British artist Marc Quinn has referred to his gargantuan bronze seashell sculptures as Venus’ pedestal (from Botticelli’s famous painting), a spiraling symbol of the world in motion, and a ‘symbol of a woman’s sex.’ Towering at over eight feet high, what they most symbolize (along with Jeff Koons’ and Paul McCarthy’s current Chelsea shows) is enormous production values. (At Mary Boone Gallery through June 29th).
Marc Quinn, Map of the Space-Time Continuum, bronze, 2013.
For a recent four year project titled ‘Neue Welt,’ Berlin and London-based photographer Wolfgang Tillmans traveled off the beaten track in what he called an ‘aimless’ journey to “…find subject matter that in some way or other speaks about the time I’m in.” A sampling from the resulting book is at Chelsea’s Andrea Rosen Gallery, offering disorientingly diverse glimpses of people and places around the planet. (through June 22nd).
Wolfgang Tillmans, ‘young man, Jeddah, b,’ inkjet print on paper, clips, 2012.
Suspended above a steel and plywood table, a row of lanterns illuminates the dim space of Chelsea’s Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, suggesting an evening summer party staged in a design museum. Yet titles like ‘Against the Night’ and ‘The Sun Comprehending Glass’ tie Glasgow-based artist Martin Boyce’s enigmatic sculpture to the outdoors. (Through May 25th).
Martin Boyce, Against the Night, perforated steel, steel chain, plywood, wood stain, wood oil, galvanized steel, wired electrical lights, 2013.
Cartagena, Spain, Shanghai, LA and Havana have hosted globe-trotting street artist JR and his ‘The Wrinkles of the City’ project, for which he interviews and photographs senior citizens, then blows up their images and applies them with glue to the city’s walls. Chelsea’s Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery showcases the monumental Havana photos and an entertaining video through July 12th.
JR and José Parlá, The Wrinkles of the City, Havana, Cuba, Man with a Jerry Can, color print on metallic paper mounted on aluminum, 2012.
By lifting phrases like ‘This is it with it as it is,’ from Gertrude Stein’s 1914 book ‘Tender Buttons,’ LA-based artist Eve Fowler moves Stein’s creative language play into a more public realm, as seen here on the windows of Feature, Inc. on the Lower East Side. (Through June 2nd.)
Eve Fowler, from ‘A Spectacle and Nothing Strange,’ letterpress posters with texts from Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons (1914), 28 x 22 each, set of 21, 2011-12.