I doubt I ever would have seen some very cool subway art if I hadn’t gotten confused and walked west instead of east out of the Bryant Park station. My errant sense of direction lead me down the transit corridor that connects Sixth Avenue with Times Square station, and that’s where this exciting art installation by Nick Cave — entitled Each One, Every One, Equal All — can be found.
I stopped by the Jack Shainman Gallery on 20th Street yesterday to check out their new exhibit of Nick Cave’s elaborate Soundsuits! Very impressive! Please take a minute to follow me on Instagram for more photos from my adventures in NYC and beyond!
Untitled (Anxiety), 2017 By Beverly Fishman (All Photos By Gail)
CUE Art Foundation is currently hosting Dose, an exhibition of paintings by Beverly Fishman, curated by Soundsuits artist Nick Cave. The show is comprised of a series of luminescent, geometric forms that resemble the shapes of common pharmaceuticals. Straddling the line between sculpture and post-painterly abstraction, Fishman’s optically intense work functions as an avenue for social critique, probing the pharmaceutical industry’s aesthetic decisions and branding strategies.
This Soundsuit (2008), embellished with fake flowers and leaves, transforms the human body into an ornate still life. Nick Cave took a traditional genre of painting and reshaped it into a contemporary sculpture with the potential to come to life. Cave has been fabricating these sculptures since the early 1990s.
Made to be worn, each Soundsuit allows the wearer to try on a new identity. The suit draws on various cultural and religious rituals ranging from ceremonial African dances to Christian services, masking the identities of the wearers and making them assume the persona of the costume.
Do you enjoy the work of artist Nick Cave? I sure do. I especially like his very fun Sound Suits, but I also enjoy that he can change it up while maintaining his very distinctive design aesthetic. Nick Cave!
Detail from Above Work
On view now at Jack Shainmans’s West 24th Street space is Cave’s body of work entitled Rescue. The series includes sculptures that incorporate found ceramic dogs sitting on furniture within elaborate grottos or dreamlike dens.
Dogs have historically been associated with loyalty, class, breed, commitment, and protection. More recently, the term “dawg” has played a role in hip-hop culture as a moniker for brotherhood, respect, and power.
In the Rescues, Cave focuses each piece on a single canine that has quite literally been rescued from destruction, very much like an adopted pet. These dogs become the benevolent guardians of their self-contained worlds, focusing the spotlight on the forgotten and discarded.
A Doberman lounges on a gold sofa while a small dog fiercely guards a wishbone on a shoeshine table.
Wall Bas Relief Detail
The armatures that envelop these animals correspond with large-scale wall based bas reliefs dripping with crystals, beads, small ceramic birds and metal flowers.
The vast amount of detail in these works is astounding. You could spend hours in discovery, examining each piece. Very cool!
Detail From Above Work
Rescue by Nick Cave will be on Exhibit through October 11th, 2014 at the Jack Shainman Gallery, Located at 524 West 24th Street, in the Chelsea Gallery District.