Friday, September 28, 2012
Art Art Picks From Print
Posted by Paul D'Agostino on Fri, Sep 28, 2012 at 1:01 PM
Dioramic wrecks and art historical arcs are operative elements in this set of of art picks from the 9/26 issue of our fetching digest.
THOMAS HIRSCHHORN: CONCORDIA, CONCORDIA
Gladstone Gallery, 530 West 21st St., through October 20th
The Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia served as a vessel for creative expression not long before it foundered, as parts of Jean-Luc Godard's Film Socialisme were shot aboard. Now, not long after its highly mediated wreck, the ship's demise provides Thomas Hirschhorn with more than enough imagery and inspiration to mount a parodically disastrous, suffocatingly cataclysmic, darkly humored and fittingly behemoth diorama-like installation at Gladstone. In his recreation of the "apocalyptic upside down vision of the banal and cheap" he observed in photos of the sunken vessel, Hirschhorn invites viewers to get similarly deep.
GUIDO VAN DER WERVE
Luhring Augustine Chelsea / Bushwick, 531 West 24th St. / 25 Knickerbocker Ave., through October 20th / December 16th
Concert pianist, composer, artist and particularly performative dutchman Guido van der Werve dons all such hats, and surely several others, in the video works filling out two solo exhibitions at Luhring Augustine Chelsea and Luhring Augustine Bushwick—newer works at the former, older ones at the latter (for things have yet to flip quite so thoroughly). Steeped in historical anecdotes pertaining to classical music as well as personal narratives, these videos are pensive and melancholic without descending into brooding, and they occasionally veer into well-tuned humor too. It's not a spoiler at all to tell you, for instance, that the tissue-begging feel of Nummer vier dips ultimately into hilarious absurdity.
TO BE A LADY: FORTY-FIVE WOMEN IN THE ARTS
1285 Avenue of the Americas Art Gallery, 1285 Avenue of the Americas, through January 18th
While the title of this immense exhibition curated by Norte Maar mastermind Jason Andrew readily indicates a deep roster of female artists, it doesn't necessarily convey the broad extent of the show's historical arc. A number of the artists are featured in art history textbooks, in other words, while a few might yet freshly recall art history coursework. All genres and mediums will surely be included, and dance will most certainly not be left out. What is also sure and certain is that this will be one of the most memory-conjuring and memory-making exhibitions around town this season.
MATTHEW MILLER: FOOLS ARE THOSE WHO LOSE THEIR MIRRORS
Pocket Utopia, 191 Henry St., and C.G. Boerner, 23 East 73rd St., #3, through October 14th
Matthew Miller's most widely esteemed and readily recognizable works are meticulously rendered, subtly variant portrayals of a certain man in a restrained range of mindsets and moods, his mysterious presence always a foreground for fathomless supple backdrops of deep black obscurities. Such are many of Miller's oil paintings, but he has also produced commensurably engrossing graphite drawings for this solo show—which also extends uptown to C.G. Boerner, Pocket Utopia's partner gallery—as well as a series of abstract drawings. This promises to be Miller's most inspired and expansive exhibition to date.
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