Robert Gober at Matthew Marks Gallery

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

Drawings of barred windows contrast sculptural tableau depicting open windows in Robert Gober’s new work at Matthew Marks Gallery’s 22nd Street location. While the bars suggest imprisonment, a series of wooden windows offer varying degrees of access into personal space resembling – to judge by the weathered sash and can of lithium grease in this version – an aging farmhouse.  Titled ‘Help Me,’ the piece suggests urgent need as it offers objects that stand in for the house’s inhabitants and possibly allude to the body.  Despite the pretty hand-painted designs on a lively curtain that appears to catch the breeze, uncertainty, sentiment, nostalgia and even delight at Gober’s meticulously hand-crafted objects combine to leave a feeling of thought-provoking unease.  (On view through Dec 23rd).

Robert Gober, Help Me, pewter, glass, synthetic plastic polymer, epoxy putty, acrylic paint, wood, cotton, epoxy resin, 30 ¼ x 30 3/8 x 18 ¾ inches, 2018 – 2021.

Anna Conway at Fergus McCaffrey Gallery

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

Anna Conway’s surreal landscapes and tense interior scenes often feature working men whose importance is questionable.  Here, in an oil painting from 2004 featured in her current solo show at Fergus McCaffrey Gallery in Chelsea, four men in uniform lie flat on sandy soil to reach into a man-made pool.  Their tiny figures, echoed in the forms of spindly trees above them, appear ill-equipped to correct whatever problem lurks below.  Titled ‘Pound of Cure,’ the piece presents the unpleasant consequences of someone’s lack of foresight.  (On view through Dec 23rd).

Anna Conway, Pound of Cure, oil on panel, 44 x 60 inches, 2004.

Tomm El-Saieh at Luhring Augustine

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

Born in Haiti and raised in Miami, Tomm El-Saieh’s relationship with the country of his birth continues to inspire his abstract paintings, now on view at Chelsea’s Luhring Augustine Gallery.  Haitian spiritual practice as well as the traditions of international abstraction inform El-Saieh’s fields of color and subtle geometric patterns that bloom over the canvases.  (On view through Dec 22nd).

Tomm El-Saieh, Boule, acrylic on canvas, 96 x 72 inches, 2021.

Olga de Amaral at Lisson Gallery

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

‘For me, gold is the sun,’ explains octogenarian Columbian artist Olga de Amaral as she describes the importance and stunning impact of the material in her textiles.  Hanging assemblages of gold-covered linen positioned near the door of Chelsea’s Lisson Gallery catch the natural light and resemble ancient carved stones; further in the gallery, this piece adds palladium, another metal that reflects light and adds to the luxurious quality of this labor-intensive artwork.  (On view in Chelsea through Dec 18th.  Masks and proof of vaccination required.)

Olga de Amaral, Memorias 6, linen, gesso, acrylic, gold leaf and palladium, 78 5/8 x 74 ¾ inches, 2014.

 

Radcliffe Bailey at Jack Shainman Gallery

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

Constructed from reclaimed wooden beams from a shipyard in Istanbul, Atlanta-based artist Radcliffe Bailey’s ‘Nommo’ suggests both boat and stage.  Now on view in Bailey’s solo show at Jack Shainman Gallery, the piece was originally commissioned for the 2019 Istanbul Biennial and situated on the site of an earlier performance by Sun Ra, a musician whose real and imagined travels inspired Bailey.  For the artist, the repeated character represented in series of plaster busts represents the ‘spirituality of people and their practices.’  (On view through Dec 18th. Masks required.)

Radcliffe Bailey, Nommo, mixed media and sound installation including a radio, found wood, steel metal structure and 8 plaster busts, approx. 10H’ x 21L’ x 13D,’ 2019.