Alan Binstock

Birth-Beginning, 2009 via Causey Contemporary

Causey Contemporary's new larger location allows Maryland sculptor Alan Binstock’s large-scale creations the proper space to shine and breathe. He works with steel, shattered glass, resin and dye to combine the abstract strength of a glacier and the colorful jubilance of a sno-cone. Having the space to walk around and under the structures is a refreshing invitation to interact with art.

Binstock moonlights as an architect for NASA’s mission at the Goddard Space Flight Center. In his own words, he is influenced by the “macro and micro worlds suggested by space ‘landscapes’ that surround [him] at NASA and their similarities to magnified views of our own structure.”

A woman who works at the gallery said he is admittedly referential in his work, so I don’t feel bad pointing out the sculpture pictured above is suggestive of Arnolodo Pomodoro’s “Sfera Con Sfera,” which can be seen at the U.N.

Alan Binstock’s Way Stations II is on view at Causey Contemporary on 92 Wythe Avenue in Williamsburg until June 12th

All the Buildings in New York

An obsessive, beautiful, charming project by Aussie-turned-Brooklynite James Gulliver Hancock. Skip to 2:00 to watch his process.

Toronto Mini Maker Faire

Joel Morrison

Weather Balloon Trapped in a Shopping Cart, 2009 via Gagosian Gallery

Joel Morrison collages everyday objects into unseen combinations and casts them with steel and fiberglass. The polished final products are refined, whimsical, and sometimes humorous. In his own words: “Each work has multiple conceptual references, complex layers of information and a simple but searing punch line.”

Some stand-outs are steel casts of an 8 foot tall plank of bubble wrap and a weather balloon surging through the caging of a tipped shopping cart (above). Polished metal renderings of transient poppable materials produce a viscerally attractive effect. His use of fiberglass creates a different tension. The detail that he achieves with steel is lost and thus the objects appear to be trying to escape from a large amorphous form. Jim Dine’s Two Big Black Hearts came to mind.

Joel Morrison’s sculptures are on view at Gagosian Gallery on 980 Madison Avenue until June 25^th

MoMA PopArt

MoMA's interactive gallery PopArt is a fun, easy way to look at art and get inspiration. Check it out!

Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty

Alexander McQueen dress The Horn of Plenty, autumn/winter 2009–10

Photography by Sølve Sundsbø via The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Go to the Met. Pay what you wish. See Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty.

The exhibition of about a hundred ensembles and seventy accessories by the self-described “romantic schizophrenic” is divided into rooms by theme, such as Romantic Historicism, Primitivism, Naturalism, and Exoticism. The distinct architecture, décor, and sound design of each room make Savage Beauty an all-sensory theatrical journey.

Medical slides, duck feathers, flowers, human hair, clam shells, and mud are some of McQueen’s raw materials. While seeing these nearly inhuman displays of precision and ingenuity, it’s no wonder he cites myriad preoccupations and inspirations unrestrained by time, space, or context, such as Flemish painting, Scottish nationalism, Victorian Gothic, China, Japan, India, Turkey, and Darwinism. These often recognizable references draw the eye in, but through distinctly McQueenian combinations, distortions, and silhouettes, they are rendered otherworldly.

The only negative to Savage Beauty is sensory overload. By the end of the exhibit you almost forget that you’re looking at clothing. It’s quite clear that McQueen was above all an artist, and expressed his vision through the medium of fashion. For those who are familiar with McQueen only through Lady Gaga’s famous armadillo boots and Kate Middleton’s wedding dress, this show will hit you in a big way.

Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty is on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art through July 31, 2011

Subodh Gupta’s 'A glass of water'

Don’t let your mischievous friend tell you to take the last glass of water from a wooden table at Hauser & Wirth. It is in fact a part and the namesake of Subodh Gupta’s show that opened last night to a lively crowd.

Gupta elevates homely objects by sculpting and painting them to deceptive hyperreality and larger than life scale. His subjects are kitchen and pantry items—a tailor’s measuring tape, a button, a vegetable sieve, bread dough, dirty forks on a plate. Without even investigating a deeper meaning, respectively through the form and content of the works, Gupta creates sensitivity through his tenderness in detail and conveys elegance in domesticity. He manages to produce a tension by making untouchable what we handle everyday in our homes. The steel cup, precariously filled just over the brim with water that vibrates with every patron’s step, is the essence of this tension within the familiar. Gupta’s sharp ability to change the connotation of everyday objects makes the show worth a look.

'A glass of water' is on view at Hauser & Wirth through June 18, 2011

Zodiac Heads

One month ago today, the Chinese government detained its best-known contemporary artist and activist, Ai Weiwei. This is the price for boldly undertaking the challenge of exposing government corruption in China and broadcasting it to the world through social media and his art. For the past 30 days, governments, art institutions, and citizens around the world have been rallying for his release.

His latest work is an outdoor sculpture series, Zodiac Heads, that features the twelve animal heads of the traditional Chinese zodiac. It will debut tomorrow at the Pulitzer Fountain at Grand Army Plaza and will be on view until July 15.

Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry is the upcoming documentary on Ai Weiwei scheduled for release later this year.