Further to yesterday’s post, Ai Weiwei’s activism continues at Mary Boone’s Chelsea gallery with ‘Forge’ an installation of twisted pieces of rebar. Though the print and carefully arranged, twisted pieces of metal on the floor appear to be calligraphic abstractions, they’re created from pieces of metal retrieved from shoddily constructed schools that collapsed in the 2008 earthquake, killing thousands of children. (Through 21st.)
In Chinese, ‘river crab’ sounds like a euphemistic term used to describe censorship, so when artist and human rights activist Ai Weiwei learned in 2010 that his newly built studio was to be demolished by the local government, he hosted a protest feast at which 10,000 river crabs were served. This installation of 2,500 handmade ceramic crabs at Mary Boone Gallery’s Fifth Ave & 57th Street space recalls that event and demonstrates WeiWei’s insuppressible resistance. (Through Dec 21st.)
Alessandro Pessoli’s painted figures usually look like they’ve emerged from a dream or hallucination; these absurdly phallic Maiolica ceramic sculptures, fittingly titled Sancho Panza & Don Chiscotte, lack the typical atmospheric surroundings of Pessoli’s paintings, but their lighthearted vibrant colors and mobile-like hanging lend them an amusing whimsy. (At Chelsea’s Anton Kern Gallery through Oct 20th.)
As Sally Mann recovered from an accident in which she was thrown from and pummeled by her dying horse in ’06, she turned to self-portraiture to create haunting ambrotypes like this one. Streaking, blurring, over and underexposures mar the images, speaking movingly to the damage inflicted on their subject. (At Edwynn Houk Gallery on Fifth Ave & 57th Street through Nov 3rd.)
Gordon Parks’ iconic photographs spanned the worlds of fashion, celebrity and social documentary from this 1949 photo of Ingrid Bergman on location for the filming of Roberto Rossellini’s ‘Stromboli’ to a photo from the ’56 Segregation Series that demonstrates the respectable normality of Mr & Mrs Albert Thornton in their living room in Mobile Alabama. Both are on view at Howard Greenberg Gallery on 57th Street through Oct 27th.