this week in art

NORBERT BRUNNER: SMILING BROADLY

Norbert Brunner, “Contemplate the Possible,” digital print on plexi, Swarovski crystals, LEDs, mirror (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Claire Oliver
513 West 36th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Through March 24, free, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
212-929-5949
www.claireoliver.com

Austrian artist Norbert Brunner follows up his 2010 American debut, “Fuck Luck,” with his second show at Claire Oliver, “Smiling Broadly,” a collection of self-actualizations spelled out in Swarovski crystal on mirrors with LED lights. Each mirror features a pair of eyes, and sometimes two, gazing back at the viewer, who can see themselves in the reflection at certain angles. Such phrases as “Visualize the Extraordinary,” “You Are Fantastic,” “Anticipate Greatness,” and “You Are Exceptional” can only be read when standing directly in front of the piece, as if those statements can come true for you only if you are on the right path. The exhibit can’t help but have a Stuart Smalley feel to it, the SNL character played by Al Franken who would look in the mirror and make such daily affirmations as “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me.” Of course, look what happened to Franken, who is now a U.S. senator. Be sure to head downstairs to see a leftover piece from “Fuck Luck.”

WILL RYMAN: ANYONE AND NO ONE

Will Ryman’s “Everyman” wraps around gallery space and lets visitors walk inside his head (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Paul Kasmin Gallery
293 Tenth Ave. at 27th St. and 515 West 27th St.
Tuesday – Saturday through March 24, free, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
212-563-4474
www.paulkasmingallery.com
anyone and no one slideshow

Will Ryman keeps growing as an artist, both literally and figuratively. Since 2003, the former playwright and student of Absurdist philosophy has been creating such fantastical characters and installations as “The Dog Walker,” “The Bed,” and, perhaps most famously, “The Pit,” containing figures made of papier-mâché, PVC tubing, wire mesh, and acrylic paint, amassing a rogues’ gallery of engaging creatures with oddly shaped heads. He’s also constructed giant roses out of fiberglass and stainless steel that first filled the Marlborough Gallery for “A New Beginning” in 2009, then reached new heights for “The Roses” along Park Ave. last year. For his first exhibition at Paul Kasmin, the New York-based Ryman has gone mammoth with “Anyone and No One,” a two-gallery show centered by “Everyman,” a ninety-foot-long sculpture of a man lying on his side, wrapped around three walls of the Tenth Ave. space. His huge papier-mâché white head leads to an upper body of 250 pairs of shoes painted blue and extremities made out of 30,000 silver bottle caps and dressed in enormous denim jeans. A welcoming hand reaches out at the viewer, the fingers raised in a beckoning manner. In “The Pit,” Ryman placed dozens of small characters in a white box that visitors would look down into; here he has one figure — perhaps representing the artist himself — squeezed into the gallery space, the artist as installation encircling his audience. Ryman then invites visitors inside his mind, as the huge head has an opening that allows people to walk into another room — the artist’s brain? — where 200,000 paintbrushes are stacked in rows forming a kind of forest one can wander through. Employing unused paintbrushes for these neural pathways is an interesting choice, given that Ryman’s father, Robert, is one of the leading minimalist artists of his time, most well known for his white-on-white canvases.

Will Ryman’s “Bird” is caged in at Paul Kasmin Gallery (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

While “Everyman” is squeezed into his white box, Ryman’s “Bird” has a bit more room in its cage, Kasmin’s West 27th St. space right around the corner. Loosely inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven,” Ryman constructed the twelve-foot-high, two-ton avian out of 1,500 real and fabricated straight and curved nails, as if the bird is its own cage. As with the paintbrushes, Ryman again uses objects more associated with the making and hanging of art as the very raw materials in his art. From its beak dangles a rose, referencing Ryman’s previous work as well as adding color to the piece. “Bird” eyes the ceiling-length windows from the side of its head, gazing upon a freedom that will never come, the artist trapped in his own cage.

CINDY SHERMAN / SANJA IVEKOVIĆ

Giant Cindy Shermans watch over entrance to stunning MoMA retrospective (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
“Cindy Sherman” through June 11, Joan and Preston Robert Tisch Exhibition Gallery, sixth floor
“Sanja Iveković: Sweet Violence” through March 26, Donald B. and Catherine C. Marron Atrium and Special Exhibition Galleries, third floor
Wednesday – Monday, $25 (includes same-day film screenings)
212-708-9400
www.moma.org

MoMA is currently home to two solo shows by women who take very different approaches to explorations of gender, identity, sexual freedom, empowerment, and representation. “Cindy Sherman” is an appropriate title for the revelatory career survey of American artist Cindy Sherman, who has been photographing herself in ever-evolving series for thirty-five years. Sherman’s oeuvre is not a celebration of herself but an examination of how women are depicted and treated in society. Working alone, Sherman, who is most often associated with the Pictures Generation, dresses up in an endless array of costumes and makeup, becoming a sexy chanteuse, an elderly aristocrat, a centerfold model, a fashion icon, a clown, a Renaissance virgin, a tattooed punk rebel, and a murder victim. Each photograph, most of which were taken in her studio, is untitled, allowing viewers to experience it for themselves, bringing their own biases to it without being prodded. Her “Untitled Film Stills” are not based on actual movies, allowing the viewer to create their own story around the carefully choreographed pictures. In such series as “Centerfolds,” “Fashion,” “Fairy Tales and Disasters,” and “History Portraits,” she re-creates herself in ways that make the story about who she portrays, not who she is. “Time and time again, writers have asked, Who is the real Cindy Sherman?” exhibition organizer Eva Respini writes in the show’s catalog. “It is Sherman’s very anonymity that distinguishes her work. Rather than explorations of inner psychology, her pictures are about the projection of personas and stereotypes that are deepseated in our shared cultural imagination.” In representing the fascinating work of one of contemporary art’s most important figures, “Cindy Sherman” is a spectacular success. (On March 26, such artists as George Condo, Kalup Linzy, Elizabeth Peyton, and Collier Schorr will participate in the panel discussion “Cindy Sherman: Circle of Influence,” moderated by Respini. In addition, Sherman has curated the film series “Carte Blanche,” which runs April 2-10 and includes such films as Barbara Kopple’s Harlan County USA, Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Bong Joon-ho’s The Host, David Lynch’s Inland Empire, John Cassavetes’s Shadows, John Waters’s Desperate Living, and Sherman’s own Doll Clothes and Office Killer.)

Sanja Iveković’s “Lady Rosa of Luxembourg” rises high in MoMA’s Marron Atrium (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

As “Cindy Sherman” settles in to MoMA, continuing through June 11, “Sanja Iveković: Sweet Violence” prepares to move out, ending March 26. The first museum retrospective of the Croatian multimedia artist and activist born five years before Sherman, the show consists of photography, sculpture, drawing, video, and collage that tackle such issues as politics, female identity, and gender roles in war-torn East Central Europe. Like Sherman, Iveković, who is part of the Nova Umjetnička Praksa (New Art Practice) generation, often puts herself in her work, but she is much more direct and far less subtle. In “Tragedy of a Venus,” Iveković pairs older, existing pictures of herself with shots of Marilyn Monroe, while in “Double Life” she is seen alongside magazine advertisements for beauty products. In the short video “Personal Cuts,” Iveković films herself using scissors to slice off parts of a dark stocking that covers her face, intercut with historical footage of the post-Tito history of the former Yugoslavia. And in “Practice Makes a Master,” Iveković wears a white sheet over her head as the continually falls to the ground as if having been executed, while Monroe sings a song from Bus Stop. Other series include “Paper Women,” in which Iveković rips, scratches, and tears actual magazine ads with female models; “Sweet Violence,” in which she places bars on a television monitor showing a Zagreb economic propaganda program; and “Women’s House (Sunglasses),” large-scale prints of fashion models on which details of beaten and abused women are superimposed. The show’s centerpiece is “Lady Rosa of Luxembourg,” Iveković’s public art project that involved the re-creation of a war monument in which she made the statue of Nike into a pregnant woman and replaced the names of the fallen soldiers with such words as “Kitsch,” “Madonna,” “Virgin,” “Resistance,” “Justice,” and “Whore.” Seen together, “Cindy Sherman” and “Sanja Iveković: Sweet Violence” offer two very different perspectives on very similar themes, from two women artists from two very different cultures.

THE ART MACHINE

New York Art Department cofounder Arnaud Delecolle is looking for a great deal at “The Art Machine” (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

The Hole store
312 Bowery
Tuesday through Sunday through March 21, free, 12 noon – 7:00
212-466-1100
blog.newyorkartdepartment.org
theholenyc.com

When we first encountered “The Art Machine,” which is now back in New York, taking over the storefront space that used to be the Hole art gallery shop (which itself was a work of art, often redesigned by whichever artist currently had a show next door), cocreator Arnaud Delecolle had just put up a notice on the window saying that it would be open to the public Sunday to Tuesday. When we asked him why such odd dates, suggesting that maybe he actually meant for it to say Tuesday to Sunday, it took him a bit longer to realize he had indeed posted the dates backward. Delecolle and Robert Cristofaro head the New York Art Department, a collective that “represents a network of creative people that deals in authenticity, ingenuity, integrity, honesty and quality of execution.” For “The Art Machine,” NYAD has collaborated with Alife, a self-described “lifestyle concept focused on art and creativity with a strong penchant for originality, even if that means stealing,” enlisting more than fifty artists and culture mavens to contribute small works that can be purchased (not stolen) from a vending machine. Topped by a video directed by Cliff “the Crystal Pharaoh” Cristofaro that gives information about NYAD and Alife, the machine holds seven rows of three objects each, all contained within brown boxes on which a Polaroid of what’s inside has been attached. There is no guarantee that what’s behind a box you’re considering purchasing is the same thing; some of the works are one-of-a-kinds, with something completely different next in line. When we were there, we could have bought Viktor Wynd’s “Chocolate Butt Holes” for $27.44, a JD Samson moustache hair or a bottle of Craig Costello’s “Vintage Krink” for $54.88, one of Gorey’s “Brooklyn Corners” for $164.63, or André’s “Mr. A Square” for $548.75. The revolving series of objects available range from $25 to $1,200 (plus tax) and include pieces by such other artists as Eric Haze, Bast, Dr. Revolt, Evan Gruzis, Friends with You, Ryan McGinness, Shepard Fairey, Karen Black, Kembra Pfhaler, Kenny Scharf, and Hole founder and cocurator Kathy Grayson. You can get a sneak peek at “The Art Machine” through March 21, after which it will take a short break and then reopen on March 31. Not only can you buy something from this “art-o-mat” but you can contribute a work as well by submitting it here.

TONY CRAGG

Look closely to see faces emerge in some of Tony Cragg’s swirling sculptures at Marian Goodman (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Marian Goodman Gallery
24 West 57th St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Monday – Saturday through March 17, free, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
212-977-7160
www.mariangoodman.com
www.tony-cragg.com

British sculptor Tony Cragg, whose “Resonating Bodies” have guarded the entrance to Robert F. Wagner Jr. Park in Battery Park City for fifteen years, has filled the Marian Goodman Gallery on West 57th St. with a collection of small and large works that explore form, surface texture, abstraction, and even a hint of representation for his latest solo show, which has been extended through March 17. Cragg, who was born in Liverpool but lives and works in Wuppertal, Germany, uses bronze, Cor-Ten steel, wood, stone, and cast iron in the pieces, which have a swirling vitality; in fact, several appear to be figures in motion, while others are like shiny aliens with faces emerging when seen from various angles. The glittering stainless-steel “Hollow Head” rises from a base like the top of the Chrysler Building, while the wood “Chip” teeters like a game of Jenga about to come to an end. The green bronze “Versus” rises at the end of a long hallway like the Manhattanhenge sun, while “Group” is like a Painted Desert Mount Rushmore. “WT (White Stone Henrauyx 85)” evokes classical marble statuary, while “Lost in Thought” is a giant deep in contemplation, his enormous feet firmly planted on the ground. Many of the works beg to be touched, their sharp edges, smooth surfaces, and impossible angulation alluring, but hands off. But do be sure to walk around them to get the full experience, seeing them appear to change right before your eyes. The show is supplemented with three large-scale pieces on view down the street in the Sculpture Garden at 590 Madison Ave., where they fit in well surrounded by trees and people having lunch in the glass-enclosed atrium.

KEHINDE WILEY IN CONVERSATION WITH LOLA OGUNNAIKE

THE WORLD STAGE: ISRAEL
Jewish Museum
1109 Fifth Ave. at 92nd St.
Thursday, March 15, $15, 6:30
Exhibition continues through July 29
212-423-3337
www.thejewishmuseum.org
www.kehindewiley.com

Born in Los Angeles and based in New York City, painter Kehinde Wiley has been traveling the global diaspora for his “World Stage” series, taking portraits of men of color in Brazil, China, Nigeria, India and Sri Lanka, and Lagos and Dakar. The Jewish Museum has just opened “The World Stage: Israel,” fourteen large-scale works that feature young men standing in front of elaborate backgrounds, staring directly at the viewer. The decorative background patterns, based on Jewish ceremonial art, include plants and animals that also twist and climb in the foreground, entwining the subject. Each work is shown in a black hand-carved frame topped by a pair of Judean lions surrounding tablets containing either the Ten Commandments (for Jewish men, several of Ethiopian descent) or the Rodney King plea “Can we all get along?” (for Arab men) in Hebrew. Some of the men take distinctly homoerotic poses, confronting the viewer with their gaze; all stand in familiar “heroic” poses representative of European portraiture. The paintings are accompanied by Torah ark curtains, bed covers, Ketubahs (elaborately designed wedding certificates), and papercuts selected by Wiley from the museum’s permanent collection that work in dialogue with Wiley’s backgrounds, placing them in artistic and historical context. The exhibition also includes a short film in which Wiley discusses his process and meets with some of his subjects. “I think there is a strong correlation between being on the margins of society as a person of color in America,” Wiley says in the film, “and that which we see in the streets of Israel.” Portrait subject Solomon Mashash adds, “It’s very hard to live your daily life as a black person here in Israel. When somebody tells you you’re not worth something, if you believe him, your mind believes him. If you change your mind, he cannot do anything to you.” Wiley’s paintings seek to reassert the identity of diverse cultures, empowering individuals to present themselves with pride. You can hear more from Wiley when he takes part in a conversation with culture reporter Lola Ogunnaike at the Jewish Museum on March 15 at 6:30.

GERHARD RICHTER PAINTING

Gerhard Richter reveals his creative process in fascinating new documentary (photo courtesy of Kino Lorber)

GERHARD RICHTER PAINTING (Corinna Belz, 2011)
Film Forum
209 West Houston St.
March 14-27
212-727-8110
www.filmforum.org
www.gerhard-richter-painting.de

There’s nothing abstract about the title of Corinna Belz’s documentary on German artist Gerhard Richter, no missing words or punctuation marks. Gerhard Richter Painting is primarily just that: Ninety-seven minutes of Gerhard Richter painting as he prepares for several exhibitions, including a 2009 show at the Marian Goodman Gallery in New York City. In 2007, Belz got a rare chance to capture Richter on camera, making a short film focusing on the stained-glass window he designed for the Cologne Cathedral. Two years later, the shy, reserved German artist, who prefers to have his art speak for itself, invited Belz into his studio, giving her remarkable access inside his creative process, which revealingly relies so much on chance and accident. Belz films Richter as he works on two large-scale canvases on which he first slathers yellow paint, adds other colors, then takes a large squeegee and drags it across the surface, changing everything. It’s fascinating to watch Richter study the pieces, never quite knowing when they are done, unsure of whether they are any good. It’s also painful to see him take what looks like an extraordinary painting and then run the squeegee over it yet again, destroying what he had in order to see if he can make it still better. “They do what they want,” he says of the paintings. “I planned something totally different.” About halfway through the film, a deeply concerned Richter starts regretting his decision to allow the camera into his studio. “It won’t work,” he says. “At the moment it seems hopeless. I don’t think I can do this, painting under observation. That’s the worst thing there is.” But continue he does, for Belz’s and our benefit. Belz (Life After Microsoft) even gets Richter to talk a little about his family while looking at some old photos, offering intriguing tidbits about his early life and his escape to Düsseldorf just before the Berlin Wall went up. Belz also includes clips from 1966 and 1976 interviews with Richter, and she attends a meeting he has with Goodman about his upcoming show, lending yet more insight into the rather eclectic artist. “To talk about painting is not only difficult but perhaps pointless, too,” Richter, who turned eighty last month, says in the 1966 clip. However, watching Gerhard Richter Painting is far from pointless; Belz has made a compelling documentary about one of the great, most elusive artists of our time. “Man, this is fun,” Richter says at one point, and indeed it is; watching the masterful artist at work is, well, a whole lot more fun than watching paint dry. Gerhard Richter Painting opens on March 14 at Film Forum, with Yale School of Art dean Robert Storr introducing the 8:00 screening.