A suspended, stringy installation of boat forms by Chiharu Shiota in a Parisian department store evokes the uncertainty and peril of migrants’ journeys.
Chiharu Shiota
A Three-Story Web Ensnares an Abandoned Building’s Past Lives
PITTSBURGH — Inside 516 Sampsonia Way, a 19th-century row house in the Mexican War Streets neighborhood, there no longer appear to be any 90-degree angles.
Worn Shoes, Four Miles of Yarn, and 400 Stories
WASHINGTON, DC — For Perspectives, Chiharu Shiota’s exhibition that opened last weekend at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, the artist filled a corner of the lobby with nearly 400 individual worn shoes and four miles of yarn.
Japan Society’s Goodbye to Hello Kitty
Bye Bye Kitty!!! Between Heaven and Hell in Japanese Art at Japan Society presents an alternative view of Japanese contemporary art, one separate from that obsession we seem to have with “kawaii” (cute) Japanese art, embodied by the pop culture icon of Hello Kitty, and exemplified in the Superflat work of Takashi Murakami. The artists on display here engage with a different side of Japanese culture, a side more invested in history, medium and prolonged looking. The exhibition is also a rousing, energetic call to action– rethink Japanese contemporary art!
Nada is Miami Beach’s Lower East Side
Tired of all the chatter about Nada being the next big thing, I decided to see if this year’s display would be everything the PR and press promised it would be.
Honestly, it was. Even if the solo artist booths in Richelieu hall were generally a little dull and pedantic, the Napoleon hall was filled with a diverse range of work from galleries that obviously loved what they do.
I found the painting at Nada particularly strong and it was nice to see a love of color in so many that ranged from large-ish-scale abstractions to small intimate pieces with rich surfaces. The tread for most of these paintings is that they tended to be done in a gestural mode of representation veering towards the abstract, but I can live with that.