Experimentation and a quest for the new has been at the heart of Italian textile designer Renata Bonfanti’s work since she traveled from her native Italy to complete her studies in Olso in the early 50s. A selection of woven work from 1968 – 1990, now on view at Kaufmann Repetto in Tribeca, foregrounds Bonfanti’s inventive techniques and varied geometries, which she explains are always inspired by the built environment. (On view through Feb 18th).
Ryan Sullivan’s abstractions invite viewers on a process of discovery in new work at 125 Newbury; what appear to be relatively straightforward non-representational paintings are in fact complicated images created by both chance and forethought. Sullivan’s working technique is key. Using pigment suspended in industrial grade resin, the artist makes the paintings ‘backward,’ by laying down the marks that will be seen on the surface, then continuing to add on the background layers, eventually moving the piece from its frame once set. As much sculpture as painting, the untitled pieces foreground our own exploration of how to interpret what we’re encountering in each dynamic and complex composition. (On view in Tribeca through Jan 28th).
Titled ‘Shades of Daphne,’ Kasmin Gallery’s current group exhibition celebrates ‘resistance and revolt’ of figures who’ve changed forms, a la Daphne of Greek mythology, who morphed into a tree before being accosted by Apollo. Mexican artist Ana Pellicer’s ‘Purepecha Rattlesnake,’ a giant chain and pendant, is intended as jewelry for the Statue of Liberty, a conceptual aspect of the work that changes our idea of the statue’s identity. Crafted using 500-year-old copperworking techniques from Michoacan, Mexico, Pellicer suggests that Lady Liberty has sophisticated tastes. (On view in Chelsea through Feb 22nd).
A man with skin composed of overlapping shells arranges his hands on a wall in Lehmann Maupin Gallery’s front room as if to peer into the vibrantly colored picture before him – a mural depicting a block of flats. ‘Die Strandloper – Man’ or ‘The Beachwalker – Man,’ an installation by South African artist Robin Rhode, is titled after a term used to refer to one of South Africa’s oldest people groups, the Khoisan, who have lived along southwest Africa’s coasts and whose lifestyles have been under threat for centuries by European settlement and now climate change. Resembling the streamlined forms of hotels from the game Monopoly, the structures in their non-natural colors are a sharp contrast to the figures’ close physical relationship with the natural world. (On view in Chelsea through Feb 11th).
Two tiny backpackers could almost go unnoticed in the bottom center of this photograph by Victoria Sambunaris, on view at Yancey Richardson Gallery, if Sambunaris had not framed them so carefully on the curving pathway of Death Valley National Park from her vantage point above. Though dwarfed by natural surrounds, human presence is unmissable in the artist’s new work focusing on the California desert. Expecting to encounter these landscapes as wastelands, Sambunaris instead witnessed all manner of human activity from camping caravans to dune buggy riding, made all the more attractive during the pandemic, when she traveled to make this body of work. (On view in Chelsea through Feb 18th).
