ART CITIES:N.York- GLASS

In the group exhibition “GLASS” at Pace Gallery in New York, are on presentation works made in glass and using glass found objects, is an exploration of each artist’s use of the material. The works by Maya Lin, Kiki Smith and Fred Wilson highlight the dichotomy between glass as a medium and as a found element.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Pace Gallery Archive

The exhibition “GLASS” marks the first time Maya Lin’s glass marble work has been publicly displayed in New York. The environment is the central concern of the artist. The exhibition includes a large-scale wall piece using glass marbles to trace the flow of water from Lake Powell to Lake Mead, two ecologically controversial reservoirs on the Colorado River system, also on view is “Dew Point 11” (2007), a multi-unit floor piece comprised of clear blown glass discs resembling drops of water. The piece continues her use of glass to represent elements of nature, which began with blown glass representations of water-worn rocks that she collected at the Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, Washington, where she was artist-in-residence in 1994. The work of Kiki Smith explores themes of spirituality and the human condition. Decay, rebirth, and the eternal cycles of life recur throughout her work, often linking the body with the natural world and spiritual realm. She first turned to glass in the mid-80s to extend her inquiries of the body, using the transparency of the material for depictions of internal anatomy, “Mine” (1999), a floor piece of scattered three-dimensional red glass stars communicates the artist’s interest in the cosmos and the relation between the self and the universe. With his work Fred Wilson challenges social and historical narratives regarding values, culture and race. Showing Wilson’s interest in methods of display is his installation “Love and Loss in the Milky Way” (2005), the installation is comprised of milk glass tableware placed alongside classical-style statuary and a cookie jar depicting a racial caricature, the exhibition also includes the artist’s black mirror “I Saw Othello’s Visage In His Mind” (2013) as well as the chandelier “No Way But This” (2013).

Info: Pace Gallery, 537 West 24th Street, New York, Duration: 27/6-19/8/16, Days & Hours: Mon-Thu10:00-18:00, Fri 10:00-16:00, www.pacegallery.com