Frank Stella’s latest abstract sculptures are as colorfully exuberant as ever, presenting viewers at Marianne Boesky Gallery with plenty to peruse. Derived from digital processes, the twists and turns of shiny aluminum components take sculpture beyond the handmade. (On view in Chelsea through June 22nd).
Resembling a disco ball and wrecking ball, Robert Longo’s dramatic 1.5 ton sculpture ‘Death Star’ draws viewers into Metro Pictures in Chelsea to discover a sphere covered with 40,000 inert assault rifle bullets. Referring to the number of deaths by gun violence in the US in 2017, the number has more than doubled from those included in a similar piece by Longo from 1993. (On view through May 25th).
The word for Italian born, Alaska-based artist Paola Pivi’s installation of multi-colored, feathered baby bears at Perrotin Gallery on the Lower East Side is ‘cute.’ Explaining that the installation was inspired by her adopted son’s “energy, life and positivity,” Pivi developed a series of bears playfully fighting, doing acrobatics and generally looking to inspire ‘awwwws.’ (On view through June 8th).
Having painted every block on Broadway and drawn every object she owns, New York artist Elise Engler is no stranger to the long-term project. Her most recent obsession – creating a daily visual record of radio news headlines since November 2015 – has resulted in a dense installation of images on the walls of Frosch and Portman Gallery on the Lower East Side. A somber recording of natural disasters, political intrigue and more, the assembled works testify to troubled times. (On view through May 19th).
17th century Dutch still life painters delighted in the effect of light hitting rich fabric or shiny glass; contemporary Brooklyn artist Matthew Hansel is into optical delights of a different sort as he mimics digital distortion in oil and flashe paint. Included in The Hole’s continuing investigation of how digital techniques have impacted non-digitally created art, this shaped painting throws a little fun-house mirror effect into a traditional momento mori. (On view on the Lower East Side through May 19th).
