Tom Sachs continually provokes controversy, as one might expect from an artist given to transforming Prada boxes into miniature death camps. He further cements his antagonist reputation today with a dozen outsize bronzes on view at Manhattan's Lever House. Weighing 18,000 pounds, his 21-foot-tall Hello Kitty replica (pictured) dominates the courtyard, while the lobby will host a pair of bronzed skateboard ramps, a bronzed dumpster, and three Donald Judd-esque battery sculptures (Duralast, Die Hard, and Trojan). "I always try to avoid the themes of art," says Sachs, who is also unveiling Animals, an exhibit of smaller-scale works, tomorrow at Sperone Westwater. "I imagine if you came into this world and you didn't know what a skateboard ramp was but you knew what a Donald Judd was it'd all make sense." Somehow it all does.
Tom Sachs: Bronze Collection, through Sept. 6 at Lever House, 390 Park Ave., New York NY, (212) 888-2700, leverhouse.com; Animals, through June 21 at Sperone Westwater Gallery, 415 W. 13th St., New York, NY, (212) 999-7337, speronewestwater.com