Sasha Gordon’s “My Love of Upholstery” and “Untitled”
Sasha Gordon creates surreal paintings and drawings that explore themes of sexuality, gender, race, and the body. Often depicting herself as subject, Gordon is keenly attuned to art historical themes of portraiture and self-portraiture, and of the politics of representation. She approaches these categories with inventiveness and humor, using the uncanny to communicate very real concerns around self-image and identity.
For the High Line – Moynihan Connector Billboard on Dyer Avenue between 30th and 31st Streets, Gordon presents two works, “My Love of Upholstery” (2024) and “Untitled” (2024). Both hail from the artist’s most recent body of work, in which she examines challenging taboos and standards of representation. Her images present a wide range of emotional states, frequently considered through the lens of her identity as a queer Asian American woman. Through endless avatars, she portrays the othering of unconventional human bodies and her own experiences of alienation.
NEW
2. The Great Hall Commission: Tong Yang-Tze, Dialogue
For the 2024 Great Hall Commission at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Taiwanese artist Tong Yang-Tze has created two monumental works of Chinese calligraphy for the Museum’s historic space. Her project is the third in the series of commissions for The Great Hall and the artist’s first major project in the United States.
Tong is one of the most celebrated artists working exclusively in calligraphy today. Best known for making calligraphy in monumental scale, Tong brings Chinese characters into dialogue with three-dimensional space and pushes the conceptual and compositional boundaries of the art form, while remaining dedicated to calligraphy’s raison d’être as the art of writing. Her commitment to the written characters is rooted in her belief in their centrality in Chinese culture and calligraphy’s capacity for visual, emotional, and social impact beyond linguistic barriers. Working on the floor in her home, she manipulates the movement and tension in the brushstrokes, the foremost quality in calligraphy. The oversized characters pose physical, formal, and conceptual challenges, while they offer new compositional possibilities and viewing experience.
3. Approaching Abstraction: Contemporary Aboriginal Art from Across Australia
Throughout Australia, many visual traditions have evolved over thousands of years that use abstract forms or patterns to represent elements of Aboriginal Country and culture. From the 1970s, an increase in the recognition of Aboriginal artistic traditions saw the birth of art movements that swept the continent and continue to this day. Today an exciting dynamism is witnessed as leading Aboriginal artists seek to invigorate their traditions in ever more unique and contemporary ways.
This exhibition at Asia Society Museum, presents the work of five Aboriginal artists of multiple generations hailing from across Australia, revealing the extraordinary diversity and abundance of a still-young field. Emily Kam Kngwarray, Carlene West, Yinarupa Nangala, and Bill “Whiskey” Tjapaltjarri are each eminent artists from different areas and moments in desert painting movements, while Reko Rennie’s work exemplifies the resurgence of Aboriginal cultures and art from Australia’s urbanized southeast.
LAST CHANCE
4. Francis Alÿs: The Gibraltar Projects
Closes Wednesday, December 18
This exhibition at David Zwirner’s 519 and 525 West 19th Street locations in New York, features the artist’s acclaimed series The Gibraltar Projects: Don’t Cross the Bridge Before You Get to the River. This work is an expansive group of works made from 2005 onward that derive from his yearslong efforts to create the illusion of a bridge spanning the Strait of Gibraltar—it is Alÿs’s first show in New York in more than ten years. This presentation marks the New York debut of this foundational body of work, which has previously been exhibited at museums across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, North America, and South America.
5. BIRD MMXXIII
Sheila Berger’s bird has a mirrored belly and crown allowing it to reflect, literally and symbolically, the Statue of Liberty, a sculpture which has welcomed and elevated immigrants since its installation. The mirrored surface of the sculpture allows visitors to view themselves against the backdrop of the natural environment of Governors Island, encouraging reflection and relaxation.