Tag: Will Kaplan

Solo Shows

Will Kaplan: Stacking time

Contributed by Kate Sherman / On a freezing night earlier this month, I visited the opening of “Respawn,” Will Kaplan’s first solo show at D.D.D.D. gallery. The gallery recently traded its tight space in a Chinatown walk-up for a large, sweeping basement with a nook near the entrance, which houses Kaplan’s show. Five sizable works built primarily of wood are cleated to the walls and face the center of the room, where a provisional pedestal supports a clearly handbound notebook. Across the face of each wooden form, imagery sourced from printed matter is layered into dense collages. Kaplan’s vintage aesthetic held me back from apprehending the profusion of images present as a facsimile of our contemporary mediascape.

Continue Reading →
Solo Shows

Lauren Clay’s organic sanctums

Contributed by Will Kaplan / In her solo show “Solarium” at Picture Theory, Lauren Clay compresses different scales of time into tight, enchanting wall sculptures. In modernizing the timeless form of the archway, her work reflects the structure’s progression from functional to aesthetic. The series of torso-sized works foster an intimate viewing experience, comparable to an altarpiece. Traditionally, altarpieces hover behind the altar itself. The faithful kneel beneath them for their sacraments, like the Eucharistic transformation…

Continue Reading →
Solo Shows

Beck Lowry: Fusing Modernism and global craft

Contributed by Will Kaplan / Beck Lowry’s sculptural paintings act as vessels. But what do they hold? Memory? Sensation? Labor? Five such pieces comprise “First Storm,” at Yossi Milo Gallery, the artist’s first New York solo show. In its earthen palette and irregular construction, the work resembles ceremonial objects, though the associated eras and cultures remain mysterious. For understanding the art’s function and what it contains, Lowry’s process is key.

Continue Reading →
Group Shows

Immaterial Projects: Calamity and hope

Contributed by Will Kaplan / Curatorial collective Immaterial Projects calls its group show at The Active Space in Bushwick “The Beginning of the End.” It might seem a bit late for the beginning. We can trace the sense of perpetual crisis as far back as we like: Trump’s first term, Citizens United, the Reagan years, and farther still. But by keeping the show’s formal scope to semi-traditional paintings, Immaterial Projects captures elements of past and present alike that still smack us in the face. The show’s colors span cement and sepia, hanging along the gallery’s opposing corners to illustrate decay in both urban and natural landscapes.

Continue Reading →