Marina Abramovic: Chair for Man and His Spirit
P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center; through 5/10; 22-25 Jackson Ave., Long Island City; 718-784-2084
Currently sitting in P.S. 1’s courtyard, Chair for Man and His Spirit is a reinstallation of a work created by Abramovic especially for the museum’s opening in 1997, borne from the artist’s belief that it is important in a new house to also have furniture for the spirits. Visitors are encouraged to sit in the seat for the humans, located at ground level, and if their spirits can reach the one suspended three stories above, they are invited to perch as well.
Kim In Sook
Gana Art; through 5/8; 568 W. 25th St., at Eleventh Ave.; 212-229-5828
After a lengthy bout of tuberculosis, Kim In Sook traveled the world with her camera, discovered a new portal through which to parse existence, and then, at age 31, began her career as a photographer. The fourteen color photographs in this show exhibit the progression from Kim’s series of glass structures in Germany to her latest project featuring New York City buildings, each with meticulously lit interiors staged with scenarios and actors.
Miroslav Tichý
International Center of Photography; through 5/9; 1133 Sixth Ave., at 43rd St.; 212-857-0000
Tichý began photographing in the fifties, in part as a political response to the social repressions of Czech Communism. This is the first American museum exhibition devoted to the reclusive octogenarian, featuring makeshift cardboard cameras, ephemera from his home, and glamorous, grainy, distortive, elegant images of women and landscapes, many of them taken surreptitiously.
Josh Lehrer
Robert Miller Gallery; through 5/8; 524 W. 26th St., nr. Tenth Ave.; 212-366-4774
In this series, Lehrer—whose day job is as a commercial photographer in Manhattan—highlights the invisible. His eleven cyanotype portraits of homeless transgendered New York teenagers—including E & Joanna, 2009 and African Queen, 2009—are moving without being maudlin.
Cedric Delsaux
Bonni Benrubi; through 5/8; 41 E. 57th St., nr. Madison Ave.; 212-888-6007
Highly engrossing, scrupulously composed images explore the formal relationship between the man-made and natural worlds. A highlight: Living Quarters in front of a Casino, Macao, China, 2008, in which the exterior detailing of the casino appears to sprout directly out of the urban decay in the foreground.