Kiki Smith in ‘It’s Always Summer on the Inside’ at Anton Kern Gallery

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Kiki Smith, Milky Way, murrini with push pin, glass and plastic glitter, gold leaf and ink on Nepalese paper mounted on canvas, 2011.
Kiki Smith, Milky Way, murrini with push pin, glass and plastic glitter, gold leaf and ink on Nepalese paper mounted on canvas, 2011.

Kiki Smith’s ‘Milky Way’ brings to mind a more benevolent Edenic serpent hovering over a field of pointed breasts (a fertile Eve? multi-breasted Greek goddess Artemis?). Murrini glass, plastic glitter, and gold leaf amongst other materials create a dazzling backdrop and light up the snake from beneath.  The piece could read as an exhuberant celebration of fertility or its opposite, as sharp breasts threaten.  (In ‘It’s Always Summer on the Inside’ at Anton Kern Gallery, Chelsea, through August 24th).

Sandro Rodorigo in ‘Artists Guarding Artists’ at Family Business

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Sandro Rodorigo, Sandro at Work: The Great Self-Portrait, oil on masonite, 2009.
Sandro Rodorigo, Sandro at Work: The Great Self-Portrait, oil on masonite, 2009.

Over years of avid art viewing, particular museum security guards have become as familiar to me as the art they guard though we’ve never exchanged words.  ‘Artists Guarding Artists’ a group show at Family Business breaks the silence with work by artists who work as guards at the city’s major museums, from the Met to the New Museum.  Next time I go to the Guggenheim, I’ll be looking for Sandro Rodorigo to congratulate him on his tongue-in-cheek, self-aggrandizing ‘Sandro at Work: The Great Self-Portrait.’  Though it’s a small painting, it perfectly pillories art world hierarchies of importance that don’t favor guards.  (Through August 17th).

Despina Stokou in ‘Sweet Distemper’ at Derek Eller Gallery

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Despina Stokou, 'Conversations on the Dirty Dozen series,' mixed media on wall, 2012.
Despina Stokou, ‘Conversations on the Dirty Dozen series,’ mixed media on wall, 2012.

Berlin-based Greek artist Despina Stokou makes her New York debut with ‘Conversations on the Dirty Dozen,’ an unmissable mixed media wall installation featuring a nude surfer and scrawled text.  The haphazard look of Stokou’s writing channels Cy Twombly’s energetically repeated words and marks and Matt Mullican’s automatism, and looks as if it would involve insane ramblings.  In fact, the words trail off with a piece of tongue-in-cheek art world advice (from an artist who is also a curator) reading “I used to be an artist too, you know.  If you don’t watch out you’re going to end up a curator.” (Stokou is part of ‘Sweet Distemper,’ organized by Isaac Lyles at Derek Eller Gallery through August 16th).

Dieter Roth in ‘The Nature of Disappearance’ at Marianne Boesky Gallery

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Dieter Roth, Lauf der Welt (The Way the World Runs), 1970, chocolate, aluminum foil, folding carton board in plastic bag.
Dieter Roth, Lauf der Welt (The Way the World Runs), 1970, chocolate, aluminum foil, folding carton board in plastic bag.

Nobody outdoes iconic German artist Dieter Roth for the aesthetic possibilities he derived from rotting food, from oil-extruding sausage to pressed bananas.  It makes his work a shoe-in for ‘The Nature of Disappearance’ at both of Marianne Boesky’s galleries, a group show focusing on “…the intentionally initiated process of decay.” ‘Lauf der Welt’ (The Way the World Runs), 1970 (seen here in detail) is one of three Roth pieces included and features a smashed chocolate Santa and Easter Bunny.  Though he does it by crushing the gaiety from children’s treats, Roth easily lays low the commercialism of the holidays by displaying a graphic version of their aftermath.

Claire Fontaine in ‘Dogma’ at Metro Pictures

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Claire Fontaine, installation view, 'Dogma' at Metro Pictures.
Claire Fontaine, installation view, ‘Dogma’ at Metro Pictures.

‘Kultur ist ein Palast der aus Hundescheisse gebaut ist.’  Spelling out the phrase ‘Culture is a palace built from dog shit,’ in German gives the idea more gravitas.  Putting it in blue neon, more consumer appeal.  Both are relevant to artist collective Claire Fontaine’s use of this quote by Bertold Brecht via Theodore Adorno criticizing mass culture’s commercialization.  How the art world’s own extreme commercialization in recent years changes the equation is the question begged by this piece.  (‘Dogma,’ a show more or less about dogs and people runs at Metro Pictures through Aug 10th).