Michelangelo Pistoletto, “Lavoro”

Pistoletto first gained art-world attention in the late 1960s as part of the Italian Arte Povera movement, with his uncanny mirror pieces. Consisting of large stainless-steel sheets, polished and hung low on the wall so their bottom edges touched the floor, these pieces were pasted with life-size photo-silk-screened cutouts of people. Usually their backs were turned so that the viewer’s reflection seemed to occupy the same space as the image. Pistoletto works a similar magic with his latest series, in which scaffolds, orange safety mesh and mechanical hoists put us in the midst of a busy construction site—like the many just outside the gallery’s Chelsea location.