Philadelphia Delaware River From a distance, Mary Mattingly’s floating installation WetLand could be a storm-lashed hovel or beach cottage fighting to remain above water. And that wouldn’t be far off—this “house under water” summons associations with Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, as well as with homeowners struggling to keep their mortgages afloat.
Ai Weiwei
San Francisco Alcatraz Island Ai Weiwei’s “@Large” exhibition (on view through April 26, 2015) features seven new site-specific installations situated in four buildings on Alcatraz Island. A steep and rocky island at the mouth of San Francisco Bay, Alcatraz measures only about 1,575 feet by 590 feet.
Make Your Own Trail: A Conversation with Richard Wilson
Slipstream, one of Richard Wilson’s most innovative projects to date, translates the motion of a car rolling over into the aeronautical maneuver of a small propeller plane turning through the air at high altitude. The suspended, aluminum-clad sculpture twists through the central space of Heathrow Airport’s new Terminal 2 building like an elongated spacecraft settling
Phyllida Barlow
London Tate Britaint Phyllida Barlow’s site-specific commission for Tate Britain’s Duveen Galleries was one of the most successful uses of this space in recent years. Made from a number of distinct, but closely related, elements, it dominated, even challenged, John Russell Pope’s somewhat pompous Neoclassical interior.
Art Souterrain 2014
Montreal One of the world’s great experiments in bringing art into an open context, Art Souterrain animates the tunnels, walkways, Metro stations, and buildings of Montreal’s underground city. Founded in 2009, the festival has grown from humble beginnings under the guidance of founder and CEO Frédéric Loury, creating opportunities for art to go directly to
Doris Chase
Seattle Abmeyer + Wood Fine Art The fourth exhibition of Doris Chase’s work since her death in 2008 focused on the decade 1964–74. Drawn from the artist’s estate, the survey revealed Doris Chase before she became “Doris Chase,” pioneer godmother of dance video.
Salvatore Scarpitta
Washington, DC Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Nowadays countless artists make use of everyday discards, but Salvatore Scarpitta (1919–2007) was a trailblazer at, as he put it, “introduc[ing] into the art experience the life experience.” Given his passion for cars, he didn’t just recycle car parts.
Ivan and Heather Morison: Survival Instinct
Viewers familiar with the British artists Ivan and Heather Morison expect their work to elicit a sense of unease. Anna, a piece of object theater installed in their 2012 Hepworth Wakefield exhibition, showcased their diversity of media and approaches.
Travis Somerville
Birmingham, Alabama beta pictoris gallery Birmingham, past and present, became a site of charged memory in Travis Somerville’s recent exhibition, “American Rhetoric.” His brooding paintings and sculptures feature the piercing gaze of three different groups—glaring, black adults, children who died in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, and dour-looking white men in blackface—all highly confrontational
