Vija Celmins’ once described her relationship to the ocean, which she has rendered again and again in paint, graphite and prints, as akin to wrestling something huge into a tiny 2-D space. This woodcut from 2000, created with one of printmaking’s oldest techniques, captures a particular view of the water’s surface that looks as if it could have been made yesterday or hundreds of years ago. (On view in Chelsea at Matthew Marks Gallery through Oct 26th).
Though Berlin-based Danish artist Jeppe Hein has installed his trademark polished stainless steel panels in large outdoor spaces (notably at Brooklyn Bridge Park in 2015), 303 Gallery’s tiny back space seems uniquely suited to host an intense experience of reality for visitors who see themselves and Hein’s striped paintings cut together in thin strips. Hein has explained that his stripe paintings represent breathing in and out which sounds meditative, but in this installation is geared to quicken the senses. (On view in Chelsea through Oct 19th).
Commissioned for the art-filled Camino Real Hotel in Palanco, Mexico, this vibrant felt hanging by Anni Albers epitomizes the energy expressed by her repeated use of triangles in asymmetrical compositions. Recently rediscovered, it’s a standout in a collaborative exhibition with the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation and David Zwirner Gallery, a show that asserts Albers’ importance not just to 20th century weaving and textile-based work but to experimentation within the modernist idiom. (On view in Chelsea through Oct 19th).
Japanese-Italian artist Ritsue Mishima describes glass as ‘a form of light.’ In her stunning show of twenty-five glass sculptures at Luhring Augustine Gallery – her first in New York – Mishima creates dynamic and still forms that bring to mind sea life and other natural wonders. (On view through Oct 26th in Chelsea).
A mother’s body becomes a playground for her baby, whose sense of curiosity and play ignores boundaries in Madeline Donahue’s humorous paintings at Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects. Shifts in scale turn a mom into a giant as baby uses her hair like climbing rope; in other pieces, Donahue creates curving or angular geometric compositions from the antics of her exploring offspring. Through it all, the paintings charm with their sense of humor, patience and stoicism. (On view on the Lower East Side through Oct 5th).
