(image courtesy of Disclaimer Gallery)
Anxiety Sex
Opening Wednesday April 12 at Disclaimer Gallery, 6 pm to 10 pm. On view through May 8.
Ah, anxiety and sex, two things that go together like peanut butter and jelly, or perhaps crying and bathrooms. Artist Charlotte Greene, the latest to set up shop at the inclusive Disclaimer Gallery inside the Silent Barn, sees this all too well. Focusing on the many strange ways digital encounters can translate to IRL ones, Greene has formed an array of digital collages made from predictive iPhone text, tweets, stream-of-consciousness writing, and more.
Riffing off of a computer’s ability to zoom, distort, crop, and alter images, many aspects of these collages have been modified accordingly, often to the extent that they are hardly legible anymore. This manipulation mirrors the strange spirit of online communication, in that it can be so easily seen as something larger, smaller, or entirely different than it ever intended to be. Talk about #relatablecontent!
Connection by Nadia Martinez
“Siguiendo el Ritmo,” 2013, 2017
Plastic connectors
Containment, Connection & Contemplation
Reception Wednesday April 12 at 121 Varick Street Studios, 6 pm to 8 pm. On view through April 14.
These three solo exhibitions are curated by Venice-based artistic director and curator Maurizio Pellegrin, who has had a hand in an impressive 150 solo and 400 group exhibitions around the world. That’s a lot of art. These works in particular are all tied together because they collectively explore humanity’s relationship to both nature and technology, which are two classic similar-but-different forces in the world.
While the works on view are mostly sculptural, each artist takes a unique approach to composition and materials. Rather than exploring the tech vs. nature theme in ways that might be heavy-handed or passé, the ideas predominantly come forth in how each piece is created. Kathryn Cameron builds her sculptures using items reminiscent of tree bark or leaves, Nadia Martinez makes pieces out of computer parts, and Taka Maruno creates soft and colorful print installations that simultaneously recall imagery like bacteria, street art, and flowers.
works by Vanessa Prager (L) and Kim Dorland (R). (image courtesy of Castor Gallery Downtown)
Tantamount
Opening Thursday April 13 at Castor Gallery Downtown, 6 pm to 8 pm. On view through May 14.
Painting is generally placed into the 2D art category, but there are certainly ways this can be subverted. Opening Thursday at Castor Gallery, Tantamount is a group show all about the many ways you can place oil paint on a canvas. The four artists who make up the exhibition all seem to be drawn to impasto, or the tactic of layering paint to create texture.
That doesn’t just mean you’ll be staring at a bunch of the same bumpy canvases, however, as each artist approaches the style in a different way. Canadian artist Kim Dorland digitally creates images that are then enlivened with thick squeezes of pigment, Jeanette Hayes uses acrylic paint and gold leaf to create an ornate look, Vanessa Prager constructs surreal, grotesque “gravity-defying” portraits out of endless splotches, and Lucas Price turns layers of paint into uncanny photorealistic works. While it surely might seem tempting to reach out and touch these textured marvels, I am sure that normal gallery etiquette still applies.
Hanne Tierney, Baby, Said Alice B. Toklas, Installation view at FiveMyles.
Knockdown Center Spring Exhibitions
Opening Saturday April 15 at Knockdown Center, 6 pm to 9 pm. Each exhibition on view for a different span of time.
It’s only fitting that the massive Maspeth (say that five times fast) Knockdown Center is opening a grand total of 4 exhibitions at once this Saturday, seeing as they certainly have the space for it. Whether you’re looking for “architectural minimalism,” robotics manipulating objects to create a constant theater performance, or vast art stretching over walls to the point where you have to change how you move through space, there will be surely something to catch your eye. Rounding out the bunch is Liliya Lifenova’s performance installation Flight Over Wasteland, happening earlier in the day at 3 pm.
Seeing as this place isn’t the easiest to get to (I once took the wrong B38 and ended up a 30-minute walk away in the summer heat), as per usual they will be offering free shuttle service every 15 minutes from the Jefferson L.
