Photos By Gail
NY Now Summer Market made an impressive comeback at Javits Center this week and I was there to document the radness which will be shared with you in many upcoming posts on The ‘Gig. First off, let’s get a little Shark Attack fix, shall we?
All Photos By Gail
Chelsea’s Marlborough Gallery is currently hosting the first solo exhibit by New York-based artist Lars Fisk, presenting a group of seven of his signature ball sculptures. Ranging from pea-size to 15 feet in diameter, the works engage mundane subjects from pencil stubs to parking lots. These are fashioned, in their actual materials, into perfected spheres to re-define the object as sculpture. Made primarily by hand in the artist’s Red Hook Brooklyn studio, the sculptures function as a kind of logo for their subject, distilling and encapsulating the physical essence of an object.
Everyday objects, especially ones whose design is so perfected or irreducible as to preempt change, are among Fisk’s favorite subjects. Others are ubiquitous enough to go unheralded, and the artist is keen to ennoble them. In Fisk’s hands a New York City summer staple, the Mister Softee ice cream truck, becomes a symbol for the city itself — an avatar of freewheeling capitalism and boundless appetite.
Lot Ball
While his vehicles have been popular subjects, the series actually originated with simpler sculptures of streets —asphalt spheres (a form with no beginning or end and the three dimensional equivalent of an allover composition) painted with yellow and white lines: an embodiment of movement and the continuous fluid interconnection of paved roads. This idea has culminated in Lot Ball, Fisk’s largest sculpture to date, which stands alone, floor-to-ceiling, in the biggest, most dramatic room of the gallery. Approaching a 1:1-scale distillation of the Queens Costco parking lot, with it’s graphic lines and arrows and formal curbing, the work makes a strong case for beauty in the most banal site imaginable.
Here are some other piece from this fun show!
T & S Self Storage Warehouse First Month Free Ball
Trash Can Ball
Street Ball (Cobble)
I think the Manhole Cover is a nice touch!
Subway Balls: Union Square and Spring Street
My favorites are these subway tile mosaic balls with abbreviated names of stations. Very Cool!
Subway Ball: 23rd Street
Mr. Softee By Lars Fisk will be on Exhibit Through October 15th, 2016 at Marlborough Gallery, Located at 545 West 25th Street, in the Chelsea Gallery District!
Monet’s Water Lillies with Gazing Ball (All Photos by Gail)
Hey remember back in the spring of 2013, when Jeff Koons launched his magnificent Gazing Ball series? I sure do. Gazing Ball was a collection of stark white Greco-Roman statuary, augmented by assorted replicas of common objects such as a Mail Box or Snowman, each of which was enhanced with a bright blue mirrored globe, also known as a Gazing Ball. Trust me: it was Rad.
So, Gazing Ball is a Thing now. Koons revisited the concept when he created the artwork for Lady Gaga’s 2014 CD, ArtPop, and now he’s done it again with a massive show at Gagosian Gallery in Chelsea appropriately titled Gazing Ball Paintings.
As the title implies, Gazing Ball Paintings are Koons’ copies of works by Famous Masters with a Gazing Ball attached to the front of each canvas.
As much as I am inclined to suggest that Koons “phoned it in” for this series, that is not to say that I didn’t totally love the work.
Because, just as the crappiest attraction at Disneyland is still lots of fun, Jeff Koons is Jeff Koons. He could go full-on Yoko Ono and I would still go see the show.
I should probably mention that photography using a “Professional Camera” — which is what the Gagosian staff call a point-and-shoot camera — is not allowed. You can only take photos of the art using a Smart Phone or, I am guessing, an iPad. Lame City.
Up Next: Gazing Ball with Food.
Jeff Koons Gazing Ball Paintings will be on Exhibit Through December 23rd, 2015 at Gagosian Gallery, Located at 522 West 21st Street in the Chelsea Gallery District. Jeff Koons!
Gazing Ball Billboard at the Highline
This Ball of Pig Heads was made to celebrate Année du Cochon, or The Year of The Pig, in Chinese Astrology. I Like It.
All Photos By Gail
Sculptress Carole A. Feuerman is world-renowned for her hyper-realistic, cast resin and oil painted sculptures of swimmers and bathers. They are really quite breathtaking. Jim Kempner Fine Art is currently hosting a show of Carole’s new works entitled The Golden Mean which has sculptures ranging in size from very tiny to large than life. Here are few pieces from the show.
She even paints water droplets on the skin – very cool!
You can read more about the exhibit at This Link.
Carole A Feuerman’s The Golden Mean runs through June 29th, 2013 at Jim Kempner Fine Art located at 501 West 23rd Street, on the Northwest corner of 23rd Street and Tenth Avenue in the Chelsea Gallery District, NYC.
