Gardens are sites of beauty and loss in Ebony G. Patterson’s rich, cut-paper collages currently on view at Hales Gallery in Chelsea. Draped forms mimic hanging roots and abundant flora that obscure personal items (a doll, a purse) belonging to individuals who are not present. Cut and ripped holes in the assemblage speak to violence that has turned a lush environment into a funerary display. (On view through Dec 20th).
After a devastating car accident left her with acute memory loss, Howardena Pindell reconstructed her life and memories from postcards and photos she’d gathered over the previous decades. This mixed media collage (seen in detail) from 1980-81 marked the beginning of her Autobiography series, for which she combined printed images, paint and a compliment of her signature circular chads of material to regain her life. (On view at Garth Greenan Gallery in Chelsea through Dec 14th).
Many artists work with fascinating methods on which they, unfortunately, don’t elaborate. Walead Beshty’s latest installation at Petzel Gallery swings to an almost opposite extreme, detailing the contents of his studio in over five thousand images picturing tools and objects that have contributed in some way to his production as an artist. Each cyanotype is the product of a simple photographic process that renders objects in white against a treated blue background of newspapers, boxes, personal correspondence and more. Originally commissioned by London’s Barbican Art Center in 2013, the installation (seen only in part at Petzel Gallery) still speaks powerfully to the incredible amount of unseen labor behind today’s art production. (On view in Chelsea through Dec 14th).
Philip Taaffe’s latest body of work serves up an almost overpowering optical experience, even seen in detail, as in this segment of a painting at Chelsea’s Luhring Augustine Gallery. Inspired by natural history and Japanese paper-working technique that involves dipping folded paper in strong dyes, this mixed media artwork favors a grid format that suggests orderly structuring of knowledge even while unleashing wild coloring. (On view through Dec 21st).
Belgian photographer Maroesjka Lavigne has traveled from Namibia to China to the American West photographing animals and landscapes featuring unusual and unexpected color relationships. ‘Rainbow mountains’ in Xinjiang China and sharp pops of color from yellow plants in Argentina are standouts in her solo show at Robert Mann Gallery, but it’s the unexpectedly beautiful soft pastel blooms of rust on the car in this photo that steal the show. (On view in Chelsea through Dec 21st).
