‘Chroma’ at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

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

See Greek and Roman sculpture like never before in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s new show ‘Chroma,’ which presents reconstructions of ancient sculpture in vivid tones based on traces of original pigment.  Using tools like multispectral photography, German professor Dr V. Brinkmann and Dr U. Koch-Brinkmann of the Liebieghaus sculpture collection in Frankfurt, Germany reveal how ancient Mediterranean cultures favored vibrant color.  Join me on a Met Museum highlights tour to see these works and more.  (On view through March 26th, 2023).

Vinzenz Brinkmann and Ulrike Koch-Brinkmann, Reconstruction of a marble statue of a woman wrapping herself in a mantle (so-called Small Herculaneum Woman). Marble stucco on plaster cast, natural pigments in egg tempera, gold foil, 2019.

Emily Mullin in ‘RGB’ at Yossi Milo Gallery

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Can art compete with nature?  Emily Mullin’s ceramics at Yossi Milo Gallery, presented on wall-mounted shelves and offset by a rectangle of background color, are crowned by show-stealing floral arrangements.  Yet like the flowers, which will change as the piece is displayed, Mullin sees her hand-made ceramic pieces as unique individuals, almost characters.  Together, this quirky assemblage of sculpture, support and background challenges expectations, existing, as the artist puts it, “…between the space of representation and reality.”  (On view through August 12th in Chelsea).

Emily Mullin, xtravaganza, Lime Raku fired vessels, powder coated steel, flora, 17 x 21 ¼ x 8 inches, (flora dimensions variable), 2022.

Barbara Kruger – MoMA and David Zwirner Gallery

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Have you seen this eye-grabbing new installation by Barbara Kruger in the Museum of Modern Art’s atrium?  Don’t miss the rest of the show at David Zwirner Gallery in Chelsea, where the gallery’s three adjoining spaces on 19th Street showcase work from a recent exhibition of Kruger’s work at the Art Institute of Chicago and the LA County Museum of Art.  Join me on a Chelsea gallery tour to see the show before it closes on Aug 12th.

Barbara Kruger, installation view of Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You at The Museum of Modern Art, July 2022.

Yoan Capote at Jack Shainman Gallery

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Evoking light from heaven as well as the rising sun, Cuban artist Yoan Capote’s use of gold in a show of new seascapes at Jack Shainman Gallery’s Chelsea locations offers immediate uplift. After a 2019 visit to Italy, where Capote had access to abundant medieval and early Renaissance art, the artist adopted gold backgrounds and the circular format of this painting to create images that are optimistic yet also anxious.  Connecting the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean with many Cubans’ struggle to cross the Caribbean, Capote embeds fishing hooks in recent work, picturing the sea as a barrier.  (On view through Aug 5th).

Yoan Capote, Requiem (vault), 24kt gold leaf, nails and fishhooks on panel of linen mounted over plywood, 53 (diameter) x 5 (depth) inches, 2021.

Kathleen Ryan in ‘Fruiting Bodies’ at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery

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

Tanya Bonakdar Gallery’s summer group show ‘Fruiting Bodies,’ curated by Sam Rauch, the gallery’s Director of Commissions and Special Projects, showcases art projects that focus on food, from beer to fungi.  Here, Kathleen Ryan uses nearly two dozen semi-precious stones to construct a rotting lemon.  Known for creating interest in what appear to be everyday objects through dramatic shifts in scale (memorably, a necklace composed of bowling balls at Arsenal Gallery), here Ryan also creates tension between alluring materials and repellent decay.  (On view in Chelsea through July 29th).

Kathleen Ryan, Bad Lemon (Eclipse), aventurine, serpentine, ruby in zoisite, amethyst, labradorite, hematite, carnelian, tiger eye, brecciated jasper, tektite, citrine, agate, sesame jasper, snowflake obsidian, amazonite, quartz, smoky quartz, pyrite, moonstone, lava rock, onyx marble, marble, glass, steel pins on coated polystyrene, 16 x 18 x 16 inches, 2020.