With his swing set turned sculpture at D’Amelio Gallery, LA-based artist Mateo Tannatt exploits the shock value of mixing themes of car crashes and children, though after a moment, it seems just as likely that this auto fragment has been junked like so many old toys. Swinging can be relaxing or thrilling, and Tannatt deftly suggests both the insulating attraction of a car-like pod and the consequences of pushing it too far. (Though August 24th.)
Rather be in the Caribbean? The next best thing might be seeing ‘Caribbean: Crossroads of the World,’ a 200 year survey of visual culture from the islands at three NYC museums. At the Queens Museum, highlights include videos like ‘Complete Structure,’ by David Perez Karmadavis. Here, a blind Dominican man carries a handicapped Haitian woman through busy streets to allude to the relationship between their neighboring countries. Though reminiscent of Francis Alys on Mexico City streets, Karmadavis’s video captivates by concentrating on the dynamic between this unlikely duo. Watch the video on Vimeo. (Also at the Studio Museum in Harlem through Oct 21st and El Museo del Barrio through Jan 6th.)
In January, David Zwirner’s 519 W. 19th St location housed one of the most expensive to install and popular site-specific artworks ever shown there. Just seven months later, this prime real estate has been turned over to gallery employees (who happen to also be artists) for the group show, ‘People Who Work Here.’ A few participants might want to keep their day jobs, but among the standouts is this oil on wood portrait of Thomas Jefferson by David Ording titled, ‘Melanin.’ Based on a freckle-free 1805 original, the painting repatriates Jefferson’s pigmentation…perhaps at the expense of his dignity? (Through Aug 10th).
It isn’t news that art jargon can obscure more than it illuminates. But in Christian Jankowski’s video ‘Discourse News,’ the spectacle of a popular New York news anchor delivering the artist’s wordy definition of art from her usual desk in the NY1 studio makes visual art verbosity seem particularly absurd while also reminding viewers of how over-simplified normal news programs can be. (Jankowski’s latest solo show runs through July 28th at Friedrich Petzel Gallery.)
One detached, one accusatory, doll-like and dark, masculine and feminine at the same time, these have to be among the stranger mermaids out there. Conceived of by Aurie Ramirez, an artist working at Oakland’s Creative Growth Art Center, a studio program for mentally, physically and developmentally disabled adult artists, these girlish ladies stick in the mind for their sheer weirdness. (‘Creative Growth’ is at Rachel Uffner Gallery through August 10th.)