Liliana Porter at Bienvenu Steinberg and J

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

Tiny figures perform enormous undertakings in delightfully absurd new sculpture and 2-D works by Liliana Porter at Bienvenu, Steinberg and J in Tribeca.  Miniscule men with leaf blowers raise up a storm of swirling forms while a little woman with an even smaller a basket of glitter spreads the shiny material into an expanding field of brightness.  Ruptures in scale and contrasts between the real and represented are the stock in trade of Porter’s six decades of artmaking.  Here, magical scenarios convert mundane acts by individuals into aesthetic gestures for the public. (On view through Oct 14th).

Liliana Porter, Untitled with her, gold glitter and metal figurine, dimensions variable, 2023.

Carlos Motta with Elio Miraña, ELO, Gil Farekatde Maribba, Higinio Bautista, Kiyedekago, Rosita, and Yoí nanegü at PPOW Gallery

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Beautifully shot and installed in Tribeca’s PPOW Gallery, Columbian artist Carlos Motta’s ‘Air of Life’ video installation is reached by passing by sculpture crafted by Indigenous Brazilian craftsman Higinio Bautista. This particular collaboration began with Bautista’s retelling of a legend of shamans who transformed into animals to protect the people and land.  He prompted Motta to draw the figures, which Bautista then carved.  Once past the protective deities, gallery visitors take in soaring views of the Amazon while watching Indigenous South American musicians, activists, and community leaders explain their work in a c. 42 minute presentation on a screen and two monitors.  Commissioned for an exhibition related to Indigenous representation now on view at Museo de Arte Miguel Urrutia in Bogota, the works in the show give insight into to the lives of those working to protect tradition.  (On view through Oct 7th).

Carlos Motta, installation view of ‘Air of Life’ at PPOW Gallery, Sept 2023. Sculpture in the foreground: Carlos Motta and Higinio Bautista, Shaman Anteater, carved wood, 43 ¼ x 15 ¾ 16 ½ inches.

Uuriintuya Dagvasambuu at Sapar Contemporary

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Standing in a circle of flames or wearing a crown of skulls, Buddhist protector deities can manifest in terrifying ways.  Mongolian artist Uuriintuya Dagvasambuu’s guardians, now on view in her solo show at Sapar Contemporary in Tribeca, are more obviously benevolent. Wearing Converse with her armor, this enlightened female figure holds a lotus as a symbol of her state of awareness while gazing forward with confidence.  Perched on an outcrop of land instead of the typical lotus and supported below by the flower of the edelweiss plant, a hardy species found from the Himalayas to Mongolia, Dagvasambuu’s figure engages tradition from a contemporary perspective with humor and respect.  (On view through Oct 10th).

Uuriintuya Dagvasambuu, Security 1, acrylic on canvas, 2023.

Wolfgang Tillmann at David Zwirner Gallery

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‘Fold Me,’ German photographer Wolfgang Tillmans first solo show at David Zwirner Gallery in New York since his blockbuster MoMA retrospective last year, embraces the concept of the fold – the antithesis of linearity.  In the curves of a river shot from overhead or the crumpled forms of a dropped item of clothing, the artist subtly positions the viewer to question defined boundaries and the distinctions between inside and out.  In this piece, ‘Lennartz Factory Washroom,’ Tillmans pictures orderly rows of sinks in the washroom of a tool manufacturer in his hometown of Remsheid.  With this subject matter, Tillmans himself cycles back to a place he once lived in, disrupting the idea of an artist leaving never to return.  Though the room’s design is an exercise in repetition – like factory labor itself – with recurring sets of sinks, arrangement of windows, rows of pipes and lighting fixtures on the ceiling and a grid of floor tiles, the picture comes alive with towels that break the uniformity.  (On view in Chelsea through Oct 14th).

Wolfgang Tillmans, Lennartz Factory Washroom, inkjet print on paper mounted on Dibond aluminum in artist’s frame, 2023.

Robert Lugo at R and Company

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Philadelphia-based self-styled ‘village potter,’ artist, poet and activist Robert Lugo makes his NY solo show debut at R and Company with an exhibition inspired by art history and his own life experiences.  Known for his ceramic vessels that feature renowned African Americans (many grace the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s vibrant Afro-Futurist period room), this show includes portraits of Lugo’s community members modeled after relief sculptures by Renaissance artist Andrea della Robbia and vessels that resemble Greek amphora but feature scenes from the artist’s childhood neighborhood.  Painted in the orange and black colors of prison uniforms, this striking vessel depicts mass tire theft in the neighborhood.  (On view through Oct 27th).

Robert Lugo, The Day We Had Church and Tires Were Stolen, from the Orange and Black series, glazed stoneware, 2023.