Lewis Hine’s early 20th century photos of young women employed in Boston’s textile mills – which aimed to show the deleterious effects of their labor on their bodies – accompany images like this magnification of a textile fragment in Lisa Oppenheim’s latest show at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery. By zeroing in on this fragment of fabric, Oppenheim aims to reduce the distance created in industrial production between bodies and the products of their labor. (In Chelsea through Oct 21st).
Intercut with circus and festival ads and excerpts from Allen Ginsberg’s ‘Howl,’ Allen Ruppersberg’s pointed yet ambiguous texts – one asks, ‘Is one thing better than another?’ – question the status quo in eye-catching day-glo color. (At Greene Naftali Gallery in Chelsea through Oct 21st).
Emily Mae Smith’s huge sea creature is a monumental iceberg waiting to surprise mariners drawn in by the tiny sirens – fantasia brooms morphed into mermaids – atop her head. Both the visible femmes fatale and the lurking, pouty-lipped presence suggest visible and hidden forces to be reckoned with. (On view at Simone Subal Gallery on the Lower East Side through Oct 29th).
Glittery sequins meet antique quilts in Sanford Biggers’ first solo show at Marianne Boesky Gallery, where the artist synthesizes folk tradition and minimalism in this wall hanging titled ‘Ooo Oui.’ (On view in Chelsea through Oct 21st).
Kazuko Miyamoto’s ‘Female I’ reclines along the floor of Zuricher Gallery like a taught, transparent odalisque, a shifting combination of representational form and pure abstraction that rethinks minimalism’s relationship to the organic world. (On the Lower East Side through Oct 22nd).
