Neri Oxman at the Museum of Modern Art

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

New York Art Tours celebrates the Museum of Modern Art’s reopening to the public today with a closer look at a panel by Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT’s Media Lab Neri Oxman from her reopened exhibition, ‘Material Ecology.’ This wax and resin panel is the first piece visitors encounter in an exhibition that showcases materials and processes that collaborate with nature. The panel’s attractively undulating structure is determined by the need to transmit light and accommodate heat change.  (On view through Oct 18th.  View MoMA’s new guidelines before visiting.)

Neri Oxman, detail of Cartesian Wax, rigid polyurethane casting resin composite and machinable wax, 2007. Collaborators and contributors: Mikey Siegel; MIT Center for Bits and Atoms.

Sipros Sipros at Bushwick Collective

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

New York galleries may have reopened in July and part of August, but most have now closed for an end-of-summer break before regrouping in early September.  New York’s street art is ready to step in for our daily viewing pleasure, however, as proven by Brazilian street-art star Sipros Sipros’ delicious mural.  Part of Bushwick Collective’s sprawling program in Bushwick, Brooklyn, this big-eared character (the artist’s signature) enjoys a sticky moment in donut-paradise.  (On view on Troutman Street between Cypress Ave and St Nicholas Ave).

Warren Isensee at Miles McEnery Gallery

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

In a recent review, New York Times critic Robera Smith praised Warren Isensee’s new abstract paintings at Miles McEnery Gallery for having ‘taken a sharp turn for the better’ citing a new energy that almost transcends paint on canvas.  Isensee’s ‘Skin and Bones,’ pictured here, leaps off the wall, turning color and shape into subject matter and sending the viewer’s eye bouncing around the picture’s lively geometry. (On view in Chelsea through Aug 28th.  Appointments are not necessary but masks and social distancing are required.)

Warren Isensee, Skin & Bones, oil on canvas, 50 x 50 inches, 2020.

Nicole Wermers in ‘The Return of the Real’ at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery

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

London-based German artist Nicole Wermers juxtaposes an ashtray with four tiers of sorted sea-shells in this provocative piece from Tanya Bonakdar Gallery’s current summer group show.  Do the shells stand in for nature, dominated by human-produced toxins?  Or should the cigarettes signal rebellious freedom that might not be at odds with a shell-strewn shoreline?  Wermers leaves it up to us to sort through our associations in a piece that’s ripe for a variety of interpretation.  (On view Tues – Fri by appointment through August 28th.  Masks and social distancing required.)

Nicole Wermers, Untitled Ashtray (shells), powder coated steel, shells, sand, 40 1/8 x 23 5/8 x 23 5/8 inches, 2018.

Olafur Eliasson in ‘The Return of the Real’ at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery

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

Changing light and the effect of light on architecture are two recurring themes in Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson’s work and in his new sculpture ‘Return of the Arctic light sphere,’ on view in its own gallery at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in Chelsea.  A strong LED light inside the sphere passes through blue glass and Fresnel glass, a material once used in lighthouses to increase the intensity of light.  Walk around the suspended sphere and the shadows change constantly, creating mesmerizing effects and giving viewers pause to consider the complexities of the sculpture’s geometry.  (On view Tues – Fri by appointment through August 28th.  Masks and social distancing required.)

Olafur Eliasson, Return of the Arctic light sphere, stainless steel, colored glass (shades of blue), Fresnel glass, mirror, aluminum, paint (black), LED system, wire, 55 1/8 x 55 1/8 x 55 1/8 inches, 2020.