L.I.C.

On a recent trip to Long Island City, I stopped by MOMA PS1 to catch New Pictures of Common Objects, an impressive group show curated by Chris Lew. Using photography, sculpture, video, and installation, the artists (Josh Kline, Margaret Lee, Trisha Baga, Helen Martin, and Lucas Blalock) all have, in one way or another, a meticulous relationship with the ordinary.  

Lucas Blalock, Building Materials, 2011

Margaret Lee, Cucumber (phone), 2012

New Pictures of Common Objects is open for one more week (!) until Sunday, January 27. Don’t miss it.

On view a few blocks away at the SculptureCenter, is Double Life curated by Kristin Chappa and presented through the Center’s In Practice program. Artists included in this year’s In Practice exhibition are Korakrit Arunanondchai, David Berezin, Paul Branca, Lea Cetera, Rachel Foullon, Molly Lowe, Shana Lutker, S. A. C. (Student Art Collective) with Justin Lieberman, Julia Sherman, and Bryan Zanisnik. The diverse group of artists, most of which work in multiple media (sculpture, video, performance, photography, painting, installation, etc.) made smart use of the cave-like architecture in the downstairs basement galleries.

Highlights from my all-too-brief trip through Double Life include Molly Lowe’s FORMED, an odd and humorous video that is somewhat akin to a David Lynch film colliding with a contemporary Dr. Caligari, and Julia Sherman’s video and photography installation Lucy Becomes A Sculptress. Sherman wonderfully and wittily recreates clay sculptures made in an I Love Lucy episode (same title as her piece) in which a pregnant Lucy endearingly tries her hand at ceramics in hopes of providing her future child with a cultured life. 

Molly Lowe, FORMED (still), 2012, HD video

Julia Sherman, Homage To Lucy's First (and Last) Abstract Work, 2012, C-Print, 16" x 20"

Lucy Becomes A Sculptress (still), 1953.

Double Life runs through March 24, 2013.