DANIEL WIENER at Cavin Morris Gallery
There are many pleasures to be had from “Plant, Animal, Body,” a group show that ranges from exquisite antique Mongolian works on paper to entries by self-taught artists such as Ignacio Carles-Tora, with many compelling mainstream contemporary artists represented as well. One of the greatest pleasures afforded is the opportunity to view the recent output […]
JANINE ANTONI at Luhring Augustine
The centerpiece of Janine Antoni’s recent exhibition is Tear, and, paradoxically, all the tears (shed and ripped) remain offstage. A battered wrecking ball faces off against a video of an enormous open eye, blinking defensively in response to the loud percussions of a demolition. The shapes—eyeball and wrecking ball—are isomorphic yet antiphonic. On the one […]
OLAF BREUNING at Metro Pictures
[singlepic id=12 w=320 h=240 float=left]Curators, critics and gallerists salivate over any bad-boy German artist—best not to ask what that herd instinct is about—and increasingly that role is filled by the Swiss as well. Maybe minaret aversion isn’t the only flaw in this supposedly perfectly socialized country. John Oliver’s recent hilarious cracking of the hard imperturbable […]
Richard Misrach at Pace Gallery
Richard Misrach is considered a pioneer of 1970’s explorations of the possibilities of large-scale color prints. His politicized art concentrates on human intervention in the natural environment. The newest wrinkle in his work is a meditation on the difference between analogue and digital. Using, of course, a digital camera to capture his customary American landscape, […]
William Daniels at Luhring Augustine
William Daniels is known for his tromp l’oeil recreations in oil paint of iconic historical works. However, his latest solo show steps away from this practice to explore a new path. Whereas once Daniels would model a reproduction of a celebrated painting in a relief made of, say, tin foil, now he simply makes a […]
Steve McQueen at Marian Goodman Gallery
Steve McQueen, the British artist and filmmaker, approaches film physically, exploring the camera as the material itself. Yet, at the same time, he shoots the world as it exists, in front of our eyes. Mediated/unmediated. On view is “Giardini,” created in 2009 for the Venice Biennale. It is a thirty-minute projection on two screens, lined […]
Urs Fischer at the New Museum
This is Swiss artist Urs Fischer’s first large-scale solo exhibition in America. That’s surprising in that, given the publicity that has surrounded this show, notably in the New Yorker, it seems as if he has been around forever. Perhaps the last gasp, until the deceased is once more resuscitated, of the profligate decade of overspending, […]
