Best of April: A Round-Up of Art in New York
April marks the true beginning of the Spring season in New York City, and with it, the arrival of brighter and more playful art shows. In the past few weeks, I discovered some new amazing artists and rekindled my love with older ones. This is the best of what I saw:
Vik Muniz's "Album"
The indisputable king of Brazilian contemporary art came back with a beautiful solo show at Sikkema Jenkins called "Album". For this particular series, Vik photographed random postcards forming idyllic settings that resemble nostalgic Holiday locales, for another group he put together compositions using found pictures of his childhood and his ancestors. As usual, the quality of the photography and the level of the detail (considering that we are looking at flat prints that give the illusion of texture and relief) is impressive.
The Launch of Webbcreative
Bethanie Brady and Pippa Cohen launched a new artist management company that focuses on working with emerging and mid-career artists offering opportunities that go beyond traditional gallery shows. I loved the opening called "Recon" curated inside the walls of JWALK whose space will host Webbcreative shows which are to rotate every eight weeks. I really liked many of the pieces shown but my favorites were Ramon Vega's light box, Dustin Yellin's wood panels and Daniel Gordon's still life (a large scale photograph composed of paper models that he makes resembling food, fruits and flowers)
Ramon Vegas's impressive photography mounted and displayed on a lightbox
Daniel Gordon's "Still Life" photograph
Dustin Yellin's wood panel piece
Suzanne Geiss's "Particular Pictures" Group Show
Particular Pictures is a group exhibition curated by New York based artists Joshua
Abelow and Emily Ludwig Shaffer at the super cool SoHo space of the Suzanne Geiss Company. I loved almost everything: a combination of pieces from emerging and more established artists that coexists in a show that looks at the state of dreams. My favorite pieces were by Lukas Geronimas, and Mira Dacy.
Mira Dacy's hanging "pillow"
Lukas Geronimas's Dust Painting with LED and wood frame
Lukas Geronimas's carved table
Best of the Lower East Side
Although the Lower East Side has been dubbed as "the new Chelsea" there are still many, many galleries that show virtually unknown artists who, in my opinion, are excellent. I also love the grit of the streets and the somewhat unpretentious vibe. Besides, there is always a good mix of young, established and mid-career artists's shows that not necessarily have everyone priced out right off the bat.
Some of the pieces I liked best were the still lives of Tracy Miller whose layered saturated canvas and rich compositions left me craving more; the intense and highly-labored mixed media on wood boards pieces of Dave McDermott , the extraordinary photographs of Laurie Simmons who investigates the weirdness of the cultural phenomenon of Kigurumi, the Japanese practice where young people dress themselves head to toe with cartoonish masks and bodysuits; and the solo show of Shinji Murakami with Tinca Art, where he explores the use of video games, simple vector lines, back-to-basic construction and pixelated images that look back to his childhood and teenage years.
Tracy Miller's richly layered "Still Life"
The amazing solo show of Sinji Murakami at Tinca Art in a pop-up space on Water Street
Dave McDermott's mixed media on board pieces
Laurie Simmon's at Salon 94 Bowery