Art
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
NEW YORK IS PARADISE
California artist Sandow Birk’s update of Dante’s Divine Comedy confirms what many New Yorkers suspect: L.A. is hell. In Mr. Birk’s contemporary version, the Inferno is Los Angeles, Purgatorio is San Francisco, and Paradiso is New York City. The third installment, which includes 71 drawings and three paintings, is on view at PPOW Gallery. Mr. Birk’s cross-hatch ink drawings are modeled after Durer’s medieval plates depicting the Divine Comedy. The vision of the divine eagle becomes McDonald’s Golden Arches and the Fifth Heaven of Mars is 21st-century Times Square (the original passage reads, “In The Fifth Heaven of Mars, the lights danced around us, sparkling with love, and gathering until they formed the letters of words.”) The work is a collaboration with writer Marcus Sanders to update and illustrate the classic poem with current political content and popular culture. Through Saturday, June 25, Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m., PPOW Gallery, 555 W. 25th St., between Tenth and Eleventh avenues, 212-647-1044, free.
ROOMS WITH A VIEW
Yuval Yairi’s collaged photographs of the Hospital for Hansen Disease in Jerusalem are on view in “Forevermore” at Andrea Meislin Gallery.The large vacant building, known locally as the Leper House after Hansen’s disease’s more common name, was built in 1887 by German Protestant missionaries. Using a tripod, Mr.Yairi sets his digital camera on “still” mode and moves the camera in a slow pattern meant to approximate a viewer’s gaze. The works on view in “Forevermore” incorporate hundreds, sometimes thousands, of images. He captures a dusty attic, three stone bathtubs, a crumbling courtyard, and the hospital’s dentist’s office. Mr. Yairi lives and works in Jerusalem. This is his first solo exhibit in North America. Through Thursday, June 30, Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Andrea Meislin Gallery, 526 W. 26th St., between Tenth and Eleventh avenues, no. 214, 212-627-2552, free.
FEELING BLOO
Marc Bell’s cartoon-inspired drawings, watercolors, and paintings are on display in “Bloo Chip,” his second solo exhibit. The Vancouver-based artist also draws comic strips that appear in the Montreal Mirror and Vice Magazine. Through Friday, July 1, Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m., Adam Baumgold Gallery, 74 E. 79th St., between Park and Madison avenues, 212-861-7338, free.
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