Amanda Ross-Ho at Mitchell-Innes & Nash

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

Oversized wineglasses, cups, a fork and other objects litter worktables in Amanda Ross-Ho’s latest solo show at Chelsea’s Mitchell Innes & Nash, where the LA based artist spent August making paintings of clock faces (see the normal-sized glass holding goldfish crackers at middle right). Based on vintage paper clock surfaces that she purchased from eBay and used for note-taking, the clocks unmoor time (Ross-Ho recently lost her long-term studio) and the surreally enlarged elements from everyday life become inexplicably important. (On view through Oct 14th).

Amanda Ross-Ho, installation view of ‘My Pen is Huge’ at Mitchell-Innes & Nash, Sept 2017.

Ishmael Randall Weeks at Van Doren Waxter

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

Sandblasted posters anchored by wood dowels by Ishmael Randall Weeks speak to the eroding effects of time, yet the entropy he evokes speaks more of uncovering the forgotten past than obliterating it. (At Van Doren Waxter through Oct 28th).

Ishmael Randall Weeks, Striation 1, sandblasted posters, wood dowels, 19 x 27.5 x 3 inches, 2017.

Kara Walker at Sikkema Jenkins & Co.

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

The U.S.’s dark and violent past continues to inspire Kara Walker’s new paintings and drawings; here, Walker presents a portrait of Grandison Harris, a 19th century man enslaved and assigned to rob graves to supply the classrooms of anatomy students at a Georgia medical college. After the Civil War, financial constraints forced his decision to return to the college and continue to supply bodies until his eventual death and burial in the same cemetery that he revisited in his working life. (On view in Chelsea at Sikkema Jenkins & Co. through Sept 16th).

Kara Walker, detail of Paradox of the Negro Burial Ground, oil stick, collage, and mixed media on paper, 30.25 x 22.75 inches, 2017.

Trevor Paglen at Metro Pictures

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

Photographer Trevor Paglen’s past images of surveillance culture (NSA data centers, drone images) zeroed in on info and images gathered by the authorities. For his latest show at Metro Pictures, Paglen turns his attention to pictures analyzed via artificial intelligence. In this detail of a wall of photos, the artist Hito Steyerl posed for hundreds of portraits that were analyzed by facial-analysis algorithms, turning age, emotional state, gender and more into a set of numbers.  (On view in Chelsea through Oct 21st).

Trevor Paglen, Machine Readable Hito, adhesive wall material, 193 x 55 1/8 inches, 2017.

Bayne Peterson at Kristen Lorello

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

Bayne Peterson’s dyed plywood sculpture brings to mind an abacus, cairns, written script or a kid’s bead and wire toy. Now more complex in their patterning and overall shape, Peterson’s new sculptures at Kristen Lorello Gallery on the Lower East Side also owe their inspiration to still life painting and historical vessels. (On view through Oct 14th).

Bayne Peterson, Untitled, dyed plywood, dyed epoxy, 15 1/8 x 21 ½ x 5 ¼ inches, 2017.