In a grouping of hand-painted wooden torpedoes, Marianne Vitale swaps out her signature bold, minimalist sculptures made with railway ties or battered wood for personalized weapons bearing ‘American’ symbols including USDA meat and Pollock-like swirls of paint. (At Invisible-Exports on the Lower East Side through Oct 16th).
In Jeffrey Beebe’s richly imagined worlds, he pits ‘the Uncles’ – leaders of the Rover clans – against the ‘Red Soil Boys’ – a bellicose neighboring group who initiated an attack that wiped out many Uncles. In this detail from a grid of lost Uncles, Beebe introduces one of his fantastical creatures – a 21 ft long giant whose horn ‘improved both echolocation and moral indignation.’ (At Bravin Lee Programs in Chelsea through Oct 15th).
Sol LeWitt’s Wall Drawing #368 appears to pulse and move as it surrounds visitors to Paula Cooper Gallery. In addition to the physical impact, there’s also appeal in imagining the various ways LeWitt’s instructions (as enumerated in the drawing’s title) could be interpreted. (In Chelsea through Oct 22nd).
In 1968, Bruce Nauman videoed himself slowly pacing down a narrow corridor, swinging his hips with each step into a pose reminiscent of Donatello’s bronze David sculpture. Once again, Nauman posits the human body – now older and fragmented by a screen with multiple splits – as subject for art in a new series of videos at Sperone Westwater Gallery, also on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. (On the Lower East Side through Oct 29th).
Ruth Root’s untitled abstraction, created on fabric and Plexiglas dominates Jack Hanley Gallery’s group exhibition ‘The Congregation.’ With its unlikely form, as suggestive of a living creature as an eccentric chair, and mix of wonky hand-created forms and slick pattern, it’s hard to settle on one set of meanings for this wonderfully shape-shifting piece. (On the Lower East Side through Oct 9th).
