Rachel Harrison’s heavily textured, expressionist painting is electrified by fuchsia shorts, a dramatic punctuation at the end of the artwork. The shorts drag a potentially intellectual AbExp artwork into the banality of everyday life; now, it’s not hard to imagine the artwork on its way to the beach or the mall. (In ‘Feedback’ at Marlborough Contemporary through August 11th).
Rife with appealing contradictions, Tyler Haughey’s photo of a New Jersey coastal motel is attractive for its saturated colors and modernist angularity but not as a model of contemporary hotel design. Devoid of people and sometimes pictured out of season, the motels in Haughey’s series ‘Ebb Tide’ both evoke nostalgia and picture an on-going culture. (In ‘At a Languorous Pace’ at Sears Peyton Gallery in Chelsea, through August 11th).
Tree fungus and corals inspired the Haas Brothers’ signature accretion vases; joined by the LA duo’s silver plated lamps (at rear), walnut furniture and paintings, they open Marianne Boesky Gallery’s summer group exhibition with an appreciation for the strange and lighthearted. (In Chelsea through August 11th).
Globe-trotting photographer and writer Teju Cole’s new book ‘Blind Spot’ explores perception through shots including this grid of curtained balconies in Beirut, an image that suggests diversity packed into a small space. Alongside is a text in which Cole bemoans a lost roll of film while acknowledging that his original viewing experience is what he most values. (On view at Steven Kasher Gallery through August 11th).
Aliza Nisenbaum’s portrait of Kayhan, sprawled on the floor surrounded by newspaper pages, is a standout in FLAG Art Foundation’s huge and engrossing group exhibition, ‘The Times,’ which gathers a range of artwork related to or inspired by the New York Times. Nisenbaum’s portraits of undocumented immigrants offer a portal into lives deliberately lived in private; here, Kayhan’s apparent comfort may not apply beyond these walls. (On view in Chelsea through Aug 11th).
