New shows of all kinds are opening in New York City galleries this week. Art galleries in Chelsea, Uptown, Downtown and Brooklyn are hosting solo shows, group exhibitions and retrospective surveys. Viewers can check out sculpture that toes the line between childlike and creepy, portraits that are intimate looks into realistic or imaginary worlds and drawings that defy expectations. Check out our selections for the NYC Gallery Scene through October 15 below.
CHELSEA
Eric Firestone Loft: “Marcia Marcus, Role Play: 1958 – 1973”
October 12 through December 2, 2017
Opening Reception: Thursday, October 12, from 6 to 8 p.m.
Eric Firestone Loft will present “Marcia Marcus, Role Play: 1958-1973,” a major re-examination highlighting the formal innovations and conceptual relevance of a portraitist who worked at the intersection of painting, proto-performance art and identity politics.
Marcia Marcus, the first woman to stage a Happening, created self-portraits, portraits and group portraits featuring artists, writers, family, friends and acquaintances to shed light on the shifting roles people embody. Her own self-portraits, a performative act for Marcus, featured the artist in varying roles and guises. The exhibition, the first major survey of her work in more than 30 years, shows her subversive playfulness as well as her unapologetic examination of female desire, race and motherhood.
Eric Firestone Loft is located at 4 Great Jones St #4, New York, NY 10012. www.ericfirestonegallery.com.
Click here for exhibition details.
Massey Lyuben Gallery: “Claire Lieberman: UBDO Playground”
October 12 through November 11, 2017
Opening Reception: Thursday, October 12, from 6 to 8 p.m.
Massey Lyuben Gallery will present “Claire Lieberman: UBDO Playground,” a solo exhibition of new sculptures by the artist.
The Claire Lieberman sculptures in UBDO, which stands for “Unidentified Dangerous Beautiful Objects,” feature forms reminiscent of childhood, but with a darker side. With titles like “Star Fleet” and “Funny Hat,” the sculptures offer a sweet, playful quality, but are made with highly polished black marble, suggesting something more brutal. The forms, featuring tic-tac-toe games and ballooning toy grenades, are hand-engraved or disrupted by protuberances, creating a voluptuous and oppressive effect that evokes the hidden menace of commonplace things. Lieberman’s signature glass guns will also be on display. The delicate, transparent pistols evoke a similar feel: at once disarming and humorous, but with a threat of underlying violence.
Massey Lyuben Gallery is located at 531 W 25th St, New York, NY 10001. www.masseylyuben.com.
Click here for exhibition details.
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"Radio" by Claire Lieberman, 2017. Black Marble, 8.5 h x10.5 w x 6.5 d inches. Courtesy of Massey Lyuben Gallery.
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Pace Gallery: “Oldenburg/van Bruggen: Shelf Life”
October 13 through November 11, 2017
Opening Reception: Thursday, October 12, from 6 to 8 p.m.
Pace Gallery will present “Oldenburg/van Bruggen: Shelf Life,” the first exhibition of new work by Claes Oldenburg in 12 years.
The exhibition of new work will include 15 mixed-media sculptures and a series of mouse shopping bags. The accumulative nature in the exhibit’s presentation of seemingly random objects, all arranged on identical shelves, draws inspiration from past Oldenburg’s work, such as his pioneering Pop exhibition The Store. The new works, whose mediums range from materials as durable as iron or as fragile as paper plates, represent ideas and objects that have been intrinsic to Oldenburg’s career.
Pace Gallery is located at 537 W 24th St, New York, NY 10001. www.pacegallery.com.
Click here for exhibition details.
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"Shelf Life Number 6" by Claes Oldenburg, 2016-2017. Mixed media, 19 15/16 x 28 3/4 x 12 3/16 inches. © 2017 Claes Oldenburg. Photography by Kerry Ryan McFate, courtesy of Pace Gallery.
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DOWNTOWN
Anita Rogers Gallery: “Works on Paper: Drawings by Gordon Moore, George Negroponte, Morgan O'Hara and Joan Waltemath”
October 11 through November 11, 2017
Opening Reception: Wednesday, October 11, from 6 to 8 p.m.
Anita Rogers Gallery presents “Work on Paper: Drawings by Gordon Moore, George Negroponte, Morgan O’Hara and Joan Waltemath,” a group exhibition that aims to celebrate drawing as a primary form of artistic communication.
The exhibition, which reflects on the intimate nature of drawing and allows viewers to engage with the work in a close manner, features a diverse range of work by Gordon Moore, George Negroponte, Morgan O’Hara and Joan Waltemath.
Moore will present innovative works on developed photo emulsion paper that draw on top of and in response to the elemental properties of the paper. Negroponte will present a series of drawings from 1996 to 2016, which were created from several pieces of paper that were painted, cut and then placed together in different configurations.
O’Hara, in her first exhibition with the gallery, will present drawings in pencil that record, in real time, the movements of musicians, protesters and politicians in her series, “Live Transmission.” Her work, which is drawn with both hands, is spontaneous and thoughtful. Waltemath will present studies from her Torso/Roots series of paintings. The works, which are based on a grid derived from mathematical relationships, are delicate glimpses into her process.
Anita Rogers Gallery is located at Ground Floor, 15 Greene St, New York, NY 10013. www.anitarogersgallery.com.
Click here for exhibition details.
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"Shifter" by Joan Waltemath, 2007. Colored pencil, oil pastel, conté crayon, tempera and casein on Khadi rag paper, 41 x 27 inches. Courtesy of Anita Rogers Gallery.
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Jack Hanley Gallery: “Heidi Hahn: The Future is Elsewhere (If it Breaks Your Heart)"
October 12 through November 12, 2017
Opening Reception: Thursday, October 12, from 6 to 8 p.m.
In her second solo exhibition with Jack Hanley Gallery, Heidi Hahn will present “The Future is Elsewhere (If It Breaks Your Heart).”
Heidi Hahn’s paintings, which present women’s interior lives, investigate the traditional concerns of figurative painting while creating environments of psychological landscapes of the female mind and body. The female subjects of the paintings, all in profile as if in a hieroglyphic stance, are ambiguous and almost without history, often in transit, walking or waiting and on the brink of something new. Their faces, hidden or obscured into masks, elucidate their anonymity, allowing them to have unadorned social awareness.
Jack Hanley Gallery is located at 327 Broome St, New York, NY 10002. www.jackhanley.com.
Click here for exhibition details.
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"The Future is Elsewhere (If it Breaks Your Heart) #1" by Heidi Hahn, 2017. Oil on canvas, 72 x 68 inches. Courtesy the artist and Jack Hanley Gallery.
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UPTOWN
Jason Jacques Gallery: “Kim Simonsson: Shaman Party”
October 11 through November 7, 2017
Opening Reception with the Artist: Wednesday, October 11, from 6 to 9 p.m.
In a solo exhibition at Jason Jacques Gallery, Kim Simonsson will present “Shaman Party,” featuring recent work from the artist’s “Moss People” series.
Kim Simonsson, a Finnish artist, began the “Moss People” series in 2014. The otherworldly life-size ceramic sculptures depict innocent yet beguiling child figures, covered in a green moss-like substance. The sculptures, handmade in the artist’s studio in Finland, are made from combining stoneware, paint and green nylon fiber, to give them their smooth and mossy surface. Donned in headdresses and velvet flocking, the Moss People lead viewers into a fairytale-like world.
Jason Jacques Gallery is located at 29 E 73rd St #1, New York, NY 10021. www.jasonjacques.com.
Click here for exhibition details.
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"Moss King" by Kim Simonsson. Stoneware, gold lustre, nylon fibre, 31.5 h x 22 w x 20 d inches. Courtesy of Jason Jacques Gallery.
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BROOKLYN
SOHO20: “Petra Nimtz: Unwritten”
October 12 through November 12, 2017
Opening Reception: Friday, October 13, from 6 to 9 p.m.
In her second solo exhibition at SOHO20’s Bushwick location, Petra Nimtz will present “Unwritten,” featuring new works.
After sustaining an injury, Petra Nimtz was prevented from creating her typical, large-scale canvases. The work that followed was smaller-scale, physically compact and visually assertive paintings and collages. Featuring strokes of paint, charcoal and cut paper, the works are vibrant with levity, simplicity and playfulness. Containing gestural vocabulary with hints of anthropomorphic and architectural form, the works convey a sense that cannot be put into words, as if depicting the precise moment before a thought forms.
SOHO20 is located at 56 Bogart St, Brooklyn, NY 11206. www.soho20gallery.com.
Click here for exhibition details.
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"Unwritten Thoughts" by Petra Nimtz, 2017. Collage, oil stick on paper, 15 x 15 inches framed. Image courtesy of the artist.
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Sardine: “Kyle Vu-Dunn: Leaves Don’t Thank the Sun”
October 14 through November 12, 2017
Opening Reception: Saturday, October 14, from 6 to 9 p.m.
In his first solo exhibition with Sardine Gallery, Kyle Vu-Dunn will present “Leaves Don’t Thank the Sun,” featuring new work by the artist.
Kyle Vu-Dunn’s new work focuses on the vulnerable side of masculinity, with the subjects inhabiting a world between reality and fantasy where men are allowed to be soft and unguarded. The compositions, on painted and carved reliefs, layer surface color and volume to build a sense of space, while theatrical light structures the work. The young men lounge, pose and embrace, their images doubled in the works through eyeglass lenses or puddles, surrounded by louche details like slipping down underwear or platform shoes lying in carelessly spilled drinks. In confidently jaunty poses, the subjects challenge the power dynamic of voyeurism, seemingly enjoying being seen.
Sardine is located at 286 Stanhope St, Brooklyn, NY 11237. www.sardinebk.com.
Click here for exhibition details.
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"Night Kiss" by Kyle Vu-Dunn, 2017. acrylic and crayon on fiberglass and plaster reinforced foam, 24 x 29 x 1 inches. Courtesy of SARDINE.
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NYC Gallery Scene - Highlights publishes weekly with exhibitions selected by Hamptons Art Hub staff. This edition was written by Genevieve Kotz. Click here to visit our Gallery Guide to find more exhibitions on view.
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