David Ford, Perception, 2009, dimensions variable.

By BLAIR SCHULMAN
David Ford unleashes a spiritual stampede of all the elephants in the room. Fully self-taught, his paintings, mostly acrylic on canvas or mixed media, are an allusion to, and a smack at, secular differences. Cinderblock walls create borders and enclosures throughout the space, adding further gravity to this exhibition. All can be conceived as an amalgamation of first world cultures merging head-on with third world customs. Hanging in the first of two galleries is Your Fear (2009). Just those two words in silvery glitter seem innocent enough, but as you drink in the rest of the show, there appears the more portentous Negotiation (2009). The colonial figures shaking hands appear an indication of some mutual agreement between the two that things are bound to change.

Relax >>

  

By STEVE SHAPIRO
The first half of the twenty-first century has a lot of catching up to do with. Judging by the accomplishments and the creative breakthroughs of the first 50 years of the last century, that triumph of modernism in the arts and technology, this century — even this past decade — seems already behind. The iPhone versus Cubism? High Definition large-screen TV versus the movie camera? Perhaps 3-D cinema will be redefined as the Cubism of the 21st century; but James Cameron does not strike me as a larger-than-life character like Picasso. Great art usually comes by way of great — rebellious, curious, unself-conscious — artists. The early 20th-century teemed with such individuals. Art was — and still is — revolutionary in ways we have yet to fully absorb.

Bauhaus>>

Erich Consemüller, Untitled (Woman in B3 club chair by Marcel Breuer wearing a mask by Oskar Schlemmer and a dress in fabric designed by Lis Beyer). c. 1926, Gelatin silver print, 5 x 6-3/4", Private collection. © Estate of Erich Consemüller.

Although the art of the late 19th Century is most often associated with impressionism — a celebration of the open air and the café-concert, evoking the pleasures of the landscape and the radiance of Paris, city of light — there is another side to the story. That is, an art of sober contemplation, of recherché, often poetic and melancholy subject matter that explores an altogether different dimension of human experience. Due to the fact that they tended to be stored away and viewed discreetly on chosen occasions, prints in particular encouraged the investigation of suggestive, sometimes disturbing themes, including complex states of mind and expressions of deep social tension: opium dreams, the obsessions of a lover, the abject despair of an impending suicide, meditations on violence, the fear of death. The print medium drew the attention of many artistic camps that saw it as an ideal medium for experimentation.

Darker Side of Light>>

Félix-Hilaire Buhot, The Spirits of Dead Cities, 1885, etching.

  

Kiki Smith, Messenger I, 2008, Cast aluminum, white gold and gold leaf, 10-½ x 39 x 55", Courtesy of the artist and PaceWildenstein.

Kiki Smith: Sojourn, a major site-specific installation, explores ideas of creative inspiration and the cycle of life in relation to women artists. The exhibition draws from a variety of work by Kiki Smith in a range of media, including cast objects, unique sculpture, and works on paper. Inspired, in part, by an important 18th-century New England needlework, Prudence Punderson’s The First, Second and Last Scenes of Mortality (Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford), Smith focuses on a variety of universal experiences, from the milestones of birth and death to the quotidian, such as the daily chores of domestic life.

Kiki Smith >>