BOSTON Institute of Contemporary Art Self-styled street artist and activist Swoon (a.k.a. Caledonia Curry) recently contributed a site-specific work to the ICA’s 75th-anniversary celebrations. While officially part of a series on the Sandra and Gerald Fineberg Art Wall, Anthropocene Extinction leapt off the wall as soon as possible, erupting into a long, ribbony chain of paper and cloth, like a giant kindergarten art project, that culminated in a 400-pound, suspended sculpture next to the ICA’s glass elevator.
Ken Lum: It Takes Me Back Somewhere
East Van Rules! Sound familiar? It’s a fair bet that at some time in our lives, we’ve all attached ourselves to a sporting club, organization, gang, or place and championed our membership or affiliation. Vive la Solidarité!
“Jesús Soto: Paris and Beyond, 1950–1970”
NEW YORK Grey Art Gallery, New York University Venezuelan-born Jesús Soto, a major figure in avant-garde, mid-20th-century sculpture, left his country for Paris in 1950. As the intriguing and historically informative “Jesús Soto: Paris and Beyond, 1950–1970” points out, he took quickly to the progressive Parisian milieu, making friends with Yves Klein and Jean Tinguely.
Ruben Ochoa
MIAMI Locust Projects Ruben Ochoa’s many talents include excavating and revealing hidden truths. His recent installation at Locust Projects was a fitting “last show” for a soon-to-be-demolished building. In conjunction with this exhibition, Ochoa also created the ironically and literally titled A Bit of Detritus for the James Cohan Gallery at Art Basel Miami.
Carol Mickett and Robert Stackhouse
NEW YORK The Lab Gallery Breath of Water, an installation created by the collaborative team of Carol Mickett and Robert Stackhouse for the window space of The Lab Gallery, consisted of thin strips of light-colored wood radiating outward from a central nexus. Attached to beams above them and gently moving, the strips echoed what might be described as the wind’s breath over water.
“Light & Landscape”
MOUNTAINVILLE, NEW YORK Storm King Art Center “Light & Landscape,” organized by Storm King associate curator Nora Lawrence, was inspired by Alyson Shotz’s Mirror Fence (2003), a 130-foot-long stretch of mirrored pickets that reflect the viewer’s every movement, along with the beauty of the surrounding landscape.
Masayuki Oda
SANTA MONICA Lora Schlesinger Gallery Masayuki Oda’s recent work consists of familiar-looking things made more interesting and sculptural because they are out of proportion, funny, or very abstract. Several objects are strange re-makes of the ordinary and overlooked, and all of them are cute to some degree.
Olympics: London 2012 Festival
As the finale of the Cultural Olympiad, the London 2012 Festival fulfilled its pledge to create a nationwide celebration of the arts in conjunction with the Olympic Games. This kind of celebration is designed to appease people, make them feel involved and patriotic.
The Potency of Ordinary Objects: A Conversation with Liz Magor
Vancouver-based Liz Magor uses found materials, often from the domestic sphere, as a springboard for investigating the social and emotional life of objects. In mining their history, use, and relationship to the body, she molds, casts, and alters them to explore issues of authenticity, replication, consumption, waste, value, and status.
The Meditative Eye: The Sculpture of Ron Mehlman
If not enough has been written about the sculptures of Ron Mehlman, it might be because they absolutely insist on direct visual engagement. These contemplative objects fashioned from resistant elements (stone, steel, and glass) and combined with ephemeral ones (water and light) are best approached in silence.
