For our In Brief column, our critics sort through and select from New York's art offerings to present a group of short reviews that share a thread, theme, medium, or neighborhood. In this debut installment, CULTURED Co-Chief Art Critic John Vincler looks to the small galleries clustered around Henry Street, where Chinatown meets the Lower East Side, and finds some of the most adventurous art on view now.
Brian Oakes, "SEED"
Blade Study on the Lower East Side, 17 Pike Street
bladestudy.net
Through October 13, 2024
The exhilarating sculptures by Brian Oakes in "SEED" immediately bring to mind the play and interests of children. Their material lists read like science fiction: army men cast in piezoelectric crystals, homemade rubies, fordite (or hardened layers of automotive paint), meteorite fragments, and four wisdom teeth (the artist’s).
