Artist Sarah Sze's installation based on precise randomness

New York

IT is morning in Manhattan. Most of the art world is still asleep or out of town for an August vacation. But at the Tanya Bonakdar Gallery on West 21st Street in Chelsea, the artist Sarah Sze debates the placement of dried paint strips.

For many artists, installing an exhibition is simply a matter of transporting their work from studio to gallery. For Sze, the installation - in this case, of her first solo gallery show in the United States in five years, which opens on Sept 10 - is an integral part of her creative process.

Sze has bu…