Samara Golden in ’Material World’ at Marianne Boesky Gallery

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LA artist Samara Golden turns conventional space on its head in immersive installations like her memorable show at CANADA Gallery in 2015, for which she employed mirrors, an elevated walkway and tables and chairs affixed to the wall to suggest an event space from a parallel dimension.  A fragment related to that body of work is a standout in Marianne Boesky Gallery’s summer group show ‘Material World,’ curated by Gina Beavers, another artist whose paintings and installations spring off the wall with their bold, often humorous imagery.  The show includes an aluminum textile-like wall work by El Anatsui, a geometric sculpture made of quilts by Sanford Biggers and a painted ceramic ice cream dessert by Claes Oldenburg, all of which have been inspirations for Beaver’s work and which act as an enticing prelude to her upcoming show in September.  (On view through July 26th).

Samara Golden, Missing Pieces from A Fall of Corners #7, foam, plastic, glue, paint, 89 x 89 x 32 inches, 2015 – 2024.

Hiroshi Sugimoto at Lisson Gallery

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Art and science converge in Hiroshi Sugimoto’s new body of work at Chelsea’s Lisson Gallery, where the renowned photographer has photographed light, refracted through a prism into separate colors.  Helpfully demonstrating Sugimoto’s working process in making images of pure color or zones between colors, a huge prism positioned under a gallery skylight fractures light into a rainbow on the floor. (On view through Aug 2nd).

Installation view of ‘Optical Allusion,’ at Lisson Gallery, June 2024.

Mary Heilmann at Hauser & Wirth Gallery

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A shocking pink wall, lime green front desk and aqua-colored chair greet visitors to Mary Heilmann’s show at Hauser & Wirth Gallery, creating a bold statement not quite in keeping with the subtlety of the exhibition’s content – small-scale work on paper from the 70s to the early ‘00s.  Nevertheless, one of the show’s smallest pieces, a black and blue watercolor and pencil drawing that brings to mind a game board, an overview of a pool or architectural forms, inspired Heilmann’s new, hugely enjoyable wall-filling new site-specific drawing, ‘A Long Lost Soul.’  (On view through July 26th in Chelsea).

Mary Heilmann, installation view of ‘A Long Lost Soul, acrylic on wall, 168 x 349 ½ inches, 2024.
Mary Heilmann, Untitled Watercolor Study, watercolor and pencil on paper, 5 x 7 inches, 1982-84 c.

The Campus, Claverack, New York

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If you’ve ever enjoyed exploring MoMA’s PS1, an art space housed in a former Queens public school, you’ll love rambling around the atmospheric new 78,000 sq ft art space The Campus, housed in a former high school just outside Hudson, NY.  Work by nearly 100 artists, mostly represented by NYC galleries Bortolami, James Cohan, kaufmann repetto, Anton Kern, Andrew Kreps and kurimanzutto fills the gym, hallways, classrooms and grounds around the large, low-slung, 1951 building.  Organized by Timo Kappeller, the handsomely installed inaugural show includes a metal butterfly sculpture by Kosovar artist Petrit Halilaj (whose sculpture inspired by graffiti on school desks is currently on the roof of the Met Museum), text pieces by Jenny Holzer (currently showing at the Guggenheim) installed in a boys shower room, Madeline Hollander’s perpetual rolling metal knots (recently part of her solo show at Bortolami) and much, much more.  (Admission is free. Hours: Saturday and Sunday, 12pm – 5pm. On view through Oct 27th.)

The Campus, Claverack, NY

 

 

Petrit Halilaj at The Campus.
Jenny Holzer at The Campus.
Madeline Hollander at The Campus.

Mika Tajima at Hill Art Foundation

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Mika Tajima’s winter ’24 solo show at Chelsea’s Pace Gallery featured Jacquard loomed tapestries so large that the gallery referred to them as ‘architectural;’ the artist’s current solo show at the Hill Art Foundation takes the concept a step further in its handsome integration of artwork and the gallery space.   Here, a new work from Tajima’s ‘Negative Entropy’ series – referring to an application of energy to move away from disorder – dominates a floating wall, enhancing the dynamic effect of the wave pattern depicted in purple and yellow.  Past pieces from the series indirectly picture sound waves from computer activity or brain stimulation; here, the subtitle ‘Sound Bath…’ suggests a visualization of a healing activity, purposeful if abstracted.  (On view through July 26th).

Mika Tajima, Negative Entropy (Sound Bath, Purple, Full Width, Exa, cotton, polyester, wool, acoustic baffling felt, aluminum, white oak, 131 x 212 ½ x 3 ¾ inches, 2024.