What are these exquisite, abstract forms? What are the materials? How were they made? What are their visual references and influences? These are some of the questions that came to mind when I first saw Richard Van Buren’s mysterious sculptures.
Submerged: A Conversation with Jason deCaires Taylor
Disillusioned with the rat race, sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor chose to dive into an altogether different pursuit. His poetic underwater installations comment on environmental issues, climate change, and rising sea levels while providing new habitat for sea life and foundations for underwater growth.
“Wonder”
WASHINGTON, DC Renwick Gallery From kaleidoscopic prisms to twinkling LED lights, nine room-size installations inaugurated the Renwick’s second reboot since its opening in 1859. Natural references and the importance of labor prevailed, as did explorations of growth and accumulation with materials of everyday life. By featuring contemporary artists Jennifer Angus, Chakaia Booker, Gabriel Dawe, Tara Donovan, Patrick Dougherty, John Grade, Janet Echelman, Maya Lin, and Leo Villareal, the Renwick opted to revitalize its original mission—it was the first private museum in the U.S. dedicated to the visual arts.
Sudarshan Shetty
NEW DELHI National Gallery of Modern Art Sudarshan Shetty, describing his recent installation, Shoonya Ghar (emptiness is the house), has said that it “challeng[es] my own relationship with the market as an artist. Since it is a museum show, this is an opportunity to push those boundaries in my work rather than doing a retrospective, which is what I was offered.” And push boundaries he did, with élan, combining diverse mediums and materials to seamlessly blend the distant past with the present. The inspiration for this body of work came from the great 12th-century Nirgun poet, Gorakhnath, specifically his dohas, or couplets, that speak hauntingly of inhabitants in settlements and places.
Xiaojing Yan
STOUFFVILLE, ONTARIO, CANADA The Latcham Gallery Cloud Cell, the central component in Xiaojing Yan’s recent exhibition “Hybrid Vigour,” is a splendidly ethereal and luminescent installation. Constructed of thousands of freshwater pearls suspended on monofilament between two aluminum squares, this cloud-like rendering uses light and space to great effect. As in the contemplation of clouds, there are many interpretations. Yan’s references include the scholars’ rocks prevalent in Chinese gardens, which have been used as objects of meditation since ancient times.
Kambui Olujimi
NEW YORK Cue Art Foundation Kambui Olujimi did not invent the concept of “Solastalgia,” but his memorable exhibition launched it as a universal concern today. Coined by Australian philosopher Glenn Albrecht, the word refers to the psychic distress that results from displacement from one’s home whether by natural, social, or economic causes. In the U.S., gentrification, violence, and police brutality disproportionately affect African American and low-income neighborhoods— a fact that Olujimi underscored in this show with a series of memorials to his neighbor and mentor Catherine Arline and to fallen victims of violence on both sides of the police badge.
Mike Bidlo
NEW YORK Frances Naumann Fine Art Mike Bidlo is one of the earliest of the so-called “appropriation” artists in the U.S. Others, such as Sturtevant, Richard Prince, and Sherrie Levine, have received considerable attention, but Bidlo was there at the beginning. One might argue that he came from another place, from his own observations, not only in relation to Duchamp, but also in relation to other artists, ranging from Léger to Pollock. Indeed, Bidlo continues to maintain a focus on Duchamp, which may verge on obsession. I am not referring to “obsession” as a clinical condition, but as an extreme aesthetic focus.
Robert Lach
NEWARK, NEW JERSEY Solo(s) Project House Robert Lach is a mid-career sculptor whose studio (since 2013) is just down the hall from the exhibition space at Solo(s), a gallery that during the winter dedicates its expanse to in-house artists working on special projects and new works. Lach uses Arte Povera mainstays such as found wood, cardboard, tape, and spackle to build organic sculptures through repetitions of form—hence “Cellular,” the title of the show. One of his most interesting materials is white packing foam, which is highly flexible. Many artists today are working with throw-away materials in an attempt to realign sculpture with a physical reality not so distant from actual life.
Jessica Straus
BOSTON Boston Sculptors Gallery From afar, Jessica Straus’s carefully constructed and colorful forms appear quirky and playful. A closer look at the circus colors, however, reveals a less happy message. These pieces are a polemic about the world’s next crisis—the lack of drinkable water. Oversize oil cans and water carriers are covered with strips sliced from red-and-yellow “Danger” signs. We can piece the letters together to read “Caution,” “Non beber,” “Non potable,” and “Do not drink.” Meticulous, time-consuming craftsmanship has been a hallmark of Straus’s work throughout her career.
Libby Black
SAN FRANCISCO Gallery 16 With a sweetly acerbic humor, Libby Black’s work navigates the roiled waters of desire and consumption as experienced through the filters of feminism, lesbian culture, and the great American obsession with self-help—and its frequent traveling companion, addiction. Well over a decade ago, Black began creating paper-and-paint sculptures that replicate high-end luxury goods: Kate Spade shoes, Louis Vuitton bags, even things as large as a Mercedes.
