Jaimie Warren, “That’s What Friends Are For” at the Hole, through May 4
Orbiting in a web-obsessed space somewhere between Alex Bag, Ryan Trecartin, Cindy Sherman, and John Waters, Warren’s practice is delightfully gross. For a series of photographic diptychs she dresses up as a cultural icon, and then dresses up as whatever that celebrity resembles, according to “Totally Looks Like” memes. (One of the ballsier works has her posing as Lil’ Wayne, and a gremlin.) A hypnotizingly strange grid of videos sees Warren reenacting animated GIFs. And a film in the back room — a “remake of Fra Angelico’s High Altarpiece of San Domenico in Fiesole,” according to press materials, though it equally brings to mind the jam-packed cover of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” — is soundtracked by a group rendition of “That’s What Friends Are For” that’ll scar your dreams.
Michael Manning, “WILD FUSION: Vol. 1—Total Collapse,” at American Contemporary, through June 1
Do you love the ways in which digital culture affects traditional mediums like painting? Do you have a fondness for the once rabidly-collected Beanie Babies? If so, Manning’s exhibition will rub your brain until it explodes. The paintings are produced using computer software, then printed on canvas. At American Contemporary they’re paired with clumps of Beanie Babies (in some cases the Babies’ soft palette pairs with that of the paintings); abstract animations running on monitors propped against the wall; and wallpaper composed of a hodgepodge of images (Tibetan prayer flags, race car drivers). Manning’s press release includes a series of notes that seemingly inspired the presentation, including “SRIRACHA MAYO OVER EVERYTHING” and “Angry Birds hanging next to Turkish rugs.” Wild fusion, indeed.
“The New Romantics” at Eyebeam, through May 10
Predicated from a simple conceit — “just as the Romantics responded to the industrial revolution, this group of artists are similarly responding to the current information revolution” — this show includes sculpture, animation, video, and 2-D works. Jon Rafman’s “A Man Digging,” 2013, is a slow, sad pan through various “recent video game massacres.” Jonathan Monaghan and Nicholas O’Brien likewise explore virtual landscapes: An abandoned office and the iconography of Caspar David Friedrich, respectively. Jasper Spicero’s sculptures — like one that uses bottles of “Alkaline Fulvic Trace Mineral Infused Water” as its base — share a sensibility with Brad Troemel and the Jogging camp. Jaakko Pallasvuo’s “Utopia,” 2013, is my favorite: A meandering, personal film that deals with the artist’s inability to fully feel the picture-postcard natural beauty of what surrounds him.
Hunter MFA Thesis Exhibition: Part I, 205 Hudson Street Gallery, through May 20
Gallerists are known to trawl the school’s MFA thesis shows for future signees, and this first part of the thesis show is as good a group exhibition as you’ll see downtown right now. Two standouts make it especially worth a visit: Sharon Madanes, whose acrylic-and-plaster paintings recall the funky grotesqueness of Llyn Foulkes, and manage to be horrifying and emotional without verging on camp; and Mike Crane, whose “Feedback Action Program” is a slice of oddball eeriness that’ll appeal to fans of Hal Hartley and Keren Cytter. Part II of the thesis show opens May 23.
Robert Longo’s “Strike the Sun” at Petzel Gallery, through May 10; and “Gang of Cosmos” at Metro Pictures, through May 23
A virtuosic two-gallery show focused mostly on charcoal works finds Longo copying Abstract Expressionist paintings (Metro Pictures) and depicting the US Capital in a panoramic, seven-panel drawing (Petzel). The latter show also includes a massive steel sculpture of an American flag angled into the floor — it has a nice Serra-esque tilt and weight to it. The Capitol drawing needs to be seen in person, both from across the gallery and up close (where, oddly enough, the action in the murky side panels is possibly the most interesting part). Meanwhile, Longo’s photorealist renditions of paintings by Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, and other Ab-Ex stars look like the originals were loaded into an enormous Xerox machine. The intricate draftsmanship involved in replicating a Jackson Pollack is balanced by copies of classics that seem more inclined toward charcoal reproduction, like one of Ad Reinhardt’s “black” paintings.
ALSO WORTH SEEING: Justin Matherly’s hazy, enigmatic monoprintsat Paula Cooper Gallery, along with a series of sculptures that combine concrete casts with paint-speckled ambulatory walkers. Through May 23.
