Doug Wheeler

Doug Wheeler’s “SA MI 75 DZ NY 12” installation view via David Zwirner Gallery

The serendipitous grids of New York City where there is at least one of every thing and every one, are imbued with the spirit of infinity. With his first solo gallery show, 72 year-old American artist Doug Wheeler has bestowed the city with a more traditional, yet whimsical portal to infinity called “SA MI 75 DZ NY 12.”

The lobby of David Zwirner Gallery becomes a waiting room as it caps viewers to seven at a time. Patrons shift around a semi circle until called up to remove their shoes and replace them with white medical booties. They form a line against a wall in front of a glowing empty white room and receive a standard set of “do not touch” instructions. Upon entering the room and walking toward the wall, a silent now what? hangs in the air. Hands reaching out to the wall don’t stop, as there is none. The fourth wall is an illusion created by white light that perfectly matches the room. This is the greatest moment of the experience, like Wonderland’s Alice stepping through her mirror. Bewildered, viewers continue to walk, unsure of where the void ends. A vague heat surrounds the area but it’s unclear whether it’s coming from the powerful light or adrenaline. Eyes cease to function, as there is nothing to focus on. It is the same somewhat frightening sensation we can experience in a completely dark space, where there is no difference between opened and closed eyes. But never do we get a chance to experience this with pure white light instead of blackness.

Several feet ahead, there’s a rounded incline, the only indication that the space doesn’t continue on forever. Instinctively, everyone looks back and sees an intricate rig of lights. Though impractical, solitary time for each visitor would make the experience much more powerful.

Doug Wheeler’s “SA MI 75 DZ NY 12” is now on view at David Zwirner Gallery in Chelsea until February 25^th.

Damien Hirst

Damien Hirst, "Cupric Nitrate," 2007 via Gagosian Gallery

Gagosian Gallery is holding a worldwide exhibition of Damien Hirst’s spot paintings across all eleven locations in London, Paris, Los Angeles, Rome, Athens, Geneva, Hong Kong, and New York. The single exhibition The Complete Spot Paintings: 1986-2011 includes 331 paintings amassed by 150 private individuals and public institutions in 20 countries. The collective effort feels appropriate for the nature of the visuals it assembled.

Each painting depicts an evenly spaced grid, or ring, of perfect circles. Because of Hirst’s variations in number, color, and scale, this simple idea is actually quite versatile as it transforms from precious to colossal. One painting contains 25,781 1-millimeter wide spots of unrepeated colors. One contains only four, each 5 feet wide. Most canvasses are rectangular, and contain a grid of evenly spaced spots. Circular canvasses that comprise the same arrangement take on the illusion of three dimensions. Some pack the spots into rings of concentric circles so tightly, they cross the eyes like a color blindness test.

Hirst describes this collection simply as “a way of pinning down the joy of color,” but it seems there’s more at play. His repeated composition acts as a control for a visual experiment. Such a multitude of paintings that alter only number, color, and scale offers a sort of lesson in the principles of abstraction. It’s not long before some canvasses stand out among the rest, some fade. And it’s not as clear as picking out the extremes in any one category.

The commercial palatability of Hirst’s worldwide extravaganza invites cynicism, which certainly resonates at times. The gift shop of spotted merchandise, from cuff links to iron-on patches, adds to the feeling. Regardless of intention or effect, the sheer magnitude of this exhibition makes it an event worth seeing.

“The Complete Spot Paintings: 1986-2011” is on view at Gagosian Galleries in Chelsea and the Upper East Side through February 18^th.

Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei Sunflower Seeds installation view via Mary Boone Gallery

Chinese artist and human rights activist Ai Weiwei’s Sunflower Seeds installation is now in view at Mary Boone gallery in Chelsea. It is an abbreviated version of the popular installation that debuted in October 2010 at the Turbine Hall in London’s Tate Modern. Five tons, or 100 million porcelain sunflower seeds, hand-painted by artisans in the porcelain-producing city of Jingdezhen, China turned the space into a vast gray sea. Unfortunately it was discovered that walking and playing in the seeds, as was originally allowed and intended, churned up a toxic ceramic and lead dust. Visitors were confined to viewing from a distance, as is now the case at Mary Boone, where 3% of those seeds are on display. Indeed it is a tall task to resist touching the seeds so perfectly arranged into a rectangular rug-like surface, delicately stacked a few inches thick, covering almost the entire floor of the bright wood-beamed gallery.

Weiwei was a young man during the Cultural Revolution in China, when government propaganda depicted Chairman Mao as the sun and his minions as sunflowers leaning lovingly toward him. During this time of poverty and uncertainty, sunflower seeds were a key food source and sharing them was a common gesture of kindness and compassion. Sunflower Seeds is an excellent introduction to the political, poetic, grand yet delicate work of Ai Weiwei.

2011 has been Weiwei’s year, for better or worse. For 81 days in the spring he was detained by Chinese government officials in Beijing amid a broad government crackdown against the Arab Spring-inspired pro-democracy movement, of which Weiwei has emerged the unspoken leader. His detention sparked outrage and action around the world among the human rights and art communities alike. This summer his highly anticipated exhibit Zodiac Heads opened in Manhattan’s Grand Army Plaza. At year’s end, Time named him one of four runners-up for "Person of the Year." Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry is the recently completed documentary debuting at the Sundance Film Festival next week.

Sunflower Seeds is now at Mary Boone Gallery in Chelsea through February 4th.

Katsuhiro Saiki

"Place #3" (2002) via hpgrp Gallery

An enthused crowd filled hpgrp Gallery in Chelsea last Thursday at the opening of Resolution, Katsuhiro Saiki's show of both older and never before seen works. Digital and analog photographs taken in New York, Tokyo, and Berlin are the raw materials for his brand of photo/sculpture hybrids. The centerpiece of the exhibition "Place #3" (2002) is a photograph Saiki took in Berlin of the underbelly of a distant plane flying through a cotton candy clouded sky. The photo is dramatically presented in the middle of the gallery floor, mounted on a large tile. To see an upward view when looking down is truly dizzying.

For Saiki's "Frames" series he photographs glass and steel skyscraper facades, then cuts and arranges them onto white background to create abstract 3D polygonal structures. He effectively captures a 3D object into a 2D photograph form, then crafts it into the illusion of 3D again. This series among many of his other works seems to be informed by Sol Lewitt's 2D cube drawings.

Resolution is now on at hpgrp Gallery in Chelsea through January 28th.

Paula Hayes

"Aquarium" 2011, via Lever House Photography: Jesse David Harris

Paula Hayes has turned the lobby of Lever House at Park Avenue and 53rd Street into an aquatic jungle with her new installation Land Mind. The centerpiece is a large womb-like saltwater aquarium atop a wooden platform that houses clownfish, starfish, shrimp, snails, and corals, among others. A water filtration tube snakes out of the orb like an umbilical cord into the surrounding island of tropical perennial plants, all bordered by a metallic silver braid. Complete with full-spectrum lighting, it is an entire balanced ecosystem. A glowing wall-mounted cocoon stretches 15 feet and holds water-retaining succulent plants, rocks, and sea glass. Tropical trees in custom dumpling-shaped rubber planters are scattered about the space. "The rigor of creating the planting vehicles strengthens the message that the interior landscape is to be taken very seriously and cared for with precision." To communicate this message is her ultimate goal, Hayes says.

Hayes crafts the magical world in round, protective, maternal shapes. By designing an environment that contains self-sustaining ecosystems as well as elements that require human nurturing (feeding fish and watering potted plants), Hayes has orchestrated an interactive event that beautifully (and literally) illustrates the possibility of ecological balance in the 21st century.

Land Mind is now on view at Lever House in midtown through January 27th.

Steve Alexander

Roundway Hill, Wiltshire, July 23rd, 2011 via Steve Alexander

Steve Alexander is one of the world’s foremost crop circle documentarians. This month he joins Skink Ink Fine Art in Williamsburg for Rural Graffiti, an exhibition of his photographic prints. Alexander shows his striking aerial photographs of crop circles from the past three summers in the UK, where a majority of these formations have occurred since the 1970s. He reveals the massive scale and flawless geometric shapes that are undetectable from the ground, providing professional records of a temporary artform to media, researchers, and the public. The gallery exhibits thirty of them, many of which are blown up past poster size.

See Rural Graffiti at Skink Ink Fine Art in Williamsburg through November 27^th.

Nicole Handel

"Symphony no. 9" via Nicole Handel

Nine year Bed-Stuy resident Nicole Handel draws form her community and whimsical imagination to create dreamy mindscapes with gouache, watercolor, and sharpie in her latest exhibition at Yes Gallery, Concrete Garden. Handel contrasts fantasy with reality, and nature with city when rainbow trout and blooming lilies float among high-rise housing projects and cars. Her fertile, volatile scenes are so saturated with color and form both abstract and figurative that it takes patience to fully absorb each painting. Pastel splatters of watercolor cover the majority of the canvas, where she also captures the delicate architectural details of city blocks. It’s difficult to discern her process when indications of technical and spontaneous techniques seem to devolve into each other. To construct such a precise vision from a precarious medium is Handel’s mysterious dance between improvisation and careful planning.

Concrete Garden is now on view at Yes Gallery in Greenpoint until November 13th.