British artist/designer Richard Woods has applied mock Tudor façade to a shopping mall in Seoul, fake flagstones to a cottage in Finland, and now brings a collection of woodblock tabletops to Friedman Benda Project Space in Chelsea. Presented as both tables and wall-mounted works, the exhibition’s vibrant color and patterns celebrate the places where we eat, work and commune. (Through Aug 19th).
From a 1962 painted black rectangle by Sol LeWitt to a series of canvases hung from the ceiling by Oscar Murillo, Pace Gallery’s ‘Blackness in Abstraction’ discusses varieties of blackness, touching on race, the life of the spirit and simplicity of form. (On 25th Street in Chelsea through Aug 19th).
German artist Peter Pillar spotted this surprising image of a woman being silenced by a ghostly hand while driving as he himself was traveling on the highway. As part of a series for which he photographed ads on the back of trucks, then removed text and non-image related info, Pillar lays bare how the images send particular messages. It’s an enticing challenge to imagine what’s would be sold by the original ad. (At Andrew Kreps Gallery through Aug 19th).
Using found objects, Fred Wilson tells a story of a man – in the form of a classic Greek bust – who lies broken before a stoic young African woman in the artist’s 2005 ‘Love and Loss in the Milky Way.’ Surrounded by glowing white milk glass objects (plates and various vessels) with two motherly figures positioned behind them, their disastrous encounter becomes a racially charged rendition of Romeo and Juliet. (At Pace Gallery on 24th Street in Chelsea through Aug 19th).
Chicago-based octogenarian Margot Bergman makes her New York solo debut with highly emotive, expressionist portraits created on canvases found in thrift stores and flea markets and reworked into double portraits. Here, a kindly, elderly face peers out from the forehead of a pouty-lipped blond, perhaps foretelling the younger woman’s future or portraying her internal voice. (At Chelsea’s Anton Kern Gallery through Aug 19th).
