Perhaps best known for abstracted sculptures that resemble human figures in motion, Joel Shapiro has, in the past decade, memorably suspended forms in the air in explosive installations. Once again situated on the gallery floor, Shapiro’s new work at Pace Gallery is no less dynamic. ‘Splay,’ (foreground) resembles an energetically sprawling figure, another piece abstracts an ocean wave, and the show’s central sculpture ‘ARK,’ projects colorful forms outward from a mass that appears to stand on the gallery floor on tiptoes. (On view in Chelsea through Oct 26th).
Joel Shapiro, installation view of ‘Out of the Blue,’ Pace Gallery, 510 West 25th Street, Sept 2024.
Inspired by sources from European folk tales to fables from India’s Panchatantra, Karen Knorr’s extravagantly beautiful mini-retrospective of photographs at Sundaram Tagore Gallery taps into the complex relations between humans and animals. In her most recent body of work, Scavi, the artist pictures excavated sites in southern Italy that were covered by the 79 CE eruption of Mount Vesuvius. To these she adds images shot elsewhere of animals, creating surprising connections. Titled ‘Bacchus in Attendance, House of Neptune and Amphitrite,’ this image from a garden courtyard in Herculaneum features a leopard seated before a glass paste mosaic of Neptune and his wife, Amphitrite. Associated with the god of wine, Bacchus, the leopard becomes a stand-in for the deity in a regal portrait of three divinities. (On view through Oct 19th).
Karen Knorr, Bacchus in Attendance, House of Neptune and Amphitrite, Herculaneum, 58 x 72.5 inches, 2024.
Anthony Cudahy’s simultaneous gallery shows at Hales Gallery in Chelsea and GRIMM Gallery in Tribeca are titled ‘Fool’s Gold’ and ‘Fool’s Errand,’ positing the artist as quixotic figure pursuing his own vision. True to form, Cudahy’s bold colors, unharnessed to realistic representation, highlight figures or elements of an interior background. Here, he draws our attention not to his friend, Sammy, in the chair, but rather to the glow of the bookshelf and a minimal still life with lemons. Aiming to celebrate wonder in the everyday, Cudahy tilts Sammy’s head and angles his legs to guide our eye to books that might guide the mind into a world of thought and fruits which are in conversation with art history. (On view in Chelsea at Hales Gallery and in Tribeca at GRIMM Gallery through Oct 19th).
Anthony Cudahy, Sammy, oil on linen, 72 x 72 inches, 2024.
Performance is key to New York artist Aki Sasamoto’s practice, but for her latest show at Bortolami Gallery, she outsources the action to her sculpture and to gallery visitors. Titled ‘Sounding Lines,’ after the devices used to test water depth from a vessel, the show consists of handmade sculptures resembling giant fishing lures and lengths of long springs stretched across the gallery between them. Occasionally, a motorized arm causes one of the springs to dance around and unaware visitors to react with surprise. Delightful yet disconcerting, the installation foregrounds our own response to (literally) alluring art. (On view in Tribeca through Oct 19th.)
Aki Sasamoto, ‘Sounding Line (black, red, yellow – whip whisk), wood (red cedar), whip whisk, acrylic paint, epoxy, Mylar, plexiglass, stainless steel wire and springs, bronze rod, fishhooks, stainless-steel hardware, steel, AC motor, speed controller, timer, 9 ¼ x 27 x 1 ½ inches, 2024.
Late San Francisco artist Steve Wolfe’s trompe l’oeil versions of books, boxes of books, book covers, sketchbooks and records at Luhring Augustine’s Tribeca space continue to testify to the personal significance of iconic works of art, literature, music and more. Here, Wolfe’s recreation of a Penguin Classics edition of Tolstoy’s ‘Anna Karina’ – made with oil paint, enamel, ink transfer, modeling paste, canvas and wood – looks used but intact. Other ‘books’ have ripped or dingy covers, indications of having been well-used, while dated cover art offers its own history of design. Wolfe’s New York Times obituary from 2016 included the newspaper’s critic Holland Cotter’s note that “…the histories trapped in the work are what warm up the optical tours de force.” Eight years after Wolfe’s passing, his work continues to fascinate not just for the pleasure of his sculptural skill but for the personal connections and memories the volumes evoke. (On view in Tribeca through Oct 19th).
Steve Wolfe, Untitled (Anna Karenina), oil, enamel, ink transfer, modeling paste, canvas and wood, 7 ½ x 5 x 2 ¼ inches, 1987.Steve Wolfe, Untitled (Anna Karenina), oil, enamel, ink transfer, modeling paste, canvas and wood, 7 ½ x 5 x 2 ¼ inches, 1987.
