Known for semi-abstract and often small-scale sculpture including the ‘Lynch Fragments’ series recently on view at the New Museum, Melvin Edwards takes over the south entrance to City Hall Park via Public Art Fund with this large-scale sculpture depicting broken chains. Titled ‘Brighter Days’ the exhibition’s curving minimal forms enhances the attractiveness of the message displayed – freedom from bondage. (On view through Nov 28th).
Exiled to Spain, then Brazil in the late 70s during Argentina’s military junta, Argentinian artist Marcia Schvartz returned to Buenos Aires in 1983, settling in the working class and bohemian neighborhood of San Telmo. Frank portraits of her friends and neighbors followed, along with this depiction of a mystical encounter at one of the city’s major train stations now on view in an exhibition of Schvartz’s work at Tribeca gallery 55 Walker. Downplaying the opulent and busy surroundings of the station, Schvartz concentrates on a tender encounter between a mom and an ethereal visage. (On view through Sept 7th).
Experimental Finnish photographer Niko Luoma recreates a scene from an iconic 19th century woodblock print by Hokusai in this photographic image made from multiple exposures at Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery. Whereas Hokusai pictures travelers battling the wind – holding on to their hats or losing a stack of paper to a strong gust – Luoma’s version abstracts the scene, creating mood with strong color and foregrounding the escaping pieces of paper as they take flight. (On view in Chelsea through Aug 27th.
Alice Aycock’s sizeable ‘Wavy Enneper’ sculpture in Marlborough Gallery’s summer group show is tantalizingly familiar, resembling an underwater organism or a fungus. However, its enticingly curving, dynamic form was actually inspired by a diagram of a self-intersecting surface introduced by 19th century German mathematician Alfred Enneper. (On view in Chelsea through Sept 11th).
Arcmanoro Niles’ first solo show at Lehmann Maupin Gallery opens with this oil, acrylic and glitter image of a contemplative man, raising his eyebrows at the viewer or maybe at life itself. Titled ‘Hey Tomorrow, Do You Have Some Room For Me: Failure Is A Part Of Being Alive,’ the show looks hopefully to the future while acknowledging the challenges and temptations of life now. With this image, Niles takes a scene from everyday life and turns it electric with red and pink tones and glitter accents; at the bottom and right, he adds sketchily drawn figures that represent the pleasuring seeking id, begging the question of how these interlopers will effect the tranquil domestic life pictured. (On view in Chelsea through Aug 27th.)
