#josiah mcelheny

[desimonewayland]

Josiah McElheny

From the Library of Atmospheres, 2021

Hand-blown, cut, polished, and mirrored glass; low-iron mirror and two-way mirror; electric light; walnut frame.

© 2023 James Cohan Gallery

[slack-wise]

Josiah McElheny

[artblg2000]

Josiah McElheny: Libraries

James Cohan Gallery, 2021

[newyorkarttours]

Josiah McElheny at James Cohan Gallery

Josiah McElheny’s current show of blown glass sculpture at James Cohan Gallery’s Lower East Side location was inspired by a set of references as complex as his mirrored environments but dazzles even without the background info. Prompted by a library imagined by Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges, McElheny creates vessels intended to house various forms of knowledge. In this sculpture, McElheny explains that oblong shapes embody the idea of atoms in motion and the planet on its elliptical orbit. Though we don’t literally see a library of knowledge relating to elliptical motion, each sculpture inspires wonder at the possibilities of what we may have not yet considered. (On view on the Lower East Side through June 12th. Masks and social distancing are required). Josiah McElheny, From the Library of Elliptical Motion, Hand-blown, cut, polished, and mirrored glass; low-iron mirror and two-way mirror; electric light; walnut frame, 24 1/4 x 28 x 20 1/2 in, 2021.

[tofuart]

In this exhibition, artist Do Ho Suh uses a chandelier, wallpaper, and a decorative screen to focus attention on issues of migration and transnational identity. Using repetition, uniformity, and shifts in scale, Suh questions cultural and aesthetic differences between his native Korea and his adopted homes in the United States and Europe. The wallpaper Who Am We?

July in San Francisco is typically a cold month, the fog and wind keeps us in the 60’s.  As pleasant as that might sound if you’re sweltering in the rest of the country, we start to miss the warm weather.  But just a quick trip down to Palo Alto and it was 84° and sunny yesterday.  The destination was the Cantor Arts Center down at Stanford.

When I previewed Josiah McElheny’s Island Universe  on the website, I was not particular excited. At quick glance I saw photos of what looked to me like bunch of retro chandeliers.  Maybe it is the damage of working in the world of interior design for 10+ years.  Well, McElheny is doing something far more amazing than pretty baubles to dangle over dining tables.  It is art, it is astronomy and photos can’t do it justice.  And once again I am reminded why, given the opportunity, you always need to see art in person.

I always enjoy the juxtaposition of old and new at the Cantor and after wandering past the Rodin horde, I encountered Do Ho Suh’s The Spaces in Between– this alone is worth a trip.   Now this is a chandelier!  When you enter the room, you don’t realize it is made up of plastic action figures.  The same for the colorful screen.  I didn’t immediately realize the wallpaper was part of the installation.  It appears to be some sort of 1970s grass cloth pattern until you step closer and realize it is a grid of teensy yearbook portraits (magnifying glasses provided).  Art that is not what it appears, color, grids and color.  I was in heaven and reminded once again that one day I must visit Korea, if just to see contemporary art.  

To finish off the visit one has to get lost in the Richard Serra and imagine they are in some canyon in the Desert Southwest.

[contemporaryartdaily]

Josiah McElheny at Corbett vs. Dempsey

[rosalinodessa]

Josiah McElheny 

Endlessly Repeating Twentieth Century Modernism, 2007 Modernity Circa 1952, Mirrored And Reflected Infinitely, 2003 Czech Modernism Mirrored and Reflected Infinitely, 2005

[artruby]

Josiah McElheny, The Crystal Land, at White Cube.