Sarah Sze: Timelapse at the Guggenheim

Sarah Sze’s sculptural installation pieces in her recent show, Timelapse at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, are multi dimensional in the truest sense. Upon first encounter with much of the work, I felt as though I was looking at the ruins of a fairy house constructed by child prodigies who found a box of electronics in the closet of a science classroom. Using painting, video, plants, sculpture, photography, motorized mechanisms, and raw building tools such as ladders or wooden dowels, Sze’s show is at once a serendipitous juxtaposition of found objects and a careful balance between the mechanical and natural.        

Timelapse is the perfect collection to demand attention within the unique container of the Guggenheim’s rotunda. While the work within the main gallery space is complemented by the bright sun from the skylight, which provides ever-changing shadows, I was especially moved by her piece “Timekeeper” (2016), which is housed in a dark gallery space off of the rotunda. This piece looks at first like the messy studio space of an astronomer or hoarder, with plants, books, and materials stacked on top of each other in the center of the room. Yet upon closer inspection, like much of the work, the arrangement continues to expand in many dimensions. Particularly with her use of fans and projected video work, the inclusion of moving elements allows for a sense of being surrounded by the installation to the point that the viewer becomes part of the work. As the show’s title indicates, Sze’s union of seemingly disparate elements, successfully reaches towards the intricacies, complexities, and boundlessness of life.     

WANGECHI MUTU INTERTWINED - New Museum

Intertwined presents a comprehensive collection of Wangechi Mutu’s work throughout her career. Using, and often combining, mediums such as drawing, painting, performance, sculpture, and video, Mutu’s work speaks to the legacies of colonialism and stylistically references historical issues in a uniquely folkloric voice. Intertwined calls these current realities into question and using her work presents models for the future, as it is largely informed by feminism, Afro-futurism, and representation of African and diasporic culture. This show itself is named after one of its featured collages, which encompasses many of the artist's consistent and characteristic themes including hybridity and transmutation.

This show was very successful in depicting and questioning the impacts of historical violence on women, the way we are connected, and how that itself connects us to other life forms. Perhaps one of Mutu’s most successful endeavors presented in this show was her method of collaging, and her flawless execution of effective composition. Mutu elevates this medium, by placing these objects that are originally foreign to each other, whether that be literally and/or conceptually, as interconnected on the space and “working together” to create one complex figure or setting. Moreover, many of these pieces read as paintings from far away and as the viewer approaches, they begin to slowly discover collaged pieces, further strengthening her mission of conveying symbiosis and relationships between separate bodies.

- Heather Ortiz

Daniel Lind-Ramos: El Viejo Griot at MoMa PS1

 Daniel Lind-Ramos uses found objects of personal and universal significance to create sculptures and video installations. “El Viejo Griot” draws on experiences of Hurricane Maria and the COVID-19 pandemic. His sculptures are monumental in height and are three-dimensional, with many lacking a dominating frontal view. The works are contrived in a way that allows viewers to experience multiple angles of them. Some sculptures are placed against the gallery walls, while others are centrally placed in individual gallery rooms. By isolating select works, the viewer has the opportunity to experience them in an intimate setting. This quiet and potentially lonesome environment allows room for self-reflection with Lind-Ramos’ ideas of recalling and overcoming tragedy. 

More specifically, “Ambulance” (2020) forms an emergency vehicle with objects such as a megaphone, emergency lights, and the skeleton of a mattress. The sculpture recalls the COVID-19 lockdown and its impact. This work benefits from its central placement in the room to observe all sides of the makeshift vehicle. The isolation of the sculpture also emphasizes the importance of reflecting on one’s own experience during the peak of the pandemic. Lind-Ramos is also referencing earth elements, which is evident in “María Guabancex” (2018-2022). Guabancex is the spirit known as “the lady of the winds.” This conglomerate of materials he found after Hurricane Maria in 2017, including pieces of roofing, electric cables, and plastic tubing, creates the illusion of a spiraling motion. The assemblage of the materials seems to be referencing that of a barraca, a type of temporary structure that provides refuge. This work successfully mimics the natural disaster Puerto Rico faced, and how the local community adjoined during challenging times.

- Rose

Duke Riley: DEATH TO THE LIVING, Long Live Trash

 Artist Duke Reilly’s exhibition, DEATH TO THE LIVING, Long Live Trash at the Brooklyn Museum, presents a multi-media exploration of environmental degradation, specifically in regards to the pollution of the oceans, interpreted through both a historical and contemporary lens. Riley utilizes reclaimed single-use plastics as a medium for ink drawings that mimic scrimshaw, a form of engraving in which sailors would etch whale bones to depict scenes of the ocean. Riley uses things like discarded detergent containers, deodorant sticks, plastic bottles and even lawn flamingos as surfaces to create these contemporary “scrimshaw” works. The repurposing of these materials in this way highlights the contrast between the natural materials that they mimic, and the everlasting nature of plastic. Although the plastic materials that Riley works with stands in complete opposition to the bone that would have originally been used, the works are extremely convincing as scrimshaw objects. Upon first glance, and even upon second glance, I was convinced that these works were engraved bone or ivory. This is in part due to the meticulous color matching that Riley does to mimic the off-white color of the bone, and in part due to the imagery, which also mimics the maritime scenes that would have been portrayed in actual scrimshaw. Riley juxtaposes these traditional maritime scenes with scenes of corporate greed and pollution, and colonialism, creating a conversation between the past, the present, and the dystopian future that is presented by the careless polluting of our oceans and waterfronts. 

“Sarah Sze: Timelapse” at the Guggenheim

At the Guggenheim Sarah Sze has created a web of time and place and object, in “Sarah Sze: Timelapse”. Sze’s site specific work constructs a scaffolding and organized chaos in the rotunda and surrounding spaces. “Timelapse” is a complex layering of sculpture, video, sound, painting and installation. Time is the namesake element of the work, with compositions of images and objects having a sense of history and fluidity. Imagery of birds, clouds and oceans denote peace in the natural world, in contrast with volcanic eruptions and geysers. Natural materials like sand blend with projections and artificial structures. At times the work is architecture, explosive, and ceremonial. Moments of peace are found within the chaos. “Timelapse” encapsulates the overwhelming multitudes of our modern existence.

In regards to “Slice” (2023), Sze describes the sense of transition, as the viewer can envision the construction and collapse. A grid of wood is built in a way that resembles a wave or a dam. Flux and movement are seen throughout the exhibit, works have moving parts and projections with changing imagery. In “A Certain Shot” (2023), a pendulum swings above a mound of salt, as time swings on light dances on the salt, an elemental material in our world. There is a precarious balance to the arrangements, acknowledging the uncertainty of their presence. 

There is a vibrational energy to Sze’s landscapes and interiors. At times it feels like things are crashing in on themselves, or exploding outward into space. The use of technology, screens, and projections is referential to the information overload we experience with the dominance of screens in our surroundings. “Timelapse” draws the viewer into ecosystems of fractured mirrors of our reality.  

Kris Thomas

East of Sun, West of Moon exhibition by Oscar yi Hou

 The "East of Sun, West of Moon" exhibition by Oscar yi Hou at the Brooklyn Museum focuses on queer Asian American subjects through paintings inspired by reference images, including photographic artworks and Hollywood film stills. Yi Hou utilizes both "Oriental" and "Western" motifs, such as Chinese zodiac signs, Taoist symbols, cowboy hats, and American flags, to explore the concept of who is considered "American" in this political climate. The exhibition also highlights the limitations of the term "Asian American" and challenges the perception of East Asian individuals as interchangeable and the same.

Through contextualizing the history of the "coolie" slur and its connection to ongoing racially motivated violence against Asian American communities, the exhibition works to shed light on the belittling status assigned to East Asian immigrants in America. One particularly striking work, "Ends of Empire," features the American flag with a queer Filipino friend standing against it, who recently became an American citizen, and a weaved original poem that alludes to U.S. imperialism in trans-pacific regions. The painting powerfully critiques the struggle of embracing a new identity while acknowledging the values and practices forced upon other communities by the same place. The facial expression on the man's face showcases this internal conflict of embracing a new identity while not fully being accepted. Oscar yi Hou's "East of Sun, West of Moon" exhibition is a significant display of contemporary art and social justice, exploring intersectional identities, queerness, and Asian American history in a unique and relevant way.

-Andrea S

Sophia Narret: Carried by Wonder

 Sophia Narret: Carried by Wonder

As one walks into Sophia Narret’s showcase at the Perrotin, they are greeted with largely black space with detailed pops of color scattered about the walls. Carried by Wonder consists of a collection of meticulously embroidered narratives that utilize thread on organically unraveled canvases to depict an exploration of “the liberties and restrictions of modern womanhood. The artworks themselves are technically impressive as each stitch flows organically into the other and the transitions from one vibrant color to another are smooth. 

However, the overall presentation leaves much to be desired. The generally 20” x 20” organic canvas shapes are too large of a space as about three-fourths of the gallery walls are left bare. This emptiness does a disservice to the extraordinary pieces themselves as the room does not guide the viewer to look at the details of each work. Within each piece, a narrative describing a different woman’s story is unveiled through tiny details and requires a meticulous eye to discover a naked body amongst a crowd of clothed people, for example. Perhaps sharing the space with a compatible artist would have benefitted Carried by Wonder by compacting the space. This could foster an organic layout more interesting than its original evenly distributed art piece per four feet along the wall. Likewise, a close-knit but organized layout could entice viewers to slow down and further take in the details of each piece both in narrative and technical construction.

Station by Matt Bollinger seen at François Ghebaly

 Station by Matt Bollinger seen at François Ghebaly

Written by Ariel Rich

Matt Bollinger is a contemporary figurative painter. I went to see his work for the first time the other day and left with the conviction that he sees it. His paintings are not just about people, they are about the way our visual reality is just a puzzle our eyes complete. His application of paint is a constant weaving back and forth of paint layers and you are constantly drawn into questioning this section of underpainting used as the highlight on a figure. Light is literally rendered through the thickness of the paint, and I admire this technique. 

He works in acrylic and flashe paint, a feat: to make a painting feel alive with nonporous paints. Oil is very porous. Bollinger’s figures feel alive, but they are alive even though they are composed with a series of awkward and unnatural shapes. A very rectangular highlight, as seen on Stoop, which is a painting of a woman in shadows smoking on her stoop, is striking because she feels alive and human, but the shapes and colors in the piece feel abstract and non representational. 

His twenty minute stop motion, Between the Days, playing in the back room is the ultimate flex. Bollinger is freely playing with our sense of reality, fluctuating between what could be a Diebenkorn abstract grid or a car driving down the highway. He is masterful with translating visuals in an honest to the shapes we see way. 

The eyes are what makes it: that is the soul. 

Moma PS1: IIU SUSIRAJA

Iiu Susiraja’s work is contrived in a way to make the viewer uncomfortable and to question why they feel that way. In the way that models sink their teeth into a juicy burger Susiraja is consuming food in the way, letting the food drip over her body. In contrast she is not a size one airbrushed model in a beautifully lit set, rather she, a plus sized woman, is in a bleakly lit suburban setting consuming food. This feeling of unease is aided by the lighting, her physicality, and her confrontational gaze as both model and photographer. The similar size and placement through the two rooms leads to it feeling almost as if they are slides of a scene in a film with their repetitive themes and similar slides and framing. The video work by Susiraja is far superior to her photography, the photography holds space, but the holding of time that the video has makes the air electric. You sit in her message of discomfort .

The low hanging fruit in comparison to Susiraja’s work is Northern European Rineke Dijkstra. From behind the camera Dijkstra photographs waifish teenagers who you could almost mistake for adults posing like Botticelli paintings. The body and the way that we are consuming them brings the viewer to question their viewership like with Susiraja. Jenny Saville is the direct comparison from the painting world, someone who also paints large nude women in a way that challenges the view. Susiraja’s work is fascinating. The theme she is exploring is a rich one but there is a contrivedness to elicit the reaction that is far richer in the video work than photography.

-Aidan Lapp

"Submission" Jimmy DeSana

    "Submission" at the Brooklyn Museum invites viewers to engage in a thoughtful exploration of sexuality, power dynamics, and the nuances of human desire. DeSana's unapologetic, visually jarring, yet stunning photographs challenge societal norms, sparking important conversations about personal agency, identity, and the boundaries of artistic expression. His distinctive visual style and boundary-pushing aesthetics have often been associated with the art and music scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s, a period during which Talking Heads emerged as a prominent and influential band of which he collaborated with on a frequent basis for a time. The treatment of the exhibit itself was committed to not only showing photographs but his contributions to zines, performance art, and collectives he’s involved in. DeSana's photos documenting club culture not only showcase the hedonistic aspects of the scene but also challenge traditional notions of beauty and identity. His images go beyond surface-level aesthetics, offering a nuanced exploration of the human experience within these underground spaces; some photos have a certain eligibility, more or less capturing the identity of the place rather than what's happening, contributing to the ongoing dialogue surrounding identity, self-expression at the time. The artist continued to resist commercialized narratives, using more abstract and unconventional ways to photograph even after contracting AIDS early in his life.

    It’s hard to say it was all seamless though. At times the show felt a little crowded for its own good, having such a vast variety of stylistic choices, some groups of photos didn’t necessarily have a sense of cohesion with the ones next to them. The exhibit was just perhaps too big. There was a large room separated from the rest of the show by a hallway that almost read as a different show entirely at first glance. 

- Matt V.

Gego: Measuring Infinity

    The Guggenheim’s Gego: Measuring Infinity exhibition is a display of works done by Gertrude Goldschidt (aka Gego) as the first major retrospective in the United States on her since 2005, after her passing in 1994. The museum displayed around 200 pieces of hers on the rotunda, going almost to the top of the ramps. They organized it chronologically, which is able to show us how her work progressed as she continued her practice throughout her life. You can see how she experimented with material and form, and how each piece influenced another. 

    Gego’s 3-dimensional forms are playful but show a skilled knowledge of 3D design and proportions. Every piece has a lot of personality. The constant stream of wire forms almost started to get repetitive, but as you keep going, and as you work your way through, you start to also see how she explored with mediums, and started working with printmaking. This was a really interesting divergence from her work, because you could see how she was using 2-dimensional elements in her work in multiple ways. For one, she used only (or majority) wire in her earlier works, which is a 2D material, to make 3D sculptures. Moving to her prints, she was able to translate her 3D work, and those same design elements into 2D pieces, while still maintaining the same personality. 

    The addition of her logo and branding exploration was a nice break in the exhibition, displaying work that was not necessarily her own, but showing how she started branding herself. This was also exciting to see as a way of showing how her work reflected her own personality. 

- Stella

Georgia O'Keeffe "To See Takes Time" at the MOMA

 The Museum of Modern Art’s exhibit “To See Takes Time”  explores all of Georgia O’Keeffe’s work. Not just the oil paintings of the flowers that she is famous for, it showcases everything else in her career. This is why it took me a minute to connect the dots between O’Keeffe being the famous artist that made the abstract oil paintings of flowers and the show because I have never seen any of her other work in my life. The exhibit explains how she worked up to painting the flowers she is known for while also showcasing work most people have never seen to show her technique and growth as an artist. The exhibition features a lot of non-abstract pieces O'Keeffe made with pastels, graphite, and watercolor. It is almost uncanny to see the art she created that is not a flower. The portrait made with charcoal features is almost an anomaly compared to the rest of her work as even the figure paintings do not have faces. Which is why it stuck out compared to the rest of the pretty much abstract pieces, Throughout the whole exhibit you can see how her style progresses from going back and forth between less detailed colorful abstract watercolor paintings of sunsets to detailed graphite drawings of abstract compositions. The whole show puts together O’Keeffe’s work in a way that shows her exploration of art which got her to the point of creating her abstract paintings of flowers while only showing one of those paintings throughout the whole show.

-Vivian

Georgia O'Keeffe's "To See Takes Time" at the Museum of Modern Art

     Georgia O’Keeffe’s “To See Takes Time” at the Museum of Modern Art is a survey of one of the most famous woman artist’s drawings and watercolor paintings. O’Keeffe, who is widely known for her oil paintings, also has a vast collection of works on paper in the mediums of charcoal, pencil, watercolor and pastel. The years of 1915 to 1918 was a major period of exploration for the artist, and many of the works on show come from this time. Throughout the artist’s career, these pieces have been separated from each other and are now coming together under one show. By looking at these pieces, the viewer gets insights into the painter’s mind and method of working. Many pieces displayed look like preliminary sketches, but are so rich in information of O’Keeffe’s active decision making. A greater understanding of the artist’s color choices are displayed in her simple watercolors of the sunset or her master composition decisions in her abstracted charcoal drawings.  
In the show, the pieces are roughly displayed by category, a series of watercolor figures are shown together and then representational charcoal drawings of flowers are shown opposite. To see these works in conjunction with the title “To See Takes Time” the viewer is invited to be leisurely with the work. The title is almost an affirmation telling the viewer that it is okay, and encouraged, to look at the work slowly– to truly take it in. Tt can also be seen as O’Keeffe explaining the work, justifying the large amounts of studies and preliminary drawings. She is saying “This is what needs to be done in order to get to the end result. It takes time”.

Gego: Measuring Infinity at the Guggenheim

Upon entering the Guggenheim, visitors enter at the bottom of the spiral gallery space that displays an installation of abstract work by former architect and engineer Gego, or Gertrud Goldschmidt. This exhibition is a retrospective of Gego’s work from the 1950s to the 1990s exploring line, space, and its relationship to architecture. As guests walk up through the ramps of the museum they are first greeted with delicate, almost hair thin, silver wire sculptures hanging from the ceiling and freestanding on their own. Accompanying these sculptures are drawings, prints, textile works, artist’s books, and photographs of previous art installations and architectural projects. Her engineering background also allowed for optical effects to occur as a part of the experience of viewing her work. All of her works have a sense of line and space and you can see the progression of these explorations as you move up through the museum. As her art career progressed her work started as substantial and solid architectural sculptures and moved into intricate sculptures, all maintaining a relationship with line and space. You can see her architectural and engineering background come through more in her earlier works but as she developed her artistic process her work would begin to move further into the realm of fine art.

As a German-Venezuelan artist, Gego’s work is an important contribution to Latin American art influencing several art movements in Caracas, Venezuela, including geometric abstraction and kinetic art. Her work was vital in the development of Latin American modern and contemporary art. Although her work is lesser known within the United States, this exhibition will expand her artistic reach to a whole new audience to educate about contemporary Latin American art and architecture.

-Ella Mackinson

Gego: Measuring Infinity - Guggenheim (275)

The exhibition Gego: Measuring Infinity is a collection of around 200 two and three-dimensional form-focused works made by German-Venezuelan artist Gertrud Goldschmidt displayed at the Guggenheim. The show consists of five wrapping rotunda floors with pieces arranged uniformly and chronologically. The work utilizes a variety of mediums including sculptures, drawings, prints, and textiles, but most notable are the sculptures and their use of wire to create both geometric and organic shapes and patterns.

The wire sculptures feel both structured and delicate with designs ranging from simple to more complex forms, but all are quite minimal and clean. Most of the sculptures are neutral in color, and many of them seem to be precariously balanced and almost defy gravity with nothing but what appears to be clear fishing line holding them in place. Gego’s focus on form uses structure through lines and shapes to create and explore spatial relationships and movement. There is an element of illusion to the pieces with lines intersecting and overlapping, so as one moves through the space these same lines shift to create another perspective of the piece. 

In addition to the sculptures, other mediums like drawing and textiles cement Gego’s interest in geometric abstraction. Similar to the sculptures, these drawings use convergence of lines and shapes to create intriguing and eye-catching patterns and compositions. Unlike the sculptures, the drawings feel less minimal, utilizing more color and less negative space, which gave more context to Gego as an artist. 

Because the show chronologically displayed around 40 years of art, walking through the floors really felt like a look into the history of Gego’s work as well as progression of her ideas. 

-Gabrielle

Tom of Finland - David Kordansky - edit (225)

Tom of Finland’s exhibition Highway Patrol, Greasy Rider, and Other Selected Works at David Kordansky Gallery in Chelsea presents several different collections of graphite and ink drawings, as well as collages that explore masculinity, sexuality, and freedom by way of idealist and euphoric pornographic imagery. Finland used stereotypically masculine figures like police officers, cowboys, sailors, and bikers engaged in a variety of explicit homoerotic acts to subvert traditional ideas of masculinity and heteronormativity. He seems to both romanticize and simplify his characters by emphasizing and exaggerating the male figure, more specifically their muscles and genitalia, to the verge of being unrealistic. The repetition of these figures was used to create visual narratives, and highlighted Finland’s focus on anatomy and pose, which can also be seen in the collage studies of beautiful muscly men.

The scale of the pieces and similar sizing, stay close to letter sized with slight variations, which allows the work to remain intimate. The inarguably explicit drawings displayed traditionally, in standard gallery style within the large space, use thin frames and larger borders between the frame and art that makes the work more approachable. The provocative work feels tender when one is able to see the edge of the paper within the frames. There is a boyish charm where the work does not feel vulgar or offensive but rather unabashed and cheeky.

-Gabrielle

Josh Kline at the Whitney Museum

 Josh Kline’s Project for a New American Century at the Whitney Museum is a multiple floor exhibition highlighting the dehumanization of work and the uncertainty of future labor with technological advancements. The work is largely composed of large scale sculpture work, film and video all which haunt viewers with the threat of the ending of their careers. 

The exhibition is set up as a maze where each room is depicting another future crisis scenario. Repeating motifs of dismembered body parts fatally frozen in fear or highlighted as another resource equivalent in importance to what one would fill a grocery cart is haunting, but not unimaginable. With the recent advancements in ai technology the disregard of human labor and livelihood depicted in these sculpture works are a warning of what is to come, not just some distant dystopia. 

The installation titled Contagious Unemployment created in 2016 consists of office boxes full of ones work tools encompassed by glass blown virus bubbles dangling from the ceiling. The work was imagined during creation in the 2030s or 2040s where automation would eventually take over white-collar worker positions. This work now takes on a new meaning post Covid-19, essentially highlighting  how the virus told workers to pack up their desks and leave. Many jobs that are realizing or are unable to bring back laid off workers as they no longer have the finances or have found a cheaper way to replicate their work through new technology programs. This work has already successfully predicted future courses of action, and doesn’t seem to be stopping there.  

Josh Kline is giving viewers a warning, but it might already be too late to change anything.  

Wangchi Mutu at the New Museum

Wangchi Mutu’s extensive show at the New Museum is a major solo exhibition that features over one hundred works from her impressive twenty-five-year-long career. Her work is presented through various media that are able to create fantastical forms that cover folkloric narratives, and mythological stories while discussing colonialism, globalization, and African traditions. With each floor containing different pieces of work of various mediums, the entire exhibition had a beautiful flow. While at times it felt a bit overwhelming due to the surplus of the work, each floor was able to hold on its own. The piece Shavansa I (2019) was displayed in the most minimal environment on the top floor of the museum. This piece is a perfect start or end piece depending on how one goes about viewing the exhibit, instead of the body on top of the yoga mat in a restful pose, the figure is buried underneath, presumed to be dead. Throughout the work all the work, there was a common theme of pops of bright color that would be brought into an earthy palette The work MUD (2003) was ink and collage prints that were simple in nature but the use of mixed-media made it more interesting as it made the women hidden, reduced, and depersonalized. The way that the prints were hung was not my favorite on that floor as they felt more cramped together, making it hard to view them individually as they were intended. The show as a whole was incredibly beautiful to see, containing such a wide span of work from a singular artist.

-Victoria

MoMA PS1, Liu Susiraja: A style called a dead fish

Upon entering the exhibition hall, I encounter a woman with a broom between her breast, and a loaf of bread on her head, blankly staring at the camera with raw fish between her legs catching my eye. The artist's pictures of her in the apartment filled the exhibition hall. Self-cameras usually allow people to make themselves appear happier and prettier than they are. Photography becomes magic as if the ideal self I aspire to be is the truth. Despite the strong desire to take pictures of oneself as more beautiful than in reality is inherent in taking selfies, the artist does the work of taking photography honestly, no, ridiculously, to the point of being brutal.

She takes pictures of everyday objects in an immensely ordinary house, but her photography are never expected or ubiquitous. “Unabashed, Susiraja’s works test the limits of propriety, indulgence, and “good” behavior.” Her body looks as if it is one of the objects in the picture. Her pale skin, and bumpy and wrinkled body, become an object of observation. And we feel unfamiliarity and awkwardness in her fat body, double chin, and slouching posture as she looks at the camera with blank eyes. Through this, she is deconstructing the cultural view of beauty by constantly showing her socially unwelcome body to people, making it normal and familiar. It deviates from the original beauty that people expect from visual art. Her self-portrait is a free struggle that breaks away from the physical norms based on beauty and seems to break the concept of the normal.

-Hye Jin Kim

DEATH TO THE LIVING, Long Live Trash by Duke Riley at Brooklyn Museum

Duke Riley's "DEATH TO THE LIVING, Long Live Trash" at The Brooklyn Museum showcases nautical-inspired artwork made from beach trash. This exhibition showcases a diverse range of artwork, including Sailor Valentine Octagon mosaics, scrimshaw paintings, and handmade fishing lures, all of which serve as a reminder of the destructive impact of our consumption-driven culture on the environment.

Riley's innovative use of discarded trash collected from the beach, rather than traditional materials like shells and bones, to create these historic-inspired works of art gives them a contemporary twist. The use of trash, as the new shell, has a profound meaning: our plastic waste has overtaken natural resources, and we have replaced wildlife with our insatiable desire to consume.

This art speaks to the conscience of the wealthy consumer class, as it does not shy away from the uncomfortable truth of pollution but instead presents it in an aesthetically pleasing manner that is perfect for Angelina Jolie to post on Instagram. One of the significant problems with contemporary art, especially in the context of environmental and social issues, is that it is often co-opted by the wealthy elite as a tool for virtue signaling and self-aggrandizement. By purchasing socially conscious artwork, the rich can absolve themselves of responsibility for the very problems that they have played a significant role in creating.

The fact that plastic waste has become the new shell is a direct result of a system that prioritizes profit over people and the planet. Yet, Riley fails to engage with this critical issue in any meaningful way. He instead produces work that is in line with his ‘style’ and is politically conscious enough.

 

Sarah Sze: Timelapse at the Guggenheim

 The Sarah Sze exhibit at the Guggenheim Museum is an immersive experience that showcases the artist’s mastery of sculpture, installation, and space. The show is titled “Timelapse,” and it consists of a series of installations that explore the concept of constant movement, transformation, and evolution through time.

As you enter her section viewers are immediately drawn to the first installation, which is a massive mix of painting and sculpture as well as projected video creating an interplay of various different medias to make one piece. It is a striking and mesmerizing piece that sets the tone for the rest of the exhibit.

Throughout the show, Sze plays with the relationship between objects, space, and time. She creates intricate and delicate installations that are both beautiful and unsettling. My favorite of which is the last piece at the end of the seventh level, entitled Timekeeper (2016). A fully immersive experience, the visitors walk into a dark room lit up by the overflowing desk in the center. The desk is absolutely filled with objects, some everyday ones and others much more rare. There is also an overabundance of images, both moving and still. Digital clocks litter the desk with different times from different places in the world showcasing the unfolding of time and how it guides us. 

Overall, Sarah Sze’s show “Timelapse” is a mastery of well thought out installation, playing into the architecture of the Guggenheim as well as on the spot video editing to achieve her aligned projections. And while abstract, there is a narrative being performed which conveys a message to the audience, though it is left to the viewer to decide what that is.

-Emily Burak

 Paul Pagk is an American painter who creates abstract paintings that explore the relationship between color, shape, and space. His work is characterized by bold geometric forms and a minimalist aesthetic, often rendered in a limited color palette.

Despite the simplicity of his forms, Pagk's paintings are rich in texture and depth. He often builds up layers of paint to create a sense of depth and dimensionality, while also using subtle variations in color to create a sense of movement and energy within the composition.

What really brings your eyes to his work is how they can still convey a sense of mood or atmosphere without being explicitly representational. That’s not to say the painting can’t remind you of a certain form, La Notte, 2015 reminds me somewhat of a basketball court, and Andromeda, 2020 a map or battle strategy of sorts. The colors and forms may suggest a particular emotion or feeling, such as tranquility, joy, or melancholy. This can be particularly powerful, as it allows the viewer to connect with the painting on a visceral level, even if they cannot necessarily articulate why they feel a certain way.

-Matt Valenzuela