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Balance, both physical and visual, has been key for veteran New York sculptor Mark di Suvero since his career launched in the late 1950s. In those days, Mr. di Suvero’s rambunctious constructions of industrial debris included tethered and cantilevered components suggesting playful, tumbling movement. Rubber tires or wood beams dangle in space and prompt the viewer to give them a nudge, just to see what happens. Five decades later, this artist is not done with the idea of aimless interactivity. A sweet little show now on view at Paula Cooper’s 23rd Street gallery features new, small-scale sculptures in various combinations of steel, stainless steel, and titanium that invite touching for its own sake. Each one is a delight. In “Morvan” and “Brokof,” a twisting, undulating configuration in cut, bent, welded, and burnished metal is delicately but securely balanced upon a central post that emanates from a slab-like footing. The pieces seem top-heavy, like an overloaded fruit tree, until you play with them and watch their canopies slowly spin. Mr. di Suvero has produced objects of this general type at least since the mid-1980s. This new crop suggests organic forms without specific figurative references — imagine a dancing chicken and you’ll have an idea of their winningly gawky, willful ungainliness.
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