Art Tour | LES galleries, New York. Spring 2016

Ward Shelley: The Felicific Calculus
Pierogi Gallery, New York

Spring 2016—Walking around in New York’s warmer weather is finally a pleasure. Especially when you tour the many art galleries that constellate the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and that have been standing out on the city scene for the quality of their projects.

The photo gallery below highlights several interesting shows. Ward Shelley’s The Felicific Calculus at Pierogi (through May 8) presents 8 new paintings from the series dedicated to the evolution of Western culture and consciousness. These anatomical tables / infographics appealingly connect hard historical facts through narration. The paintings are shown in the context of The Last Library, a project in collaboration with Douglas Paulson.

Despite the unnecessary unfriendliness of the staff, Marcel Broodthaers’ show at Alden Projects (through May 8) is worth visiting as a further excavation into the artist’s text-based production, after seeing Marcel Broodthaers: A Retrospective currently at MoMA (through May 15):

Marcel Broodthaers: A Retrospective at MoMA, New York

Two of the most interesting shows feature two artists who work with photography and digital manipulation to represent our relationship with objects: John Houck, Playing and Reality at On Stellar Rays (through May 22), and Lucas Blalock, Low Comedy at Ramiken Crucible (through May 22).

William Wegman had two parallel shows, one at Magenta Plains (through April 24), and Postcard Paintings at Sperone Westwater (through April 23).

The remarkable use of two contrasting spaces is worth noting for the shows at bodega (Boil the Ocean: Rob Kulisek, Rosa Rendl, Libby Rothfeld, Amy Yao, through May 8), and at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise (Oliver Payne, through April 17).

Oliver Payne at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, 291 Grand Street, New York