“Eric Forstmann, 21” at Eckert Fine Art
Contemporary realist painter Eric Forstmann is showcasing his incredible still lifes of Oxford shirts, various jars and glasses––like the magnificently detailed and colorful painting called Shelf-Employed––and the serene Berkshire landscape for the 21st time at Eckert Fine Art in North Adams, Massachusetts. “I’m an eyeball realist,” says Forstmann. “I look at things and try to do as much justice to the subject as I possibly can by choosing ordinary objects.” In Forstmann’s strikingly realistic paintings, the celebrated artist commands the viewer to look at the world through his eyes. May 29–June 30.
“Works in Wire” at Historical Society of Woodstock
The intricate figurative sculptures of Alison Eriksen (1964-2019) are made from metal wire and wood—materials normally used to make musical instruments. “To me as an artist and musician, the elements of line, rhythm, and movement are primary interests whether in visual or auditory form,” Eriksen said. “Metal and wood conduct sound and respond to touch. Wire conveys movement and rhythm by its very essence.” Through May 30.
“PornWeavingsexhibition” at 11 Jane Street
Using the paper weaving process—an art technique taught to schoolchildren—Magnusson’s crosshatched assemblages are made from strips of pornographic magazines in an obsessive and repetitive process that conveys many people’s relationship to porn. Taken out of their original context and reassembled, the images still, point away from sex and toward the commodification of desire. May 22–June 27 in Saugerties.
“Shake Up the Room” at September Gallery
This group exhibition in Hudson is curated by Michael Mosby, featuring works from Reginald Madison, Sahana Ramakrishnan, Razan Al Sarraf, Marcus Leslie Singleton, and Brittany Tucker. The show’s title is a command to disrupt the status quo, to reject complacency, and to script new futures—an apt prompt as we emerge from COVID into a new normal. Of special note are Tucker’s self-portraits, which examine disparities in white/Black representation through caricature of the white body, a direct inversion of the minstrel show that focuses attention on Tucker’s Black body.
This article appears in May 2021.
