Collectors might metaphorically salivate after coveted artworks, but the feeling turns literal in sight of Kay Kurt’s intense, realist renderings of candy. At six feet high and eleven feet long, this assortment of hard candies brings to mind the flavors of childhood while treating each piece as its own perfectly formed sculptural object. (At Albertz Benda in Chelsea through Feb 16th).
Female hands, eyes, mouths and other body parts transferred onto stones by Anh Thuy Nguyen resemble a smashed frieze, carefully reassembled on the floor. Titled ‘Burden,’ the sculpture grapples with the difficulties of representation and with the pressures placed on the female body. (At Miyako Yoshinaga Gallery through Feb 18th).
‘Rest During The Flight Into Egypt’ broaches the subject of migration in Romanian artist Adrian Ghenie’s latest solo show at Pace Gallery in Chelsea. Here, two kids wait on a railroad track in front of a heaving, blood-red landscape wearing masks that disguise their faces but not the damage inflicted upon them. (On view through Feb 18th).
From the pervasive musty scent of perfume to the claustrophobic, tented ceiling of PPOW’s transformed back gallery, Portia Munson’s installation ‘The Garden’ assaults the senses and may induce panic in the clutter-adverse. The overload of frilly and feminine things is oppressive – calculated to send visitors gasping for more gender-neutral territory. (In Chelsea through Feb 11th).
Using fiber from sheep selectively bred to increase genetic diversity, Channing Hansen creates abstract knit works that derive their patterns from an algorithm that makes use of his own DNA. Complicated back story aside, the artworks entice by evoking the body and the landscapes in vivid color and a wealth of texture. (At CRG Gallery on the Lower East Side through Feb 25th).
