The phrase “unweave a rainbow” comes from the English poet John Keats, who accused Sir Isaac Newton of robbing rainbows of their poetry. Keats felt Newton’s theory of refraction altered an age-old symbol of hope by “reducing it to prismatic colors.” Reflecting on Keats’s reasoning, California artist Ariana Papademetropoulos has transformed the Schnabel gallery space into a total environment, creating a world poised between physics and fantasy. Plush orange carpeting is a colorful ground for cushions in rainbow shades, which can be matched and mismatched (i.e., woven and unwoven). On the walls, three hyperrealist paintings feature ominous bubbles—translucent representations of fleeting time. —E.C.

Ariana Papademetropoulos: Unweave a Rainbow
–
Vito Schnabel / New York / Art
Vito Schnabel / New York / Art
Ariana Papademetropoulos, “Curse of the Boys with Butterfly Tattoos,” 2020 © Ariana Papademetropoulos. Courtesy the artist and Vito Schnabel Projects.
Visit
Vito Schnabel
43 Clarkson Street, New York, NY 10014
Get Directions »
Start a New Search
Subscribers Only
Start your free trial to access the full Arts Intel Report
Subscribe to Air Mail to access every article
and search our entire Arts Intel Report.
Already a subscriber? Sign in here.