Artblog | Sculpture lives–and undulates

Sculpture lives–and undulates–in New York

We hit the road yesterday with our friend Anne, thirsty for a shot of New York art. And the big news is there’s plenty of sculpture in them thar galleries, and it’s pretty good.

Late in the day, we stumbled into Galerie Lelong and saw a new spin on artists’ books in Donald Lipski’s “Non-Fiction” exhibit. The remaindered books were arrayed in elegant rosettes on the wall, on the floor, in stacks on wheels (see image left), and in a giant ring standing on edge. The work spoke volumes about about the meaning of books and of excess. He was not so interested in the books for their content, but rather for their use in repeat patterns and shapes to create new things.

Next door at Feature, Vincent Fecteau showed several table-top architectural what-is-its (shown right) made of painted papier-mache and other stuff that looked like they might have been produced by James Casebere’s evil twin. Smooth, sleek, but with an occasional weird bit of yuck, the objects were mysterious interiors for Barney Rubble. You may remember this guy from the last Whitney Biennial–or at least Anne did.

Both of these shows are closing tomorrow, but the galleries are among our faves and are usually worth a visit.

Ken Price and the team of Venski & Spanle may work in different materials, but we found their affects were surprisingly similar. Price’s well-hung clay objects at Matthew Marks Gallery (left) had a California keep-on-trucking affect, while Venske & Spanle’s Lasa marble “Smurfs” at Margaret Thatcher Projects stretched beyond the human body to suggest animals and eggs–cartoony shapes in classical material that was soooo smooooth and oozy, they looked like plastic (see below).

Peter Schjeldahl loved Ken Price’s gorgeous, painted I-want-to-touch-its in his recent New Yorker piece. Happily, that show will remain open through Nov. 1.

But the “Smurfs” decamp tomorrow.