Alex Prager—A Face in the Crowd

The young photographer Alex Prager has a fantastic show up at Lehmann Maupin across 2 galleries. One has a 3 channel video projection that tells individual stories of people juxtaposed with the anonymous anxiety that large crowds can make one feel. She created the show in reaction to her own anxiety of crowds and public speaking.

NYT’s has a great behind the scenes video on the making of the film and the photographs. She used over 150 extras to create these timeless and eerie scenes. The make-up and wardrobe styling feels very much like early Cindy Sherman. Check it out.

NYT’s Video Link: http://nyti.ms/KUa22J

www.lehmannmaupin.com

Justin Bower’s “Panic Room” at the Unix Gallery on 24th

While Bower’s artwork my look digital, they are large-scale paintings that are created old school. Bower uses his holographic portraiture to investigate the contemporary relationship between humanity and technology. 

The Lincoln Bedroom by Skylar Fein at c24 Gallery

Was Lincoln gay? Skylar Fein’s installation claims that between due to a shortage of beds in 1800’s Springfield, Illinois that Abraham Lincoln and Joshua Speed shared a bed . Was this by necessity or by choice? 

“This is the third rail of the Lincoln story, and it is my strange destiny to touch it with both hands” -Slylar Fein

East of Dirty

Mike Kelley Exhibition at PS1—Post 3

The largest exhibition of the artist’s work to-date and the first comprehensive survey since 1993. Regarded as one of the most influential artists of our time, Mike Kelley (1954–2012) produced a body of deeply innovative work mining American popular culture and both modernist and alternative traditions—which he set in relation to relentless self- and social examinations, both dark and delirious. Bringing together over 200 works, from early pieces made during the 1970s through 2012. 

Very deep and dark exploration of every childhood experience commonly shared and the flip side of what is going on beneath the surface. Show ends February 2, 2014. 

Check it out.

Yayoi Kusama

I Who Have Arrived In Heaven

David Zwirner Gallery on West 19th.

2 Mirrored Infinity Rooms and a Video projection along with many new large scale paintings. Check it out until Dec. 21.

http://bit.ly/18128cr

East of Dirty

5Pointz

Saying goodbye to 5Pointz. Wiped clean in the wee hours of 11-19-13. RIP

KAWS “Pass the Blame” Show

Mary Boone Gallery on 24th. Massive wooden creatures that are 18 feet tall. Very awe inspiring work from this Brooklyn based artist.

Richard Serra Compare and Contrast

Gagosian Gallery on 24th (straight steel) and Gagosian on 21st (curved steel). Really strange to see his new work that is super straight. The back gallery on 24th has what looks like a giant WW.

Reinhard Mucha—Hidden Tracks

Luhring Augustine Gallery on 24th

Vitrine works of tunnels and passageways. Very obscure and German

luhringaugustine.com

Roni Horn “Everything was sleeping as if the universe were a mistake”

I really like the title of the first piece: “My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise. I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagenet, and Amanita phalloides, the deathcup mushroom. Everyone else in my family is dead.”

The second piece’s titled is Untitled. 

These are really beautiful cast glass sculptures that play off of the light fixtures above. Check this out.

hauserwirth.com