Don't know what to do on a Thursday night? Check out the plethora of new art shows in Chelsea's Art District. Here are three to see, open this week.
Alex Prager at The Yancey Richardson Gallery - Los Angeles-based artist Alex Prager presents "Week-end," an exhibition of new work, and the third in the photographic trilogy of staged female portraits. After a good showing at December's Pulse Art Fair in Miami, this young artist brings the show to NY, simultaneously complemented by a show at M + B Gallery in LA. Through her constructed narratives and dramatic portraits, Prager explores a range of female types from vulnerable to powerful, from tragic to tender. With wigs, makeup and retro costumes meticulously planned, Prager casts and directs her friends in the role of the protagonist, most often a solitary figure absorbed in a personal drama. Cinematic and darkly playful, Prager's photographs suggest a narrative occurring just outside the frame.
Yancy Richardson Gallery
535 West 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011
646-230-9610
www.yanceyrichardson.com
Dan Perjovschi at the Lombard-Freid Projects - The Romanian artist Dan Perjovschi presents "Postcard from the World." His second solo exhibition at Lombard-Freid Projects, it premiers a new work that maps the artist's worldwide travels in dialogue with an historic piece of his, "Postcards from America" (1994). Known for his insightful social and political commentaries in the form of ephemeral wall drawings in museums, biennials and galleries, this unique installation is his first exhibition devoted to entirely to works on paper in over a decade. In each piece, more than 500 postcard-sized drawings of observations from his travels are sketched with incisive punch and succeed in being as humorous and satirical as they are empathetic and profound. The exhibition offers an opportunity both to contemplate the historical time that separate these important pieces, and to acknowledge the underlying similarities and enduring issues.
Lombard-Fried Projects
531 West 26th Street
New York, NY 10001
212-967-8040
www.lombard-freid.com
Irving Petlin at the Kent Gallery - The Kent Gallery is presenting "Major Paintings 1979-2009", a compelling group of large scale canvases by the NewYork/Paris based painter Irving Petlin. Using the raw material of pastel, oil paint and unprimed linen, Petlin has expressed the human condition with a startling and enduring relevance for the last fifty years. Beginning with his involvement with the construction of the Peace Tower (1964) in Los Angeles, Petlin has been an active critic of the US engagements in Vietnam, as well as in the Middle East. Works by Petlin may be found in over 20 public collections including the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, Centre Georges Pompidou, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Museum of Modern Art, the Stedelijk Museum, and most recently the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
541 West 25th Street
Second Floor
New York, New York 10001
212 - 627 - 3680
www.kentgallery.com