Jesper Just at Perrotin Gallery

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

Emotion and vulnerability continue to be strong themes in Jesper Just’s latest body of work at Perrotin Gallery on the Lower East Side.   American Ballet Theater dancers lie and sit on the floor while receiving muscle therapy via patches applied to their skin. Though nearly motionless, this individual’s alert state and a single tear suggest powerful goings on beneath a calm exterior.  Panels separated from the main display join blocks of concrete on the gallery floor in order to engage viewers more personally by forcing us to consider our own bodies in the gallery space and our own efforts at constructing meaning.  (On view through Feb 15th).

Jesper Just, Corporealities – 1, LED panels, multi-channel video, sound, steel, and cement, 98 7/16 x 137 13/16 x 143 inches, 2020.

Melanie Baker at Cristin Tierney

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

The man in the foreground of this huge charcoal, graphite and pastel drawing by Melanie Baker leans forward conspiratorially, his own identity concealed as he shields the figure before him from view.  Ironically framed on each side by lit sconces, the two shadowy figures seem to have paused in the halls of power to engage in an intense and private discussion that Baker invites us to question.  (On view on the Lower East Side at Cristin Tierney through Feb 22nd).

Melanie Baker, Pomp and Sycophants, charcoal, graphite, and pastel on paper mounted on Dibond, 72 x 120 inches, 2019.

Jon Pylypchuk at Petzel Gallery

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

LA’s trash is Jon Pylypchuk’s treasure, transformed via glitter and wood glue into a series of humorous portraits of alien-like creatures now on view at Chelsea’s Petzel Gallery.  The family trio featured in this panel is quirky and cute with their big eyes (actually cue balls) on cartoonishly large heads but also grotesque with their sagging and twisting flesh (composed of pants).  The title, ‘I used to be your internet kids,’ jokingly suggests that the passage of time wears on everyone, human and alien alike as offspring grow up and move on.  (On view through Feb 29th).

Jon Pylypchuk, I used to be your internet kids, fabric, wood glue, watercolor, glitter, black cue balls, polyurethane, wood on linen on panel, 2019.

Issy Wood at JTT Gallery

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

Stars swirl around a young woman in this painting by Issy Wood as if the Paramount logo or the European Union flag’s emblems had risen to encircle her.  Though she appears to be calmly shielding herself, the painting’s title ‘Study for me getting nostalgic’ suggests that the doughy, green stars are moving away from the London-based artist in an image that depicts a mental navigation of Brexit. (On view at JTT Gallery on the Lower East Side through Feb 9th).

Issy Wood, Study for me getting nostalgic, oil on linen, 60 x 81 inches, 2019.

Pieter Hugo at Yossi Milo Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest Show, Inside ViewPosted on Comments are Disabled

Invited by curator Francisco Berzunza to make new work to show in Mexico on the themes of sex and death, South African photographer Pieter Hugo spent months meeting people from all walks of life including this community theater group formed by sanitation workers in Oaxaca de Juarez.  Here, they reenact a scene from a mural painted in the 50s by David Alfaro Siqueiros at Chapultepec Castle, bringing revolutionary attitudes into the present day.  (On view at Chelsea’s Yossi Milo Gallery through Feb 29th).

Pieter Hugo, After Siqueiros, Oaxaca de Juarez, archival pigment print, 47 1/8 x 63 inches, 2018.