WHAT: Sarah Sze’s “Infinite Line”

WHEN: Through March 25, Tuesday-Sunday 11 a.m. – 6 p.m., Extended Evening Hours Fridays until 9 p.m.

WHERE: Asia Society and Museum, 725 Park Avenue (at 70th St.), New York

WHY THIS SHOW MATTERS: Sarah Sze’s current exhibition at the Asia Society not only calls attention to her revolutionary re-envisioning of the medium of drawing, but focuses on her artistic process as well. The American-born artist who has been cast into the limelight for her painstaking detailed and gravity defying installations uses materials ranging from notepads, to string and stone. Sze’s approach is a combination of modern and ancient styles she has borrowed, appropriated and redefined; resulting in a cross-disciplinary form of image making that literally leaps off the wall.

An earlier series of Sze's is featured in the smaller of the two galleries. It includes a number of lithographs, silkscreens, graphite, ink and collage drawings that synthesize memories and personal experiences of her subjects. The adjacent gallery contains entirely new works; daring hybrids between drawing and sculpture that hang on the wall reminiscent of Chinese scrolls. The pieces are highly composed and direct the eye carefully from one point of interest to another across the expanse of the gallery. In the piece “Checks and Balances” (2011) sweeping railings, fire escapes, tall trees, brush, Venetian blinds and the Coliseum are among the recognizable shapes in Sze’s flowing visual narrative. Starting with a single line that morphs into layered and cut out shapes, the piece blossoms into a collage of images and reforms into a single line as it approaches the ground. Sze's works on paper are that and more, as she asserts herself as an artist clearly not limited by materials. 

To see a selection of images from Sarah Sze’s “Infinite Line,” click on the slide show.