Six Chelsea Art Gallery Shows To Take In This Summer

CHELSEA, NY – From the highly abstract to the politically engaged, Chelsea art shows are pushing boundaries this summer.

Ignore the jargon and the snobs and get yourself in front of these works – you might never look at current events or, say, plant life, the same way ever again.

Here are some of the more intriguing exhibits:

Pace Gallery

The Pace Gallery’s current show takes on a topic straight from the latest headlines, the U.S.-Mexico border.
“Border Cantos” features works by U.S.-based photographer Richard Misrach and Mexican-American artist Guillermo Galindo.

“This multimedia installation of photographs, sculpture, found objects and sound examines the complex socio-political dialogue surrounding immigration across the U.S.-Mexico border,” Pace's website says.
The show runs through Aug. 18 at Pace’s 510 W. 25th St. location.

Tanya Bonakdar Gallery

Current events come into focus at this gallery at 521 W. 21st St. too.

A solo exhibit of works by Meschac Gaba is “a powerful commentary on contemporary cultural identity and the current state of immigrants and refugees,” the gallery states.

There’s a massive, colorful tent on the ground floor that's meant to evoke the temporary shelters used by refugees around the world.

A video work shot in the artist’s native Cotonou, Benin, aims to show the difference between that city and Washington, D.C.

The show runs through July 28.

Gagosian Gallery

The gargantuan Gagosian Gallery is exhibiting works by Belgian artist Carsten Höller through Aug. 11.

Sculptures like “Giant Triple Mushrooms” evidence Höller’s training in the natural sciences. The sculptures “combine enlarged cross-sections of three different fungal species, hybrids that seem at once empirical and surreal,” Gagosian says, adding, “like many of Höller’s topics, they are both formally and conceptually captivating.”

The current exhibit marks Höller’s first show in New York City since 2011.

The show is at Gagosian Gallery’s 555 W. 24th St. location.

Gladstone Gallery

The high-minded Gladstone Gallery has two enticing shows right now.

“Lyric on a Battlefield,” running through Aug. 4, assembles works by artists from a wide range of backgrounds. They include Kelly Akashi, Louisa Clement, Bracha L. Ettinger, Liz Magor, Suzanne McClelland, Monique Mouton and Kandis Williams.

“Through their translations of poetic reflection into the visual forms of painting, sculpture, drawing, and photography, these artists' different practices expand intimate explorations of desire, social relations, and the environment,” the gallery said in a release.

In other words, you have to see it for yourself.

The space’s other summer show, running through July 28, is another ambitious assemblage of international artists.

“Installations like Philippe Parreno’s Speech Bubbles, which forms a sort of cumulus cloud-like aerial landscape, or the seascape photographs of Robert Mapplethorpe and Wolfgang Tillmans, demonstrate the diversity of methods used to recreate recognizable yet surreal landscapes,” Gladstone said of its “Fall is Cancelled” exhibit.

The gallery is located at 515 W. 24th St.

Luhring Augustine

German artist Ferdinand Kriwet is exhibiting at this 24th St. staple through Aug. 11.

The “Mediawake” show features Kriwet’s collages, which play with mass communications and other topics.

“Though not formally trained as a writer or artist, he infused his work with a varied body of influences, such as Constructivism, Beat Poetry, Pop Art, as well as the writings of Walter Benjamin,” Luhring Augustine says.

Lead image of Ferdinand Kriwet's "Poem Print" courtesy Luhring Augustine.