Lizzie Fitch, ‘Title TBD’ at Andrea Rosen Gallery

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Lizzie Fitch, Title TBD, wood, wood stain, ink on canvas, ink on paper, 2012.
Lizzie Fitch, Title TBD, wood, wood stain, ink on canvas, ink on paper, 2012.

Lizzie Fitch’s ‘Title TBD’ begs a few suggestions.  ‘Man power?’  ‘Guy stuff?’ The central panel’s car/power tool/DIY theme and a pile of spike-ended lumber that looks like its destined for fencing tries hard to conjure masculinity.  The piece tries so hard to look manly, it looks nothing like usual gallery fare (though it recalls Josephine Meckseper’s hot rod imagery).  ‘Feminine’ artwork abounds in New York galleries, so why so little that’s blatantly male? (At Andrea Rosen Gallery, Chelsea, through August 21st).

Erica Love & Joao Enxuto, ‘Anonymous Painting’ in ‘The Skin We’re In’ at Yossi Milo Gallery

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Erica Love & Joao Enxuto, from the series Anonymous Paintings, inkjet print on cotton canvas, 2012.
Erica Love & Joao Enxuto, from the series Anonymous Paintings, inkjet print on cotton canvas, 2012.

Can abstract art be used as a tool to resist Google’s efforts to map the world’s every nook and cranny?  Using screen grabs from Google Art Project’s museum walk-throughs, Brooklyn-based artists Erica Love and João Enxuto have launched a ‘counter archive’ of blurred images that have been obscured for copyright reasons. As large inkjet prints on cotton panels instead of tiny rectangles on a computer screen, they have a shimmering depth that recalls the 60s ‘Light & Space’ movement while pioneering a new medium somewhere between photography, installation and virtual art. (Love and Enxuto’s ‘Anonymous Paintings’ are included in ‘The Skin We’re In’ at Yossi Milo Gallery through August 31st.)

Oscar Tuazon, ‘People’ at Brooklyn Bridge Park

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Oscar Tuazon, 'People,' sugar maple tree, concrete, metal basketball backboard and hoop, 2012. Photo by Jason Wyche.
Oscar Tuazon, ‘People,’ sugar maple tree, concrete, metal basketball backboard and hoop, 2012. Photo by Jason Wyche.

Known for overtaking galleries with his wood and concrete constructions, Oscar Tuazon’s new site-specific sculptures on the Brooklyn waterfront have space to breath.  Here, a sugar maple, concrete, backboard and hoop come together to form ‘People,’ a sculpture inviting folks to play a role in cleaning up the Brooklyn waterfront by having a little fun.  (Organized by the Public Art Fund, Tuazon’s sculptures are on view at Brooklyn Bridge Park.)

Alyson Shotz, ‘Wavelength #2’ in ‘Sculpted Matter’ at Paul Kasmin Gallery

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Alyson Shotz, Wavelength #2, dichoric acrylic on aluminum tube and steel, 2008. Image courtesy of Alyson Shotz Studio.
Alyson Shotz, Wavelength #2, dichoric acrylic on aluminum tube and steel, 2008. Image courtesy of Alyson Shotz Studio.

‘Dazzling’ is a good way to describe Alyson Shotz’s optically enticing sculpture whether it’s the shimmering curtain of Fresnel lenses she memorably installed in the Guggenheim’s atrium in ‘07 or a mirrored fence hidden in plain view in the fields at the Storm King Art Center.  ‘Wavelength #2’ from 2008 continues Shotz’s interest in waveforms and uses dichroic acrylic to both transmit and reflect different wavelengths of light, creating a range of colors from a clear material. (‘Wavelength #2’ is at Paul Kasmin Gallery as part of ‘Sculpted Matter’ through August 17th.)

Ashley Bickerton in ‘I Followed You Into the Water,’ at Lehmann Maupin Gallery

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Ashley Bickerton, 'Seascape: Floating Costume to Drift for Eternity I (Armani Suit), suit, glass, aluminum, wood, caulk, fiberglass, enamel, canvas and webbing, 1991.
Ashley Bickerton, ‘Seascape: Floating Costume to Drift for Eternity I (Armani Suit), suit, glass, aluminum, wood, caulk, fiberglass, enamel, canvas and webbing, 1991.

As far as self-portraits go, ‘Seascape:  Floating Costume to Drift for Eternity I (Armani Suit)’ by Ashley Bickerton is a little on the dark side, despite its bright orange buoys.  Made in 1991, just two years before this regular on the downtown New York art scene relocated permanently to Bali, it seems to foretell his departure.  Quixotic, a little lonesome, and stylishly branded by Armani and his signature ‘Susie’ logo – a semi-corporate brand of his own invention – Bickerton’s craft signals a dignified leave-taking, a memorial to a past life and an adventure about to begin. (Through August 17th at Lehmann Maupin Gallery, Chelsea.)