NEW YORK Cecilia de Torres, Ltd. Elias Crespin is a 21st-century wizard in a virtual Oz. In “Parallels,” the New York debut of his kinetic sculpture, he dazzled viewers with works consisting of simple lines and shapes. At first glance, they appeared to be suspended in space, their movements the whim of a capricious breeze. But nature was nowhere present.
“Art Unlimited”
BASEL Art Basel Franz West’s attention-grabbing Gekröse introduced the “Art Unlimited” section of Art Basel with a colorful flourish. The monumental, anthropomorphic form in eye-popping, pink-lacquered aluminum resembled a Jurassic cephalopod, or an oversize human intestine.
11th Havana Biennial
HAVANA, CUBA 11th Havana Biennial The Havana Biennial originated in 1984 as a tribute to the 25th anniversary of the Cuban revolution. Though it initially showcased only artists from the Caribbean, today it includes works by artists from the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, South America, and Africa. The 11th installment, which spread across the greater metropolitan Havana area, was a daunting enterprise for a first-time visitor.
Marsha Pels: Drastic Alterations and Transformations
From early 2008 to the middle of 2010, Marsha Pels spent her time as a professor of sculpture in Detroit. It was not a happy experience, neither in terms of the institution, where she established new facilities, nor in terms of the troubled city to which she had been transplanted, nor in terms of her
Live Media: Hope Sandrow
A flock of rare Paduan chickens cluck and flap in Hope Sandrow’s Open Air Studio, an installation that she created in the backyard of her century-old home in Southampton, New York. Sandrow, known for intermingling an eclectic range of media, from photography to performance, is also quick to pounce on oddball happenstance, as she did when an exotic white cockerel followed her home from a morning walk, and then stayed.
Jacqueline Kiyomi Gordon
SAN FRANCISCO Eli Ridgway Gallery ugh Jacqueline Kiyomi Gordon’s exhibition “No Touch” explored the interrelationship of space and sound, it was the translation of sound into visually beautiful, “fine art” objects that acted as the siren’s call, luring us in for a closer look and listen.
The Less Content, The Better: A Conversation with Charles Long
Charles Long lovingly stroked Pet Sounds, the music-making, pastel-colored shapes that he created for Madison Square Park, as guests at an opening night dinner awaited his arrival.
Public Art in Switzerland: Stimulating the Senses
Swiss artist Peter Regli uses a concept that he calls “reality hacking” to make short, temporary interventions into the everyday. These incredibly fleeting works happen surprisingly and without advance notice. Incidental viewers may not be certain of their perceptions.
Manifesta 9
GENK, BELGIUM Waterschei The Waterschei, a former mining complex building in Genk, Belgium, is a wonderful relic and an impressive piece of Art Nouveau architecture that feels more like a sculpture than a building. The space is pregnant with the history of Limburg—a region that, between 1901 when Andre Dumont discovered coal and 1986 when the last mine closed, was synonymous with the coal industry in Belgium.
A Line to Space: Monika Grzymala
In New York, in 2010, Monika Grzymala installed Untitled (skeleton of a drawing) at one of the entrances to the Museum of Modern Art’s major survey exhibition “On Line: Drawing through the Twentieth Century.” Balancing precariously on a boom lift above the museum’s Marron Atrium, she assembled thin sticks of lightweight, polymer modeling compound (hand-prepared
