Emily Mullin's Woman on Top

After viewing the larger than life topical-like drawings downstairs, Emily Mullin's show "Woman On Top" at Jack Hanley Gallery was refreshing and cleansing to all the senses. Starting with the show's title, Mullin takes the symbols of feminine domesticated life -- ceramics, floral arrangements, and interior decoration -- to a level of sophistication that elevates how these are not just hobbies but also forms of art. With the fresh flowers creating a fragrant atmosphere and whimsical colors awakening the eye at every turn, the show was more than a visual experience. The mounted shelf pieces had ample white space between them and allowed intimate moments that transformed when you looked at them in different angles. Mullin does not limit her art to one object but also integrates the gallery's walls and creates an illusion of flatness to three-dimensional ceramic vessels by extending the painting onto the white walls with continuing patterns. Her art's sensibility separates itself from a household craft. Her work alludes to so many points in history including ancient Egyptian ceramics, Cycladic vessels, the Bay Area during the 70s, and quirky patterning of the 80s. Garniture is the greatest piece that focuses on the relationships of color theory, with bright yellow-orange flowers and a blue brick design. The intensities of the colors vibrate against each other and meld the vessels in and out of the background space. Peinture Au Point breaks out of the frame of the shelf itself and expands its polka dots on the wall, creating a dizzying appearance of dots everywhere. The continuation of the art onto the gallery wall takes away from viewing the piece as mere decoration. Bananas is fun: a leaning small pot and bold squiggles wave from the pots to the borders. The asymmetry of the piece is not offputting and rather reflects the movement of the liveliness of the yellow blossoms. Mullin takes what was historically known as women's hobbies into an art form that requires intelligence and respect from its viewers as works of art. Just as the flowers are bound to wither and be replaced, the idea of what women are limited to changes with liberation.

A moving Middle Eastern myth in Thunderbird at Bureau

Named for the Sumerian god Ningirsu, the show Thunderbird offers a contemporary take on ancient Middle Eastern history by the artist Christine Rebet. In the exhibition, Rebet recounts the story of a temple commissioned by the Sumerian ruler Gudea for the god Ningirsu, whose avatar is a thunderbird. Through this narrative, Rebet explores the Middle East’s struggle in preserving their heritage, in terms of both historical sites and shared mythologies, in the wake of contemporary destruction and racism.

  Working with Dr. Sebastien Rey, an archaeologist conducting fieldwork at the temple site in Iraq, Rebet lends weight to her pieces with historical scholarship. Dr. Rey contributed writing to the first series of drawings in the exhibition which are loosely-rendered illustrations depicting symbols related to Ningirsu’s temple. Dr. Rey’s captions provide background on motifs seen throughout the rest of the works, giving viewers a base knowledge to understand the exhibition.
The narrative of the Ningirsu’s temple is presented in Rebet’s animated film, which elaborates on the temple's origins in Gudea’s prophetic dream and emphasizes the Sumerians’ connection to their land by showing rain-soaked earth being used to create mud-bricks for the temple’s construction. This animation is the highlight of the show. Including 2,500 hand-inked drawings, it entirely incorporates Rebet’s conceptual, historical, and stylistic elements of Thunderbird. Projected on a large wall in the back of the gallery, one becomes engrossed watching the drawings seen throughout the gallery transformed into active images. The animation also has a historical context, referencing narrative images on ancient tablets and ceramics. This is alluded to in a small series of paintings which depict the Uruk Vase, an important Sumerian vessel in the National Museum of Iraq. In the paintings, the subtleties of Rebet’s technique become apparent, namely her delicate layering of thinned acrylic and ink line drawings. Engaging both visually and historically, Thunderbird is a distinctly contemporary translation of Middle Eastern mythology, expounding on universal connections to the earth and narrative traditions. 

“Thunderbird” by Christine Rebet at Bureau

The exhibition of Christine Rebet is built upon the story of Sumerian ruler Gudea, who received a divine vision from the gods in his dream inspiring him to construct a temple. Archaeologists spent decades excavating this site in Iraq from the late 19th century to the early 20th century, and found numerous important monuments of Sumerian art and architecture. Currently, this archaeological site is the fieldwork venue for the British Museum's “Iraq Scheme” led by archaeologist Dr. Sebastine Rey. Dr. Ray and Rebet worked together to transform the archaeological researches from the original symbolic content of the temple to the story “Thunderbird”. The title “Thunderbird” is named after the avatar of the god Ningirsu, which is used as a metaphor by the artist to thread the ancient myth of Gudea, her appreciation to the archaeologists research, and the theme of the exhibition together.




The artist interprets the story through different formats, including animation, film, ink, drawing and painting. In the entrance of the gallery, several ink drawings with descriptions are displayed. Each of them illustrates a symbolic pattern found in the temple rendered in the artist’s unique romantic style. Loose line drawings and subtle ink colors seems premature, but they give the each painting emotions and life. Every single touch from the artist is telling a different story through the seems imperfect lines. The intuitive poetic practice of using colorful inks soaked into the paper and the unpretending simple line frames introduce the viewer to the aged myth of King Gudea.




At the center of the exhibition is a five-minute animation which imagines the conversation between King Gudea and Nanshe, goddess of prophecy, who helped the King interpret his dream. Every single scene in this Animation served as an individual painting by itself and display in the gallery. Also interestingly, the video is wrapped up by the close up of the hands of archaeologist Dr. Rey, exposing the relief image of the Ningirsu’s avatar, Thunderbird. in this way, the artist shows admiration towards the decades of labor by numerous archaeologists on this particular site, and leave viewers to fantasize their own version of the Thunderbird story.

"Hiroko Koshino: A Touch of Bauhaus" at WhiteBox

Celebrated in Japan for decades, Hiroko Koshino makes her long overdue NYC debut at WhiteBox Gallery. The theatrical exhibition presents Koshino's bold clothing designs, lush Sumi-ink drawings, and abstract paintings--all connected by a Bauhaus sensibility.


Koshino's obsession with synthesizing all forms into a total artwork, a tenet of the Bauhaus, is brought to life by the teamwork of the artist herself, curator Kyoko Sato, and gallery director Juan Puntes. Gelled theater lights are used in lieu of typical gallery lights, casting Koshino's paintings and designs in dark, geometric shadows that highlight the shapes like dancers on a stage. In fact, the clothing pieces, paintings, and curatorial design in tandem seem to reference Triadisches Ballett, a ballet developed by Oskar Schlemmer in 1922 while at the Bauhaus. 


Furthering the Bauhaus quality of the show, clothing and paintings are grouped in thematic clusters, like scenes in a ballet. At the start of the main room, two mannequins are shown wearing the most conventional, ready-to-wear dresses of the exhibition in front of twenty-two pieces from "Colors," a series of mixed media paintings. Framed in a spotlight, this "scene" acts as a prologue to the more abstract, fantastical story to come. 


Sure enough, in the center of the room, there are four paper dresses from Koshino's "Kishiwada" collection beneath stark overhead lighting. Dangling from a bar without conventional clothing hangers, the delicate dresses gently tremble in midair, intensifying their phantasmagorical appearance. To the left is the stand-out of the exhibition, "Kimono with Work #757": a block-color kimono suspended from the ceiling several feet from the wall, casting a specter-like shadow on the Sumi-ink and acrylic painting behind it. Throughout the room and downstairs, there are several more of these ghostly dress-and-painting pairs. The staging of these spirits, inspired by Bauhaus and Japanese aesthetics, is effectively haunting. But more importantly, it exquisitely showcases the brilliance of Hiroko Koshino, whose work had been relatively unknown outside of Japan until now. 

Toward a Concrete Utopia

During the World War II, Yogoslavian architecture formed the nation’s ideals and uptopian with a large number of architects, designers as well as artists. This multiethnic country with six republics and two provinces brought together the aim of having affordable massive housing, educational institutions and public spaces made in concrete. Walking into the show, I was shocked by the aesthetic of the buildings, the bold sculptural forms and the large volumes of those buildings. I started to understand how those architects struggled to look for a new form of architecture for their new country. One of the beauties of concrete is its possibility of transforming into different shapes and volumes, this allows explorations of architecture in Yugoslavia. For example. the Museum of Contemporary Art has a system massive grids interconnecting with one of the other, shifting from one side to the end, forming the main structure of the building. Each unit of the volumes rotates 45 degrees in relation to the other, creating this angular contours that forms the facade of the building. This allows expansions of volumes. Concrete works well with the glass and steel frames to create dynamic connections from interior to exterior. It’s hard to believe that this was made more than 50 years ago while it seems so unique and brave today. Another building that stands out of the sight is the S2 Office Tower in Ljubbljana, Slovenia. This tall concrete tower with a steel grid structure for office areas is organized by an innovative structural and functional system. The tall vertical architectural mass was broke by a perpendicular cut from the middle, making the office volumes appear suspended above the street. With precise architectural documentations in the drawings of its plan and section as well as the delicate model, I started to see how the architects in that period strove to explore the expressive qualities of concrete from office to museums and churches. Although the political experiments in Yugoslavia failed, the achievements towards the architecture’s potential continues to inspire us today. 

Charles White: A Retrospective

The Museum of Modern Art

Charles White’s commitment to powerfully interpret African American lives, culture and the struggle for equality that defined 20^thcentury American history was unwavering over the course of his career. Organized chronologically, Charles White: A Retrospective portrays the artist’s full body of work with more than 100 pieces - including drawings, prints and paintings. White’s remarkable drawing skills can already be seen in his sketchbooks from student years. But the artist was not only a superbly gifted draftsman. His unique way of capturing emotions in the expressions of his subjects is what makes his work– and this show so remarkable. In the 1940’s and 50’s White used these skills to reflect on current events connected to discrimination against African Americans, women, laborers and political radicals. Oftentimes he invokes historical African Americans and their successes in these artworks, such as in Exodus 1: Black Moses: This linoleum cut shows the abolitionist Harriet Tubman as a labor leader. The worried workers gather behind her powerful, confident figure, while she is leading the way, two fingers pointing towards the horizon. 

During the last decade of his career, White explored new technical terrain. This included developing a layered oil-wash drawing style, in which he mixed oil color with turpentine and then used a variety of utensils, such as brushes and cloths, to apply the paint onto the canvas. This highly detailed monochromatic drawing style can be seen in the Wanted Poster Series. The posters include stenciled letters, fragments of texts and images of women and children, sometimes combined in a collage from different perspectives. Everything is woven together into a patterned background that resembles the texture of wrinkled paper. Inspired by posters seeking the recapture of slaves who had escaped, the drawings link the challenges of contemporary African Americans with those of their enslaved ancestors. 

White’s belief in his responsibility as an artist to create thought provoking work with a deeper meaning remained consistent throughout his entire career. His interpretations of contemporary events make his work influential, and serve as a source of inspiration of how art can create awareness and instigate change today.

Charles White: Charcoal works

Charles Wilbert White was born in April 2, 1918, his work was exhibited at in MoMA recently. White is an artist who liked working with different types of art materials such as acrylic, color pencil and watercolor, and charcoals, all of these works give people a deep impression of his skills. Most of White’s works focus on black people’s faces and most of them only have one figure in the drawings. The character’s hands are exaggerated in all of his paintings, combined with their austere cotton and linen customs, these people look like workers or tailors, who form the low classes in the society. From their eye expressions and actions, White tries to tell the story of what they are doing and thinking. For example, the painting below reminded me of the black people in Civil war. The first word comes to my mind is freedom, because the man’s facial expression looks relaxed and relieved, which make me think of the slaves finally got their freedom at the and of the war. Also his hand is open with sand released and drift through the air is creating a feeling of the tough time finally end for these suffering people. The show and works really forced people to think about the meaning behind the gestures and expression, and also each work is related to others because they capture ephemeral moments which arouse eternal imaginations in audiences’ mind.

Bodys Isek Kingelez: City Dreams

I was in a state of awe as I walked into Bodys Isek

Kingelez’s “City Dreams” exhibition. I felt drawn to the bright

colors and immaculate details. Many small scale models of imagined cities

made mostly of trash or packaging materials, sprawl

out in front of the viewer. One must peer down at many works

of art, each roughly the size of two queen mattresses now on view

at the MOMA. These intricate, imagined realities first spark

connection to the whimsical and colorful architecture of Dr. Seuss'


illustrations but then turn slightly more


practical and tacky, in the realm of Las Vegas. Kingelez’s

works, which were crafted in the 90's, were then transformed

by other artists into a virtual reality medium shown in a related project,

 which expands the experience much further.






The works pose a stark contrast between the existing Congolese

 architecture, and what is imagined. They also introduce a modern-

looking craft from a Congolese artist, when many viewers have a


preconception that art coming from this region is “tribal

African art”. Even if the viewer missed the video documentary

on the artist making these pieces outdoors with limited resources

on dirt floors, the details, cityscapes, and color are enough to

entertain the viewers eyes.



Kingelez did well with the exposure curated by the MOMA to

open the minds of viewers, break architectural preconceptions in 

central Africa and remind the public to dream outside there small

world and work diligently with whatever materials they may have.

Hilma af Klint, "The Paintings for the Temple" at the Guggenheim

This temple series is about as welcoming a show as any I've experienced. A palette of pastel pinks, chalky oranges, and easter egg violets envelop the viewer through larger than life canvases that practically wall paper the second floor of the Guggenheim. These large blocks of color contain images that seem a cross between botanical and scientific charts, filled in with curlicues and calligraphic flourishes. Her sizable body of work continues to spiral upward with multiple floors of sumptuous patterned paintings.

Yes, the paintings are teeming with references to the spirit world, represented by the visual spirals of life and death. Yes, Hilma Af Klint declares herself a medium and so not the true author of the work. Yet, whether one is spiritual or atheistic ought not to cloud the experience of being bathed in these giant lyrical pieces. (And if you happen to be a theologist, as she was, or on the path to spiritual enlightenment, all the more to decode and enjoy.)

One of the most striking works is composed of two swans, spiraling in from opposite diagonals of the painting, meeting in a center horizon line. The geometric balance of organic forms cleverly repeated through opposite colors precedes Escher drawings. The imagery in the painting represents life and death; the world we live in and the underworld, separated by a horizontal line or a veil that splits the composition of the drawing. The Guggenheim is a wonderfully appropriate stage for her work, especially when noting that Frank Lloyd Wright's wide curving space reference the golden spiral, a common theme of her paintings. As the Guggenheim has suggested, perhaps the museum and show combined have transformed into the "Temple of the future" that she intended the work for.

The Influence of Judson Dance Theatre

Judson Dance Theatre: The Work is Never Done exhibits the various artists that practiced and performed in the Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village in the 1960s. The Judson Dance was revolutionary because in many ways the artists in this movement redefined what dance could look like. The exhibition was curated mostly in chronologically and showed a range of mediums including photography, film, sculpture, and music. The show opens with a video tryptic of two dances and footage of the MoMA sculpture garden. This leads into the next room which shows how the Judson Dance Theatre started. 

One of the most interesting parts of the Judson Group is the nature of the dances. In one part of the exhibit photos about performances on an outdoor deck are shown. The way the Halprin company incorporated nature and the natural world into dance was extremely influential and introduced a way of dancing outside of a studio setting. 

In addition, the artists and dancers of Judson Dance Theatre took inspiration from everyday occurrences and used them in dance. In their performances walking and running were often employed in addition to other mundane actions. The exhibition does a fantastic job of portraying the immense influence of the Judson Dance Theatre by allowing the viewer to experience the performances.

Creating a concrete future in Towards a Concrete Utopia at MoMA

After World War II, Yugoslavia was looking for an architectural language to unify their new country. Concrete, it seems, was the best grammatical framework. The Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition, Towards a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948-1980, explores how Yugoslav designers used architecture to express the optimism of a new era, one of collectivity bound by socialism. Geometry, civic construction, and, of course, concrete, were the elements that formed the post-war building boom surveyed in MoMA’s show.
Photographs, models, renderings, plans, and video all serve to illustrate the ideation, creation, and function of Yugoslav architecture. With this material, the show really requires more than one visit to fully absorb it all. The exhibition is organized around several major themes, including modernization, public buildings, global networks, and everyday life. Perhaps the most intriguing part is the final section covering monumental architecture; the forms become more organic, open, and flowing rather than rigid and angular. It was in these memorials to fallen soldiers and anti-fascism that Yugoslav architects tested the limits of reinforced concrete as both a material and as a representation of globalist, utopian and nationalist ideas. With this Eastern lens, Towards a Concrete Utopia sets the stage for broader scholarship of modernist architecture and its relation to post-war socialism in the twentieth century.

Sarah Lucas "Au Naturel"

British Artist Sarah Lucas’s first survey show in the US is named by the title of her well-known sculpture “Au Nature”, in which sexual organs are represented by common objects and placed on a mattress. The french phrase “Au Nature” with the meaning of “ in the nature” and “in the nude” suggests both the idea of boldness in her works and the “natural” state under the social structure.  It is a show simply about sex and genitals, but not simply about sexuality and eroticism.

Sexual organs are the main objects of her sculptures, in various forms or aspects. It could be straight forward like plaster male genitals sculpted in distinct scales with four sickles growing on the top or metaphoric as two oranges and a cucumber attach on a giant spring mattress. In either way, the viewers are put in front of these sexual contents by the most overwhelming way and led towards either a little intriguing humorous scene or an aggressive arguments of gender and power.

Metaphor and humor are the two most frequently used methods in her works. For instance, the series Bunnies and NUDS, in which figure-like stuffed-stocking with long limbs posting sexual suggesting postures on the chair perhaps has the same implied meaning to her series of enlarge newspapers with the erotic information which highly objectified women. It could be a sarcasm towards the society that objectify and dehumanize female, but it could also be the sneer to those woman under the society who are dehumanize themselves through putting those objectified labels on them. The most attractive part of her works is that there are so many different metaphors about the society in a single piece of work. There are always something more behind than what we could read.