Amy Bessone’s pencil holder fists unite in vague protest in her current solo show at Salon94 Bowery on the Lower East Side. A nearby poster warns, ‘Don’t Truncate Me!’ Already truncated, the hands become resistance tchotchkes. (through June 14th).
Amy Bessone, installation view of ‘In the Green Room’ (foreground is ‘Number…(Numbers),’ ceramic, pencil, 2013).
Mark di Suvero’s huge new steel sculpture ‘Little Dancer’ at Chelsea’s Paula Cooper Gallery belies its title at 19 x 36 x 15 feet. Still, in comparison to the larger structure, spiraling forms hanging from the larger, angular structure are as graceful as tons of steel can get. (Through June 29th).
Mark di Suvero, Little Dancer, steel, 2010-12.
Mika Rottenberg’s acclaimed films evoke fascination and repulsion in equal measure as we watch eccentric characters labor to create ambiguous products in claustrophobic, factory-like settings. With jagged, candy-colored sheets of polyurethane resin propped against the wall at Chelsea’s Andrea Rosen Gallery, Rottenberg transforms her signature mix of sweet and grotesque into sculpture. (through June 22nd).
Mika Rottenberg, ‘Texture 1 & 3, Texture 2, part a, Texture 3 & 4,’ polyurethane resin, acrylic paint, installed dimensions variable, 2013.
Marianne Vitale’s ‘Diamond Crossing’ at Zach Feuer Gallery is one of the most minimal and therefore surprising installations in Chelsea right now and consists entirely of a five-ton section of decommissioned railroad track meeting in a junction. Like the burnt bridge and a bullet-riddled outhouse in her last show, it’s an iconic relic of the American landscape. (through June 15th).
Marianne Vitale, Diamond Crossing, steel, installation view, 2013.
British artist Marc Quinn has referred to his gargantuan bronze seashell sculptures as Venus’ pedestal (from Botticelli’s famous painting), a spiraling symbol of the world in motion, and a ‘symbol of a woman’s sex.’ Towering at over eight feet high, what they most symbolize (along with Jeff Koons’ and Paul McCarthy’s current Chelsea shows) is enormous production values. (At Mary Boone Gallery through June 29th).
Marc Quinn, Map of the Space-Time Continuum, bronze, 2013.
For a recent four year project titled ‘Neue Welt,’ Berlin and London-based photographer Wolfgang Tillmans traveled off the beaten track in what he called an ‘aimless’ journey to “…find subject matter that in some way or other speaks about the time I’m in.” A sampling from the resulting book is at Chelsea’s Andrea Rosen Gallery, offering disorientingly diverse glimpses of people and places around the planet. (through June 22nd).
Wolfgang Tillmans, ‘young man, Jeddah, b,’ inkjet print on paper, clips, 2012.
Suspended above a steel and plywood table, a row of lanterns illuminates the dim space of Chelsea’s Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, suggesting an evening summer party staged in a design museum. Yet titles like ‘Against the Night’ and ‘The Sun Comprehending Glass’ tie Glasgow-based artist Martin Boyce’s enigmatic sculpture to the outdoors. (Through May 25th).
Martin Boyce, Against the Night, perforated steel, steel chain, plywood, wood stain, wood oil, galvanized steel, wired electrical lights, 2013.
Cartagena, Spain, Shanghai, LA and Havana have hosted globe-trotting street artist JR and his ‘The Wrinkles of the City’ project, for which he interviews and photographs senior citizens, then blows up their images and applies them with glue to the city’s walls. Chelsea’s Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery showcases the monumental Havana photos and an entertaining video through July 12th.
JR and José Parlá, The Wrinkles of the City, Havana, Cuba, Man with a Jerry Can, color print on metallic paper mounted on aluminum, 2012.
By lifting phrases like ‘This is it with it as it is,’ from Gertrude Stein’s 1914 book ‘Tender Buttons,’ LA-based artist Eve Fowler moves Stein’s creative language play into a more public realm, as seen here on the windows of Feature, Inc. on the Lower East Side. (Through June 2nd.)
Eve Fowler, from ‘A Spectacle and Nothing Strange,’ letterpress posters with texts from Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons (1914), 28 x 22 each, set of 21, 2011-12.
When his grandparents’ Missouri farmhouse burned, Josh Tonsfeld’s family salvaged some things and left the rest. In a creative act of excavation, the New York based artist returned to remove more objects from the debris, including this book, ruined furniture and correspondence, which he arranges in the gallery in a kind of provocative but inconclusive personal archeology of a past American life. (At Simon Preston Gallery through June 2nd).
Josh Tonsfeld, Untitled, book, 2013.
Madrid-based painter Jeronimo Elespe’s tiny oil on aluminum paintings seem to be dematerializing before our eyes, as in this hazy view of a working artist titled ‘The Short Painter.’ Elespe works at night, capturing shimmering light and ghostly blue lines that speak of mysterious possibilities. (At Eleven Rivington’s 195 Chrystie location on the Lower East Side through June 14th).
Jeronimo Elespe, The Short Painter, oil on aluminum, 2011-13.
Wim Delvoye’s twisted Gothic tower and a bronze crucifix distorted into a Möbius band flirt with potentially provocative subject matter; ultimately, however, his spectacularly distorted swirls of laser-cut metal are all about the wow factor. (At Sperone Westwater on the Lower East Side through June 28th).
Wim Delvoye, Dual Möbius Quad Corpus, polished bronze, 2010.
In her latest photo series, ‘In the Company of Mothers,’ British artist Hannah Starkey portrays young urban moms as tender, nurturing and chic – perfect for celebrating Mother’s Day today. (At Chelsea’s Tanya Bonakdar Gallery through May 25th)
Hannah Starkey, Untitled, July 2012, c-print, 2012.
When Aiko Hachisuka doesn’t want a piece of clothing any more, she doesn’t just bag it for the thrift shop. The LA-based artist’s bulging cloth sculptures are made from clothing she’s folded, screenprinted, stuffed and stitched together in large, exuberant forms. (At Eleven Rivington on the Lower East Side through June 14th)
Aiko Hachisuka, Pro Weight, silkscreen on clothing and foam, 2011.
In 1846, Henry David Thoreau took soundings to measure the depth of Walden Pond, disproving local legends that claimed it was bottomless. A century and a half later, Spencer Finch’s soundings recorded location, depth and surface color at hundreds of different points on Walden Pond, creating a visual record of both surface and depths. (At Chelsea’s James Cohan Gallery through June 15th)
Spencer Finch, Walden Pond (surface/depth), rope, cloth, twine, 298 watercolors on watercolor paper, 120 feet long, 2013.
Rodney Graham’s ‘Old Punk On Pay Phone’ may not be part of the Met’s much anticipated punk couture exhibition opening today; instead seen downtown at Chelsea’s 303 Gallery it begs the question of what punk counterculture means to this aging character, played by the 64 year old artist. (Through June 15th)
Rodney Graham, Old Punk on Pay Phone, painted aluminum light box with transmounted chromogenic transparency, 2012.
Each of LA-based artist Tim Hawkinson’s new sculptures at Pace Gallery is named after a girl-scout cookie, with this piece provocatively titled ‘Cartwheel.’ Featuring spinning wheels on each toe and the heel, this giant foot looks ready to roll around town popping eyes. (At Pace Gallery’s 508 W. 25th Street location through June 29th)
Tim Hawkinson, Cartwheel, fiberglass, steel, Bondo, motor & extension cord, 2013.
Austrian-born, Brooklyn-based artist Maria Petschnig terms her videos ‘raw’ and ‘psychological,’ terms which still apply to her videos and installation at On Stellar Rays on the Lower East Side, as she transforms the white cube gallery into a dimly lit, wood-paneled maze punctuated by mattress sculptures featuring eerily unknowable lumps. (Through June 16th).
Maria Petschnig, Mycroft, mattress, jersey, polyester, padding, 2013.
Does greater technology result in greater progress? Machines and giant-sized virtual humans tower over futuristic cities in Washington D.C.-based painter Benjamin Edwards’ provocative new series ‘System,’ ominously answering in the negative and suggesting that chaos will overtake us. (At Kravets/Wehby Gallery through May 11th).
Benjamin Edwards, Toy, acrylic on canvas, 2012.
Austerely minimal and elegantly, Rachel Whiteread’s Untitled (Pair) from 1999 is based on the shape of a mortuary slab. One part is curved to allow bodily fluids to drain. The other is an upside down cast of the first part. Standing quietly side by side, they suggest partnership through eternity. (At Luhring Augustine through 6/16).
Rachel Whiteread, Untitled (Pair), bronze and cellulose paint, 1999.
“We cannot live alone.” “We need you.” “We are sick of our own similar faces.” These pleas and more come from the central actor in Yael Bartana’s riveting trilogy about a Polish leader who implores the over 3 million Jews who lived in Poland prior to WWII to return and transform 40 million Poles. Here, returnees establish a Kibbutz-like compound that looks uncomfortably like a concentration camp as they sit to learn Polish words like ‘Freedom.’ (At Chelsea’s Petzel Gallery through May 4th).
Yael Bartana, Mary Koszmary (Nightmares), one channel video and sound-installation, 16mm transferred to DVD color/sound, 10:50 min, 2007.
Andrew Kuo makes geometric abstraction emote in a series of paintings that map his feelings and experiences as blocks of color. This painting documents the breakup of a seven year relationship; the key to the large yellow patch reads ‘Everything has changed! (Except everything actually worth changing.)” It’s bookmatched with the thought in grey, “All I want is to be like how I was before.” (At Chelsea’s Marlborough Gallery through May 4th).
Andrew Kuo, I Forget (on 12/12/12), acrylic and carbon transfer on panel and laminated paper, 2012.
At over four feet tall, this huge earring may be designed for a giant…but what kind of giant would wear it, or the enormous black t-shirts sliced to ribbons and hung from the gallery walls? Amanda Ross-Ho blows up cheap fashions to attention-grabbing size, but her intention seems founded less criticism of the merchandise than in curiosity at what happens when banal products were presented as monumental. (At Chelsea’s Mitchell-Innes & Nash through May 18th).
Amanda Ross-Ho, Gone Tomorrow, aluminum and steel plated in gold and brass, 2013.
“When the eyes are shut, the eyes are extraordinarily open,” said iconic Italian Arte Povera artist Marisa Merz in 1974. Since the 80s, she’s made loosely formed sculptures of heads like this duo, whose gold covered eyes speak to a vision beyond the purely literal. (At Chelsea’s Barbara Gladstone Gallery through May 18th).
Marisa Merz, Untitled, two painted unfired heads and iron tripod, 1994.
Ajay Kurian explores the chemicals we consume using materials that range from melted gummy bears to microwaved bars of soap. The surprise in this attractive display is that these pretty ‘rocks’ contain traces of recycled nuclear waste. (At Jack Hanley Gallery on the Lower East Side through May 5th).
Ajay Kurian, Spiegel-Leben 2, plexiglass, epoxy clay, Gobstoppers, recycled nuclear waste, 2013.
I’ve been looking forward to globe-trotting street artist JR’s opening at Chelsea’s Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery next Tuesday, so spotting the artist and Jose Parla as they created this wall mural last Saturday on the gallery exterior was a treat. For their collaborative project, JR and Parla photographed and interviewed seniors including this stately woman. (‘The Wrinkles of the City’ opens May 7 and runs through July 12).
Is Ryan McGinley’s huge figure falling or floating? McGinley’s signature photos show young people living their lives with abandon. Here, his ambiguity is unsettling, but the gorgeous blue color on drab, early-spring 10th Ave is alluring. (At 18th Street and 10th Ave, presented by High Line Art, through April 30th)
Ryan McGinley, Blue Falling, print on vinyl, 2007.
In his latest New York solo show, British artist Richard Hughes turns drabness into whimsy by appearing to transform light posts into a pair of jauntily high-stepping legs. They’re actually meticulously created to look like the real thing, but that fact’s almost irrelevant to their enjoyment. (At Chelsea’s Anton Kern Gallery through May 18th).
Richard Hughes, Pedestrian (Hot Ste P), architectural grey board, fiberglass, stone resin, steel and paint, 2013.
On a pedestal of lava rock, Larry Bamburg stacked a 400lb redwood burl, then proceeded to add animal hoofs, turtle shells and more burls. The materials are evocative and the arrangement is a feat of balance but the real charge comes from nature used as both raw material and formal element. (At Simone Subal Gallery through April 28th)
Larry Bamburg, ‘Burls Hooves and Shells on a Pedestal of Lava Rock,’ wood burls, animal hooves, turtle and mollusk shells, lava rock, ratchet strap, 2013.
Indian artist Tallur L.N.’s huge sculpture is a standout in Chelsea on two counts: it courts religious reflection and you can hit it. Visitors are invited to pick up one of several nearby hammers and pound a coin into a log supported by a giant Buddha sculpture while making a wish. I’ve heard of the audience being invited to complete an artwork, but a divinity? (At Chelsea’s Jack Shainman Gallery through May 11th).
Tallur L.N., Chromathophobia, wooden log, granite and hammered coins, 2012.
Ryan Humphrey brings street life inside by making art from signage, brass knuckles, music and more in a show that includes paintings in the guise of caution tape, available by the piece or all together. A comment on desensitization or just plain desensitization? (At DCKT Contemporary on the Lower East Side through May 12th).
Ryan Humphrey, Tapes, acrylic on canvas, seven parts, 2013.
Israel-born, New York based artist Guy Ben-Ari makes his New York exhibition debut with a show that speaks to our access and remove from contemporary events. Here, hands hold a tablet showing an act of self-immolation caught on camera and witnessed by mostly passive spectators which include the tablet owner and finally, us. (At Scaramouche Gallery through April 28th)
Guy Ben-Ari, An Act of Protest Viewed Through a Tablet Device, oil on panel, 2013.
Over the past few years, Kara Walker has moved away from her signature antebellum figures seen in silhouette enacting various barbarisms on each other. In the back galleries of Chelsea’s Sikkema Jenkins, they return with vigor and malice, begging the question of what’s changed since they made Walker’s name in the mid-90s. (Through May 22nd).
Kara Walker, Wall Sampler 1, cut paper and paint on wall, dimensions variable, 2013.
In the late 60s, Richard Nonas was working as an anthropologist when he had an epiphany in the park one day while playing with his dog. Picking up pieces of wood, he was struck by their relationship to each other and began a career in making sculpture whose construction was plain to see but which resulted in what he calls an ‘unexpected inexplicable result.’ (At James Fuentes on the Lower East Side through April 21st).
Richard Nonas, Untitled (from the Cherrytree Split Series), cherry wood, 2012.
Rochelle Feinstein’s paired canvases deliver the same information: two cats in front of table or chair legs plus a pattern of black and white stripes. But the pairing seems to question how subtly altering the stripes and moving the cats might effect the meaning. (At the Lower East Side’s ‘On Stellar Rays,’ through April 28th)
Rochelle Feinstein, ‘Today in History,’ oil on canvas and digital prints on vinyl, 2013.
Wayne Gonzales’s past paintings of crowds looked like they were made from surveillance camera footage zeroing in on particular individuals who appear in multiple paintings. Here, in a crowded California parking lot, a recurring SUV turns from being an everyday car to a suspicious vehicle by virtue of being depicted repeatedly from different angles. (At Paula Cooper Gallery’s 534 West 21st Street location through April 27th).
Wayne Gonzalez, Untitled, acrylic on canvas, 2012.
Could the androgynous couple in Volker Hueller’s ‘Welcome Home’ be mom and dad, greeting us at the door? With their spade-like heads and giraffe necks, the duo make for an exotic welcome team while their yellow background signals that something electric could happen. (At Eleven Rivington’s 195 Chrystie location through April 27th).
Volker Hueller, ‘Welcome Home,’ oil on canvas, 2012.
Julie Schenkelberg’s sculpture ‘Dowry, Rediscovered,’ a wooden bench sliced open to reveal crockery-stuffed cushions, has the feeling of a long hidden secret suddenly brought to light or a wondrous intrusion of nature – the plates look like fungus – on a man-made object. (At Chelsea’s Asya Geisberg Gallery through April 20th.)
Julie Schenkelberg, ‘Dowry, Rediscovered,’ wooden bench, dishes, acrylic gel, 2012.
From their locally sourced wood frames to their marble-dust surfaces, Ohio-based Scott Olson’s abstract paintings delight in the play of color and shape. In addition to his current solo show at Wallspace, see more of Olson’s work and that of other artists who dedicate themselves to painting in the Walker Art Center’s ‘Painter, Painter’ exhibition. (At Wallspace through May 4th.)
Scott Olson, Untitled, oil, wax, marble dust on wood, maple frame, 2013.
A couple in a rowboat would seem to be tame subject matter for rebellious rocker and prolific writer Billy Childish, but the man’s missing face and this painting’s line-driven style channels provocative Nordic expressionism a la Munch. (At Lehmann Maupin’s Chelesa location through April 20th).
Billy Childish, Rowers (version y)(Oyster Catchers, Thames Estuary 1932), oil and charcoal on linen, 2012.
This gruesome, one-eyed, blue cigarette bedecked creature with perfect teeth could be the patron deity of Bali-based Ashley Bickerton’s portraits of crazed hedonists. At over seven feet high, the sheer profusion of color and ornament – from her bottle cap necklace to paint-smeared coral – is impressive. (At Lehmann Maupin’s Lower East Side location through April 20th)
Ashley Bickerton, White Head I, acrylic, digital print and plastic laminate on wood, 2012.
Isolated on the tarmac, Jamaican airport workers in young Jamaican-American artist Paul Anthony Smith’s paintings occupy a world of their own; though their jackets lend them a kind of authority (traffic cops come to mind), one with a hand to his mouth could either be thoughtful or confused while the younger man exudes relaxed self confidence despite his featureless face. (At Chelsea’s ZieherSmith through April 20th).
Paul Anthony Smith.
There’s something subtly odd about Darren Almond’s recent series of landscape photos, which seem not-so-extraordinary at first glance. The series’ ‘Fullmoon’ title gives the game away, however, revealing that each of the photos in this show has been taken in the light of a full moon. Verdant landscapes and smooth water surfaces are an eye-pleasing surprise, but the ephemeral beauty of these cherry blossoms is a delight. (At Matthew Marks’ 522 West 22nd Street space through April 20th).
Darren Almond, ‘Fullmoon@Sakura Hanami,’ c-print mounted to aluminum in artist’s frame, 2006.
Ordered by his doctors to avoid stress by taking a hiatus from painting, Chinese art superstar Zhang Xiaogang took up bronze casting instead. Pace Gallery presents these stoic young characters who take up Xiaogang’s long meditation on individual vs collective identity. (At Pace Gallery, 508-510 West 25th Street through April 27th).
Zhang Xiaogang, Young Man, painted bronze, 2013.
It comes as no surprise that Kafka’s ‘Metamorphosis’ is a favorite of New York artist Rona Pondick, whose new sculptures at Chelsea’s Sonnabend Gallery continue her trademark combination of her own head and other cast body parts with plant or animal bodies. Here, a wallaby’s stylized, beautiful form merges with a drooping hand and hanging head, suggesting a dragging weight. (Through April 27th).
Rona Pondick, Wallaby, stainless steel, 2007-12.
Known for cast concrete sculptures that relate to ancient literary or historical characters, often propped up on walkers, New York artist Justin Matherly was inspired by the Turkish archeological site of Nemrud Dagi to create these huge stelae (actually three sculptures end-to-end). Accompanying monoprints featuring the site bring to mind Smithson’s site and non-site as Matherly forges a mental connection between us and a distance place and time. (At Paula Cooper Gallery’s 521 W. 21st Street location through April 27th).
Justin Matherly, Handbook of inner culture for external barbarians (we nah beg no friend), concrete and ambulatory equipment, 2013.
London-based, Japanese artist Hiraki Sawa’s videos tend towards the whimsical, featuring tiny airplanes flying through his apartment or miniature rocking horses buried deep in flokati rugs. ‘Lineament,’ a new two-screen installation at Chelsea’s James Cohan Gallery takes a more serious turn as Sawa meditates on a friend’s sudden, profound memory loss with images of gears and an unraveling record suggesting erasure. (Through April 27th).
Hiraki Sawa, installation shot of Lineament, dual channel HD video with audio, 18:47 min, 2012.
Detail: Elliott Hundley, The Sun Goes Down, sound board, wood, inkjet print on kitakata, paper, string, plastic, photographs, pins, glass, 2013.
Elliott Hundley has toned down his extravagant bricolage in many of his recent artworks at Chelsea’s Andrea Rosen Gallery, but not in this 20ft tour de force in the back gallery. Hung with a curtain of colorful string and featuring dozens of tiny photos of the artist’s friends acting out scenes from black and white films, it’s a dramatic Hollywood homage. (Through April 27th).
Elliott Hundley, The Sun Goes Down, sound board, wood, inkjet print on kitakata, paper, string, plastic, photographs, pins, glass, 2013.
It takes a few hours to get going, but by the end of each day, Virginia Overton’s makeshift hot tub (heated by a coffee maker pumping water in and out of the tub) has gotten warm, if not necessarily inviting. The DIY sauna effect is complete with the other piece in the show – a gallery wall covered with Eastern red cedar cut from Overton’s family farm that fills the space with natural fragrance. (At Mitchell-Innes & Nash’s Chelsea gallery through April 6th).
Virginia Overton, ‘Untitled (hot tub),’ cast iron tub, coffee maker, vinyl tubing, limestone, brick, 2013 AND ‘Untitled (juniperus virginiana),’ eastern red cedar, 2013.
Doug Aitken is giving his ‘Sonic Fountain,’ dug from the floor of Chelsea’s 303 Gallery, a fitting send off as the show closes this week with a musical performance that wreaks havoc on more of the gallery’s architecture. (303 will move to West 24th Street while its current space is developed.) In this photo, musicians hammered on wood, tossed chunks of rubble and sawed drywall in accompaniment to the still operating fountain. (Through Saturday, April 6th).
Doug Aitken, musical performance/destruction of 303 Gallery’s interior, April 2, 2013.
Yesterday’s post featured Dieter Roth’s partially collapsed sculpture…in today’s, artist New York-based artist Sean Bluechel imagines ‘the moment before a collapse’ in cheeky sculptures cobbled together from forms derived from the history of ceramic art along with more contemporary vessels. (At Chelsea’s Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery through April 6th).
Sean Bluechel, installation view of ‘Still Life is No Life,’ at Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery, March 2013.
Over the two months since Hauser & Wirth gallery opened a show of work by Dieter Roth and his son, Bjorn Roth, assistants have been casting molds of Roth’s head in chocolate and stacking them into a ceiling-height tower. Nature took its course last week, however, as the lower busts crumbled, leaving a piece that speaks of the inevitability of decade and collapse. (At Hauser & Wirth’s Chelsea location through April 6th. See my January 29th post for a picture of busts being made.)
Dieter Roth, Selbstturm (Self Tower), chocolate casts, glass, steel, ed. 1/3, 1994/2013.
Since the 70s, James Turrell has been converting the Roden Crater, an extinct volcano in Arizona, into a series of chambers for viewing earth’s atmosphere and celestial phenomena beyond. At Pace Gallery’s 57th St space, he’s exhibiting models of structures based on light phenomena explored at Roden, including this one, which suggests a merger of a UFO and a pyramid. (Through April 20th).
James Turrell, Missed Approach, cast, plaster and wood, 1990.
The premise is simple in Charles Ray’s iconic 1992-3 ‘Family Romance’ sculpture – reduce a nuclear family to the height of its youngest member – but the resulting sculpture is disturbingly complex as it breaks taboos against nudity in the family and renders children in a decidedly uncute way. It’s a standout in the New Museum’s provocative ‘NYC 1993’ show, featuring groundbreaking work created in/around 1993. (Through May 27th).
Charles Ray, Family Romance, painted fiberglass and synthetic hair, 1992-93.
Matthew Fisher’s tidy waves look like carefully coiffured heads rising from the deeps and arranged in careful rows, like a school picture or choir rehearsal in the light of an apocalyptically weird sun. (At Chelsea’s New York Center for Art and Media Studies through April 12th.)
Andrew Masullo prefers the term ‘stuff maker’ to ‘artist’ as a way of describing his practice. Crowns, teeth, mountain ranges and more come to mind with this tiny 5×7 inch canvas with its zippy orange, ardent red and preppy pink/green color combo. (At Chelsea’s Mary Boone Gallery through April 27th.)
Andrew Masullo, ‘5404,’ 5” x 7,” oil/canvas, 2011-12.
Romanian artist Adrien Ghenie often paints historical figures from Hitler to Darwin, blotting out their features in aggressive smears of paint. Here, a woman’s comfortable, bourgeois home-life comes under attack as the furniture appears to explode or dissolve into pools of paint as she sends a helpless glance heavenward. (At Pace Gallery’s 534 West 25th Street location through May 4th).
Adrien Ghenie, Pie Fight Interior 8, oil on canvas, 2012.
Transylvanian twins Gert & Uwe Tobias offer more of the large-scale woodblock prints that have earned them widespread recognition in recent years in their solo show at SoHo’s Team Gallery. In this untitled piece, a daybed with a circular, saw-blade-like ornament may have felled the caped jester on the floor…the mystery is provocative. (Through March 30th).
Untitled (GUT/2053), colored woodcut on canvas, 2012
Sylvie Fleury’s 1998 video ‘Walking on Carl Andre,’ features women’s feet as they pose on ‘60s Minimalist icon Carl Andre’s signature metal floor plate sculptures. In this updated version, she allows visitors to try on a pair of heels and strut their stuff on an Andre replica in a feminizing collaboration that turns his masculine, industrial art product into a catwalk. (At Salon 94 Bowery through April 27th.)
Sylvie Fleury, installation view of ‘It Might as Well Rain Until September,’ at Salon 94 Bowery, March 2013.
Assembled over time on the floor of his studio from Home Depot paint color samples and traces of studio debris, William Cordova’s colorful paper grids bear witness to his own history of studio activity while alluding to the culture and history of the people of the Andes through a resemblance to the Wiphala flag. (At Sikkema Jenkins & Co through April 6th).
William Cordova, untitled (cuntisuyo), 2013; untitled (chinchasuya), 2011; untitled (tupac katari) 2011-12; untitled (antisuya), 2013. All mixed media collage on paper.
The figures in Rita Ackermann’s new paintings at Hauser & Wirth’s 69th Street location appear to materialize from the deep, their outlines like veins seen through flesh or marble. Ghostly characters with pointy pixy noses and saucer-shaped eyes, they walk the line between benevolent and menacing. (Through April 20th).
Rita Ackermann, ‘Fire by Days Blues VII,’ spray paint, oil pigments and rabbit skin glue on canvas, 2013.
Political corruption inspired these monumental sculptures by German artist Thomas Schutte, located at the southern corner of Central Park and Fifth Avenue. Tied together, the characters are unable to escape each other, though their construction on three stilt-like legs suggests that what precarious balance they do have is due to their fractious unity. (On view through August 25th. For more info, visit the Public Art Fund.)
Thomas Schutte, ‘United Enemies,’ bronze, 2011.
To celebrate the centenary of the late Philip Guston’s birth, McKee Gallery is showing key later work by the artist who is known for his unnerving cartoonish figures such as this duo in Klan hoods who navigate urban streets with a car full of bodies at sunrise. (At 745 Fifth Ave, through April 20th)
Philip Guston, ‘Dawn,’ oil on canvas,1970.
Peter Blum Gallery marks its first show at its new 57th Street gallery (as it says goodbye to its Chelsea and SoHo locations), with Rosy Keyser’s adventurous ‘paintings,’ assembled from materials as diverse as bamboo and rusty, corrugated steel. (Through April 20th).
Rosy Keyser, ‘Hungry Shepherd, Honeypot,’ left panel: enamel, spray paint and rope on steel. Right panel: dye enamel, bamboo, and polycarbonate on aluminum and wood on canvas. 2013.
Hope Gangloff’s pasty-skinned subjects are likened to hip updates on Egon Schiele’s or Gustave Klimt’s characters but the men and women in her latest solo show at Chelsea’s Susan Inglett Gallery – like this picture of ‘Lydia (The Tattooed Lady)’ – seem to be having a lot more fun. (Thanks to Nancy on last Saturday’s tour for a link to Groucho Marx’s ode to Lydia!) (Through March 23rd).
Hope Gangloff, Lydia (The Tattooed Lady), acrylic/canvas, 2013.
Wolfgang Laib’s fourteen-foot high ziggurat dominates Sperone Westwater’s narrow main gallery with its hefty slabs of fragrant beeswax. Titled, ‘Without Beginning and Without End,’ Laib creates his architecture in the form of an ancient structure, while using a natural material made by bees in their own building process. (On the Lower East Side through March 30th)
Wolfgang Laib, ‘Without Beginning and Without End,’ beeswax, wooden understructure, 2005.
Mark Dion’s vitrine-based sculptures often evoke the wonder of the 16th-18th century ‘Wunderkammer,’ or cabinet of curiosities. In this sculpture, the centerpiece of his current show at Chelsea’s Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, the ‘wunder’ of this cast replica of a manatee skeleton is overshadowed by a polluted sea-bed of tar-covered consumer goods below. (Through April 13th).
Mark Dion, Trichechus manatus latirostris, plastic skeleton, tar, found objects in steel and glass case, 2013.
You have to shout to be heard above the roar of dyed-black water pouring into vast steel containers in Polish artist Miroslaw Balka’s installation at Barbara Gladstone Gallery. Whether it conjures environmental destruction (with the oil-like appearance of the water) or suggests larger industrial processes, the installation, titled ‘The Order of Things,’ generates unease. (At Barbara Gladstone’s 21st Street location in Chelsea through March 30th).
Miroslaw Balka, 2 x (350 x 300 x 300), 36 x 36 x 29/The Order of Things, steel, water, pumps, plastic, rubber, water, food coloring and wood, 2013.
Painting gets the last laugh in Polish artist Wilhelm Sasnal’s new body of work which focuses on Kodak, its products, logos and marketing of the ‘Kodak moment.’ Now, the former photographic giant’s film products are reduced to memories and arresting color contrasts rendered in oils. (At Anton Kern Gallery through April 6th.)
Wilhelm Sasnal, Kodak Black, oil on canvas, 2012.
In his show at Chelsea’s Jack Shainman Gallery, Barkley L. Hendricks updates his reserved 1969 ‘Lawdy Mama’ beauty with a decidedly more confident woman in the 2011 ‘Triple Portrait: World Conqueror.’ (Through April 6th).
Triple Portrait: World Conqueror, oil, aluminum leaf, variegation leaf and combination gold leaf on linen canvas, 2011.
Dana Hoey’s photographed cast of her own head looks so lifelike (despite being chipped and mottled), it’s eerie. Why not just display the cast? In the photo, the head is perfectly lit to suggest the raking light of a sunset and framed to force a reckoning with the ageless figure. (At Petzel through March 30th).
Dana Hoey, Me Dead, inkjet print, 2012.
Both Rubenesque and strong, caryatid-like females by New York sculptor Allyson Vieira update classical Greek architectural tradition by hoisting steel I-beams instead of plain lintels, suggesting that today’s new glass and steel structures will one day find themselves ancient. (At Laurel Gitlen on the Lower East Side through March 24th).
Allyson Vieira, Weight Bearing III, drywall, screws, steel, 2012.
Veteran minimalist Olivier Mosset’s arresting yellow wall, up-and-comer Jacob Kassay’s geometric shape created from leftover canvas scraps, and conceptual pioneer Lawrence Weiner’s artwork consisting of an instruction to remove a 36” x 36” square from the drywall offer three strategies for saying a lot with a little. The three converse amongst themselves at Andrea Rosen’s intimate new 544 W. 24th St location. (Through March 23rd).
Jacob Kassy, Olivier Mosset, Lawrence Weiner, Installation view at Andrea Rosen Gallery, March, 2013.
El Anatsui’s shimmering, undulating wall sculptures made of repurposed bottle caps are uniformly stunning, but previous experience of individual pieces won’t prepare you for the Ghana-based artist’s huge installation in the Brooklyn Museum’s fifth floor galleries. Titled ‘Gli’ (Wall), sheets of aluminum and copper wire materials were inspired by visits to walled cities of Berlin, Jerusalem and Notsie (in Togo) but offer a delicate and diaphanous take on the idea of barriers. (Through August 4th).
El Anatsui, ‘Gli (Wall),’ aluminum and copper wire, 2010.
Austrian artist Martin Roth’s interest in nature has led him to raise ducklings in his studio and grow grass on Persian rugs for past projects. His latest show at Louis B. James Gallery on the Lower East Side has a surprise twist (spoiler alert!) in which a bonsai tree upstairs is nurtured by the live, recorded sounds of birds, fish and these lively crickets in the basement gallery. (Through April 13th.)
Martin Roth, ‘Untitled (Bonsai)’ installation view at Louis B. James Gallery, March 2013.
What does it take for a minimal painting to stand on its own strengths, with no explanation or apparent associations to build a context for understanding? New York-based Suzan Frecon’s abstractions ask this question, offering pure color, shape and surface to absorbing effect. (At David Zwirner’s 525 West 19th St location through March 23rd).
Suzan Frecon, composition in four colors, trial 3, oil on panel, 2009.
“With Nozkowski, a good, slow look-’n’-solve is part of the fun,” Tyler Green of Modern Art Notes has observed in response to Nozkowski’s puzzle-like paintings. Packed with familiar yet alien forms, they translate the everyday world into abstraction. (At Pace Gallery’s 508 West 25th Street location through March 23rd).
Thomas Nozkowski, Untitled (9-22), oil on linen on panel, 2012.
David Zwirner Gallery opened its new five-story, 30,000 square foot gallery with the perfect artwork to highlight architecture by Annabelle Selldorf. Eight-foot square pieces from Dan Flavin’s 1966-71 ‘European Couples’ series (titled after Europeans he considered influential) turn light into an artistic medium, washing every white wall in color. (At David Zwirner’s 537 West 20th Street location through March 16).
Dan Flavin, untitled (to Janet and Allen), pink fluorescent light, 1966-71.
Shinique Smith’s fabric sculptures bring to mind the way we fashion our identities through clothing, even when her bright bunches of used garments are bunched together and hung from the ceiling. Here, the artist turns her work jeans into a Hans Bellmer-esque assemblage of biomorphic shapes that touch on body image and the sensuous. (At James Cohan Gallery, Chelsea through March 16).
Shinique Smith, Soul Elsewhere, artist’s clothing, fiber-fil and rope, 2013.
Tam Van Tran is known for dynamic, sculptural wall installations created from usual materials (spirulina and chlorophyll colored stapled paper artworks a verdant green in past work). At Ameringer McEnery Yohe in Chelsea, Tran’s new works literally move, as copper foil catches the breeze and hints at palms moving in West Coast winds, which inspired this series. (Through March 16th).
Tam Van Tran, detail from ‘Palm Shrapnel,’ copper foil, palm leaf, and cardboard on canvas, 2012.
In past work, German artist Michael Riedel has drawn his materials from texts on the web written about his own work, which he turned into exhibition wallpaper. For his current show at David Zwirner Gallery, he puts those images into PowerPoint and causes a ‘freezing’ between slides to create a new merger of information. (At David Zwirner Gallery’s 533 West 19th Street location through March 23rd).
Michael Riedel at David Zwirner Gallery, installation view, Feb 2013.
Trevor Paglan’s latest project ups the ante on artistic ambition; a series of one hundred images titled ‘Last Pictures’ was etched on a disk and affixed to a communications satellite that went into space last November, creating a selective portrait of mankind’s nature and history for all or none who may see it. Here, a gallery visitor examines unselected images from Paglan’s shortlist. (At Metro Pictures in Chelsea, through March 9th).
Trevor Paglen, ‘The Last Pictures’ installation view, Feb 2013 at Metro Pictures.
Gavin Kenyon seems to be channeling influences from Hans Bellmer’s disturbing dolls to Senga Nengudi’s organic sack-like shapes in his new series at Ramiken Crucible on the Lower East Side. The show’s untitled centerpiece was created by casting the insides of faux fur coats, which have left tufts of hair on the surface of this prettily colored, carcass-like beast of a sculpture. (Through March 3rd).
Gavin Kenyon, untitled, dyed plaster, fur, 2013.
Italian artist Alighiero Boetti proved that conceptual art didn’t have to be visually dull with his Arazzi works – embroidered panels made by Afghan craftswomen in the 80s and 90s featuring Italian and Farsi text from poetry or sayings culled from around the world or authored by the artist. (At Chelsea’s Barbara Gladstone Gallery through March 23rd).
Alighiero Boetti, installation view of ‘La Forza del Centro,’ at Barbara Gladstone Gallery, Feb 2013.
To look at it, you’d never guess that Berlin-based Alicja Kwade’s miraculously curving wooden door was fashioned from a number of old doors cut up and seamlessly pieced together. The sculpture’s title, ‘Eadem Mutata Resurgo,’ or ‘I rise again, changed but the same,’ puts a weighty spin on Kwade’s clever reclamation of found materials but the piece nevertheless appears to be an almost magical portal into another world. (At Lisa Cooley through March 17th).
Alicja Kwade, Eadem Mutata Resurgo, wood, 2013.
Originally displayed in an outdoor exhibition by the avant-garde Gutai Art Association in 1956, a recreation of Mononaga Sadamasa’s ‘Work (Water)’ in polyethylene tubes filled with ink-colored water stretches across the Guggenheim Museum’s atrium to create elegant, hammock-like cradles for a valuable natural resource.
Motonaga Sadamasa, ‘Work (Water)’ installation view at the Guggenheim, ’56 (original), 2011.
Lisbon-based artist Jorge Queiroz barely allows a human figure to materialize in this psychologically intense painting, but his indistinct human presence turns the abstract shapes in the background into suggestions of places and objects of significance. (At Chelsea’s Sikkema Jenkins & Co through March 2nd).
Jorge Queiroz, Waiting on the Room, oil stick and vinyl ink on canvas, 2012.
Known for her meticulous drawings of cult-like, all-female communities engaged in mysterious tasks, Amy Cutler explores the individual identities of select characters in ‘Brood,’ her latest solo show at Leslie Tonkonow in Chelsea. Her subjects range from beatific to stern, with this Nordic blond character falling somewhere in between. (Through March 9th).
Amy Cutler, Magda, gouache on paper, 2011.
Icelandic performance artist Ragnar Kjartansson’s 9-screen installation at Chelsea’s Luhring Augustine has been a hands-down ‘Chelsea Gallery Tour’ favorite lately. Kjartansson and a band of musician friends occupy different rooms in a 200 year old Hudson River mansion as they perform a 53 minute song, which fades away but sticks in the memory as the group exits the house and trails away over green hills. (Through March 16th).
Ragnar Kjartansson, ‘The Visitors,’ installation view, Nine channel HD video projection, 2012.
Australian artist Patricia Piccinini has said that anxiety and wonder are at the heart of her bizarrely intriguing human-animal hybrid creatures, which explains why this fleshy fish is simultaneously repulsive and fascinating. Titled ‘Eulogy,’ the piece suggests both a connection between this businessman and toxic waters that spawned this mutant and an individual’s personal loss. (At Haunch of Venison, Chelsea, through March 2nd).
Patricia Piccinini, ‘Eulogy,’ silicon, fiberglass, human hair, clothing, 2011.
In Keith Sonnier’s ‘Ba-O-Ba’ series, lines of neon connect geometric glass shapes and bathe the surrounding space in color. Placed on the floor against the wall, the pieces originally served as performance sets that would include the performers’ bodies as a further reflected element. (At Mary Boone Gallery’s Chelsea space through Feb 23rd).
Keith Sonnier, ‘Ba-O-Ba II,’ neon, glass/transformer, 1969.
Jessica Jackson Hutchins’ blobby anthropomorph nestles in a spray painted chair while Anna Betbeze’s burnt, torn and cut Flokati rug on the wall behind acts as perfectly alien décor in this otherworldly group show at Chelsea’s Mitchell-Innes & Nash. (Through Feb 23rd).
Jessica Jackson Hutchins, ‘Hand,’ spray paint, ceramic, chair, 2012 (foreground). Anna Betbeze, ‘Lava,’ wool and ash, 2012 (background).
West-coast conceptual art legend Allen Ruppersberg is known for adopting LA’s colorful roadside signage (popular for advertising garage sales, etc) for his text-based artwork. Here on 10th Ave and 18th Street in Chelsea, he commands a huge sign of his own to present a series of (romantic?) meditations on relationships between ‘me’ and ‘you.’ (Presented by High Line Art/Friends of the High Line through Feb 28th).
Allen Ruppersberg, You & Me, print on vinyl, 25 x 75 feet, 2013.
Artistic collaborators McDermott & McGough isolate a moment of dawning terror on the face of Anne Francis in the Twilight Zone, then make it more jolting by painting it on the face of nine, one-foot square blocks. This marriage of Minimalism and Pop amuses (by resembling a giant Rubik’s cube) while its fractured state unsettles. (At Cheim & Read through Feb 23rd.)
McDermott & McGough, Just a Memory, 1967, 9 wooden cubes, 2012.
This tidy pile of tangerines looks good enough to eat, but beware – they’re plaster sculptures created by Margaret Lee, who has become known for her ultra life-like fruits and veg. Placed next a blue cushion on a wooden table, this minimal, three-dimensional still life offers the visual pleasure of an orderly arrangment. (At Murray Guy, Chelsea through Feb 23rd).
Margaret Lee, Tangerines and Bench, mixed media, 2013.
Constructed of discarded building materials, Song Dong’s ‘Doing Nothing’ mountains mark the replacement of China’s traditional historical obstacles (‘three big mountains’) of imperialism, feudalism and capitalism, by current concerns about education, health care and housing. Neon characters on the wall spelling out ‘doing’ and ‘nothing’ are subtle protests of slow progress. (At Pace Gallery, 534 and 510 West 25th Street through Feb 23rd).
Song Dong, Doing Nothing Mountains, installation view, window, glass, hinge, doorknob, handrail, lock, multi-layer board, socket, wire and paint, 2011-12.
On a trip to Russia, New York photographer Andy Freeberg was struck by the characterful older women who act as museum guards in the country’s major museums. In a fascinating series titled ‘Guardians,’ Freeberg captures the unposed women as their postures and expressions reflect or contrast the surrounding art. (At Andrea Meislin Gallery through March 2nd).
Andy Freeberg, Mikhail Nesterov’s Blessed St Sergius of Radonezh, Russian State Museum, archival pigment print, 2009.
Young New York artist Anna Plesset’s latest solo show at the Lower East Side gallery ‘Untitled,’ is a tour de force of trompe l’oeil illusion, with work that looks photocopied but is actually hand drawn and paintings of flowers made to look like paint flicked photos. But one of the show’s most remarkable paintings is easily missed – this minute self-portrait of the artist in a partly hidden pose. (Through Feb 24th).
Anna Plesset, ‘Self Portrait,’ oil on latex, 2013.
London-based Guardian art critic Adrian Searle calls British artist David Shrigley’s artwork ‘appalling, abysmal, and painfully dire,’ but likes it so much he has it tattooed on his belly. Shrigley’s off-beat sense of humor encourages such contradictory impulses, as does this cat pairing, which seems aimed at exploiting any viewer’s insecurities with charming hokeyness. (At Chelsea’s Anton Kern Gallery through Feb 16).
David Shrigley, ‘Cat (It’s OK, It’s not OK), acrylic on canvas stuffed with foam, 2012.
