Late Austrian artist Franz West depicts Biblical characters Cain and Abel in a standoff in this typically pop-colored, messy abstract sculpture from 1986 at Chelsea’s Gagosian gallery. Using abjection and humor West makes their iconic conflict seem odd and not a little pathetic. (Through July 18th).
Franz West, Cain ova Incontro ad Abele, epoxy resin, lacquer, steel, 1986.
Scenes from different continents look oddly similar in Sze Tsung Leong’s mesmerizing ‘Horizons’ show at Chelsea’s Yossi Milo Gallery. Here, a photo of Havana rubs shoulders with a shot from Paris, linking two unlikely cities by their dense landscape and domed architecture. (Through July 11th).
Sze Tsung Leong, installation view of ‘Horizons,’ at Yossi Milo Gallery, June 2014. Right: La Habana Vieja II, 2010. Left: Quartier Latin, Paris, 2008.
In response to the disastrous 2008 Sichuan earthquake that killed thousands of school children in their shoddily constructed schools, Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei constructed this snake of backpacks as a memorial. Below, a pile of porcelain river crabs indirectly stands in for censorship and recalls a huge feast of crab initiated by Ai Wei Wei as a protest against limitations on free speech. (At the Brooklyn Museum through August 10th).
Ai Wei Wei, Snake Ceiling, backpacks, 2009. He Xie, 3,200 porcelain crabs, 2010.
Though gestural strokes dominate new ‘paintings’ by Barcelona-based artist Meyer Vaisman, all have been created with inkjet on industrial plywood with stretcher bars made to look like the back of a canvas. Though the work is abstract, the imagery is based on Vaisman’s signature. (At Eleven Rivington on the Lower East Side through July 3rd).
Meyer Vaisman, Artist’s Signature: llehctiM naoJ, 5773, AFGA UVI ink on popular plywood, 2014.
LA-based art star Sterling Ruby turns his signature, stalactite-like urethane sculptures into quasi-Greek columns with a backdrop painting recalling American quilting traditions, tie-dying, Color Field painting and the colors of the US flag. Grand themes abound in an ambitious show that treats icons of art and history with a provocative mix of reverence and distain. (At Hauser & Wirth Gallery through July 25th).
Sterling Ruby, (foreground) Pillars, PVC pipe, foam and urethane, (rear) FLAG (4791) bleached and dyed canvas and elastic, 2014.
An imaginary cabaret group spreads the word about the dangers of climate change as advertised by this wall of faux event posters by artist duo Kahn and Selesnick. Known for photographing outlandish scenarios, their imagination runs riot in this jam-packed show. (At Chelsea’s Yancey Richardson Gallery through July 3rd).
Kahn & Selesnick, installation view of ‘Truppe Fledermaus & the Carnival at the end of the World,’ Flashe and tempura paint on canvas and on paper, printed posters.
A mirror buried in a tangle of orange-blossomed plants turns this lush landscape by Arkansas-based artist and musician Stephanie Pierce into an enigmatic self-portrait. (At Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects on the Lower East Side through June 29th).
Stephanie Pierce, Cosmos, oil on canvas, 2013.
When Alabama-based artist Pinky M M Bass’s sister was suffering from cancer, the artist started stitching internal organs on photos as a means of processing what was going on insider her sister’s body. Here, foods hover around the shoulders of this figure, waiting to make their way into the digestive tract. (On view at Chelsea’s Robert Mann Gallery through August 15th.)
Pinky MM Bass, Contemplating My Internal Organs, 1999-2006, embroidery on gelatin silver print, with platinum hanging hardware and Plexiglas.
Shredded and twisted fabric create the bark on a 60-foot tall tree by renowned street artist Swoon that fills the Brooklyn Museum’s fifth floor rotunda. The tree anchors a stunning installation that features huge portraits of the artist’s friends and family along with rag-tag boats that once plied the waters in New York and Venice. (On view through August 24th).
Swoon, installation view of ‘Submerged Motherlands,’ at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, April – August, 2014.
Hiroshi Sugimoto’s photographs of natural history dioramas – ongoing since the 70s – challenge viewers to find the line between real and represented. They also point out how the museum’s role in displaying these animals has changed in the face of habitat loss and endangerment. (On view at Pace Gallery through June 28th).
Hiroshi Sugimoto, Polar Bear, gelatin silver print, 47 x 58 3/4”, 1976.
Iconic ceramic artist Ken Price launched this series of monumental bronze composite sculptures late in his life, bringing a career of innovation to a close with suggestive, almost glowing forms. (At Chelsea’s Matthew Marks Gallery through June 28th).
Ken Price, installation view of ‘Large Sculptures’ at Matthew Marks Gallery, in the foreground: ‘Ceejay,’ painted bronze composite, 48 x 48 3/8 x 46 inches, 2011.
Dancer and visual artist Tony Orrico spent eight hours at PPOW Gallery in Chelsea creating this minimal work on paper – a record of his physical interaction with a vast sheet of paper made by chewing on each fold to leave a personal imprint on his material. (Through June 28th).
Tony Orrico, prepare the plane (P.P.O.W., New York, NY) 2014/2012, dental occlusion on archival bright white Neenah paper, 8:15:22 hours, 96 x 96 inches.
Bizarre scenarios like this exchange of processed meat in young Canadian photographer Elaine Stocki’s hand-colored silver gelatin prints make for captivating and strange images that run the gamut from obviously staged to apparently documentary. (At Chelsea’s Thomas Erben Gallery through June 28th).
Elaine Stocki, Meat Meet, hand-tinted silver gelatin print, 29.5 x 37.75 inches, 2013.
David Scanavino’s vibrantly colored institutional floor tiles, Michael DeLucia’s tire images, carved out of MDF by a computer-controlled router, and David Kennedy Cutler’s elongated arm, created with pictures of a real hand, bring together images generated in the computer and realized in three dimensions. (At Chelsea’s Derek Eller Gallery through June 28th).
David Kennedy Cutler, Michael DeLucia, David Scanavino, To Be Titled, plywood and high pressure laminate, injet on cotton sateen and aluminum, tree branch, wood, spray paint, permalac, VCT tile, floor wax, MDF, glue, 2014.
Tara Donovan does it again with two new sculptures at Chelsea’s Pace Gallery created in her signature style – multiplying an everyday object by millions to create a wondrous installation. Here, index cards suggest fairy chimneys or termite mounds to astonishing effect. (Through June 28th).
Tara Donovan, Untitled, styrene index cards, metal, wood, paint and glue, 12’ 5 1/2” x 22’ 4” x 22’ 11 1/2”, 2014.
Brooklyn-based artist Jayson Musson’s tongue-in-cheek recreation of ‘modern’ art from the comic strip Nancy for his show at Salon94 on the Lower East Side is perfectly timed to recent market interest in abstract painting. Playfully forcing the question of how we create value in art, the show amuses and provokes in equal measure. (Through June 20th).
Jayson Musson, installation view of ‘Exhibit of Abstract Art,’ Salon94 Bowery, May 2014.
Constructed from saddles and harnesses given to her by major Ab Exp sculptor David Smith, this striking assemblage by Nancy Grossman from 1965 suggests militaristic aggression and violence enacted on an individual’s body. (At Michael Rosenfeld Gallery through July 3rd.)
Nancy Grossman, For David Smith, mixed media assemblage on canvas mounted on plywood, 85 x 85 x 6 ¾ inches, 1965.
San Francisco-based abstract sculptor Vincent Fecteau’s untitled, wall-mounted clay sculpture resembles a super-sized, wadded up piece of paper at first glance; delicate green coloring, eye-grabbing negative space in the folds and a mysterious bar-like shape at the top encourage further looking, however. (At Matthew Marks Gallery through June 28th).
Vincent Fecteau, Untitled, resin clay, acrylic paint, 26 x 28 x 8 inches, 2014.
Korean artist Lee Bul’s ‘Via Negativa II’ appears to hover mirage-like above the gallery floor, a perfect intro to the disorienting experience of walking through Bul’s mirrored maze to an inner sanctum of lights that appears to extend into infinity. (At Lehmann Maupin Gallery‘s Lower East Side location through June 21st).
Lee Bul, installation view of Via Negativa II, polycarbonate sheet, aluminum frame, acrylic and polycarbonate mirrors, steel, stainless-steel, mirror, two way mirror, LED lighting, silkscreen ink, 275 x 500 x 700cm, 2014.
Many younger artists will cite the influence of Duane Hanson’s super realist sculptures, but it’s rare to see one in New York. It was a treat and a surprise to recently spot this life-like ‘Man with Handtruck’ in George Adams Gallery’s project room. (In Chelsea through June 14th).
Duane Hanson, Man with Handtruck, polyester and fiberglass, oil, mixed media, 66 x 30 x 41 inches, 1975.
Based on an 18th century print of Paris society at a Salon exhibition, Chicago-based Jose Lerma’s huge painting (seen here in detail), features a sardine-packed assortment of onlookers whose doubled features suggests a jittery, half-mad art audience. (At Chelsea’s Andrea Rosen Gallery through June 14th).
Jose Lerma, Parterre, acrylic on canvas, 108 x 192 inches, 2013-14.
Examples from Dutch designer Joris Laarman’s ‘Maker’ series, on display at Chelsea’s Friedman Benda Gallery, demonstrate the possibilities this celebrated young designer explores using digital fabrication. Here, resin and walnut undergo an attractive merger. (Through June 14th).
Joris Laarman, Maker Chair (Diagonal), resin and walnut, 31.5 x 23.62 x 25.59 inches, 2014.
London-based Palestinian artist Mona Hatoum is known for sculptures that question the sanctity and safety of home; here, it’s the visitor who must beware of a prickly welcome. (Spotted in Alexander and Bonin Gallery’s third floor viewing space, Chelsea).
Mona Hatoum, Doormat, stainless steel and nickel-plated pins, glue and canvas, 1 x 28 x 16 inches, 1996.
Just inside the front door of Chelsea’s Andrea Rosen Gallery, the drip from an air conditioner hits a hotplate, creating a arresting sound that sets the tone for a show full of magical occurrences and mysterious processes…(Through June 14th).
Mika Rottenberg, installation view of Tsss Tsss Tsss, air conditioner, plant, hotplate, frying pan, water, 2014.
Elaborate patterns made from stretched monofilament are the highlight of British artist Robert Currie’s New York solo debut at Chelsea’s Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery. Seeming to shift as visitors move, they embody an unexpected dynamism and astound at their intricate construction. (Through June 14th.)
Robert Currie, (detail view of) 40, 031 inches of black, red and yellow nylon monofilament, nylon monofilament, 27 1/8 x 51 ¼ x 11 inches, 2014.
Walton Ford is back at Chelsea’s Paul Kasmin Gallery with more of his signature large watercolors focusing on the fraught relationship throughout history between man and animal. Here, he recalls a medieval tale of a retreating poacher who scattered reflective balls to confuse a tigress. (Through June 21st).
Walton Ford, The Tigress, watercolor and gouache on paper, 60 x 120 inches, 2013.
Picassoid nudes brawl on the sidewalk while two Renaissance angels airlift a Henry Moore nude to safety in Canadian artist Kent Monkman’s hilarious contemporizing of iconic art historical types. (At Sargent’s Daughters on the Lower East Side through June 8th).
Kent Monkman, ‘Le Petit dejeuner sur l’herbe,’ acrylic on canvas, 2014.
A pile of stock certificates slung on the gallery floor and a fake-aged panel emblazoned with logos by New York artist Mark Flood at Zach Feuer Gallery cynically (or efficiently?) offers collectors straightforward value, cutting out actual art objects as a middle man. (Through June 14th).
Mark Flood, installation view of ‘Mark Flood: Available NASDAQ Symbol’ at Zach Feuer Gallery, May 2014.
Brooklyn artist Blane De St Croix’s trips to the Arctic Circle have resulted in this huge (24 foot long) sculpture titled after the run-off of a melting glacier. It brings to mind a fossilized sea creature or a ship’s hull, turning a still-familiar form into a relic. (At Chelsea’s Fredericks Freiser Gallery through June 14th).
Blane De St. Croix, Dead Ice, mixed media, aqua resin, eco expoxy and recycled material, 288 x 132 x 84 inches, 2014.
Under a stunning sunrise, time runs out, nature takes its course and a masked figure keeps up appearances in this attractively simple yet hard-to-interpret painting by Brooklyn artist Jaya Howey. How it all fits together seems to be less important than noting how it’s all happening at once. (At Bureau on the Lower East Side through June 15th).
Jaya Howey, Opening Narrative with Frame Work 3, oil and acrylic on canvas, ceramic, epoxy, 119 x 94cm, 2014.
Keith Haring turned his signature energetic designs into a calligraphic abstraction in this untitled painting on a tarp (seen as a detail) from 1985, now on view at Barbara Gladstone Gallery. (In Chelsea through June 14th).
Keith Haring, detail of ‘Untitled,’ 60 x 60 inches, acrylic on muslin, 1985.
Beijing-based artist Jiang Pengyi suggests a dystopian quality to China’s rapid urban development with his ‘Unregistered City’ series now at Chelsea’s Klein Sun Gallery. Here, skyscrapers scaled down to toy-size are surrounded by dust and debris in an old, industrial-looking setting that suggests a bleak bigger picture. (Through June 21st).
Jiang Pengyi, Unregistered City No. 1, archival pigment print on cotton rag paper, 59 x 82 ¼ inches, 2008.
If you’re an artist who thinks your work might be improved by being destroyed, you might want to talk to New York based artist Lucas Ajemian. Ajemian has created this work – reminiscent of a reclining figure in a weathered fresco from a Roman villa – and the others in his latest solo show at Marlborough Gallery’s Lower East Side location by treating, then machine washing other artists’ paintings. (Through June 8th).
Lucas Ajemian, Laundered Painting (20 x 16) I, painting on canvas, 2014.
Though toppled, David Opdyke’s utility pole appears to be sprouting new growth, suggesting that man-made inventions can have a life of their own, or that (even old) technology is an unstoppable force. (At Magnan Metz Gallery through May 31st.)
David Opdyke, Secondary Growth Line Extension, reclaimed NJCP&L utility pole, Styrofoam, steel, resin, paint, glass insulator caps, 91 x 92 x 60 inches, 2014.
As part of her latest solo show titled ‘Divorce,’ New York artist Anicka Yi has installed two driers in the gallery. Open the doors, and a diffuser sprays a strong scent of fried foods blended with other odors to convey the repulsion of a foreign yet familiar smell left behind. (At 47 Canal through June 8th).
Anicka Yi, Washing Away of Wrongs, 2 stainless steel dryer doors, 2 fragrances, diffusers, plexiglass, 120 x 131 x 26.5 inches, 2014.
Moscow-born, NYC-based painter Sanya Kantarovsky’s latest paintings at Chelsea’s Casey Kaplan Gallery explore awkward and absurd relationships. This twisted dupe appears to be horrified as he willingly bends over to have his hand crushed by a green-booted figure. (Through June 21st).
Sanya Kantarovsky, L’appetit, oil, watercolor, pastel, oilstick on canvas, 47” x 35,” 2014.
Sam Moyer, known for working her canvases over with ink and bleach, pairs up weathered cloth (on top) with slabs of marble (below), making a knowing comparison between her own process art and nature’s rather slower processes. (At Rachel Uffner Gallery on the Lower East Side through June 8th).
Sam Moyer, Zola, stone, ink on canvas mounted to mdf panel, 80 x 69 x .75 inches, 2014.
Netherlands and Benin-based artist Meschac Gaba’s first solo show in the US includes these gaming tables, handmade in Benin, that allow visitors to take geopolitics into their own hands…at least as represented by foosball. (At Chelsea’s Tanya Bonakdar Gallery through June 7th).
Meschac Gaba, installation view at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery (upstairs), May 2014.
French artist Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster has long included clothing in her conceptual artworks; for her first show at Chelsea’s 303 Gallery, she displays items from her own wardrobe along with other ephemera (here, her drawing from 1981) as autobiography. (Through May 31st).
Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, detail of the installation ‘euqinimod & costumes’ at 303 Gallery, May 2014.
Known for artwork inspired by and interacting with architecture, Brazilian artist Carlito Carvalhosa fills two rooms of Chelsea’s Sonnabend Gallery with an installation of fluorescent lights, telephone poles and glassware that suggests a field of ungainly plants or delicately balanced, deconstructed architecture.
Carlito Carvalhosa, Possibility Matters, Poles, glasses, fluorescent lights, dimensions variable, 2014.
Quasi-familiar characters from art history, made repulsive by acrid colors with Fauve-like contrasts create uneasy new paintings at Gagosian Gallery by British artist Glenn Brown. Here, an unknown gentleman’s jaundiced, spotchy skin and cloudy eyes signal moral or physical disease. (At Gagosian’s 21st Street location through June 21st).
Glenn Brown, Reproduction, oil on panel, 53 1/8 x 39 ¾ inches, 2014.
Would you be willing to promise that you’ll always do what you say you’re going to do? How about signing a contract to that effect? At three stations in conceptual artist Adrian Piper’s latest solo show at Elizabeth Dee Gallery in Chelsea, the artist asks visitors to do just that. Here, you can agree to ‘always be too expensive to buy.’ (Through May 31st).
Adrian Piper, installation view of ‘The Probable Trust Registry’ at Elizabeth Dee Gallery, May 2014.
LA based artist Ry Rocklen takes self-branding into actual product marketing with a tongue-in-cheek installation of the clothing in his wardrobe, cast in porcelain or copper plated. A graffiti-covered door is also preserved for the ages with copper, silver and gold leaf infill turning the banal into the beautiful. (At Untitled Gallery on the Lower East Side through June 15th).
Ry Rocklen, installation view at Untitled, foreground: To be Titled (Tagged Door), wood door, hardware, copper leaf, silver leaf and gold leaf, 2014. Shoes: copper plating, 2013-14. Wall: Porcelain casts of clothing, 2008-14.
Claes Oldenburg & Coosje van Bruggen’s ‘Soft Harp’ is a standout in Paula Cooper Gallery’s current exhibition of music-themed visual art. Despite being hung out as if on a wash line or strung across a flagpole, the instrument retains its elegance and beauty. (In Chelsea through May 31st).
Claes Oldenburg & Coosje van Bruggen, Soft Harp, Scale C, Harp Sail, wood, steel, aluminum, clothesline, feathers, latext paint, 1992.
David Zwirner Gallery revisits the 1980s in ‘No Problem,’ a group show that tracks the mutual influence of the Cologne and New York art scenes during this era. It includes Jenny Holzer’s inflammatory essays – in-your-face rants once plastered around New York and included in a show at Monika Spruth Galerie in Cologne in 1985. (In Chelsea through June 14th).
Jenny Holzer, Inflammatory Essays, 1979-1982, offset posters on colored paper, 17 x 17 inches (each).
Just when he thinks he’s had enough of painting trees, Benjamin Butler – a Brooklynite transplanted to Vienna – finds a fresh approach to take or problem to solve as with ‘Green Forest,’ for which the merest suggestion of branches turns a pattern of stripes into a dense copse of trees. (At Klaus von Nichtssagend on the Lower East Side through June 8th).
Benjamin Butler, Green Forest, oil on linen, 23.6 x 19.7 inches 2013.
Named Hephaestus, after the god of fire and blacksmiths, this towering, skeletal sculpture by LA artist Matthew Monahan suggests that its power lies not in massive proportions but the ability to assemble an arresting totem from scrap. (At Anton Kern Gallery through June 28th).
Matthew Monahan, Hephaestus, patinated bronze, stainless steel, patinated rebar, 144 1/8 x 114 ¼ x 82 ¾ inches, 2013.
This 164-foot scroll by Vietnam-based artist Dinh Q Le depicts just one image – the immolation of a Buddhist monk in Saigon in 1963. Stretched out to great length, the scroll seems to add duration to the still photograph while connecting that event to current acts of extreme political protest. (At Chelsea’s PPOW Gallery through May 24th).
Dinh Q Le, The Scroll of Thich Quang Duc, 150 foot c-print scroll and gold lacquer box, 2013.
Shot in an architectural water feature in a Fort Worth park and displayed in Monya Rowe Gallery’s cramped, dusty basement, NJ-based artist Joe Pflieger’s abstract photo finds a perfectly atmospheric setting to evoke an aged, neglected monument. (On the Lower East Side through May 18th).
Joe Pflieger, Luxor, photo tex mounted on aluminum, 48 x 32 inches, 2014.
Exiled from Beirut and living in San Francisco and Paris, octogenarian artist Etal Adnan has devoted many paintings, including this soothing view, to consideration of Marin County’s Mount Tamalpais as it is constantly transformed by weather and light conditions. (At Callicoon Fine Arts on the Lower East Side through May 23rd).
Etel Adnan, Untitled, oil on canvas, 8 x 10 inches, 2012.
Brooklyn collage artist Fred Tomaselli’s first New York solo show since 2006 dazzles with images like this bird vs serpent standoff, set in a fiery swirl of red and orange under an improbably colorful night sky. The show also features New York Times front covers with photos altered to equally hallucinogenic effect. (At Chelsea’s James Cohan Gallery through June 14th).
Fred Tomaselli, Penetrators (Large), photo-collage, acrylic, resin on wood panel, 72 x 72 inches, 2012.
Drawing on funeral books featuring deceased forebears demonstrating their social status through their dress, Thai artist Jakkai Siributr deocrates civil service and military uniforms with a super abundance of awards that also point to animism and Buddhism as cultural touchstones. (At Chelsea’s Tyler Rollins Fine Art through May 31st).
Jakkai Siributr, C-10, military uniform, embellished with objects, 22 x 17 x 8 inches, 2014.
If making abundant free chocolate to give to gallery visitors seems like a blatant ploy to get people talking about your artwork, you’d be reading Oscar Murillo’s latest show at Chelsea’s David Zwirner Gallery correctly. The young, London-based Columbian artist intends visitors to his candy factory – operated by visiting Columbian staffers – to take some to share, spreading the conversation about migration and commerce. (Through June 14th).
Oscar Murillo, installation view of ‘A Merchantile Novel’ at David Zwirner Gallery, April 2014.
New York gets a chance to see select sculptures made by some of 1,500 participants in Swiss artist Urs Fischer’s retrospective at LA’s Geffen Contemporary last summer. Select pieces have been cast in bronze and are on view at Gagosian Gallery’s atmospheric Lower East Side pop-up in an old Chase bank. (Through May 23rd).
Urs Fischer, mermaid (in middle ground of photo), cast bronze, 40 ½ x 48 x 84 inches, 2014.
Belgian photographer Maroesjka Lavigne’s New York solo debut features landscapes half obscured by snow and Icelandic locals who look as if they’re hiding something; here, disturbed water turns a swimmer’s face into a blank mask. (At Robert Mann Gallery in Chelsea through May 17th).
Maroesjka Lavigne, Phantom, Krossneslaug, Westfjords, 2011.
‘Dolly meets the Greek’ by London-based artist Jill Mason assembles unconnected elements – Princess Di hair, a cartoon ear and a scrap piece of siding painted with waves – to create a funny, cheeky portrait befitting a surreal romance novel. (At Nicelle Beauchene Gallery on the Lower East Side through May 18th).
Jill Mason, Dolly meets the Greek, oil on canvas, 55 x 47 ¼ inches, 2013.
During a residency at LA’s Getty Research Institute, photographer David Maisel photographed x-rays made by the conservation department, turning documents of artworks into the artworks themselves and morphing scientific enquiry into ghostly images that suggest mysterious objects. (At Yancey Richardson Gallery through May 10th).
David Maisel, History’s Shadow AB17, archival pigment print, 40 x 30 inches, 2010.
Painter Jackie Saccoccio blurs the lines between abstraction and representation in huge new paintings that respond to well-known art historical portraits with complete abstraction. In the foreground, the sumptuous colors and extravagant patterns in Saccoccio’s piece parallel the decoration and costume of a well-to-do young woman in Domenico Ghirlandaio’s 1488 portrait of Giovanna Tornabuoni. (At Eleven Rivington through May 18th).
Jackie Saccoccio, Profile (GT Concave), oil and mica on linen, 106 x 79 inches, 2014.
There’s little subtlety in Robert Longo’s massive, 17 ft tall U.S. flag that appears to sink into Petzel Gallery’s floor and is subtitled ‘The Pequod’ after the ship destroyed by Ahab’s mad quest for vengeance on Moby Dick. (In Chelsea through May 10th).
Robert Longo, Untitled (The Pequod), steel, wood, wax and pigment, 207 x 192 x 12 inches, 2014.
The dubiously sincere phrase ‘Love Your Work!’ inspires an update on a series of paintings begun in the 90s by Rochelle Feinstein at On Stellar Rays. Written forwards and backwards against an envy-green background in earnestly slanting script and missing an ‘I’ that might give it more gravity, the three word phrase speaks volumes. (On the Lower East Side through May 11th).
Rochelle Feinstein, Love Your Work (detail), fresco, 1999.
Caught up in painting dynamic geometric shapes one day in his studio, Argentinian artist Guillermo Kuitca went beyond the canvas and painted his studio walls. With that experience as inspiration, he created a walk-in room that surrounds the viewer on all four sides with a cubist cascade of shapes. (At Sperone Westwater on the Lower East Side through June 21st).
Guillermo Kuitca, Untitled, oil on wood; four-panel installation, 102 3/8 x 176 x 124 inches, 2014.
In his latest series ‘Postcards from Nowhere,’ Brazilian artist Vik Muniz magnifies the thrill of getting a postcard (an experience which the Internet age may be consigning to the past) by collaging together postcards blown up to huge scale (seen here in detail). (At Chelsea’s Sikkema Jenkins & Co through May 10th).
Vik Muniz, detail from New York Postcard (Postcards from Nowhere), digital c-print, 71 x 111.5 inches, 2014.
Guido van der Werve’s 2007 video ‘Nummer acht’ is a standout in Marlborough Gallery’s excellent ‘Lone Tree,’ a show dedicated to artists inspired by 19th century painter of the sublime landscape, Caspar David Friedrich. The Dutch artist walked about 10 meters in front of a towering ice-breaker off the frozen coast of Finland, suggesting bravery and folly in equal measure in one lone individual. (In Chelsea through May 3rd.)
Guido Van Der Werve, Nummer acht, Everything is going to be alright, 16mm to HD, 10 minutes, 10 seconds, 2007.
To celebrate the publication of Rackstraw Downes’ writings since 1983, Betty Cunningham Gallery has curated an exhibition of his work, including this typically ordinary landscape made remarkable by whizzing wires and rising radio towers that strain to burst out of the frame. (In Chelsea through May 3rd).
Rackstraw Downes, At the Confluence of Two Ditches Bordering a Field with Four Radio Towers, oil on canvas, 46 x 48 inches, 1995. (Collection of Louis-Dreyfus Family).
Minimalist icon Robert Mangold continues to explore ways of painting around a void in this recent ring painting, which moves the eye around by juxtaposing an angular side and curved side while suggesting hula-hoop-like movement with an off-center white line. (At Pace Gallery’s 510 West 25th Street location through May 3rd).
Robert Mangold, Compound Ring II Variant (White Line), 2012.
Phrases like, ‘One is not born but rather becomes a woman,’ from feminist pioneer Simone de Beauvoir or actor Roseann Barr’s to-the-point observation that ‘Nobody gives you power you just take it,’ appear in Egyptian-born, Harlem-based artist Ghada Amer’s latest show at Chelsea’s Cheim and Read Gallery. Here, a bronze sculpture with text in Arabic extends the conversation to women in the Arab world. (Through May 10th).
Ghada Amer, foreground sculpture: The Words I Love the Most, bronze with black patina, 60 x 60 x 60 inches, 2012. Background painting on the right: The Big Black Bang – RFGA, acrylic, embroidery and gel medium on canvas, 102 x 132 inches, 2013.
Once loved, now up on blocks, this childhood relic looks like it’s headed for the dump if it doesn’t disintegrate first. However, like the rest of the work in this unassuming exhibition by LA-based sculptor Kristin Morgin, it’s an eye-teasing triumph made entirely of unfired clay. (At Chelsea’s Zach Feuer Gallery through May 3rd).
Kristen Morgin, Madonna with Tricycle, unfired clay, paint, ink, wood, wire, 20 x 16 x 28 inches, 2013.
Part of the Museum of Art and Design’s exhibition ‘Out of Hand,’ which showcases art and design made using digital fabrication, this extraordinary sweatshirt was created by scanning a model’s body, digitally modeling a garment that relates personally in some way to the model (in this case, a man fascinated by a story of a boy raised by a wolf), CNC laser cutting the fabric and hand assembling. (Through June 1st).
The T/Shirt Issue, No 419 from Digital Portraits Series, jersey, iron-on interface, 2008.
LA painter Laura Owens mashes together levels of reality in this huge, untitled painting, blending an inspirational phrase, a rather grotesque character pouring lemonade from his faucet-nose, a bike wheel (Duchamp homage?), a grid of varying size and thickness and a finger swipe pattern over all of it, suggesting that meaning is being uncovered or wiped away. (At Greene Naftali Gallery through April 26th).
Laura Owens, Untitled, flashe, silkscreen inks, oil, acrylic, charcoal, bike wheel and gesso on linen, 108 x 84 inches, 2014.
Strikingly beautiful photos by Dusseldorf-based photographer Elger Esser of the Giardino di Ninfa, located south of Rome, mark a return for the artist to the south of Italy, where he grew up. Situated around the abandoned ancient city of Ninfa and enhanced with English landscape elements, the garden is the definition of enchanting. (In Chelsea at Sonnabend Gallery through April 26th).
Elger Esser, Ninfa – (Kallisto), Directprint, AluDibond, Shellac, 79 7/8 x 100 ¾ inches, 2013.
Drawing on his Native American roots and life in downtown New York (where he’s lived for over 30 years), Brad Kahlhamer creates a new culture populated by figures based on Hopi katsina dolls and enigmatic heroes. (At Jack Shainman Gallery’s 20th Street location through April 26th).
Brad Kahlhamer, background: American Horse, acrylic, ink, spray paint and pencil on bed sheet, 94 ½ x 72 ½ inches, 2014. Foreground: Next Level Figures, wood, wire, bells, leather, acrylic, mirrors, spray paint, 2014.
Born to Georgia sharecroppers, based in New York, the late American painter Benny Andrews used his personal history to address injustice in works like this chilling painted collage of a monstrous hunter and his beastly hound. It’s a standout in the excellent ‘Rising Up/Uprising’ at Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, a show commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. (In Chelsea through May 3rd).
Benny Andrews, Hunters, 1989, oil on canvas with painted fabric collage and zipper, 72 1/8 x 52 inches.
LA-based photographer Matthew Brandt uses old technology to make up-to-date photographs in his latest show at Chelsea’s Yossi Milo Gallery. For this image of a pre-historical creature, he coated an aluminum plate with tar from the La Brea Tar Pits, covered it with a negative he shot of the fossil, and exposed it to light to record a fixed image. (Through May 10th).
Matthew Brandt, La Brea B2, heliograph made with tar from the La Brea Tar Pits, Los Angeles, California, on aluminum, unique, 2013.
Late German artist Martin Kippenberger stepped into the role of the living, dying, hopeful and lost by portraying different characters from Gericault’s Raft of the Medusa in his 1996 series of paintings and these photos, shot by his wife Elfie Semotan. (At Skarstedt Gallery, Upper East Side, through April 26th).
Martin Kippenberger, photographs by Elfie Semotan, installation view of ‘Raft of the Medusa’ at Skarstedt Gallery, April 2014.
Berlin-based artist couple Nina Römer and Torsten Römer travel the world photographing youth subcultures doing their own thing; here, two girls strut their Japanese street fashions. (At Freight and Volume, Chelsea, through April 26th.)
Römer & Römer, Face to Face, 79 x 104 inches, 2010.
Created from recycled materials, Rob Fischer’s ‘Good Weather (Glass House)’ on view at Chelsea’s Derek Eller Gallery offers bare bones living with a utilitarian kitchen and basic loft bedroom as well as an opportunity to commune with your surroundings, whether urban more info
or rural. (Through April 19th).
Rob Fischer, Good Weather (Glass House),’ glass, steel, screenprint ink, acrylic and latex paint, construction adhesive, wood floor, lights, wires, 175 x 223 x 126 inches, 2014.
When hundreds of dealers from around the world converge at an art fair, how do they set themselves apart? At Art Basel Miami, Simon Preston Gallery brought their gallery doors with them per Vienna-based artist Hans Schabus’s instructions. Back in New York, with new doors installed outside, Schabus displayed the earlier versions, along with a rendering of the temporary plywood exterior and a drawing that questioned the importance of a gallery’s local setting. (On the Lower East Side through April 14, 2014).
Hans Schabus, installation view of ‘Lower East Side,’ at Simon Preston Gallery, March, 2014.
After visiting a chilling display of human bones at a cloister in Rome, Viennese artist Erwin Wurm adapted his signature ‘One Minute Sculptures’ (for which individuals pose with everyday objects in creative ways) into ‘One Minute Forever’ memento mori with a humorous twist. (At Chelsea’s Lehmann Maupin Gallery through April 19th).
Erwin Wurm, One Minute Forever (Bucket), epoxy resin, polyurethane, wood, metal, buckets, unique, 2013.
Titled ‘(In)Security,’ this detail-view of an enticing if creepy new painting by New York artist Ross Bleckner offers the unnerving suggestion that we’re being watched, albeit by a range of characterful eyes. (At Mary Boone Gallery in Chelsea through April 26th).
Ross Bleckner, “(In)Security,” 27 x 144 inches, oil/linen, 2013-14.
Two tumbling cans of caffeine free Diet Coke with enlarged text freefall through copper-colored fields in LA-based artist Brenna Youngblood’s large painting. The work suggests a chemical process on copper akin to Warhol’s piss paintings but using a spray of soda instead. (At Jack Tilton Gallery on the Upper East Side, through April 19th).
Brenna Youngblood, DKNY (Classic), mixed media on wood panel, 72 3/16 x 47 ½ inches, 2014.
As we leave behind winter’s bleakness, Olaf Breuning’s whimsical ‘Clouds’ sculpture at the corner of 60th Street and Fifth Ave poised to come into its own as the park comes to life. Roll on spring! (Exhibition by Public Art Fund at Doris C. Freedman Plaza through August 24th).
Olaf Breuning, Clouds, polished and painted aluminum and steel, 2014.
The rainbow and landscape paintings, blue carpet and cat towers bedecked with fake fruit in LA-based artist Friedrich Kunath’s latest solo show at Chelsea’s Andrea Rosen Gallery are an invitation to ponder what meaning can emerge from such disparate if colorful trappings. A gallery statement suggests Kunath is offering, ‘An invitation into a perpetual joke.’ (Through April 26th.)
Friedrich Kunath, installation view of at Andrea Rosen Gallery, March 2014 including ‘Meloncholy Towers’ and work from the series, ‘I was thinking about what a friend had said, I was hoping it was a lie,’ 2013-14.
Guangdong-born Stanford professor Xie Xiaoze expands his ‘Chinese Library’ series with huge new paintings of tattered, scholarly books. The show also includes paintings of politically sensitive images from Chinese social media giant Weibo relating to corruption, environmental damage and more. (At Chelsea’s Chambers Fine Art through April 12th).
Xie Xiaoze, Chinese Library No. 57, oil on canvas, 48 x 74 ¼ inches, 2014.
As old buildings come down and new luxury condos go up along the High Line in Chelsea, an exhibition of American photographer Berenice Abbott’s WPA-sponsored ‘Changing New York’ photos from the 30s at Howard Greenberg Gallery puts the transformation in the context of the city’s constant evolution. This picture memorializes a modest business now replaced by the residential towers of Peter Cooper Village at the other (east) end of 23rd Street. (In the 57th Street area, through April 12th).
Berenice Abbott, Henry Maurer, 420-422 East 23rd Street, looking southeast, Manhattan, June 14, 1938, gelatin silver print; printed c. 1938, 7 5/8 x 9 5/8 inches.
New York ceramic artist Kathy Butterly’s new work at 57th Street gallery Tibor de Nagy demonstrates her inexhaustible ability to invent new, evocative forms for both standard vessels and abstract shapes. Though less than 9 inches high, the tiny artworks are powerful. (Through April 12th).
Kathy Butterly, Chatter (foreground), clay, glaze, 6 x 7 x 4 1/8 inches, 2013.
As part of a residency at Philadelphia’s Fabric Workshop and Museum, New York artist Mika Tajima created textiles with a fascinating back story. Taking recordings from factories using Jacquard looms (a precursor to digital) and from server co-location sites (representing new technologies), she translated the sound waves into patterns woven on fabric which was then mounted on acoustic panels to create an object that simultaneously is cutting edge and historical. (At Eleven Rivington on the Lower East Side through April 13th).
Mika Tajima, Negative Entropy (Caledonia Dye Works, quad), cotton, wood, acoustic baffling felt; made in collaboration with the Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, 78 x 54 inches, 2014.
A stand out in the last Whitney Biennial for slides made by aging and distressing film stock (even burying it in dirt for a specified time), Luther Price shows recent slides and work from this 80s in this sobering show that suggests humans who have experienced similarly devastating processes. (At Participant, Inc. on the Lower East Side through April 13th).
Luther Price, installation view of ‘The Years Made Flies,’ (foreground: ‘Ground Piece One (Five Life Size Figures), 1982-83, plastic, metal, dirt) at Participant, Inc., March 2014.
San Francisco-based artist Jim Campbell works with sophisticated technology to make low-res images that offer a fragment of the information we’re used to in the HD age; yet images like this one of a yellow cab whizzing by hold viewers’ attention by capturing the recognizable action of the street. (At Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery through April 19th. Also at the Museum of the Moving Image in Long Island City through June 15th.)
Jim Campbell, Untitled (Commuters), LEDs, metal, wire, custom electronics, 43 x 63 x 18 ½ inches, 2014.
A giant hare, titled after the constellation Lepus, sits tethered to a mobile suspending what appear as fragments of patterned cloth colored shades of night-blue in a new work by Anne Chu at Tracy Williams, Ltd in Chelsea. Skinned and with fur, alert yet stationary, the hare seems as momentarily suspended between states as the mobile. (Through April 19th).
Anne Chu, Lepus, leather, metal, ceramic, 2014.
A bird woman, eerie twins and a girl with branches growing out of her body are just some of the odd characters populating Swedish artist Klara Kristalova’s show of evocative new ceramic sculpture at Lehmann Maupin Gallery on the Lower East Side. Inspired by folk tales, daily life, movies and even overheard conversations, the psychologically charged figures hint at intriguing stories. (At Lehmann Maupin Gallery through April 26th. Kristalova is also showing at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin on Madison Ave through April 12th).
Klara Kristalova, Birdwoman, glazed stoneware, 2013.
Sprawling and jam-packed with painting, sculpture, video and more, the ‘Brucennial’ – the biannual, tongue-in-cheek response to the Whitney Biennial organized by anonymous art collective ‘Bruce High Quality Foundation’ – is a hive of activity worth witnessing, especially as this version is billed as the ‘last’ Brucennial. (Through April 4th at 837 Washington Street, opposite the Standard Hotel.)
Installation view of the 2014 Brucennial, March 2014.
Belgian artist Peter Buggenhout presents a New York audience with two of his well-known ‘Blind Leading the Blind’ sculptures through the 19th of this month in Chelsea. Composed of wrecked industrial or construction materials covered in dust, and appearing to be the remnants of some long-ago disaster, they represent a chaotic but forgotten past. (At Barbara Gladstone Gallery, 21st Street location, through April 19th).
Peter Buggenhout, installation view of ‘Caterpillar Logic II,’ March 2014, Barbara Gladstone Gallery.
Before his untimely death in 2002 at age 35, Berlin-based artist Michel Majerus was hailed as a quintessential information age artist, mixing images and info from unrelated sources to suggest a stew of influences more than a coherent statement. Here, Andy Warhol’s discount Raphael abuts an ecstatic youth from an ad, suggesting two takes on transcendent experiences. (At Matthew Marks Gallery‘s 522 West 22nd Street location).
Michel Majerus, o.T. (69), acrylic on cotton, two panels, each: 119 ¼ x 93 ¼ inches, 1994.
Sheila Hicks’ brightly colored, sculptural waterfall of cords now on view at the Whitney Biennial may have more dramatic impact, but this installation at Sikkema Jenkins of 98 balls shaped by wrapping string around fabric – all found materials – has a quiet but no less enchanting appeal. (At Chelsea’s Sikkema Jenkins through April 5th).
Sheila Hicks, Lares and Penates, found materials, 98 elements, 117 x 115 x 5 inches, 1990 – 2013.
This new, candy-bright abstract by Joanne Greenbaum suggests maps, calligraphic squiggles, spirographs and more; it’s a standout in a lively show of Greenbaum’s new abstractions. (At Rachel Uffner Gallery on the Lower East Side through April 20th).
Joanne Greenbaum, Untitled, oil, acrylic and ink on canvas, 90 x 80 inches, 2014.
New York artist Elaine Cameron Weir’s latest show ‘Venus Anadyomene’ at the Lower East Side gallery Ramiken Crucible offers an irresistible take on the ancient Greek tale of Venus rising from the sea. Real clamshells with customized neon bring to mind beach-side dive bars while incense rising over a flame adds a spiritual element. (Through April 6th).
Elaine Cameron Weir, installation view of ‘venus anadyomene’ at Ramiken Crucible, March 2014.
Using Volkswagen Beetle ads from the ‘50s to ‘70s and the 3D modeling program Rhino, New York-based conceptual artist Kelly Walker brings flat images of a real life object into the 3D world in literal sculptural shapes like this one in the foreground, which whimsically recalls a different mode of transportation – the paper airplane. (At Paula Cooper Gallery’s 521 West 21st Street space through March 29th).
Kelly Walker, Bug_156S, four-color process silkscreen on aluminum, 2013-14 (foreground).
At eleven by eleven feet, New York painter Pat Steir’s monumental pours of pigment, oil and turpentine create glowing sheets of color in deep spaces that beckon and offer to engulf the viewer. (At Chelsea’s Cheim and Read Gallery through March 29th).
Pat Steir, Green, Orange and Mica, oil on canvas, 11 x 11 feet, 2013.
