Nicole Chesney, Arise, 2010. Glass, oil paint. H 48, W 44, D 1 in. courtesy: Heller Gallery
There’s no shortage of nature-inspired art to look at this weekend, with multiple exhibitions opening Friday, including three solo shows at Heller Gallery and exhibitions at Berlin’s lorch + siedel contemporary and a Thursday opening at Traver Gallery in Seattle. Between the different exhibitions, viewers can ponder abstract seascapes and imagined invertebrates, dogs made of glass shards and fragile glass coral from Nicole Chesney, Steffen Dam, Marta Klonowska, Tobias Møhl, Kait Rhoads, and Nancy Worden.
Heller will feature work from Chesney, Dam, and Møhl in three separate solo exhibitions. “Lux” highlights Chesney’s dreamy painted glass works, including the watery Arise and Scend, whose swirling shades of white conjure up a turbulent wave. At “Mechanical Organics and Other Matters,” viewers can inspect and admire Dam’s meticulous pseudo-specimen boxes of imaginary sea creatures and plants created around supposed flaws in glass such as bubbles and cracks. He conjures up amoebae, protozoa, jellyfish, and leaves that float in the “imperfect” glass. “New Works in Glass” features glass platters and a series of oval “glassweaver” vessels from Møhl. The vessels blend vibrant earth tones in shimmering patterns reminiscent of kaleidoscopes and fish scales.
A glass and metal pug by Marta Klonoswka inspired by a Goya painting. courtesy: lorch + siedel contemporary
Marta Klonowska’s glass shard creatures will be on view in a solo exhibition at lorch + siedel contemporary in Berlin. Klonowska pairs her sculptures with the historical pieces that inspire them. A glass and metal pug entitled La Marquesa de Pontejos after Francisco de Goya reimagines the small pug features in the corner of an eighteenth-century oil painting from Goya.
Kait Rhoads, Red Polyp, 2007. Blown glass, hollow woven murrine, copper wire, powder coated steel, steel. H 45,W 46, D 19 in. courtesy: Kait Rhoads
Traver Gallery features the work of John Marshall and glass artists Rhoads and Worden in “dual: the private life of sculpture.” Rhoads’s nature-inspired work draws heavily from plant life, including Red Polyp, a curvy, textured rendition of the underwater plant. Worden uses objects like lead weights, cow bones, and glass eyes to create jewelry pieces like Domestic Low Tide, an intense necklace of found objects like clothespins and spools and wood, glass, steel, copper, silver, paint, and paper.
—Grace Duggan
IF YOU GO:
“Lux” Nicole Chesney solo exhibition “Mechanical Organics and Other Matters” Steffen Dam solo exhibition “New Works in Glass” Tobias Møhl solo exhibition Opening Reception: Friday, April 8th, 6 – 8 PM April 9th – April 30th, 2011 Heller Gallery 420 West 14th Street New York, New York 10014 Phone: 212.414.4014 Website: www.hellergallery.com ———————————————————Solo Show – Installation and Objects by Marta Klonowska Vernissage on Friday, April 8th, 7 – 9 PM April 9th – May 21st, 2011 lorch + siedel contemporary Tucholskystr. 38 D-10117 Berlin-Mitte, Germany Phone: +49 (0)30-978-939-35 Website: www.lorch-seidel.de —————————————————-
“dual: the private life of sculpture” Reception: April 7th, 5 – 8 PM April 7th – May 29th, 2011 Traver Gallery 110 Union Street, Ste. 200 Seattle, Washington 98101 Phone: 206.587.6501 Website: www.travergallery.com