint, paper and smocks to the many, many visitors who want to leave their mark. (On the Lower East Side through April 13th).
Pawel Althamer, installation view of ‘Draftsmen’s Progress’ at the New Museum, March 2014.