Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens, Greece 20 June to 20 October 2019



T Space, Rhinebeck, New York, July 16 to October 1 2023
I met Ann Hamilton in 1998 when she installed her piece “Myein” at the Venice Biennale (I was working to install the Philip Johnson exhibition at the Ca’ Zenobio). Was delighted to see her again here at her work exhibited at Steven Holl’s T Space room.
This piece is an installation of wool coats and sheep fleece, as aromatic as it was beautiful
Inscribed on a stone near the coats are her words:
as outside is to inside
-Hamilton
as animal is to human
as stone is to words
as sound is to song
as image is to object
as made is to grown
Museum of Modern Art, New York, Oct 1 2023 to January 13 2024
A mammoth multimedia retrospective of fellow Oklahoman Ed Ruscha’s artistic output, this exhibition spans six decades across his career. The show emphasizes the unique combination of abstraction and pop imagery in his art. Ruscha is known for his bold text across images, and features these images around aspects of the American West.
Ruscha’s career has also proved influential, as his unique combination of text and images continues to resonate with other artists.
Ornamentum, Hudson New York. June 24 – July 16, 2023
Tanel Veenre is an Estonian artist focusing on jewelry and wearables that he crafts from wooden organ pipe components, reconfigured into sculptural form. According to wikipedia he is a “jewelry artist,” an awkward phrase trying to describe the in-betweenness of his work. This show at Ornamentum in Hudson mixes elements of craft, jewelry, art, and even a bit of musicianship — apparently the pipes all still produce tone if you blow through them.
He comes from a family of artists and musicians, and if I have the story correctly these pieces are reconfigurations of a wooden organ that his father gave him as a gift.
I am pleased with Veenre’s choices to forgo emphasizing or fetishizing the joinery of the pieces, which is a notorious tempation when working with wood. Instead, the pipe components are reworked with collisional butt-joints and moments of hinging. The effect gives a feel of accidental form and beauty.