Ishmael Randall Weeks’ mountain range – suspended in the middle of Eleven Rivington’s Chrystie Street space – is composed of carved texts about revolution in Latin America, turning writing about imagined utopias into a depiction of a real place. (On the Lower East Side through Feb 10th).
LA video artist Doug Aitken, known for ambitious projects like his film projections on the exterior walls of MoMA and the Hirshhorn Museum, has created a smaller scale but no less intense installation piece for his latest show at 303 Gallery in Chelsea. The centerpiece is ‘Sonic Fountain,’ which allows drips to fall from the ceiling into a hole dug in the gallery floor in patterns that create a song that’s been likened to breathing. (Through March 23rd).
Turin-based artist Fabio Viale – who started working with marble when he was 16 – once rolled a 2,000 lb marble sculpture of a tire through the city streets. These pristine marble ‘tires’ haven’t seen that much action but tied together, they’re a surprising feat of technical accomplishment. See them Saturday, Feb 9th, 2-4pm on Merrily’s Lower East Side gallery tour. (At Sperone Westwater on the Lower East Side, through Feb 23rd).
‘Festone’ (festoon) feels like the perfect title for this festive, beautifully colored acrylic painting by Turin-based painter Giorgio Griffa. Hurricane Sandy damaged the delicate-appearing work in his first New York solo show since 1970 in October; now the prolific Griffa, who folds and shelves his paintings upon completion, is back with a new selection of pleasingly minimal abstractions worth celebrating. (At Chelsea’s Casey Kaplan Gallery through March 2nd).
Context is everything when it comes to Gaylen Gerber’s ‘collaborative’ artworks, including this Nigerian cowrie shell currency basket and a Makonde mask from Mozambique/Tanzania from mid-20th century, which the artist has titled ‘Support’ and covered in white oil paint. Questions of whose work is whose and whether Gerber is defacing, erasing or enhancing the ‘supports’ mingles with thoughts of Picasso, et al’s appropriation of African art, all to provocative effect. (At Chelsea’s Wallspace Gallery through Feb 9th).