A Provocateur Takes Over a Chelsea Gallery Floor

Jordan Wolfson builds work that moves, watches and occasionally unsettles, and this solo show puts that machinery into Gagosian's West 24th Street space. Steel plates lean against the wall with images embedded in them. Robotic rigs run on tracks across the floor. The pieces are engineered rather than fabricated, and the engineering stays visible. Wolfson has spent a decade making art that refuses to sit still for the viewer, and this room is built around that refusal.

You come in off West 24th Street into the high white rooms Chelsea galleries are built around. Entry is free and unticketed. The kinetic pieces run on their own cycles rather than on demand, and standing through a full cycle is the difference between seeing the work and glancing at it. A slow lap of the room reveals timings you miss on a first pass. Staff at the desk will tell you which pieces are currently running.

The show opens on Friday, September 18 at 555 West 24th Street, a short walk from the 23rd Street stops on the C and E. Gallery hours run daytime on weekdays. Admission is free. Wolfson's work deals in confrontation, and some pieces are not gentle. Check the content notes at the desk before you bring children. It fits people who want contemporary art that argues with them, rather than a quiet hour of looking.