Greater New York 2015 Edition

This most recent Greater New York is tightly curated (with some speculative room to move) around a trans-generational city of reality and dreams. It’s an amalgam of contemporary and historic art interpretations of the multi-layered, collective experience we call living for the city. Some very good examples of New York’s diverse demographic are represented from collectives like KIOSK and fierce pussy, and from quirky sculptural renditions of the human form and unique approaches to abstract painting as seen, respectively, in a large hall of figurative variations including Kiki Smith, Ugo Rondinone, and Raúl de Nieves, and in painting and installations by Sadie Benningand Donald Moffett. An overall minimalist aesthetic permeates the show, allowing for these disparately charged elements to flow easily together. Both literal and figurative presentations seem granularly considered by the curators within a historical materialist framework; theory and praxis in a challenging poetic tension. One of the high points of the show, which was fairly dominated by photography, was Louise Lawler’s monumental Formica (adjusted to fit) (2011 / 2012 / 2015) on the third floor, while some of the weaker installations lapsed too easily into illustrative display, like Sergei Tcherepnin’s Pied Piper Part II: Ringling Rocks (2013) on the first.