3 Must See Shows This Week
Our 3 Must See NYC picks of the week are back on the Artlist blog! You can check out more of our past selections as well as artist profiles on our blog or browse artwork for sale on ArtList.
1. Harold Ancart at Clearing
May 12 — July 12
With his paintings, drawings and sculptures, Harold Ancart creates works that exist not only as independent objects but as conscious examinations of the architectural and social spaces in which they are viewed. Ancart has admitted that he likes, “…to envision exhibits not so much as a succession of objects to be looked at, but as tensions created between the various zones of emptiness. Clearing Gallery’s solo exhibition of the rising artist offers a profound look into this artistic, spatial investigation.
On view at 396 Johnson Avenue, Brooklyn, NY.
Untitled, 2015 (Clearing Gallery)
2. Lisa Ruyter at Eleven Rivington
May 20 — July 3
Beginning today, both of Eleven Rivington’s Lower East Side locations have devoted their spaces to a singular exhibition of Lisa Ruyter paintings: Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. The paintings present recolored and abstracted Depression era photographs, depicting the American Dream at its most desperate. The re-coloration forces a distance between the image — which questions the essence of the American experience — and the viewer — who can therefore examine the American identity within these images while remaining separate from it.
On view at 11 Rivington St & 195 Chrystie St New York NY
Verona, New Jersey. Sewing the edge of an American flag at the Amnin Flag Company, 2011 (Eleven Rivington)
3. Lee Ufan at Pace Gallery
May 15 — June 27
This new solo exhibition of Lee Ufan’s work, following his solo show at the Guggenheim and his recent installation at the Château de Versailles, showcase the artists “Relatum” works. The series, which Ufan began creating in 1968, illustrates an intensive investigation of spatial relations and the nature of elements in interaction. This spatial examination is defining of the Japanese artistic movement, Mono-ha (or “School of Things) that Ufan helped to found in the 1960s.
On view at 534 West 25th St, NY, NY.
Relatum - Dialogue, 2008
courtesy of the artist and C L E A R I N G, New York, Brussels.
Harold Ancart
Anaconda Standard
Harold Ancart’s newest solo show with C L E A R I N G, Anaconda Standard, explores the romanticism between the natural and the manufactured, the idealised and the devastated; through subtle contradictions, entropy is delicately presented to the viewer.
Thick oil stick works hang on the wall, and through the minimal base, vibrant, romantic shards of colour cut through, creating a passionate duality. Idyllic images and scenes are also displayed, but their picturesque quality is challenged, and also enhanced, by delicately applied burns. These works are accompanied by a thick, immersive burning jungle wallpaper that fluently defies the white cube.
With powerful colours, images and objects, Ancart aims to trigger the instincts of the viewer and then reverse their assumed comfort and understanding. Ancart includes two of his sculptures in the show as well that similarly, but in the third dimension, explore simple, relatable materials, (concrete and metal). The way they are presented is intriguing and evokes past activity, utilitarianism and something almost tribal.