TOM FRIEDMAN – THINKING ABOUT WHAT IT’S MADE OF

Posted on 2023-05-01

Thinking About What it is Made of brings together recent sculpture, drawing, and wall mounted works. The exhibition is figure focused, with many pieces engaging the idea of the human body in literal and conceptual ways. Created specifically for this presentation, Medium Huddle features eight figures gathered together in a posture of intimacy and discussion. Friedman often works in opposites—the original idea for the Huddle series came after the artist created his monumental Circle Dance, which features 10 people holding hands while moving in a wide, jubilant dance. Where Circle Dance imagines human figures as an open circle, Medium Huddle considers what the reverse might look like. Medium Huddle also reflects Friedman’s deft ability to manipulate scale—while this sculpture stands at three and a half feet, a larger-than-life size Huddle was commissioned by the Dallas Cowboys for their training facility in Frisco.

Opposite – Group of People I, 2023

Exhibition runs through to May 08th, 2023

Lehmann Maupin
247 Worth Avenue
Florida 33480 Palm Beach
USA

www.lehmannmaupin.com

  

GILBERT & GEORGE – THE CORPSING PICTURES

Posted on 2023-04-24

In the art of Gilbert & George, meaning is inferred through feeling and atmosphere, and these possible meanings can be in stark contrast to one another. They can be read like a paradox or aphorism in which the juxtaposition of apparent opposites creates levels of interpretation beyond those first encountered.

Such a high velocity interplay of meanings is acutely felt in ‘THE CORPSING PICTURES’, beginning with the arresting or even shocking title of the group, that could refer, dizzyingly, to both death and dead bodies, and the theatrical slang for an actor who suddenly steps out of character during a performance, by either forgetting their lines, or laughing, or causing another actor in the scene to lose their composure. To break the spell therefore: to admit the illusion of acting, to revel in revealing the ‘pretence’ of theatre.

Opposite – KNOT, 2022

Exhibition runs through to May 13th, 2023

White Cube Mason’s Yard
25 – 26 Mason’s Yard
London
SW1Y 6BU

www.whitecube.com

  

SPENCER FINCH – LA GRANDE JATTE

Posted on 2023-04-24

Finch’s monochromatic irregular polygon paintings were formed by zooming in and cropping out identifiable or memorable moments of the historic painting, e.g., the monkey, parasol or top hat. Those crops were then analyzed to determine the number of colors used, as well as the quantity of that color used, to form that particular shape or motif. To create each painting, an ultra-high resolution photograph of the Georges Seurat painting was consulted. The total number of distinct paint colors found within each crop determined the number of sides of the corresponding painting as well as which colors were painted onto the sides of the shaped panels. Each crop was then overlaid with a 400 square grid and the amount of each paint color used was tallied and percentages calculated. The smaller the percentage of color, the shorter that side’s length. The percentages of the paint colors were then mixed together to produce the front facing color for each painting. Finally, when added together, the surface area of the 17 paintings on view, equals the surface area of the original Seurat canvas.

Opposite – Installation view

Exhibition runs through to May 13th, 2023

Rhona Hoffman Gallery
1711 West Chicago Avenue
60622 Chicago

www.rhoffmangallery.com

  

KUDZANAI-VIOLET HWAMI – A MAKING OF GHOSTS

Posted on 2023-04-24

Kudzanai-Violet Hwami’s paintings combine visual fragments from a myriad of sources, such as online and archival images, and personal photographs, which collapse past and present. Autobiographical in nature and ‘dealing with internal and private curiosities,’ her works address how in a digitised world of infinite images we construct a sense of self, or experience and try to understand one another in a complex social reality.
Conceived across both levels of the gallery, A Making of Ghosts, the artist’s second solo exhibition at the gallery, features paintings and large-scale photographic images – some presented as floor-to-ceiling vinyls, others suspended in the space-sharing references including family photographs that act as touchstones for thoughts about grief, its action on memory and its fragmentary and disorienting effects.

Opposite – Murapi, 2023

Exhibition runs through to May 13th, 2023

Victoria Miro
16 Wharf Road
N1 7RW
London

www.victoria-miro.com

  

JONATHAN GARDNER – DUSK

Posted on 2023-04-17

Jonathan Gardner presents Dusk, an exhibition of eight new oil paintings rendered with a surreal approach to form and perspective. Scenes within scenes deconstruct planes into isolated storylines that recall cinematic motifs, creating tension that disorients and entices. Using architectural devices to warp space and time, compositions hover in a transient space between a dream and the ordinary as dusk turns into darkness.

Opposite – The Arranger, 2023

Exhibition runs through to April 29th, 2023

Casey Kaplan
121 West 27th Street
10001
New York

caseykaplangallery.com

  

HANNAH LEVY – CRUTCH

Posted on 2023-04-17

Hannah Levy presents Crutch, an exhibition of new wall-based and freestanding sculptures that exist as extensions of the body. Absorbed in the material encounter of two seemingly opposing mediums, Levy introduces glass into her practice. A mix of traditional and experimental processes are used to alter, slump, swell and sag the glass as it submits to its metal opponent. Concentrating her source material, which spans vegetables, medical equipment, prosthetics, and furniture, on forms that implicate mobility aids, Levy considers our physical and psychological relationships to our built environment.
The works function like prophecies: they are symbols of the shared anxieties of our bodily condition, acknowledging the universal yet unspoken truth that we are fallible and impermanent.

Opposite – Untitled, 2023

Exhibition runs through to April 29th, 2023

Casey Kaplan
121 West 27th Street
10001
New York

caseykaplangallery.com