Chadwick Rantanen at Essex Street

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Chadwick Rantanen’s new show, ‘Bins and Loops’ at the Lower East Side gallery ‘Essex Street’ pushes his materials like no other show up at the moment.  Rantanen uses the hydrographic process, in which images are applied to produce surfaces via printed film, but stops short of applying the images, instead leaving them to float on the water’s surface in an abstract pattern that dramatically updates the idea of process art.  (Through June 9th).  

Chadwick Rantanen, ‘Bin,’ 11 polypropylene bin bottoms and 10 tops, hydrographic film, water, 2013.

Paul McCarthy at Hauser & Wirth Gallery

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Paul McCarthy continues to subvert classic fairy-tales with his ‘White Snow’ sculpture in black walnut at Chelsea’s Hauser & Wirth Gallery.  Here, McCarthy explodes a kitschy figurine into a mirrored display of gaiety ten feet high. (Through June 1st).  

Paul McCarthy, White Snow, Flower Girl, black walnut, 2012-13.

Jorge Macchi at Alexander & Bonin Gallery

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Jorge Macchi’s percussive sculpture ‘fan’ entices visitors into Chelsea’s Alexander & Bonin’s main gallery space, but once inside conveys danger as wobbling ceiling fan blades chip into the gallery walls.  In a show devoted to mediations on time, it’s an ominous portent. (Through June 15th).  

Jorge Macchi, ‘fan,’ metal ceiling fan, 2013.

Ugo Rondinone at Barbara Gladstone Gallery

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Swiss conceptual artist Ugo Rondinone has converted Barbara Gladstone’s gallery into an elegant cave featuring plaster-covered walls and stacked stone anthropomorphs.  Rondinone channels his own family’s past as cave dwellers to create this clan of simple bluestone characters whose titles (‘glad,’ ‘blessed,’ ‘shocked’) add to their surprising charm.  (At Barbara Gladstone Gallery’s 21st Street Chelsea space through July 3rd.  See their larger cousins at Rockefeller Center through July 4th).

Ugo Rondinone, ‘soul,’ installation view at Barbara Gladstone Gallery, May 2013.

Kcho in ‘Against the Grain’ at the Museum of Art & Design

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Cuban artist Kcho grew up traveling between his home on an island off the coast of Cuba and the mainland, and boats – ‘keys’ to unlocking the ‘door’ of the sea – are a frequently recurring subject.  This one is a standout in the Museum of Art & Design’s ‘Against the Grain’ group exhibition of cutting edge art & design made from wood.  (Through Sept 15th).

Kcho (Alexis Leyva Machado), R.E.C. (Rectifying the Course), wood, 2006.