With staffs and beards of snakes, Gilbert and George merge the roles of Moses, Medusa and themselves as performance artists who make art with their bodies. In their latest two-gallery show, the duo don an array of stylized beards that reference Santa, religious observance and hipsters in their East London neighborhood. (At Lehmann Maupin Gallery on 22nd Street in Chelsea and on Chrystie Street on the Lower East Side).
Danish photographer Thomas Bangsted’s WWII scenes at first read as strangely hi-res documentary images until revealed as masterpieces of reconstruction. Photographing objects and vehicles from war museums and collectors, building his own props (like the life raft in the foreground) and tracking down remaining ships, Bangsted pictures the maneuvers that won the war, including this episode in the Allied effort to sink one of the largest warships ever made. (On view at Marc Straus Gallery on the Lower East Side through Dec 10th).
Inspired by Homer’s The Iliad, Adam Parker Smith brings the ancient epic up to date by rendering key characters in Mylar balloons, which he casts in resin, then lines with fiberglass. This serious kitty – decked out as Hercules wearing a lion skin – is the centerpiece of one of New York’s most fun gallery exhibitions. (On view on the Lower East Side at The Hole NY through Nov 19th).
Against Alex Israel’s huge painting of a sky lit by a gorgeous sunset, Chris Burden’s three ‘ghost ships’ dominate Gagosian Gallery’s showcase of work by its LA artists. Equipped with solar panels and GPS, the boats were designed in 1991 to sail alone from Charleston to Plymouth, England. (On view through Dec 16th).
Three isolated bathers search for shells in a nature scene that melds sky and water, melancholy and peace by Paolo Ventura at Edwynn Houk Gallery. Ventura’s new hand painted, collaged photos evoke stage sets that question time and place. (On view in the 57th Street area through Nov 11th).
