After confronting viewers with visceral, blood-red sculpture in his last New York show, Anish Kapoor is back with a two-venue exhibition bound to seduce his audience. Front and center in Lisson Gallery’s 24th Street space is Tsunami, a towering stainless steel sculpture that lures visitors in to marvel at the spatial distortions created by the curved metal. (On view in Chelsea through Dec 20th).
The vanishing point has disappeared in Claire Kerr’s small oil on linen seascape, literally gone missing somewhere between sea and sky. Bringing to mind both the foundational role of the horizon in Western linear perspective and the limits of vision, this small-scale image also contrasts the vastness of the body of water depicted, adding further complication to and pleasure in contemplating landscape. (On view at BravinLee Programs in Chelsea through Nov 27th).
Frank Gehry’s undulating ‘Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health’ in Las Vegas is the subject of this sculpture by young Philadelphia-based artist Kambel Smith, a highlight of his current show at Marlborough Gallery. Diagnosed with autism at a young age, Smith discovered painting and then sculpture in his teens, pouring his energies into sculptural models of Philadelphia buildings. At Marlborough, Smith expands his purview to recreate a bridge in Tbilisi, Georgia and invent a sci-fi city, recalling the creative abundance of Bodys Isek Kingelez’ invented cityscapes but with a sleeker vision. (On view in Chelsea through Nov 16th).
Hannah Wilke’s two drawings of herself as an angel after Renaissance artist Albrecht Durer, now on view at Ronald Feldman Gallery in SoHo, stand out among photo, video and sculpture from the 70s to the early 90s by the feminist art icon. Although known for having defied feminist conventions by displaying her own body in provocative ways; here, Wilke’s audience gazes on her profile not her figure as she manifests as a celestial being. Recalling Durer’s engraving ‘Melancholia,’ in which a female angel represents the artist’s melancholy, Wilke expressionist version offers a more freeing vision. (On view in SoHo through Nov 30th).
Chicago Imagist Karl Wirsum’s gender ambiguous, robotic characters are an odd mix of human and alien, bionic and freighted by imperfect human bodies. This character – a standout in Derek Eller Gallery’s showcase of 50 years of Wirsum’s drawing – has proportions calculated to puzzle and amaze, from tiny eyes and little apple core mouth that contrast a complex and angular nose to broad shoulders that set off a pair of small feet. (On view on the Lower East Side through Nov 10th).
