Deborah Butterfield @ Danese (535 W 24) - It took an artist of Butterfield's stature and reliability to get to go up to the top floor of this building to see this gallery's premier show. Elegant and austere, Butterfield continues to produce her equine sculptures from found wood. The pieces convey the strength and tenderness of these beautiful animals.
Agnes Martin @ Pace (524 W25 St) - A small survey of Grey Paintings from the 80's. Martin was able to captured the veiled quality of the second string color field painters and tie it into the Minimalist movement that the 60's and the earthworks of the 70's. Working in New Mexico, Martin's work reflects the majestic meditative landscape there. Most impressive are the canvases who's greys are lovely washes of blues.
Social Media @ Pace (510 W25 St) - This group show just closed but took an interesting look at the way social media is changing the artist's way of seeing. One got the sense of media overload and the virtual became visceral. Penelope Umbrico used thousands of images off of Flicker to create images of sunsets. Emilio Chapela's "According to Google" is a multi-volume collection of images gleaned off of the search engine, each volume titled singularly like "Sex" and "Love". While thumbing through these bound books one can't help but chortle at some of the unusual images that crop up. Christopher Baker's "Murmur Study" places thermal printers high on the wall and printing out reams upon reams of tweets referencing emotional sounds like "ooo" and "aahh". The output is funny and frightening.
Richard Serra @ Gagosian (555 W24) - Two enormous new works, Junction and Cycle. The artist continues to explore the juxtaposition and nesting of his huge cor-ten steel walls. Vertiginous and scary, Serra is at the top of his game.
Also seen:
David Byrne @ Pace (508 W 25) "Tight Spot" - An enormous inflatable globe stuffed into a tight spot under the High Line that emitted some low thrumming sound. Huh?
Paul Winstanley @ Mitchell-Innes & Nash (534 W 26) Paintings - A second US show by this British painter. Using photography as a jumping off point, these pictures are too hazy to be photo-realistic and too real to be expressionist. A bit too mundane in their imagery, the most interesting works tend to come in pairs of similar images executed in slight variations in color and representation. Worth a peek.
Lari Pittman @ Gladstone (515 W 24) - As Pittman's "prestige" moves up, his paintings become more and more about less and less. Thin and flashy, the artist obviously took a trip to Brazil and these canvases are the result. Ho-hum.
