If you enjoyed my recent post featuring Brazilian artist Maria Nepomuceno’s vibrant abstract sculpture, see more of this gorgeous exhibition in the video below. With her repeated curving, organic forms, Nepomuceno aims to represent movement into our own inner depths as well as an expansion into the infinite.
Tricia Baga at Greene Naftali Gallery
It’s post-apocalypse in Trisha Baga’s imagination – Florida has mostly sunk into the sea and the array of artifacts left behind, including this Doritos bag and chips, have been rendered in ceramic and put on display. In the video at rear, peacocks pick at a seed portrait of Rosie O’Donnell. Baga’s rich imagination makes an unknown world all the stranger. (At Greene Naftali Gallery in Chelsea through October 3rd).
Trisha Baga, Doritos bag with 4 doritos, glazed ceramic, 2 ¾ x 9 x 6 inches, 2015. Background: Peacock Museum. The Department of Education, video installation, 4 mirrors with fava beans, 18 min, 44 sec, each 23 ½ x 19 1/8 inches, 2015.
Christian Marclay at Paula Cooper Gallery
Christian Marclay’s 24-hour video of collaged clock-related film clips from 2010 was so engaging that his subsequent photo projects and onomatopoeia paintings have sometimes seemed bland by comparison. The standout piece in his latest solo show at Chelsea’s Paula Cooper Gallery corrects that trend, however, by animating words from cartoons in an eye-popping immersive installation that, though soundless, communicates loudly. (Through Oct 17th).
Installation view of Christian Marclay’s ‘Surround Sounds,’ at Paula Cooper Gallery, September 2015.
Marcel Odenbach at Anton Kern Gallery
For his latest solo show, German video and collage artist Marcel Odenbach produces collaged images of what he calls ‘Green Zones,’ or marginal spaces in which nature and unexplained human activity meet. Seen here in detail, a scarf tied around a tree branch suggests a memorial, composed of clipped and copied press images referring to “…religious delusion, racism and murder…’ explains the gallery. (At Anton Kern Gallery in Chelsea through July 3rd).
Marcel Odenbach, Grunflache 3 (Green Zone 3), ink and collage on paper, 81 x 108 inches (framed), 2014/15.
Nevet Yitzhak at Yossi Milo Gallery
Inspired by Afghan women who modified traditional rug patterns to include weapons and war vehicles after the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Israeli artist Nevet Yitzhak creates digital war rugs featuring tanks, airplanes, and helicopters. Here (seen in detail), helicopters direct missiles at each other, causing explosions and devastation that belies any idea of weaving (even digitally) as a peaceful art. (At Yossi Milo Gallery through July 10th).
Nevet Yitzhak, detail from the series WarCraft, War Rug #2, projection of FHD video and animation, 8:00 min loop, stereo sound, 2014.