Alessandro Pessoli in ‘Lilliput’ on The High Line

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Alessandro Pessoli, Old Singer with Blossoms, bronze, steel, wool, 2012.
Alessandro Pessoli, Old Singer with Blossoms, bronze, steel, wool, 2012.

Alessandro Pessoli’s ‘Old Singer with Blossoms’ on the High Line is half hidden amongst short trees and lush plantings, making this odd character all the more strange once you become aware of his presence.  A balaclava in pretty, rainbow colors gives him a childlike or hippy appearance completely at odds with his cold steel body and bronze head.  As a mechanical creature subject to ridicule (for that silly hat), he could be one of Marcel Duchamp’s bachelors grown old.  (On the High Line as part of the group show ‘Lilliput’ through April 2013.)

Ellsworth Kelly, Plant Drawings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Ellsworth Kelly, Briar, 1961.
Ellsworth Kelly, Briar, 1961.

Ellsworth Kelly’s approximately eighty plant drawings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art could be some of the most insubstantial artwork on view in the city at the moment and some of the most enjoyable.  In graphite on paper renderings from 1948 to the present of poppy flowers, beanstalks, ginkgo leaves and more, Kelly distills each plant into an easily identifiable outline that offers insights into the renowned abstract artist’s iconography.

Carol Bove in ‘Painting in Space’ at Luhring Augustine

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Carol Bove, Aurora, concrete, bronze, steel and seashells, 2012.
Carol Bove, Aurora, concrete, bronze, steel and seashells, 2012.

After appearing on the cover of May’s Art in America magazine, Carol Bove’s sculpture ‘Aurora’ is on view in Chelsea at Luhring Augustine’s ‘Painting in Space’ summer group show.  Bove is known for accumulating and displaying books, objects and ephemera that relate to 60s culture.  More recently, she’s been scavenging natural materials to continue her investigation of what a readymade object (or collection of them) might convey when put on display as art.  With their spikes, undulating surfaces and bands of color, these shells are exquisite examples of nature’s creativity and a contrast to the manmade, geometric rods that cradle them.  (Through August 17th).

Olympic games at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Terracotta Panathenaic prize amphora, Greek, Attic, black-figure, ca. 560 - 550 B.C.
Terracotta Panathenaic prize amphora, Greek, Attic, black-figure, ca. 560 – 550 B.C.

In a private moment of Olympics-mania today, I visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s installation of Panathenaic prize amphora to reconnect with ancient Olympians.  One of the earliest of such vessels (560-550 B.C.) in the Met’s collection, it was filled with olive oil and awarded to winners of events like the 200 yard race depicted here.  If you were an Olympic winner, would you rather have a gold metal or 42 liters of olive oil?

Robert Overby & Lizzi Bougatsos at Andrea Rosen Gallery

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Robert Overby & Lizzi Bougatsos installation view at Andrea Rosen Gallery.
Robert Overby & Lizzi Bougatsos installation view at Andrea Rosen Gallery.

41 years ago today, LA-based artist and graphic designer Robert Overby created ‘Long wall, third floor (From the Barclay House Series), 4 August, 1971,’ a nineteen foot long cast of an abandoned building made of latex and cheesecloth.  Its dirt, holes and grubby material make it a powerful symbol of entropy and decay.  It’s both kin and contrast to Lizzi Bougatsos’ more delicate cracked eggshells on white bathmat – discards arranged into a fragile and pristine grid.  (At Andrea Rosen Gallery, Chelsea, through August 21st.)