Seung-taek Lee at Canal Projects

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Hottest ShowPosted on Comments are Disabled

Prominent Korean artist Seung-Taek Lee’s untitled stone and rope installation at Canal Projects occupies but does not dominate the center of the art institution’s large SoHo space.  Shaped by the cords that have bound it, each hanging stone represents time and human intervention in nature; hung by ropes that form lively V patterns, the arrangement is minimal but dynamic. Inspired by environmental movements of the 60s and 70s that emerged as South Korea transformed the basis of its economy from agriculture to industry, Lee has created performances with the wind and harnessed fire to creatively collaborate with nature.  The earth itself – in the form of a huge painted vinyl balloon resting on the gallery floor – has joined Lee on a bike ride through Beijing, appeared in various natural spots and on earth day this year will be used in a performance on Governors Island. (On view on Canal Street in SoHo through May 22nd).

Seung-Taek Lee, (foreground) Untitled, stone, rope, dimensions variable, 1982-2022. (background) Earth Play, oil on vinyl balloon, 21’ diameter, 1989-1996.

Minerva Cuevas at Kurimanzutto

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‘In Gods we Trust,’ is the provocative title of Minerva Cuevas’ new exhibition at Chelsea’s Kurimanzutto Gallery, a show featuring sculptures of pre-Hispanic deities and vintage magazine ads promoting powerful multi-national oil companies.  Here, a priest of Tlazolteotl, an Aztec deity associated with lust and excess, sits on the pages of financial newspapers, an oil-like substance applied to his mouth and dripped on his arms.  The interrelation of power and oil (a substance also used by pre-Hispanic cultures) also appears in the artist’s huge and damning wall mural featuring nature-inspired corporate logos of companies that have helped bring about climate crisis.  (On view in Chelsea through April 15th).

Minerva Cuevas, Tlazolteotl Priest, foamular, acrylic paint and financial newspapers, ’22 – ‘23

Saif Azzuz at Nicelle Beauchene Gallery

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After traversing a mini-maze of metal barricades decorated with sharply cut outlines of foliage, visitors to Saif Azzuz’s installation in Tribeca at Nicelle Beauchene Gallery reach a painting of an idyllic scene representing downtown Manhattan prior to European arrival.  Inspired by his Yurok family’s connection to the land in California, Azzuz considers how access to and use of the land has shifted over time around what’s now Collect Pond Park, once downtown’s major source of drinking water and now an area occupied by Manhattan’s vast court buildings and jail.  (On view through March 25th).

Saif Azzuz, installation view of ‘Says Who,’ featuring (back wall) Under the willow tree (let the earth stabilize your postcolonial insecure jitter), acrylic on canvas, 96 x 160, 2022.

Berenice Abbott at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Right on the heels of a show of photographer Berenice Abbott’s Greenwich Village portraits and urban landscapes at Chelsea’s Marlborough Gallery, fans of the iconic early 20th century New York City chronicler can enjoy the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s new exhibition of images from Abbott’s 1929 album shot around town.  Freshly back from an eight year-long stay in Paris where she pivoted to photography and established her own successful studio, Abbott arrived in New York and enthusiastically fell to documenting the thriving city as she found it.  Also included in the Met’s show are works by Abbott’s contemporaries and her ‘Changing New York’ series from ’35-’39, including this view of a 9th Ave Automat. (On view on the Upper East Side through Sept 4th).

Berenice Abbott, Automat, 877 Ninth Avenue, gelatin silver print, 1936.

Hew Locke at PPOW Gallery

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Two ships appear to float in the center of PPOW’s Tribeca gallery space, their tattered sails and apparition-like figures on the cabins and crates suggesting that they’ve floated in from another place and time.  The sense of disorientation is key to Guyanese-British artist Hew Locke’s consideration of Guyana’s colonial past and its future as the country experiences an oil boom.  The dilapidated house on the deck of this ship is echoed in photographs on the wall of Guyanese houses that have seen better days; Locke adds acrylic renderings of water inundating the lower levels as a warning that human aspirations can be washed away by greater forces.  (On view in Tribeca through April 1st).

Hew Locke, The Relic, wood and mixed media, 88 5/8 x 98 3/8 x 24 ¾ inches, 2022.