The summer group shows have started in Chelsea with Marlborough Gallery’s ‘Endless Summer II/Still Bummin,’ a sprawling exhibition featuring Kaari Upson’s balcony railing, floppy as if melting off a building in the heat. Nestled in the gallery’s corner with a torn parade photo by Christian Marclay, both suggest summer traditions coming undone. (through June 15th).
Christian Marclay, Untitled (from the series ‘Fourth of July’) torn c-print, 2005. Kaari Upson, Balcony Railing, latex, 2013.
Toward the end of her short life, Cuban-American artist Ana Mendieta imported sand and soil from locations important to her (Cuba, the Nile, etc.), to make sculpture that evokes organic materials, the female body and far-away locations. (At Chelsea’s Galerie Lelong through June 22nd).
Ana Mendieta, installation view of ‘Ana Mendieta: Late Works 1981-85,’ at Galerie Lelong, May 2013.
Public sculptures tend to depict moments of triumph, not regret. This makes Polish artist Goshka Macuga’s bronze rendition of Colin Powell, part of the High Line’s portrait exhibition ‘Busted,’ surprising and poignant as he shows the leader holding a vial of anthrax in his 2003 UN speech on weapons of mass destruction. (Through June 2014 at 22nd Street on the High Line.)
Goshka Macuga, ‘Colin Powell,’ bronze and concrete, 2009.
“I think that’s amazing, what people can do with the hands. It’s the same, and still they make it new,” says LA-based ceramic artist Shio Kusaka, regarding the tradition of ceramic making. No two of her vessels are alike, a point proved by 127 porcelain stoneware pots on show at Chelsea’s Anton Kern Gallery. (Through June 22nd.)
Shio Kusaka, installation view at Anton Kern Gallery, May 2013.
Known for digitally distorted, 3-D self-portraits, New York based artist Richard Dupont takes his artwork a step closer to painting by mounting this cast of an enlarged head and creating a ghostly portrait with disarming presence. (At Tracy Williams, Ltd. through June 28th.)
Richard Dupont, Untitled, cast pigmented resin and marble dust, 2013.
