John Riepenhoff at Broadway

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

While traveling the world in his various roles as art dealer, artist, art activist, art impresario, and beer and cheese maker, John Riepenhoff has made time to appreciate the night sky from a variety of vantage points, from urban rooftops to wilderness.  In the latest from his ongoing series of sky paintings created in the dark of night and now on view at Broadway in Tribeca, he continues to configure the heavens in surprising ways, filling canvases with vertical dashes or elliptical forms that suggest a view from inside a rain storm. Blooms of purple-reddish color and scattered flecks of orange or yellow light further encourage appreciation for the wonders of nature.  (On view through July 15th).

John Riepenhoff, Skies, acrylic, flashe and oil on linen, 44 x 50 inches, 2022.

Clementine Keith-Roach at PPOW Gallery

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Clementine Keith-Roach’s sculptures at PPOW Gallery combine found vessels with casts of her own body to explore her experience of motherhood.  During her first pregnancy, the artist felt as if she was a ‘labouring vessel’ and made the connection literal by joining carefully painted limbs to used and worn ceramics.  Paired with her husband Christopher Page’s paintings depicting mirrors with no reflection and cloud-filled windows, the exhibition explores interiority in both the physical and psychological realms.  (On view through July 1st in Tribeca).

Clementine Keith-Roach, Lost Object, terracotta vessel, jesmonite, paint, 22 ½ x 21 ¼ x 17 ¾ inches, 2022.

Robert Colescott at George Adams Gallery

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The late artist Robert Colescott, painter of the iconic art-historical remake ‘George Washington Carver Crossing the Delaware,’ addressed racial stereotypes by confronting them head-on.  Here, in ‘Nouvelle Cuisine’ from 1988, now on view at Tribeca’s George Adams Gallery, Colescott lifts the cover off of the inequitable power structure in this fine dining establishment.  Hidden labor and a trash can full of wasted food speak to behind-the-scenes realities ignored in the candle-lit dining room.  (On view through July 1st).

Robert Colescott, Nouvelle Cuisine, acrylic on canvas, 84 x 72 inches, 1988.

Alex Israel at Greene Naftali Gallery

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Known for huge paintings of sunsets, giant sculptures of dark sunglasses and other emblems of life in Los Angeles, Alex Israel continues to channel the allure of Hollywood and its environs with wave paintings and a fantasy street scene sculpture at Greene Naftali Gallery.  Titled ‘Sunset Coast Drive,’ the 44-foot-long strip of fictional and real buildings includes Israel’s own studio at one end and his favorite burger place at the other.  In the foreground of this photo, Israel revives a mural he painted on a building in Venice, CA before it was painted over.  The rest of the gallery is dominated by vividly colored acrylic on fiberglass panels depicting crashing waves inspired by Hokusai and surfing logos.  Their bright colors are alluring, but abstracted to the point of resembling reaching hands, the waves may be less innocuous than they first seem.  (On view in Chelsea through June 25th).

Alex Israel, Sunset Coast Drive (detail), 26 x 528 x 43 inches, 2022.
Alex Israel, Waves, acrylic on fiberglass, 99 x 99 inches, 2022.

Glenda Leon at Bienvenu Steinberg & Partners

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Cuban artist Glenda Leon’s conceptual artwork varies from a grid of colorful used soaps decorated with line drawings made from hair, to a textile depicting the molecular structure of controlled substances that appear to be constellations in the night sky; in its own way, each piece makes poetic reference to the human body.  Both soap and textile works are included in her current solo show at Bienvenu Steinberg and Partner in Tribeca, along with this Remington typewriter, its keys covered with pieces of chewed gum.  Coming from the mouth, origin of the spoken word, to arrest the written word that might otherwise be created with this typewriter, the gum represents a form of sticky control.  (On view in Tribeca, through June 30th).

 

Glenda Leon, Chewed Words, 2018-2021.Remington Portable #3 typewriter, chewing gum.