Art Hag

Currently at Gladstone Gallery's West 21st Street space is a large, almost blinding, black and white installation by Banks Violette. Upon entering the gallery, you first notice the bright glare of throne (and over and over again), a giant chandelier composed of many fluorescent tubes held together by steel and chain trailed by many long, black wires plugging into a mysterious energy source hidden within a black traveling case on the floor. Directly across from the bright light source is blackouts/blackholes (and all the things between) / for DS 7.13.09, three large black, glossy pieces made of plywood, aluminum, epoxy, and fiberglass, elevated by steel scaffolding supported by sandbags. As the show's press release states, the black wall "seems to buckle and melt against the reflection of the light."

For both of his works, Violette employed "the monochromatic tone and the use of replaceable industrial materials common to Minimalist and Conceptual sculptors... however Violette's works seem self-consciously constructed and theatrical." By making the "banal technical necessities" (ie: wires, scaffolding...) visible, the artist "heightens the artificial spectacle of his installation..." The New York-based Violette has created a powerful, compelling exhibit. Learn more at Gladstonegallery.com and see more of the artist's work at Saatchi-gallery.co.uk. Through April 17th.

Over at Gladstone's West 24th Street gallery is New Horizons, a series of photographic collages by Jan Dibbets. Initially trained as a painter, Dibbets switched to photography in the 1960s and has since explored "the potential of photography to elucidate the conceptual variables of optics," (from the show's press release) creating "witty yet rigorous investigations of the elastic synthesis between object and space resulted in acute queries of vision and reality."

In New Horizons, Dibbets "conjoins[s] different photographs of a landscape and seascape along the line of the horizon." By connecting these contrasting images of expansive green fields and rippling blue water, often in "asymmetrical compositions", he "channels it as structuring principle, not only determining space and point of view, but also—in a very painterly way—the composition itself." The resulting images from the Amsterdam-based Dibbets offer unique, contemplative perspectives of nature and the horizon. Learn more at Gladstonegallery.com and see more of the artist's work at artnet.com. Through March 13th.

Banks Violette, throne (and over and over again), 2009-10