From the front, Ryan Johnson’s ‘Driver’ looks like a single, solid disk. From the side, the form becomes a steering wheel and a driver materializes, instantly morphing the sculpture from a mysterious biomorphic abstraction into an everyday scenario. Johnson’s sense of humor also comes across in his stylized ‘mother’ at rear, a stylized caryatid whose belly makes her all the more dramatic. (At Nicelle Beauchene Gallery through June 25th).
Organic shapes snake around and into a wooden box in this work by Brazilian artist Maria Nepomuceno, suggesting that whatever is inside cannot be contained. A trumpet-like ceramic form introduces the idea of broadcasting sound, offering the possibility that an unheard song might further animate this alluring organism. (At Sikkema Jenkins & Co through June 30th).
Round the corner into Metro Pictures smaller back gallery and suddenly you’re in the valley of an enormous wave, dwarfed by a ominous black swell that prompts terror even on dry land. The scene is the highlight of Robert Longo’s show of huge, charcoal drawings, a body of work that pictures refugees, CIA prisoners and Ferguson protesting football players in a tour de force of contemporary conflict. (On view in Chelsea through June 17th).
Charles Harlan’s artwork happens at the meeting place of man-made and natural objects, so it comes as no surprise to see him engage repeatedly with boats. For his current show at JTT Gallery on the Lower East Side, Harlan disassembled a boat belonging to a late family member of JTT Gallery owner Jasmine Tsou, turning it into two objects that evidence the effects of time and nature on a once-cherished object. (On view through June 17th).
A cherry pie, a smashed chocolate bunny and this giant piece of cake by Peter Anton are highlights of an asylum for sweet-lovers created by the artist in Chelsea’s Unix Gallery. A response to the idea that the American addiction to sugar borders on the insane, Anton’s super-sized sculptures push the idea to extremes, prompting visceral reactions so much sweetness. (On view through June 17th).
