Hi guys! Hands down the best part of NYC is the art in the galleries that is open to the public. So far, we have been to a number of galleries inside and outside of class time. I’d like to talk about some of my favorite gallery exhibitions that we have seen, in no specific order (It was hard to choose):
Glenn Ligon: Neon
Luhring Augustine
October 26, 2012- January 19, 2013
(http://www.luhringaugustine.com/exhibitions/glenn-ligon-neon/)
In this exhibition, Glenn Ligon explores neon lights and text. He finds inspiration from Gertrude Stein’s novel Three Lives, past neon sculptures of Bruce Nauman and current general Americanisms. Historically relevant text that he uses such as “I sell the shadow to sustain the substance,” is specifically evocative in this current day and age. Ligon also addresses politics in America through pieces such as “America” and “Nov. 6, 2012.
Doug Aitken: 100 Years
303 Gallery
February 1, 2013- March 23, 2013
Doug Aitken has created a gallery site-specific installation for his latest show. This site-specificity requires interior destruction of the gallery walls and floor in order for his art to have a home. The first thing that catches the eye is a humongous crater in the center of the gallery space. The crater is filled with water and functions as a basin for his “sonic fountain,” where water drops abstractly from the ceiling and produces an eerie dripping sound that sounds like the interior of a cave. Adjacent to the crater is a circular hole in the wall that centers the word sunset made out of weighty rock that appears to be volcanic. Another piece displays the word “ART” in an open tank, where it appears to function as a chocolate fountain. An orange-brown milky substance consistently melts down the letters into the tank also filled with rocks. Bold letters that spell out “MORE” hang on a wall, appearing to be made out of glass that has also been demolished, or shattered. The destruction of letters produces a beautiful piece that reflects light in geometric gradients.
Ragnar Kjartansson: The Visitors
Luhring Augustine
February 1, 2013- March 16, 2013
(http://www.luhringaugustine.com/exhibitions/ragnar-kjartansson_1/)
Ragnar Kjartansson’s nine-screen video installation, titled The Visitors, exists dually as a hauntingly beautiful performance art piece and an emotional portrait of the “art” that occurs through music production. The video installation takes place in a large, darkened space of the Luhring Augustine Gallery, a theater-like room that allows for drama and intimacy with the piece. Each of the nine screens displays a single musician in a different room of the long-standing elegant mansion known as Rokeby Farm, located on the Hudson River in Upstate New York. Although fragmented by screens, the musicians play the same song, either contributing their voice or instrument to produce a beautiful adjoined melody. Stand in the middle of the room to hear all the parts merge into one sound, or concentrate on one screen to hear the parts produced by a single musician above the others.
Sascha Braunig: Wrister, Blister, Plaster
Foxy Productions
January 12, 2013- February 9, 2013
(http://www.foxyproduction.com/exhibitions/251)
Sascha Braunig’s paintings represent a strange, yet successful, mixture of portraiture, surrealism, abstraction and optical art. Braunig paints busts of ambiguous human figures that are transformed in different ways. The figures, masked by patterns and luminescent colors, merge into analogous backgrounds. Braunig shows sophisticated handling of space and color. She blurs the boundary between the figural foreground and the background, thus creating both 3D sculpture-like figures and intriguing spatial optical illusions.
El Anatsui: Pot Wisdom
Jack Shainman Gallery
December 14, 2012- January 19, 2013
(http://www.jackshainman.com/exhibition137.html)
El Anatsui’s massive textile pieces, or “sheets” abstractly hang on the walls or the floors of the gallery. Made of bottle caps his pieces are interesting in its wholeness and its details. The metallic-like effect of the combined and woven bottle caps are quite stunning and its difficult not to spend time mesmerized by the beauty in the movement of the “fabric.”
Dieter Roth
Hauser & Wirth New York
January 23, 2013- April 13, 2013
(http://www.hauserwirth.com/exhibitions/1649/dieter-roth-bjorn-roth/view/)
The first thing noticed when walking into the exhibition is a pungent sugary smell. Next thing noticed is the mini chocolate and candy factory sitting in the center of the gallery, where two workers or performers produce chocolate sculptural busts through the pouring and heating of chocolate molds. The chocolate busts are then added to a structure towering to the gallery ceilings holding hundreds of these identical busts. Another structure holds these same busts yet made with multicolored sugar, sustaining itself with only these sculptures and sheets of glass in between each row. A larger and messier structure sits on the opposite end of the gallery, a whimsical busy lived-in workspace that encourages the viewer to move about the space and try to imagine the how one worked in this space. Roth’s paintings and framed sculpture-painting pieces also cover the surrounding walls, making for an intricate and captivating exhibition.
Daniel Buren
Bortolami Gallery
(http://www.bortolamigallery.com/artists/daniel-buren/)
Petzel Gallery
(http://www.petzel.com/exhibitions/2013-01-10_daniel-buren/)
January 10, 2013- February 16, 2013
Throughout his 50-year-long career, Buren is known best for his use of stripes, often transforming an environment for which it is site-specific. Bortolami Gallery exhibits his fabric works while Petzel Gallery displays his works with paper and transforming an architectural space. He stays within a specific color field with his “awning” type contrasting stripes, thus expressing the importance between the slight differences of his work and the importance of their relationship with the space.
