Masters Mingle, but don’t Match, at David Zwirner Gallery

At David Zwirner Gallery, modern and medieval art mingle in an exhibition with strong pieces but a weak concept. Endless Enigma: Eight Centuries of Fantastic Art, participates in today’s curatorial trend of placing artworks from across centuries together with the intention of drawing historical and cultural connections. Featuring hard-hitters like Bosch, Titian, Goya, Munch, Bourgeois, and Dalí, the show explores surrealist themes in their work, such as myth, the subconscious, and religious narratives. However, this theme is interpreted quite loosely. The juxtaposition of Ernst’s Forêt, soleil, oiseaux ou le chant à la lune with an old master Judith Beheading Holofernes emphasizes the time of the day the paintings depict (both being night scenes) rather an investigation of surrealist and grotesque subjects. Taking up the entire two floors of the gallery’s 20th Street location, the expansive exhibition underscores Zwirner’s power in both the modern and old master markets. There is quality at the level of each individual piece, however. Taken as a whole, the exhibition comes off as a fever dream garage sale instead of a study of the fantastical mind.

Mary Corse: A survey in Light

Whitney Museum of American Art

Upon entering the exhibition Mary Corse: A Survey in Light, I was immediately mesmerized by a gigantic 240-inch long canvas. What first appeared to be a monochrome painting came to life once I started walking alongside it. 

The vibrating surface of the artwork, part of Corse’s “White Light” series, seems to be constantly in flux as the glass microspheres in the paint glisten as the viewer moves. The artist was inspired to create this glistening concoction of paint and glass particles by the reflecting paint used to mark highway lanes. It makes the painting’s surface shimmer and flicker.

The vertical bands that define the subtle rectangles seem to continuously shift. Strongly influenced by minimalist and monochromatic painting, the artist was interested in playing with light and perception very early in her career. The exhibition shows the variety of Corse’s artistic explorations, highlighting key works - such as her monochrome diamond-shaped canvases and her electric light box “paintings”– white Plexiglas boxes of fluorescent tubes that emit light from the surface.Walking through the exhibition becomes an almost meditative experience, as the paintings and sculptures adopt infinite permutations. Exiting the show through the last room, I was confronted by Corse’s “Black Earth” series. These two gigantic, shiny black ceramic tiles stand in strong contrast to the “White Light” paintings. Stacked on top of each other on the museum floor the two squares close the exhibition, which comes full circle by returning the viewer from earth back to light – into the hallway, where I find myself once more enchanted by the hypnotic force of Corse’s massive “White Light” painting.

Mary Corse: A Survey in Light

The show starts with an installation of a tetrahedron n painted in white. The artist treated the sculpture as a single object to test them in the different relationship to each other in spatiality. 

Course is an abstract painter who explores the light. The materials used for each artwork are varied. Her passion for exploring the light and space began in the abstract paintings to the installations with fluorescent lights. Her goal of representing light in her painting gives the viewers a different feeling of light and space by the layers of colors and compositions of each part. All of the works use the color of white. The three dimensional work installed with fluorescent light really interacts with the viewers by letting them see the reflection of surrounding environment. In the end of her art career, Course starts to use only black in her work because it is the opposite of white that represents the ground. Some paintings in the exhibition are too similar to each other, it would be more experimenting to start exploring the natural light with the paintings together. 

TOYIN OJIH ODUTOLA: When Legends Die

Toyin Ojih Odutola’s series of pastel paintings pay tribute to the Nigerian noble family and offer a unique and personal visual experience. The artist utilizes common objects and environments, but rehashes their appearance in her own idiosyncratic style. The movement and vitality embodied in the wriggling pastel patterns fights against her calculated composition and the rigid canvas frame. These are not generic artistic techniques, but bold innovative risks taken by the artist. The overwhelmingly bright ripple-like textures create fuller identities for the figures accentuate the space between them. Using her unique technique, Odutola brings an undeniable sense of life and excitement to the canvas. Hers sentimentality, humanity and individualism are reflected through the unique hues each figure is painted in.

It may be nitpicking to say the artist’s scientifically inaccurate use of dazzling and illusional shading makes the paintings flat and two-dimensional. However, indeed, In some of her larger paintings, because of the overly repeated techniques, the depth and saturation seem to be missed out as well.

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Data through Art with Analia Saban

   With both literal and content-driven approach, Analia Saban's solo exhibition Punched Card at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery reveals the transcendental methods of combining technology with art. Viewers are invited to question what makes a particular object a painting or just a piece of equipment used to store data and function.

   The highlight of the show was the upstairs gallery where works incorporated linen as an open surface to explore. In particular, Transcending Woven Horizontal Line (Black), held me in front of it with its bold minimalism. The artist took the time to weave the dried black plastic black acrylic gently between the fragile linen threads of the canvas. The moiré pattern that appears once you step away from the work takes you into the complex weaving and leaves you wanting to connect the loose strands of black that dangle off the ends of the canvas.

   The process-intensive art ranging from tapestries to pressed in Punched Card requires time to be spent with each piece to fully appreciate the number of layers that the circuit boards, memory chips, and paint themselves project. By repurposing objects used in modern technology, Saban shows a poetic connection of information being transposed in art. 

Urs Fischer's PLAY at Gagosian

Jubilant at first, PLAY by Urs Fischer has sinister undertones. Walking into Gagosian, visitors are encouraged to interact with nine office chairs, equipped with motors, autonomously exploring the gallery space. Initially, weaving in and out of the chairs’ whimsical performance is delightful: their dance, choreographed by Madeline Holland, feels spontaneous as they react to each other and passersby. The piece soon begins to take on a darker feel as you bend to investigate the cameras attached to the chairs, count the many sensors on the ceiling, and witness the ominous room each chair is sent once it begins to lose battery. Considering all these features, PLAY reads as a reflection on automation and the workplace. Though Fischer recoils at attempts to tidily explain the meaning behind his work, the specific choice to use office chairs as his objects of mechanized manipulation seems intentional. So ubiquitous are these ergonomic chairs in present-day offices, their presence immediately brings to mind soul-deadening jobs in fluorescent-lit buildings. Holland's choreography lends itself to this interpretation as well: the chairs move like phantom workers navigating an office. With extraordinary technology behind the humanity of the chairs, PLAY examines contemporary concerns of artificial intelligence replacing human consciousness in the workforce.