Raven Halfmoon in ‘Claypop’ at Jeffrey Deitch, New York

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

Two towering heads are positioned back-to-back in Raven Halfmoon’s powerful monumental stoneware sculpture ‘Bah’hatteno Nut’tehtsei (Red River Girl in Caddo).’  A standout in ‘Claypop,’ Jeffrey Deitch Gallery’s new group show of contemporary ceramic artwork curated by director Alia Williams, the work’s textured surface suggests rock carved from the landscape while Halfmoon’s spray-painted face-markings and signature on the side connects the piece to contemporary urban artistic expression. (On view in SoHo through Oct 30th.)

Raven Halfmoon, Bah’hatteno Nut’tehtsei (Red River Girl in Caddo), stoneware, glaze, 2021.

Alison Elizabeth Taylor at James Cohan Gallery

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

Alison Elizabeth Taylor creates new natural wonders at James Cohan Gallery with her latest solo show of 2-D artworks crafted in a blend of marquetry, paint and photographic media.  Here, an affectionate couple in the Covid era have beautifully rendered hair – composed of various types of wood veneer – and a bandana that amazingly manages to be believable as both cloth and wood grain.  (On view in Tribeca through Oct 23rd.  Masks and social distancing required.)

Alison Elizabeth Taylor, Kiss, marquetry hybrid, 31 x 24 inches, 2021.

Philip Guston at Hauser & Wirth Gallery

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When Philip Guston stopped painting in an abstract expressionist style and adopted a new, faux-naïve look in 1970, art world response was so negative that the artist relocated to Rome for the better part of the following year.  ‘Pittore,’ part of a major show of Guston’s late work at Hauser & Wirth Gallery, expresses some of the anxiety that Guston must have felt as a painter, as well as his need to change to a representational style to engage in a more overt way with the politics of the day.  Here, the artist lies awake in bed at night, his paint and brush beside him.  Smoking, his eyes bloodshot, and with a clock rising behind him like a moon dominating a landscape, the pressure is palpable.  (On view in Chelsea.  Proof of vaccination, photo ID and masks are required).

Philip Guston, Pittore, oil on canvas, 72 ¾ x 80 ½ inches, 1973.

Alice Neel at David Zwirner Gallery

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

Alice Neel’s desire to ‘bear witness’ to the humanity she encountered resulted in a range of portraits, from bohemian downtown artists to her Harlem neighbors to colorful characters seen on the street.  ‘Conversation on a Bus’ from 1944 exaggerates the features of two chattering friends but at the same time lures us into their animated conversation and, in the eyes of the woman in the brown hat, hints at the pleasure of intimacy with a friend.  Despite the Met’s recent extensive survey of Neel’s work, this selection of paintings from Neel’s early decades at David Zwirner Gallery feels fresh and full of revelation.  (On view on 20th Street in Chelsea through Oct 16th.)

Alice Neel, Conversation on a Bus, oil on canvas, 29 x 22 inches, 1944.

Ghada Amer at Marianne Boesky Gallery

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

“Do not fit into the glass slipper like Cinderella did, shatter the glass ceiling,” reads the text (quoting Indian actor Priyanka Chopra?) covering Ghada Amer’s portrait of her friend, Elizabeth.  Though Amer has changed her subjects from women in erotic magazines to friends, family and collaborators, she has not altered her habit of citing truisms from a feminist perspective.  Her latest Chelsea show – her first at Marianne Boesky Gallery – features texts intended to build up women and their capabilities.  (On view through Oct 23rd).

Ghada Amer, Portrait of Elizabeth, acrylic, embroidery, and gel medium on canvas, 2021.