Category Archives: Chelsea

Ying Li at Lohin Geduld

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Installation View

Better late than never. I saw the Ying Li exhibition at Lohin Geduld this Saturday, the last day it was up as it turns out. Tending toward the small in size, Ying Li thickly painted abstractions are closely painted, dense colorful works. These scenes are recognizable for the most part and common place: trees, houses, and melting snow.

By The Porch

By the Porch is a small 12 x 12 piece that is my favorite of the show. I liked the contrast of smooth almost sheer light blue background upon which the yellow tree thickly stood and how the globs of color hung at the top.

Melting

I fell for her thick and gestural way of applying the paint, and the magical way the density of color resolved itself into suggestive scenes. The materiality of the paint is paramount in all of these.

Window on Town of Tilting

[Was] up at Lohin Geduld Gallery through May 21. More on the artist’s webpage.

Richard Tuttle at Pace Gallery

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Installation View
What’s the Wind is a collection of seven new sculptures that artist Richard Tuttle calls ‘systems,’ and this description makes some sense after seeing the delicate balance of discrete, rough hewn elements. The disparity of parts adds some whimsy as do the simple colors and forms. Existing within the wooden platforms, the pieces create an environment almost like a ecosystem in a terrarium. I expected the parts to move like a Jean Tingley sculpture, but alas, they are frozen in a system that does not move, and is in fact dead. 
So what are these systems we are looking at? The press release describes them as “intensely self-referential,” but perhaps we can deduce something by the helpfully descriptive names if not the works themselves.

System 4, Hummingbird, 2011

The title Hummingbird suggests a flurry of intense movement that turns into a blur of motion. Here we have a duct tape spire rising high over an internal core of small parts flanked by two enormous boards. Or, we have a long beak, small fat body, and two strong wings keeping the hummingbird afloat.

Detail of System 4, Hummingbird

The body of the sculpture is open, and these little circles and plinths seem to me like they should be free moving rather than fixed.

System 3, Measurement, 2011

Measurement has large, candy colored suspended balls hovering over a circle. Here the fixed structure works to create tension as the balls seem to defy gravity. I had the rather more unfortunate impression of a banana split melting into a waiting mouth. Off hand, I’d say the ice cream isn’t going to fit in the “mouth” below, if that was what Tuttle was trying to measure.

Richard Tuttle’s Whats the Wind up at Pace Gallery through July 22.

Pat Steir’s Winter Paintings at Cheim & Read

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I wish I had had a camera with me for the opening of Pat Steir’s Winter Paintings at Cheim & Read, so that I could show you up close how well the layers of rich colors overlay each other in these two-tone canvases.

Her latest waterfall paintings–note the textured drippage–use a lot of metallics. The gold felt especially luxuroius. Waterfalls where paint is dripped and poured down the canvas have been a signature of the artist’s since the 80s. The layering gives a real saturated and deep coloring to these large canvases, and the waterfall effect encourages contemplation.

Compared to the Nearly Endless Line exhibition of the artist’s I saw about a month ago, these seem remarkably traditional works, but they remain immersive and focused with an in interest in subtle manipulation of one or two elements.