Anish Kapoor, ‘Untitled,’ at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Anish Kapoor, 'Untitled,' stainless steel, 2007, installation view.
Anish Kapoor, ‘Untitled,’ stainless steel, 2007, installation view.

There aren’t many artworks at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that could be described primarily as ‘fun.’  Anish Kapoor’s ‘Untitled’ from 2007 falls into that category by creating a surprising visual experience as tiny, polished stainless steel tiles on a concave form reflect viewers’ images as a blurry multitude of shapes.  London-based Kapoor’s best known works in the US (Chicago’s Cloud Gate, for example) make viewers aware of their surroundings.  At the Met, Kapoor’s piece is surprisingly intimate and thoroughly amusing.  (On view in the 2nd floor Modern and Contemporary Art Galleries).

Alighiero Boetti at the Museum of Modern Art

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Alighiero Boetti, installation view at the Museum of Modern Art, Aug, 2012.
Alighiero Boetti, installation view at the Museum of Modern Art, Aug, 2012.

Alighiero Boetti’s gorgeous installation in the MoMA’s atrium defies Sol LeWitt’s oft-quoted 1967 remark about conceptual art that ‘all of the planning and decisions [for a work of art] are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair.’ In ‘Mappa’ from the 70s and 80s (on the back wall) and kilims from 1993 (in the foreground) Boetti commissioned his artwork from Afghan craftswomen, ensuring that execution shares the spotlight with conceptual content while recalling Minimalist seriality and Jasper Johns’ proto-Pop.

Xaviera Simmons, ‘Landscape (2 Women),’ in tête-à-tête at Yancey Richardson Gallery

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Xaviera Simmons, Landscape (2 Women), color photograph, 2007.
Xaviera Simmons, Landscape (2 Women), color photograph, 2007.

Xaviera Simmons is known for her portraits in America landscapes, but in ‘Landscape (2 Women)’ from 2007, her models contend with an urban environment consisting of a dramatic red wall that sends out conflicting associations that include love, anger, danger and a sense of urgency.  Simmons past series have sometimes featured subjects with skirts pulled over heads and assortments of objects hung around the waist like visual essays on identity; here, however, the womens’ differently aged bodies and their relationship are left to speak for themselves. (Included in tête-à-tête, curated by Mickalene Thomas at Yancey Richardson Gallery through Aug 24th.)

Bruce Nauman, ‘One Hundred Fish Fountain’ at Gagosian Gallery

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Bruce Nauman, One Hundred Fish Fountain, bronze fish suspended with stainless steel wire from a metal grid, 2005.
Bruce Nauman, One Hundred Fish Fountain, bronze fish suspended with stainless steel wire from a metal grid, 2005.

Stepping out of the elevator at Gagosian Gallery’s uptown, Madison Ave location, the roar of rushing water is immediate and surprisingly loud.  Around the corner, squeezed into the main 6th floor exhibition space, is iconic conceptual artist Bruce Nauman’s sculpture of 97 cast bronze fish spouting water from their bodies as if they’d been hunted by rifle as well as hook and line.  Elegant in photos, the mechanics of the piece – trailing tubes, a leaky basin, wires – dominate the in-person experience, creating typically Nauman-esque disconcertion.  (‘One Hundred Fish Fountain’ is at Gagosian Gallery through Aug 31st).

Guy Ben-Ner, ‘Stealing Beauty’ in ‘Idea is the Object’ at D’Amelio Gallery

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Guy Ben-Ner, 'Stealing Beauty,' video, 2007.
Guy Ben-Ner, ‘Stealing Beauty,’ video, 2007.

Imagine perusing bedroom sets in IKEA and finding a quarrelling married couple bedding down for the night.  Israeli artist Guy Ben-Ner is half of the couple starring in his own hilarious 18 minute 2007 video ‘Stealing Beauty’ that he shot without permission with a small camcorder in IKEA stores in New York, Berlin and Tel Aviv.  As he, his wife and two kids discuss the ramifications of capitalism on their family life, they pretend to read from the store’s libraries, shower in the bathroom and sip drinks in the kitchen, creating a provocative dissonance between public and private life and questioning the personal impact of political ideology. (‘Stealing Beauty is in ‘Idea is the Object’ at D’Amelio Gallery, Chelsea, through Aug 24th).