Some interesting shows currently up in Chelsea. Here are some that I visited yesterday.
Alison Elizabeth Taylor, Forclosure at James Cohan Gallery. Her level of craftsmanship went up a notch compared to the last show. Was not sure whether she was making fun of or sympathetic to these “white-trash” looking people. Shirazeh Housiary at Lehman Maupin was just yawn inducing.
William Pope. L’s landscape + object + animal at Mitchell-Innes & Nash was as usual thought provoking, and the installation of Snow Crawl video mesmerizing. I will have to come back for the performance on Saturday. Another noteworthy show was Nicolas Touron’s The Kingdon at Virgil de Voldère Gallery. But I had to end the short visit to Chelsea by going back to Amy Sillman’s show at Sikkema Jenkins on 22nd Street. She really makes gutsy gestural abstract paintings absorbing the influences of Guston, De Kooning and Gorky, but making it feminine and all her own. Go see it if you have not, yet.
Kira Nam Greene’s work explores female sexuality, desire and control through figure and food still-life paintings, surrounded by complex patterns. Imbuing the feminist legacies of Pattern and Decoration Movement with transnational, multicultural motifs, Greene creates colorful paintings that are unique combinations of realism and abstraction, employing diverse media such as oil, acrylic, gouache, watercolor and colored pencil. Combining Pop Art tropes and transnationalism, she also examines the politics of food through the depiction of brand name food products, or junk food. Recently, Greene started a figurative painting series spurred by the 2016 Presidential Election, Women’s March, #metoo movement and ensuing crisis of conscience, this new body of work aspires to present the power of collective action by women.