Wangechi Mutu’s Metropolitan Museum of Art Facade Commission

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest ShowPosted on Comments are Disabled

The Metropolitan Museum of Art may be closed to deter the spread of COVID-19 but one of its most exciting new commissions is still on view outside.  In never-filled niches designed to hold statuary, Wangechi Mutu has installed four bronze sculptures of powerful women wrapped in coiled garments that the artist describes as ‘living, tactile and fleshy’ but which also act protectively.  Polished disks (here, at the back of this figure’s head) echo traditional ornament worn by women of status in many African cultures.  Though inspired by caryatid sculptures in which women support a burden (from prestige stools to the Vanderbilt mantlepiece) these queenly and otherworldly figures are leaders, not servers.  (On view outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art through June 8th, 2020).

Wangechi Mutu, ‘The Seated’ (one of four sculptures in the series), bronze, 2019.

Vanessa German at Rockefeller Center

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest ShowPosted on Comments are Disabled

Pittsburgh-based artist, poet and performer Vanessa German’s vibrant installations of photo and sculpture stand out around Rockefeller Center, luring viewers with their dramatic color and abundant detail.  Initially puzzling for their lack of commercial message in an environment designed to sell, photos of fabulously dressed women and sculptures of German’s signature power figures convey feminine power.  The Center’s shows and attractions have ground to a halt due to COVID-19, but German’s semi-divine, haloed figure remains.  (On view in Midtown through April 5th.  Organized by Art Production Fund).

Vanessa German, view of the installation ‘The Holiest Wilderness is Freedom,’ March 2020.

Guanyu Xu at Yancey Richardson Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest ShowPosted on Comments are Disabled

Born and raised in Beijing, Chicago-based artist Guanyu Xu was unable as a youth to openly express his queer identity.  Returning from the US to Beijing to visit, he transformed his parent’s apartment with photo installations that tell the story of his identity in some of its complexity.  Captured in photos, the arrangements appear to be digitally collaged but are in fact staged in real time and space, temporarily occupying an environment in a fleeting moment of openness that took place while his parents were away from their home. (Originally planned to be on view to the public in Chelsea at Yancey Richardson Gallery through April 4th, Xu’s work can be see on the gallery’s website and his own website.)

Guanyu Xu, My Desktop, archival pigment print, 26 ½ x 32 1/2, 2019.

Rita Ackermann at Hauser & Wirth Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest ShowPosted on Comments are Disabled

A haze of cool colors hovers over and obscures energetic line drawings featuring human figures in Rita Ackermann’s new paintings at Hauser & Wirth Gallery, creating a juxtaposition between painterly gesture and drawing.  Titled ‘Mama,’ each painting links in title to a feminine source while channeling an Ab Exp style better known for its male adherents.  Simple drawings of circles and an occasional animal add in a child’s touch, further complicating the family relationships alluded to in the paintings. (On view in Chelsea through April 11th).

Rita Ackermann, Mama, Midsummer Night’s Dream, oil, acrylic, and ink on linen, 77 x 65 inches, 2019.

Becky Suss at Jack Shainman Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest ShowPosted on Comments are Disabled

The deep impact of children’s literature on young imaginations is the subject of Becky Suss’s marvelously detailed new paintings at Chelsea’s Jack Shainman Gallery, each of which focuses on a particular text.  Here, Suss calls on her own childhood experience of acting out Zilpha Keatley Snyder’s The Egypt Game with neighborhood friends, her memories of the book and the actual play mingled together in her recollection. (On view through March 28th).

Becky Suss, Behind the A-Z (Set vs Isis/Nefertiti), oil on canvas, 84 x 60 x 1 ½ inches, 2020.