by Charlie Schultz
Installation view of Melvin Edwards exhibition at Alexander Gray, New York, 2010.
Melvin Edwards makes unsettling sculptures that answer the call of unpleasant realities. From America’s legacy of lynching to our drawn-out war in Iraq, Edwards has been an unflinching artistic responder. He’s also kind of funny from time to time, entirely resourceful, and deeply connected to his African roots.
by Marco Greco
Richard Serra, Tilted Arc, 1981.
Learning Curve
In 1981, Richard Serra installed Tilted Arc, a gently curving 12-foot high, 120-foot long wall of steel into the open space dividing the two buildings that make up the Federal Plaza in New York City. Commissioned by the United States General Services Administration under the national Arts-in-Architecture program, the piece was met with an abundance of disapproval from the workers in the surrounding offices, and as a result was removed on March 15, 1989, nearly a decade after its installation. More than 20 years later, it is interesting to wonder whether Titled Arc altered the course of future public art projects in New York. It might be worthwhile to look at some other instances where art and politics have collided, as well as the most recent examples of public art in New York, to get a sense of Tilted Arc’s impact.
by Ambereen Karamat
Arlene Shechet, installation view, Jack Shainman Gallery, 2010.
There is no art medium quite like ceramics, and it can lead clay into some mysterious forms, its characteristics changing with each process, from shapeless mushiness to rock hardness. What’s so beautiful and distinctive about it are the permanent handprints of its surfaces, unchangeable once a piece is in its final stage. A ceramic work cannot be painted-over; the stamp is eternal, unless broken. It forms an unearthly communication between the artist and the viewer, of which there was plenty in Arlene Shechet‘s exhibition of ceramic sculptures, “The Sound of It.”
by Sarah Stephenson
Sarah Sze, The Uncountables (Encyclopedia), 2010. Courtesy Tanya Bonakdar, New York.
In Sarah Sze’s first exhibition at Tanya Bonakdar, towering shelves precariously tilted towards the wall, held upright only by taut wool threads, while recognizable objects from the garage, kitchen or kids’ room had been reconstructed and meticulously placed along or around the shelves. The threads, along with blue masking tape stretching across the floor, led the viewer’s eye from the shelves to various functional features of the gallery, as well as to other items Sze had introduced into the space, such as a series of plaster containers tucked under a bookshelf. These parasitic lines, reminiscent of a multi-layered Julie Mehretu painting, drew the viewer from installation to installation in this exhibition of organized chaos, perpetually on the brink of collapse.
by Jillann Hertel
Lucy Skaer, film still from "Rachel, Peter, Caitlin, John," 2010. Courtesy Location One, New York.
Films, sculptures and artfully wielded hole punchers juxtaposed with familiar and abstract subject matter make up British artist Lucy Skaer’s first solo project in New York: “Rachel, Peter, Caitlin, John.” The exhibition is a sort of visual puzzle, which if you spend some time connecting the pieces will illustrate notions of interruption, reinvention and the alchemy involved in filling in the missing parts of vision. Continue reading…
by Sarah Stephenson
Sarah Peters, Dorothy May Bradford, 2010, pencil and ink on paper, 22 by 30 inches. Courtesy Winkleman Gallery. Photograph Etienne Frossard.
Flurries of black, Edward Gorey-like clouds and thunderous seascapes dominate three large pencil and ink drawings from the “Mayflower” series in Sarah Peters’s solo exhibition at Winkelman Gallery. Haunted by almost imperceptible disembodied heads that float between the sea and the sky, the works evoke a dark, childlike naivety and combine fantastical imagery with a historical event.
by Taylor Ruby
Suzan Frecon, installation view, David Zwirner Gallery, 2010.
Suzan Frecon’s enormous abstract diptychs in her recent show at David Zwirner are about the controlled study of color within the practice of painting. With works made between 2006 and 2010 (two of which were the highlights of the otherwise unimpressive 2010 Whitney Biennial), this exhibition echoed with a throbbing, steady pulse. Continue reading…
by Suzanne Brancaccio
Adam Fuss, installation view, Cheim & Read, 2010.
It was difficult to make logical sense of Adam Fuss’s exhibition at Cheim & Read, “Home and the World.” A British-born artist who has enjoyed a successful career working in New York since 1985, Fuss is known for his life-size photograms of light, newborns, animals, and other living objects, both in color and black and white.
by Charlie Schultz
Delia Brown, Cuadrilla del Arbol, graphite and gouache on paper, 19 3/4 by 25 1/2 inches, 2010. Courtesy D'Amelio Terras, New York.
Delia Brown likes to paint pictures of herself, just not as herself. She’s been rich, she’s been racy, she’s borrowed other people’s children to pretend she herself was a mama. In her new body of work, Mujeres Y Camaradas, Brown dresses up like Frida Kahlo and goes “guerrilla lounging” in the homes of the affluent in Mexico City.
by Charlie Schultz
Nathan Carter, Williamsburg Brooklyn Public Housing Project Concealed Swindon Call and Response, steel, aluminum, acrylic and enamel paint, dimensions variable, 2010. Courtesy Casey Kaplan Gallery, New York.
If you’re in Brooklyn and you see a guy pocketing little bits of street detritus, you might be witnessing Nathan Carter gathering art materials. This is where it all begins for Carter, collecting “Brooklyn Street Treasures” that accumulate on his person under the category of “pocket shrapnel.” Eventually this stuff is worked into sculptures, mobiles, or installations that carry forward the artist’s abiding interest in modes of transmission and reception, most notably via the radio.