Kate Meissner and Regina Parra’s Tableaux Rosa at Lyles & King

Female liberation, a theme explored in ancient mythology, color, and form in this two person show at Lyles & King. The paintings on the wall are not separated by painter, instead they alternate one by Meissner and one by Parra. As the audience walks around the gallery, the constant change of subject matter offers a contrast of ideas, a bowl of fleshy fruit submerged in milk and the next a headless, nude woman. These ideas are the choice to present one’s own sexual identity as they please. The room is large, featuring bright, white walls that make the vivid colors stand out even further.

Additionally, the works feature an array of bright pinks and greens as well as muted reds. Meissner focuses on the nude, female body and abstracts the surroundings, while Parra finds inspiration through feminine Greek and Latin deities which causes her to paint fruits submerged in milk. Both artists explore the idea of eroticism and its ability to liberate women through this subject matter.

Finally, as the title of the show suggests, the tableaux (an array of motionless bodies representing a scene from a story) is meant to portray a narrative, this being how a pose or a chosen still life can represent choice. Fleshy fruits that are culturally associated with sex relate to the subject of ancient deities and the headless bodies of the women represent anonymity of self-expression and choice. The anonymity of the figures represents all women and the eroticism of the fruit represents desire. This show is greatly successful in representing the importance of choice and how it interacts with liberation. WC 267

Eva Goldstock Vazquez * Final

Caressing the Circle | Rafael Lozano-Hemmer

Caressing the Circle" by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, currently on view at bitforms gallery, delves into the intimate relationship between human presence and technological systems, highlighting how our movements, identities, and perceptions are mirrored, distorted, or manipulated through digital interfaces. By using technologies like computer sensors, AI, infrared detection, and pixel-addressable glass, Lozano-Hemmer creates immersive experiences that invite viewers to actively engage with the works. 

Upon entering the gallery, Shadow Tuner (2023)—a captivating digital sphere displaying a globe—instantly drew my attention due to its interactivity. Cameras along its base record viewers' movements in real time, projecting them onto its surface. This process makes participants a part of the work, allowing it to change in response to different viewers movements. 

Shadow Tuner, 2023

Further works engage viewer bodies and perceptions. For example, Polar (2018) distorts viewers into a central point on a circular screen. Initially, seeing yourself like that prompts laughter. However, as the interaction unfolds, it evokes a sense of coldness and disconnection, creating an unnatural blur between digital and physical landscapes The exhibition also features works that require viewers to move around them in unconventional ways, such as Cardinal Directions (2010), where you must actively follow a rotating screen to read a poem as it unfolds.

Ultimately, Caressing the Circle fosters a profound dialogue between viewers and the works, emphasizing the role of physical presence in changing digital landscapes.

Adam Salem (Group B) (Revised & edited)

William Schwedler: Against The Grain

(Photo by: Adam Reich)

William Schwedler’s work, now on view at Susan Inglett Gallery, is truly captivating, challenging traditional norms of form and scale pertaining to linear perspective. The works come alive in the exhibition space with a soft yet emphatic presence. Schwedler’s Untitled, 1964 is predominantly a blue painting with architectural forms spanning across the canvas. The work denies any continuity and follows its own self-created rules as lines and columns break free and create skewed perspectives. Schwedler’s adroit choices to contort and toy with linear perspective and isometry is perplexing. Most of the works on display are large format canvases which allow the viewer to step into these distorted, alien scenes. While these imaginative planes have an other-worldly feel, they do engulf the viewer with a serenity that is comforting and familiar. Concurrently though, the paintings evoke feelings of displacement. Grids and repetitions are at the forefront of the artist’s formalist explorations, for example, in A Perfect Stranger, 1971. A foreshortened phallic structure with a moire pattern, is tethered to and seemingly radiates into a fence-like structure. The heft of this structure is concealed because of the smooth ombre background. Curtain Wall, 1967, showcases the experiments Schwedler conducted with dimensionality. This intriguing work is an interplay between painting and sculpture. The dichotomies of tranquility & industry, painting & sculpture, welcome & displacement create a world of their own that heightens and emphasizes self awareness. These landscapes, devoid of identifiable forms, leave viewers perplexed, intrigued, wanting more.

- Priyanka Dey # (edited)

MOMA, Lyles & King

    At MoMA, LaToya Ruby Frazier’s Monuments of Solidarity exhibition profoundly impacted me. It showcased a compelling exploration of themes like systemic racism and industrial pollution, particularly as they intersect with workers' rights. The exhibit delved into issues beyond inadequate wages, highlighting broader inequities in working conditions often characterized by racial and environmental injustices. Examples of these unfair treatments included mass layoffs and toxic exposure—as captured by Frazier's imagery. One striking photograph depicted a family surrounded by a chemical-filled environment, illustrating the serious, long-term health problems that affect generations. This work emphasized the profound impact on communities, urging viewers to confront the harsh realities that marginalized workers face every day. Through Frazier’s work, the exhibition became more than an artistic statement; it was a call to awareness, empathy, and action.

    At Lyles & King's Between the Lines exhibition, Stephanie Temma Hier’s large painting of a ceramic lobster, a chef, and a ship stood out to me. The split image of nude figures standing in front of the ship added depth and complexity to the composition by juxtaposing vulnerability with industry. Hier’s work successfully combines painted and sculpted elements, blurring the line between flat and three-dimensional art.

    I also loved Kate Meissner’s work in this exhibition. Her vibrant use of color and expert rendering of light and shadow made the surfaces appear almost lifelike, as if they could be touched. The blend of surreal elements with realistic forms created a unique experience, making me feel like I was observing detailed display models from a third-person perspective.

    While both Stephanie Temma Hier and Kate Meissner excel in creating captivating imagery, their approaches to human figures reflect their distinct artistic voices. Hier's human figures are always depicted with realistic colors and textures but are placed in surreal environments, resulting in scenes that feel dreamlike and layered. In contrast, Meissner’s human figures, while equally vibrant, are more grounded in their depiction. Her precise use of bold colors and light manipulation brings an immediacy and vivid realism to the figures, anchoring them in a tangible world that feels close to the viewer.

    

Jenny Kendler’s "Other of Pearl" at Fort Jay on Governer’s Island

Sperm Whale Instrument (Part I)
2024
Handblown Opaline Glass representing the spermaceti organ, junk, blowhole and phonic lips, patinated steel, New York seawater, antique whale oils

Kendler’s exhibition Other of Pearl proposes the adverse relationship humans have with underwater resources- highlighting whales and oysters. As a multimedia installation, it uses a conglomerate of materials such as fossilized whale ears, tears, and lab grown oysters. The architecture of Fort Jay invites viewers to walk from a tunnel into a main room with six side chambers. Fort Jay becomes the internal structure of the sea and of the whale itself. Standing inside of the space feels as if you are inside of both something living and something that is dead and gutted. The viewer can imagine the mystique of the creature through the space as much as through her artworks. 

In Humpback Instrument, Sperm Whale Instrument, and Whale Bells, Kendler invites the public to “sing back to the whales”. By speaking in the glass instrument the human voice is transformed into an imagined bellow of a whale. However, this does not translate into literal communication between humans and whales and therefore is not reciprocal as Kendler suggests. Instead, it works more as a space for imagining the communication that whales are capable of. Kendler offers us a renewed lens for how we can present and admire these underwater creatures. This idea would have been pushed further if it were more obvious that viewers could interact with the instruments, or if viewers could have rung the whale bells which were cordoned off. The restrictive etiquette of gallery spaces unintentionally emphasizes our single sided relationship with the natural world. 

Madison Dominguez Norris * edited version

Sikkema Jenkins & Co Gallery
Erin Shirreff, Sunset Palace

Dusk Form, 2024

Patinated and polished aluminum

144 x 201 x 148 inches

365.8 x 510.5 x 375.9 cm

(Photo By Sikkema Jenkins & Co)

"Sunset Palace" by Erin Shirreff is a solo exhibition at Sikkema Jenkins & Co. The gallery’s high ceilings and expansive, neutral-toned walls create a white, open environment that perfectly complements Shirreff’s exploration of perception, materiality, and form. The generous spacing between artworks establishes a sense of circulation, allowing visitors to navigate sculptures like “Dusk Form.”

For example, Dusk Form, made from black and polished aluminum, is the exhibition's focal point. It plays with the viewer's perspective. From one angle, it appears sculptural, yet as one moves around it, it flattens into black or polished aluminum planes, challenging the viewer's initial perception of its form. A table of smaller three-dimensional steel models further emphasizes the fragmented nature of Shirreff’s work, consisting of multiple planes and angular shapes. 

Paper sculpture

Dye sublimation prints on aluminum, latex paint

Framed dimensions: 74 3/8 x 102 1/4 x 5 3/4 inches (188.9 x 259.7 x 14.6 cm)

(Photo By Sikkema Jenkins & Co)

Her wall pieces also create layering and play on perspective. These framed pieces feature scans of materials, art, and vintage photography enlarged into textured patterns assembled into layered, abstract compositions. This can be seen in works like “Paper sculpture” which uses scanned material. Scans of stone, metal sheets, plaster, painted metal, and wood are printed on the aluminum sheets and then cut. The work creates layers through the material and allows for perception changes through cuts and layering, creating positive and negative space as the foregrounds and backgrounds intersect.

Shirreff’s various methods of cutting, scanning, and reimagining forms through a play on the viewer’s perspective is intriguing. Though some viewers might find the fragmented nature of the works challenging to understand, "Sunset Palace" offers a juncture between the medium of sculpture and photography, allowing viewers to contemplate perception.

Alvin You

Hannah Villiger's "Skulptural" at the Meredith Rosen Gallery

   

Hannah Villiger’s exhibition “Skulptural,” housed in a small, minimally furnished gallery, is an exploration of connection and visceral sentimentality presented through two photographs: Block (1997) and Work (1980). These works present an investigation of the body, vulnerability, and love. Viewers are prompted to relate with the works and explore the personal significance of the images in light of their own individual experiences. 

Block features a pair of hands holding each other against a black background, suggesting  care and connection. Opposite it, Work presents a tightly framed closeup of splayed limbs arranged in a fragmented, disjointed, four-tile composition, resulting in a visually confusing, yet compelling effect. By using corporeal imagery without the inclusion of faces, the element of identity is stripped away, allowing viewers to project their own experiences onto the works and inducing a sense of familiarity. 

The large scale of these photographs in the intimate gallery space creates a confrontational experience. This proximity demands an attentive interaction with Villiger’s work, warranting careful inspection and appreciation, and enhancing its overall impact.

The exhibition effectively cultivates an impression of emotional and physical closeness. The complementary nature of the works amplifies their impact, facilitating an exchange between intimacy and disarray. Villiger’s exploration of her own body is a representation of humanity’s shared vulnerabilities, resonating in an era where connection is both sought after and challenged.

    -Jessica Chadwick #                

"Block" 1997

                                                                                                                                                                                                  "Work" 1980