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.

Amanda Dow Thompson

Amanda Dow Thompson, Ghost Moth installation view via Causey Contemporary

Amanda Dow Thompson’s latest show at Causey Contemporary is an examination of transience and permanence when light shines through her sculptures and creates shadows as dynamic as a prism’s rainbow. The sculptures of carved wood, cast resin and cast glass hang from the center of the gallery ceiling. The dreamy resin and glass ones look like double helixes, while the wooden ones feel like some bone hybrid of rib cage and spine, columnal and swirling, support systems that are somehow delicate themselves. Light projects through them as they slowly spin, casting blurred organic shapes. On the wall are Andrew Garn’s photographs of these shadows, cast with colored light creating a more kaleidoscopic version of the live view behind it.

Ghost Moth is now on view at Causey Contemporary in Williamsburg through November 6^th

Leandro Erlich

Leandro Erlich, "Elevator Pitch" 2011 via Sean Kelly

Argentine-born Leandro Erlich’s latest exhibition Two Different Tomorrows is named for the confusion that arose while the artist was traveling in Asia, making his “tomorrow” a different day from the gallery’s. His sculptural installation at Sean Kelly uses elevators as its central symbol for space and time warping. In Erlich’s words an elevator is “a functional object, but one in which life seems to be suspended parenthetically.”

In the center of one of the gallery rooms stands an elevator stuck between floors, an ode to a state of limbo. Peer down and see a newspaper crossword tossed on the floor, as if forgotten by captives upon rescue. Another room contains open elevator banks that become a mind-bending maze. The only working elevator in the exhibition opens and closes its doors to show a video of actual elevator passengers filmed in Tokyo.

An elevator shaft is turned on its horizontal axis and viewers are invited to walk inside through the dark concrete cave toward an elevator car. The light at the end of the tunnel comes from the main gallery, where viewers emerge once again questioning their sense of space and direction.

Two Different Tomorrows is now on view at Sean Kelly Gallery through October 22^nd

Do Ho Suh

Do Ho Suh "Fallen Star 1/5" 2008-11, via Lehmann Maupin

Seoul born Do Ho Suh expresses cultural displacement and a mental dual citizenship through a preoccupation with architecture and memory of space, especially in the home. The exquisite detail of his replicas and miniatures is irresistible in his latest exhibit Home Within Home at Lehmann Maupin.

Suh first came to America in 1991 to attend RISD. He wrote a story that describes his journey as the result of a tornado lifting and carrying his home in Korea across the Pacific Ocean and crashing it into the side of his new home in Rhode Island. The highlight of the show is a scaled model of Suh’s personal fable. The brick home in Providence is split, displayed in cross section and includes every last coffee table book and window treatment.

Suh has also created exoskeletons of objects in his current New York home—a bathroom sink, circuit breaker, door knobs—made of what appears to be a nylon polyester blend. Monochromatic and framed in tight bundles, these 3D objects appear like insect specimens on the gallery walls.

Home Within Home is now on view at Lehmann Maupin in Chelsea until October 22^nd.

Richard Serra

Richard Serra "Cycle," 2011 via Gagosian Gallery

Groundbreaking minimalist artist Richard Serra’s latest sculptures are perhaps the highlight of Chelsea’s fall art season. “Junction” and “Cycle” are walls of thirteen-foot high weatherproof steel, sandblasted to a range of rusty oranges and browns. Enter and wander through tight tunnels that lean in then suddenly peel away and spill out into broad spirals. This cinematic experience feels like discovering and getting lost in a desert cave, both delightful and somewhat intimidating. Serra provides plenty of replay value as there are several ways to make your way through this maze of metal ribbons. Inevitable and sudden encounters with fellow viewers force a rare, shared experience.

Junction/Cycle is now on view at Gagosian Gallery (24^th St.) in Chelsea until November 26^th.

Yutaka Sone

Yutaka Sone "Little Manhattan" (detail), 2007-09, via David Zwirner

Originally trained as an architect, Japanese artist Yutaka Sone has focused his inclination for obsessive detail on sculpture at his latest exhibition Island at David Zwirner.

The entire first room of the exhibit is devoted to a single white marble sculpture. With the help of photographic reproductions, helicopters, and Google Earth, Sone created “Little Manhattan.” Weighing in at two and a half tons, the scaled model includes every street, avenue, building, and bridge east to west. The jagged edges drop off and seem to melt like a curtain of wax.

In the next room, more marble sculptures mingle with banana trees made from steel framework and rattan, a natural plant fiber. He paints them a bright but true-to-life green that pops in a white room filled with white objects. In a series of more marble sculptures called “Light in between Trees,” Sone brings physicality to rays of light. He carves the rays in rounded cartoon proportions that add a pop art element to an otherwise classically informed work of realism.

In Island, Sone exposes the cultural ambiguity of such a landform by playing with the natural and architectural connotations of the word through contrasting forms of jungles and cities. Be sure to see more of his stunning pieces in this survey of selected works.

Yutaka Sone Island is on view at David Zwirner until October 29^th.

Samuel Rousseau

Samuel Rousseau "Untitled (The Tree and Its Shadow)" 2008-11, via Parker's Box

Having recently completed his residency at PointB studio in Williamsburg, French artist Samuel Rousseau presents a reaction to his environment in his latest solo exhibit at Parker’s Box.

In Brave Old New World Rousseau continues his tradition of adding movement to sculpture using video projections. Swaying leaves and twigs are projected through a bare tree, casting an animated shadow. He projects billowing smoke and fire onto symmetrical cutouts of apartment buildings and skyscrapers to create apocalyptic Rorschach inkblots. Gel capsules sealed in blister packs each contain a bird's eye view of a man walking its perimeter, an illusion Rousseau achieves by placing video behind the translucent pills.

In Williamsburg, a penchant for the old world has evolved into the borough’s brand. Rousseau takes this notion and expands it to address New York’s shifting position on the totem pole of global cities. New York appears increasingly rusty when compared to emerging metropolises like Abu Dhabi and Chonqing. Here, Rousseau draws an optimistic paranoia from New York’s illustrious, immortal spirit.

Brave Old New World is now on view at Parker’s Box in Williamsburg until October 30^th.

Rotganzen

"Quelle Fête" is the latest installation by Dutch artist collective Rotganzen. Unfortunately this melting disco ball can only be seen at the Wenneker Pand in Schiedam, the Netherlands. But see more of their inviting expressions of "fear and desire, cynicism and euphoria, irony and frustration, boredom and happiness" in their online gallery here.

Mindy Shapero

Mindy Shapero, "What it looks like on the outside when you are trying not to see the insides leaving again and again", 2011 via Marianne Boesky Gallery

The title of Mindy Shapero’s exhibit Breaking Open The Head is both a reference to Daniel Pinchbeck’s book on psychedelic shamanism, and a literal description of some of her work. The show centers around three shell-like sculptures of giant hollow heads. At first glance the forms appear amorphous. The first major sculpture is a black head tipped on its side to reveal pieces of matching black paper precisely arranged into swirls. The matte sheen and seductive fur-like effect of this painstaking embellishment completely distract from the subsequently obvious head form.

On an upward facing head, she paints paper cutouts black, leaving white at the edges. The surface appears white, but as the viewer walks past the head, a black void between the sheets adds an ambiguous visual and symbolic depth to the piece.

On the third head, she paints the face with solid gold leaf while the inside reveals multi-colored concentric circles, organic and irregular like growth rings of a tree. Other sculptures continue the head motif. A series of facial profiles are drawn out of bent metal rods and arranged around a multicolor paper form that slowly reveals itself to be a continuation of the silhouette, giving the illusion of a spinning movement. In another piece, the roles are reversed. The backs of heads are drawn out of the rods while the facial silhouette is completed by a single paper form in the center, like a Rubin vase.

Shapero uses extreme absence and presence of space and color to thoughtfully defy expectations. She baits us with her stunning craftsmanship to distract from her basic forms. When the two are realized at once, her rich perspective on mental tangibility and intangibility emerges throughout her body of work.

See Breaking Open The Head at Marianne Boesky Gallery in Chelsea until October 22nd.

Nick Cave

Nick Cave "Speak Louder" 2011 via Jack Shainman Gallery

Nick Cave combines his training in textiles and dance to create body sculptures called Soundsuits. Chelsea’s Jack Shainman and Mary Boone galleries have teamed up to exhibit his latest work. At Jack Shainman, Ever After exhibits three sets of sculptures and a video installation. In “Mating Season” nine shaggy white rabbit-eared figures are arranged in a row at slightly different positions to suggest multiple frames of a single entity’s sexual gesture. “Speak Louder” displays seven figures with protruding circular heads unified by a single draped cloak embroidered to shimmering saturation with black buttons and bugle beads. The bodies resemble a band of forlorn animated trumpets.

Oddly enough, these figures are subdued in comparison to the psychedelic chaos down the street at Mary Boone. Cave’s imagination runs wild as he assembles found and organic objects into unseen combinations. For Now takes place in a high-ceiling room where a platform acts as a dance floor extravaganza of interacting figures. Globes, antique metal toys, and porcelain roses become cohesive textures through Cave’s limitless ingenuity and craftsmanship. The two shows are tied together when twigs take the place of buttons in monochrome figures with familiar disc-like heads, a cross between Maurice Sendak’s Wild Things and a subwoofer.

Cave’s exhibit titles may suggest a future mellowing of his work. The loud, pandemonic miscellany on display at Mary Boone is an ephemeral manifestation of his vision. His more emblematic series at Jack Shainman seems to indicate a shift away from spectacle to contemplation.

See For Now at Mary Boone Gallery until October 22^nd and Ever After at Jack Shainman Gallery until October 8^th

Jaume Plensa

Jaume Plensa Echo, photograph by James Ewing via Madison Square Park Conservancy

The Madison Square Park Conservancy has extended the duration of its current commissioned work from Spanish sculptor Jaume Plensa, who has bestowed upon the park its largest monolithic work in its seven-year history as a public art space. In the center of the Oval Lawn, the forty-foot tall bust called Echo depicts a young girl from the artist’s Barcelona neighborhood in a pensive dream state. Plensa also references a Greek myth in which Zeus’ wife Hera punishes the garrulous nymph Echo to repeat only the words of others.

The sculpture's peaceful quality is slightly disturbed by a vertical stretch of its proportions. Made of polyester resin, fiberglass and marble dust, Echo is a monochromatic non-reflective chalky white. The distortion coupled with the color make the sculpture look like a 3D hologram when lit up at night. For such a large-scale object, a 360 degree viewing is essential to take in the varying backdrops and details, like a nearly hidden braid molded to her neck.

See more of Plensa’s works here and see Echo on view until September 11^th in Madison Square Park.

Amy Joy Watson

Untitled, 2011, balsa, watercolor, thread, balloon via Amy Joy Watson

The central intrigue of Australian sculptor Amy Joy Watson’s works lies in the irony that transforming childlike dreams into physical reality requires an adult patience and refinement. The unwavering dedication and vision is palpable in viewing her latest group of sculptures, Big Rock Candy Mountain. The structure of her wildly jubilant world is comprised of multi-colored fine cuts of balsa wood, hand-stitched with needle and thread. Her choice to stain wood with watercolor in lieu of a palette of harsh neons and crisp acrylics serves to conjure images of faded alphabet blocks.

Another central contrast in Watson’s creations is their inherent structural allusions to something technological and futuristic; like architectural mock ups from another planet or time, that are constructed by hand out of the basest of materials. Analog materials of wood, needle, and thread are stitched into a digital Willy Wonka universe, as if a 21^st century Oompa Loompa's early 3D renderings of everlasting gobstoppers were blown up into an otherworldly scale, to be transmitted into a million little pieces through Wonkavision. A playful relationship between hard and soft, and jagged and round pervades her pieces. A geometric orb is tied to a perfectly spherical pink helium balloon. Hundreds of hard wooden panels take the form of a ribbon's organic drape.

There is something life-affirming is Watson’s sculptures. They are magical artifacts of an undying child-like imagination that matures into a dedicated artistic vision. She honors the spirit of her former self with tools she’s gathered along the way. In a somewhat literal representation of such, she constructs a winged clam-like cradle that holds a gobstopper candy. The luxurious and precious preservation of frivolity makes Watson’s work hard to resist.

See the Big Rock Candy Mountain gallery

Architects of Air

Inside a luminarium, via AoA visitor photo gallery Photo: richardosborn.com

Nottingham UK's Architects of Air (AoA) create 'luminaria,' walk-in sculptures which they alluringly define as "dazzling mazes of winding paths and soaring domes where Islamic architecture, Archimedean solids and Gothic cathedrals meld into an inspiring monument to the beauty of light and colour." These technicolor sanctuaries have toured 37 countries on 5 continents in 500 exhibitions since 1992. Their latest luminarium Miracoco can currently be seen in Lisbon, Portugal. Unfortunately the tour indicates no planned U.S. dates, but see their extensive flickr gallery here.

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

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