Hellen van Meene in ‘Immersion’ at Yancey Richardson Gallery

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A father and child floating in a lake, a swimming snake in still water and surfers in the waves are pictured from above, while a baby, a shark and swimmers in a pool are pictured from below in six different, strikingly intimiate photographs in Yancey Richardson Gallery’s arrestingly beautiful summer group show ‘Immersion.’  Here, Dutch photographer Hellen van Meene recreates John Everett Millais’ 1851 painting ‘Ophelia’ from Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet.’  Looking slightly more composed and decidedly more alive than the 19th century version, this retelling of the story seems to offer hope that Ophelia will soon rise up magically or of her own will. (On view through Aug 16th).

Hellen van Meene, Untitled #544, chromogenic print, 27 ½ x 27 ½ inches, 2022.

Tara Donovan at Pace Gallery

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Millions of 3×5 index cards stacked into shapes like termite-mounds and Styrofoam cups clustered on the ceiling to form a giant cloud are among Tara Donovan’s most memorable past installations, serving to make her the master of the accumulated-object-turned-artwork.  For her current show on the 7th floor of Pace Gallery’s Chelsea headquarters, Donovan turns mountains of CD-ROM disks into elegant towers that echo the skyscrapers of Hudson Yards out the window.  Attractive and – as always – begging the question of how the artist and her team had the patience to construct such labor-intensive structures, the new work’s recycled sensibility turns trash into treasure.  (On view through Aug 16th).

Installation view of ‘Stratagems’ at Pace Gallery, July 2024.

Pacita Abad at Tina Kim Gallery

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Exiled from the Philippines during the Marcos dictatorship for her political activism and later known for artwork inspired by her status as an immigrant and world traveler, Pacita Abad’s textile paintings of coral reefs are geared towards pure visual pleasure.  ‘Underwater Wilderness,’ a show of brilliantly colored fabric works created in the mid to late 80s and now on view at Tina Kim Gallery in Chelsea, features scenes from the 80 dives she took around the Philippines after overcoming a fear of the water.  Using a style of quilting involving paint and collage on canvas, Abad introduced materials including glitter, sequins and buttons to create vibrant, 3-D visions of the world below the surface.  (In view through Aug 16th).

Pacita Abad, Dumaguete’s Underwater Garden, oil, acrylic, glitter, gold thread, buttons, lace, sequins on stitched and padded canvas, 85 ¼ x 118 inches, 1987.
Pacita Abad, (detail) Dumaguete’s Underwater Garden, oil, acrylic, glitter, gold thread, buttons, lace, sequins on stitched and padded canvas, 85 ¼ x 118 inches, 1987.

Norberto Nicola in ‘Crossings’ at Kasmin Gallery

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Late Sao Paola tapestry artist Norberto Nicola’s untitled hanging abstraction in Kasmin Gallery’s summer group show ‘Crossings’ is a standout among the varied and lively woven and textile-based works on view.  Influenced by Magdalena Abakanowicz’s huge woven sculptural forms, Nicola developed his own hanging fiber artworks that rise up from the flat surface in various dynamic arrangements.  (On view through Aug 9th).

Norberto Nicola, Untitled, wool, natural fibers and pigments, 98 3/8 x 59 inches, ca 1980s.
Norberto Nicola, Untitled, wool, natural fibers and pigments, 98 3/8 x 59 inches, ca 1980s.

Adam Pendleton at Pace Gallery

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Like his installation ‘Who is Queen?’ in MoMA’s towering atrium in 2021, Adam Pendleton’s current solo exhibition at Pace Gallery, titled ‘An Abstraction,’ immerses visitors in a structured installation of dynamic forms.  Describing this show’s arrangement itself as an artistic decision, Pendleton designed a series of elegant, black triangular walls to support his abstractions, causing viewers to find their own paths – and interpretive experiences – through the gallery. Drawing on his ongoing elaboration on his concept of ‘Black Dada,’ for which he has assembled a reader, Pendleton’s work engages the early 20th century Dada art movement’s attempted avoidance of rational thought while considering the relationship of Blackness to European avant-garde practice.  ‘An Abstraction’ foregrounds the physical experience of the viewer, offering vantage points from which to consider his language of abstraction and how we process meaning in the moment.  (On view in Chelsea through Aug 16th).

Adam Pendleton, installation view of ‘An Abstraction’ at Pace Gallery.