Rita Mawuena Benissan in ‘Worldmaking’ at Mitchell-Innes and Nash Gallery

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Rita Mawuena Benissan’s royal umbrella is a standout at Mitchell-Innes and Nash Gallery’s summer group exhibition of work by artists who live in Ghana.  At eight by ten feet, Benissan’s large, regal cover – traditionally employed to protect a king or queen and show authority – was crafted with help from professional chief umbrella makers and connects to a tradition of royal use.  At the same time, the artist explains in a statement that she intends viewers to ask questions about how the umbrella might be used today – for royalty?  A community?  Viewers?  Titled ‘The Damsen of Succession,’ damsen refers to the deep, attractive purple color, while the notion of succession prompts consideration of the object in new contexts. (On view through Aug 25th).

Rita Mawuena Benissan, The Damson of Succession, umbrella, fabric and wood, 100” diam. X 120” height, 2023.

Quinci Baker in Title IX at The Hole

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Boxers, golfers, tennis champs, martial arts practitioners and more sporting characters dominate the walls of The Hole Gallery’s two-gallery exhibition ‘Title XI,’ a reference to the 1972 government policy that prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex in federally funded education.  Over fifty years later, the impact on women and girls has been profound with the gallery citing an expansion from 300,000 girls involved in high school sports to 3 million.  Quinci Baker’s video ‘The Hindrance,’ revisits Venus Williams’ 1999 match in which falling hair beads resulted in a penalty, while Represent (I), crafted from collaged from hair beads, pays homage to the tennis great. (On view through August 27th in Tribeca and the Lower East Side).

Quinci Baker, Represent (I), inkjet collage, pony beads, acrylic on cradled wood panel, 24 x 30 x 2 inches, 2023.

Alvar Aalto in “Community: The Architecture of Civic Space and Private Domains” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

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International style architecture and Bauhaus design strongly influenced late Finnish architect Alvar Aalto’s influential bent plywood furniture, sourced from his country’s birch and pine forests.  His famous ‘Paimio chair,’ designed for a tuberculosis hospital in Paimio, Finland, and now on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the fascinating group exhibition, “Community: The Architecture of Civic Space and Private Domains,” was angled to allow patients to better breathe and cough.  Material choices along with color and other considerations were essential elements in Aalto’s and his wife Aino’s designs, aimed at meeting the needs of individuals.  (Ongoing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on the Upper East Side).

Alvar Aalto, ‘Model No. 41’ Lounge Chair for the Paimio Sanatorium, laminated birch, 1931-32.

Patti Warashina in ‘Funk You, Too’ at the Museum of Art and Design

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University of Washington art professor emerita Patti Warashina created this comical collision in 1971 as a commentary on the way in which male ceramic students were challenged to build kilns while the female students were encouraged to practice decorative techniques.  Now a standout in the Museum of Art and Design’s excellent ‘Funk You, Too,’ exhibition, Warashina’s ‘car kiln’ (in which a ‘car’ or ‘deck’ can be directed into a kiln) pioneers a new variety of kiln, one capable of being magically reshaped by the artwork put into it.   As her red car drives into the kiln (complete with an interior full of flames), the kiln itself morphs into Warashina’s vision.  (On view through Aug 27th).

Patti Warashina, Metamorphosis of a Car Kiln, earthenware, glaze and luster, 1971.

Bjorn Friborg at HB381 Gallery

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In defiance of the material’s apparent fragility, Danish glassmaker Bjorn Friborg appears to blast through glass spheres, creating portals that allow us to peer through solid forms at Tribeca’s HB381 Gallery.  A metaphor for ‘exposing and revealing the inner self,’ these apertures are created by adding hot material to blown glass and allowing for melting and further color changes with the application of flame.  (On view through Aug 18th).

Bjorn Friborg, Implosion, hand-blown glass, 21.25” h x 17” dia, 2023.