Art in Miami: None of the above

When I looked at the work of young sculptors/installationists in Miami I saw a tremendous amount of work exploring architecture and lived-in environments. It was as if Gordon Matta-Clark and Rachel Whiteread were in the ether. Many of the artists seemed especially interested in how we experience space and aesthetics in space, bringing to mind Judd, Flavin, Andre, LeWitt, Zittel, and Serra.

Magnus Thierfelder at Elastic (Malmo, Sweden): Thierfelder starts with objects we expect to find in built environments: power outlets, drainpipes, windows, throwrugs, etc. and then tweaks them. When I look at his surreal Explorer (left) I feel like I'm a character in a video game. In Lost Control, the tops of potted plants have apparently detatched themselves from their pots, and have drifted up to the ceiling. Theirfelder's work places the viewer in a comic book, or outer space, or anywhere other than places to which I'm accustomed. Lots of artists (including many mentioned above) have deconstructed the places we live using deep-voiced, manly things like core-ten steel and saws. Thierfelder does it with humor.

Kirsten Nelson at Frederieke Taylor (NYC): Speaking of deconstructed spaces, Nelson uses building materials such as drywall, wood, and spackle to turn rooms inside-out. In so doing Nelson puts back the spaces that Matta-Clark deconstructed, but she does it in a way that keep the guts he exposed on view. (Reminds me of a Jasper Johns gesture: 1956's Canvas.) Her work is nearly colorless, which focuses attention on her use of materials and the teeny bits of neutral color therein. Are all of our spaces this droll until we spice them up?

Sarah Bostwick at Gregory Lind (San Francisco): When the Christian Era began, early Christian artists were particularly interested in two media: mosaic and relief sculptures. Technology has passed by mosaic techniques, but thanks to laser-cutting relief is more precise -- and fresher -- than ever. (See Albenda, Ricci for a variation thereon.) Bostwick's reliefs read as memories and as spaces, both of which are waiting to be be completed in the mind's eye. Bostwick's pieces are generally fairly small -- a couple feet by a couple feet -- but I'm curious as to what she might make large. Related: ArtFever.

Conrad Shawcross at Victoria Miro (London): Shawcross is the one that doesn't belong with the rest of the artists here. He makes big stuff out of big beams of wood and light, big objects that allude to big ideas such as the solar system, big science, big everything. Shawcross' big stuff is fantastically appealing (Charles Saatchi was an early buyer), but since scale only takes you so far...