this week in art

MIRU KIM: THE PIG THAT THEREFORE I AM

Doosan Gallery
533 West 25th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Tuesday – Saturday through April 23, free, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
Artist Talk: Thursday, March 31, free, 6:00
212-242-6343
www.doosangallery.com
www.mirukim.com

For Miru Kim’s latest project, the performance artist and photographer took photos of herself naked on pig farms in Iowa and Missouri, posing with the animals. The work was inspired by Jacques Derrida’s “The Animal That Therefore I Am” — which starts, “In the beginning, I would like to entrust myself to words that, were it possible, would be naked” — and by iconoclastic French philosopher Michel Serres’s musings on the human skin, which she quotes from in her artist statement. Kim places her skin against the skin of the pigs, creating beautiful images that go beyond mere feminist metaphors and animal activism. “As I lay down next to a sow weighing five hundred pounds,” Kim writes on the walls of the gallery, “I felt the warmth travel from the soft underbelly of the animal into my bare right thigh. Two bodies mingled momentarily, in the skin on skin contact. I could no longer reason whether I was feeling the pig’s abdomen on my thigh, or the pig was feeling my thigh on her abdomen. The line between the subject and the object were obscured, and two souls mingled on the plane of contact.”

Her five “Composition” pieces are hung together on one wall, unframed, extreme close-ups of her body pressed firmly against that of a pig, inviting visitors to get up close and personal, as if they were in the pen as well. In fact, at the March 24 opening, the gallery was so packed that it mimicked some of the photos, although in this case Kim was dressed. In “MO 1,” her right arm is reaching up, echoing the pigs’ water feeders, while in “MO 2,” Kim is standing, facing away from the camera, exposing her backside much like the pigs’ bottoms and tails that stick out of the gates. And in others, she lies down, bends over, and kneels in the mud, becoming one with the animals.

Raised in Seoul and based in New York City, Kim traveled the world for her previous series, “Naked City Spleen,” taking pictures of herself nude in abandoned buildings, on rooftops and bridges, and in underground tunnels, becoming part of the urban architecture in Istanbul, Detroit, Paris, Philadelphia, Seoul, and New York. The new series, “The Pig That Therefore I Am,” debuted at last fall’s Fokus Lódz Biennale 2010 and is now on view at the Doosan Gallery in Chelsea through April 23. Kim, who has given lectures at the 2010 Conflux Festival, the second World Culture Forum, and the Entertainment Gathering 2008, will give a free Artist Talk at Doosan on Thursday, March 31, at 6:00.

INFINITE VARIETY: THREE CENTURIES OF RED AND WHITE QUILTS

Some 651 red and white qulits of inifinite variety are on display at Park Ave. Armory (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Park Avenue Armory
643 Park Ave. at 67th St.
Through March 30, free, 11:00 am – 5:00 or 7:00 pm
347-463-5143
www.armoryonpark.org
www.folkartmuseum.org
infinite variety slideshow

Joanna Semel Rose wanted something very simple for her eightieth birthday: to see her collection of 651 red and white quilts together, all in one space. Her husband, Daniel, helped make that happen, resulting in the stunning exhibition “Infinite Variety,” on view for free at the Park Ave. Armory through Wednesday. Curated by Elizabeth V. Warren and held in conjunction with the American Folk Art Museum’s “Year of the Quilt” celebration, the quilts are hung throughout the massive fifty-five-thousand-square-foot Wade Thompson Drill Hall, arranged in swirling silo-shaped cylinders you can walk in and laid out in a curved display near the back wall (where the makeshift Butterfield Market is serving red velvet cupcakes and other treats). You don’t have to be a quilt maker or quilt lover to be dazzled by the visual splendor, the myriad red and white designs coming at you from all directions, the patterns luring you in like endless eye candy, at times reminiscent of international flags with no political agenda. Rose, who considers herself a treasure hunter, not a collector, also thinks of the exhibition as a present for New York City, although there are plans to take it on the road. Named after a line from William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra (“Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety”), the exhibit is part of an anticipated gift to the American Folk Art Museum by the philanthropic Roses, whose family has their names attached to such spaces as the Daniel and Joanna S. Rose Rehearsal Studio and Frederick P. Rose Hall at Lincoln Center. “Infinite Variety” is a must-see for New Yorkers of all ages; in addition, the American Folk Art Museum currently has on view “Quilts: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum” at its 45 West 53rd St. location and “Super Stars: Quilts from the American Folk Art Museum” at the 2 Lincoln Square branch. (Curator Warren will be giving a lecture on Sunday at 2:00 at the Armory, “Infinite Variety: A History of Red and White Quilts,” followed by a book signing; tickets are $15-$20.)

SUE DE BEER: DEPICTION OF A STAR OBSCURED BY ANOTHER FIGURE

Sue de Beer’s latest multimedia installation closes on Saturday with a bonus presentation of THE GHOSTS (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Marianne Boesky Gallery
509 West 24th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Tuesday – Saturday through March 19, free, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
212-680-9889
www.marianneboeskygallery.com
www.suedebeer.com

New York-based visual artist Sue de Beer has always incorporated sculptural elements into her video installations, but for her current show at Marianne Boesky, she has reversed her method, with sculpture taking center stage. In “Depiction of a Star Obscured by Another Figure,” de Beer has placed just a handful of objects throughout the gallery, transforming it into a captivating visual landscape of light and memory. Utilizing several pieces that were on view at the Park Ave. Armory for her recent presentation of her latest film, The Ghosts, de Beer shines spotlights through standing partitions cut with geometrical shapes and patterns, casting long shadows across the space. She has installed a lower ceiling in the first room, signaling to visitors that they are about to enter another reality, in this case a dreamlike world that delves into the unconscious. The second room is centered by the praxinoscope from the armory show, which depicts the Antarctic glacier referenced in The Ghosts. Meanwhile, in one far corner, de Beer projects a miniature short film directly onto the wall, creating a persistence-of-vision effect, the continually flashing light leaving a lasting impression on the eye. The exhibition closes on Saturday, but as a bonus, the gallery will be screening The Ghosts that day in the project room; don’t miss it.

COKE WISDOM O’NEAL: BLUE NUDE

Coke Wisdom O’Neal’s “Blue Nude” traps its subjects in a Plexiglas box

Mixed Greens
531 West 26th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Through Saturday, March 19, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
212-331-8888
www.mixedgreens.com
www.cokewisdomoneal.com

Since 2005, New York City-based artist Coke Wisdom O’Neal has been filling Mixed Greens with enchanting photos of men, women, and children standing in a twenty-two-foot-tall unpainted wooden box. Although the photographs appear to be digitally manipulated, they are not; the subjects are encouraged to dress however they want and bring objects with them, but their identity gets lost inside the mammoth specimen box, making them look minuscule and unreal until visitors get up close and spend time with them. For his fifth solo exhibition at the gallery, O’Neal has turned things around with “Blue Nude,” a series of striking photographs of naked men and women who have squeezed into a small, transparent Plexiglas box, folding and twisting their bodies to desperately try to fit in the cramped space. From a distance, it appears as if the people are trapped in the white walls of the gallery itself, trying to burst free, but up close their contorted bodies are both beautiful and painful to look at. While O’Neal’s previous shows offered his subjects several layers of freedom, these claustrophobic photos snatch that away from them, robbing the anonymous men and women of any identity whatsoever, making the viewer both awestruck and uncomfortable — and wondering if they would be able to fit in the box themselves. As with O’Neal’s earlier work, many of the photos seem unreal, primarily the ones in which the bodies push up against the box, at times looking more like paintings. “Blue Nude” is another fascinating show from this inventive photographer.

THE AIPAD PHOTOGRAPHY SHOW 2011

Denis Darzacq, “Hyper no. 10,” chromogenic print, 2008 (courtesy Laurence Miller Gallery)

Park Avenue Armory
643 Park Ave. at 67th St.
March 17-20, $25 per day, $40 run of show
www.aipad.com

The thirty-first annual Association of International Photography Art Dealers Photography Show New York will feature more than eighty galleries from around the world in the Park Avenue Armory, running March 17-20. (A gala benefit preview is being held in conjunction with MoMA on March 16, with tickets ranging from $100 to $5,000.) Comprising early, contemporary, and modern photography, the event will highlight work by such artists as Mark Seliger at Steven Kasher, Abelardo Morell at Bonni Benrubi, Naomi Leshem at Andrea Meislin, Alec Soth at Weinstein, John Baldessari at Barry Singer, Alex Prager at Yancey Richardson, Denis Darzacq at Laurence Miller, Arkady Shaikhet at Nailya Alexander, and Harry Callahan, Robert Frank, Eugene Atget, and Thomas Eakins at Alan Klotz. Among the other participating galleries are New Orleans’s a Gallery for Fine Photography, La Jolla’s Joseph Bellows, Toronto’s Stephen Bulger, Munich’s Galerie f5,6, London’s Eric Franck Fine Art, Beijing’s Jade Jar Fine Art, Cologne’s Galerie Priska Pasquer, and such New York favorites as Howard Greenberg, Edwynn Houk, Robert Mann, Yossi Milo, Julie Saul, Bruce Silverstein, and Bryce Wolkowitz. AIPAD will also host a series of panel discussions ($10 each) with a bevy of prestigious guests on Saturday, including “Photography Now: How Artists Are Thinking Today,” with Larry Fink, Shirin Neshat, and Alec Soth, moderated by Julie Saul (10:00 am), “Pictures into Pages: Photography Book Publishing Now,” with Abrams’s Eric Himmel, Aperture’s Lesley Martin, Rizzoli’s Anthony Petrilose, and Steidl’s Gerhard Steidl, moderated by Steven Kasher (12 noon), “New Curators / New Directions,” with the Tate’s Simon Baker, MoMA’s Roxana Marcoci, LACMA’s Britt Salvesen, ICP’s Brian Wallis, and the Art Institute of Chicago’s Matthew S. Witkovsky, moderated by Rick Wester (2:00), “The Voice of Experience: Behind the Scenes at AIPAD Galleries, with Howard Greenberg, Peter MacGill, Yancey Richardson, and Martin Weinstein, moderated by Jill Arnold (4:00), and “AIPAD and the iPad: New Technology and Photography,” with Jen Bekman, Bill Charles, and Scott Dadich, moderated by Barbara Pollack (6:00).

nothingtoodooterencekoh

Terence Koh takes a break while walking around salt pyramid on his knees at Mary Boone Gallery (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Mary Boone Gallery
541 West 24th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Tuesday – Saturday through March 19, free, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
212-397-0669
www.maryboonegallery.com
www.asianpunkboy.com
nothingtoodoo slideshow

Born in Beijing and raised in China, Terence Koh has staged such events as “Buddha Fly Earth,” in which he marched through Chinatown covered in a red sheet, “The Voyage of Lady Midnight Snowdrops Through Double Star Death,” a musical experience by the Kohbunny Beiijing Opera Company, and “Koh & 50 Most Beautiful Boy,” in which the artist formerly known as Asian Punk Boy performed in an all-white Peres Projects space in Los Angeles with a white sheet over his head, accompanied by a young white man banging away at a white drum kit. For his latest installation, “nothingtoodoo,” now in its final week at Mary Boone, Koh has been slowly circling a forty-seven-ton, eight-foot-high, twenty-four-foot-wide mound of salt eight hours a day, five days a week since February 12. Dressed in white pajama-like clothing, Koh makes his way around the salt on his knees, occasionally stopping to lie down flat on his stomach before continuing. His eyes staring straight ahead, the emotionless and silent Koh appears to be deep in meditation and prayer, a call for peace throughout the world. One press release offers a reason why he’s doing this to his knees: “dear friend / peace iz non-violence / peace is now / a perfect mountain of salt at the beginning of the show / a perfect field of salt at the end of the show / peace iz nothingtoodoo.” The floors and walls of the gallery have been turned white as well; be warned that if you lean against the wall, you’ll get covered in a white dust. Visitors are allowed to interact with the installation, which recalls the work of Marina Abramovic and Tehching Hsieh. Try not to view the piece merely as spectacle, getting in Koh’s face with your camera or blocking his path; instead, hang back, sit on the floor, and let yourself be taken away by his intense, mesmerizing concentration and dedication, allowing your mind to wander where it may.

TARA DONOVAN: PINS & MYLAR

Tara Donovan’s pin drawings are on view at the Pace Gallery on West 25th St. through March 19 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

The Pace Gallery
510 West 25th St.: “Drawings (Pins),” through March 19
545 West 22nd St.: “Untitled (Mylar),” through April 9
Tuesday – Saturday, free, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
www.thepacegallery.com

Using such everyday materials as Styrofoam cups, plastic drinking straws, paper plates, fishing line, rubber bands, and toothpicks, Brooklyn-based artist Tara Donovan creates large-scale sculptures and installations that take on a life of their own. In the summer of 2008, for the site-specific solo exhibition “Tara Donovan at the Met,” she lined the walls of the Gioconda and Joseph King Gallery with thousands of tiny silver Mylar loops, giving the walls a fascinating texture evoking water bubbles, topographical maps, and other formations. In September 2009 at Lever House, she transformed more than a ton of transparent polyester film into a horizontal kaleidoscope visible from inside the gallery as well as from the street outside the front window. The first Calder Prize winner and recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, Donovan currently has two shows up in Chelsea, again using unusual materials in unique ways. At the Pace Gallery on West 25th St., “Drawings (Pins)” consists of a dozen works that from a distance appear to be shaded gray-and-white ink or pencil drawings but up close are revealed to have been made with nickel-plated steel pins. While some of the works resemble Hiroshi Sugimoto’s peaceful, contemplative photographs of the sea, others are more graphic and dynamic, with circles and rays of light jumping off the white-painted gatorboard canvases.

Tara Donovan’s large-scale Mylar sculpture is on view at the Pace Gallery on West 22nd St. through April 9 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

The more abstract pieces work better than the more fanciful creations, which have too much of a wow effect and lack subtlety, although seen as a whole, the exhibit does a fine job of exploring what catalog essayist Jonathan T. D. Neil refers to as “the phenomenology of perception, the psychology of vision, and the opticality of modernism.” Meanwhile, there is also too much of a wow effect at the Pace Gallery on West 22nd St., where Donovan’s large-scale silver Mylar installation, reaching eleven feet high and spreading out like a fungus across the space, sparkles and shines as visitors walk around it, watching it glitter with the changing light. As with the pin drawings, the Mylar monster is impressive when viewed up close and the process becomes more apparent, but the piece is ultimately more style over substance.