Al Held and Lisa Hoke

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The exhibitions by Al Held and Lisa Hoke are worlds apart, and that’s what makes their work so interesting to pair in one post.

Matters of scale and space: Lisa Hoke, above, Boxed Sets, 2008, match boxes, paint, rivets, 14 x 12 x 10 inches

Below: Al Held, Vorcex IV, 1984, acrylic on canvas, 108 x 108 inches

Held’s paintings are large and visually voluminous. This is a guy (1928-2005) who ate space for breakfast, and so nourished, turned out vast and complex worlds of interwoven and intersecting geometries. If the logic is coolly Euclidean, the polychrome palette is wildly sensual. What a clash! Your first resolution for the New Year: See this show. It’s up at Paul Kasmin until January 10.

Held: Installation view of main gallery. Above: The First Circle, 1985, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 198 inches; and Roberta's Trip, 1985, acrylic on canvas, 96 x 144 inches.

Panning around the gallery, below: Roberta's Trip and Vorcex, 1984, acrylic on canvas, 84 x 84 inches

Hoke is known for her room-size installations with materials like paint in cups, filter gels and aluminum sheets, but for her show at the Elizabeth Harris Gallery (now down), she made a group of small wall constructions and freestanding sculptures. Called Notes on Making, the show was not so much a study for larger works, according to the gallery, but reminders to herself of ideas on color, form or construction.

These sculptures have the same kind of volume and space as Held's gargantuan paintings, but the scale is literally matchbox size. Her physically dimensional work makes use of shadows that virtually double the size of the work, creating a neat push/pull between dimensional and flat, color and its achromatic counterpart.

Hoke: Installation view of Boxed Sets (on far wall); Flag, 2008, filter gel, aluminum, hardware, 7 x 6 x 6 inches (center); and Squared Off, 2008, slide mounts, filter gels, wood, paint, hardware, 22 x 23 x 12 inches

Below: a four-square view of Squared Off

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