BONN, GERMANY Bundeskunsthalle Visitors to the last Venice Biennale might recall Isa Genzken’s 23 models for outdoor sculptures, which appeared in the main pavilion. If not, this probably has more to do with curator Okwui Enwezor’s incomprehensible decision to present them with, of all things, Walker Evans’s legendary photo series “Let us now praise famous men” than with the sculptures themselves. The models were recently shown again in Bonn, with 12 new additions; together, these 35 works document Genzken’s public projects from 1986 to the present. The exhibition, however, offered far more than mere documentation.
Robert Grober: Ordinary Ambiguity
Thirty years ago, Robert Gober produced several dozen sculptures of sinks, built up of plaster, wood, wire lath, and metal, and covered at the top with semi-gloss enamel. He began the series in New York in 1983 with the inexpensive materials he could then afford.
Pinaree Sanpitak: The Body is the Code
In Theravada Buddhism—the prevailing religion of Thailand—the color white has a very specific meaning. Representative of the principles of purity, it is considered the color of knowledge and longevity. Pinaree Sanpitak’s 2014–15 installation Ma-lai: mentally secured, at Tyler Rollins in New York, was almost overwhelmingly white— lit in a way that cast no shadows, which
Virginia Maksymowicz: Strong Supports
From the first glance, Virginia Maksymowicz’s “Bread” series clearly recalls antiquity. These works abound in motifs taken from Greco-Roman architecture—caryatids, Corinthian capitals, columns, and volutes—but as the viewer comes closer, the point of reference shifts. The Hydrostone and fiberglass/resin forms have less to do with Greek and Roman marbles than with plaster casts of the
Daisy Youngblood: Shifts in Consciousness
Recent years have seen a resurgence of interest in the work of women artists, many of whom have been in the art world for multiple decades. Last spring, “Works in Progress” in T: The New York Times Style Magazine, featured 11 women (in their 70s, 80s, and 90s) whose work “we should have known about
Corporeal Transitions: A Conversation with Doug Jeck
Seattle-based sculptor and University of Washington associate professor Doug Jeck has been bridging ceramics, photography, and performance for more than a decade. His work, influenced by static physicality and historicity, maintains the human object at its center.
Michael Esbin: Actions in Stone
Michael Esbin belongs to an outstanding, now mature generation of stone-carving artists, although it must be admitted that this kind of work is not supported as much as it used to be—especially in America. Esbin moved to Italy some 35 years ago in order to embrace the stone carving there.
Ideas Can Last Forever: A Conversation with Richard Long
Berlin Circle, 2011. River Avon mud, view of installation at Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin. Richard Long’s practice involves walking great distances in the wilderness, then pausing to make works referencing natural and cosmic phenomena experienced along the way.
Dream Machines: A Conversation with Theo Jansen
Animaris Adulari, 2012. PVC, 3.2 × 5 × 2 meters. Photo: Courtesy Theo Jansen and Peabody Essex Museum. In 1990, Dutch artist Theo Jansen began creating Strandbeests, or “beach animals,” an interactive and dynamic, wind-driven life form that roams on the beach.
Doug & Mike Starn
PRINCETON, NJ Princeton University Art Museum Standing nearly 18 feet tall and weighing eight tons, Doug and Mike Starn’s luminous outdoor installation (Any) Body Oddly Propped continues their preoccupation with dendritic growth and sunlight, while adding a weightiness not previously seen in their work. Seven tremendous steel frames hold vividly colored glass panels etched with silhouettes of tree branches that form networks akin to veins or synapses. The massive rectangles, like deconstructed architecture, are propped diagonally against one another; two are held up (or rather seem to be) by spindly cast-bronze tree limbs.
