New York’s art world just keeps getting bigger, with outposts all over the tri-state area. But on the streets of Manhattan, the 50’s, East and West, continue to be home for some of the city’s most established, veteran dealers and curators. Here, our monthly look at highlights from one neighborhood’s exhibitions:
745 5th Avenue
E.V. Day is best known for her explosive sculptures hung in suspended animation, the effect created using monofilament fishing line. For “Semi-Feral” she harnesses a violent brawl in midair between the striking silhouettes of two female saber-toothed tigers. Often employing humor in her work, this single, large-scale piece is part gender commentary, part physics experiment, a floating sideshow act performing without a net. Another branch of the jointly presented show opens October 18 at the James Salomon Gallery. Through October 25
24 West 57th Street
Curated by noted scholar John Tancock, this two-part Ai Weiwei exhibition is split between Naumann in Midtown and Chambers Fine Art in Chelsea. Familiar works like Illumination (a self-portrait taken during Mr. Ai’s arrest) and Study in Perspective (giving the finger to the White House and Tiananmen Square) are on view with earlier pieces influenced by Marcel Duchamp, whom the artist discovered while living in New York from 1981-93. Through November 1
24 West 57th Street
Mexican art star Gabriel Orozco, who has been with Marian Goodman for 20 years now, is still making unconventional sculpture from every kind of material imaginable. The show features new work including artist-designed boomerangs, discarded shoe patterns, a miniature replica of the Russian satellite Sputnik, and the remnants of a social project involving the distribution of vinyl stickers. Among the seemingly disparate works the connecting thread is, surprisingly, the boomerangs. Through October 18
24 West 57th Street
Ceramics are undeniably in right now, with the medium center-stage at more than one show dotting the fall calendar. But Kathy Ruttenberg won’t be relegated to such a confining classification as “ceramicist.” Her whimsical, surreal, folk-influenced figures are the dreamy musings of a gifted artist. Through October 25
37 West 57th Street
Ester Curini’s life-size (and sometimes larger) portraits of animals are painstakingly detailed (down to the single hair); most striking because the subjects stare right back at the viewer with lighted intensity. The artist spends considerable time with her subjects, and the works look as if there was a conversation between painter and model beforehand.
Through October 25
20 West 57th Street
Chris Marker is a world-renowned French filmmaker (known for the film La Jetée), photographer and artist. In 1957, he candidly captured North Korea at the cusp of transition and was one of the last to document its descent into isolation and dictatorial rule following the end of the Korean War. Through October 18
730 5th Avenue
The quality of light, color and technique Linden Frederick employs in his highly skilled oil paintings of rural settings (in this case, his hometown in Belfast, Maine) has more than once been compared to the work of Edward Hopper. Not many contemporary artists who regularly show in New York are still dedicated landscape painters in oil. This one is for art students, who will no doubt learn a thing or two about painting here. Through October 25
124 East 57th Street
The gallery has been around more than a century, but “50 Years on 57th” celebrates its half-century anniversary in Midtown. Chagall to Calder, School of Paris to Contemporary, the expansive show features artists who exemplified the many art movements that have occurred during the past 150 years. Through October 23
20 West 57th Street
“One and Only” is a big show for the 83-year-old Ray K. Metzker, who had a one-man show at MoMA in 1967. Devoted dealer Laurence Miller will show over three-dozen photographs (including early works dating to the late ’50s), darkroom manipulations and composites, photograms, and cut-and-folded paper works. Through October 25
730 5th Avenue
The gallery first opened its doors in 1981 and has been going strong for over 30 years—no small feat in the art world. In 2011, it opened a space in Cartagena, Colombia, and, appropriately, its current exhibition showcases Colombian Ruby Rumié’s elegant sculptures of pots, the result of a performance project she completed with 100 women from her native country whom had been subjected to domestic violence. Through October 18
41 East 57th Street
Though Matthew Pillsbury has been working with long-light exposures in photography for over a decade, this new series exploring the quiet stillness of Tokyo enraptured with the technologies it’s birthed—smartphones, tablets, robotics—finds the photographer working with shorter exposures. With enough neon to blind Vegas, his night shots show the city bright as day, unnervingly still and contently at peace. Through October 25