In 1968, Bruce Nauman videoed himself slowly pacing down a narrow corridor, swinging his hips with each step into a pose reminiscent of Donatello’s bronze David sculpture. Once again, Nauman posits the human body – now older and fragmented by a screen with multiple splits – as subject for art in a new series of videos at Sperone Westwater Gallery, also on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. (On the Lower East Side through Oct 29th).
Ruth Root’s untitled abstraction, created on fabric and Plexiglas dominates Jack Hanley Gallery’s group exhibition ‘The Congregation.’ With its unlikely form, as suggestive of a living creature as an eccentric chair, and mix of wonky hand-created forms and slick pattern, it’s hard to settle on one set of meanings for this wonderfully shape-shifting piece. (On the Lower East Side through Oct 9th).
Alix Pearlstein is known for artworks which juxtapose individuals from different demographics in order to question their relationships; for her recent solo show at On Stellar Rays, she substitutes cats for people, setting up dozens of relationships between the animals which are complicated by the installation’s title, Harem ROOM 1. (On the Lower East Side through Oct 18th).
Brie Ruais’ wall mounted sculpture is designed to record the trace of her hands forming the shape of the sculpture, Sally Saul’s little women offer a kind of canvas for her ceramic compositions and Sara Murphy’s leg sawhorses provide a support for unnamed table-top activities. All expound on the human body as inspiration for creativity. (At Rachel Uffner Gallery on the Lower East Side through Oct 23rd).
Taking the doubts of Christ’s disciple Thomas as subject matter, Beijing-based artist Miao Xiaochun attempts a radical transformation of his own, departing from traditional art-making techniques to explore how hand drawing on canvas from 3D models might energize his paintings. (At Klein Sun Gallery through Oct 8th).
Number 181 is a powerful presence at the entrance to abstract sculptor Leonardo Drew’s latest solo show at Chelsea gallery Sikkema Jenkins & Co. Thick clusters of driftwood project out over viewers who draw close to explore small sticks with white ends laid out in lines between rows of variously shaped pieces of wood. In this and the show’s other sculptures, Drew powerfully juxtaposes chaotic arrangements and careful order. (Through Oct 8th).
Digital technology allows us to be (at least in our conscious minds) in more than one place at a time. Abstract painter Sarah Walker engages the possibility of seeing multiple dimensions at once in her ‘space machine’ paintings, canvases that seem to offer portals into parallel universes. (At Pierogi on the Lower East Side through Oct 9th).
Judith Schaechter’s relatively small stained glass work, ‘Botanical Study,’ opens a show of new work that pits the human body against fabulous depictions of nature in all its rich abundance. Here, Schaechter ignores humans entirely, zeroing in on a single drop of rich plant and insect life, amplifying the wonders of the natural world. (In Chelsea at Claire Oliver Gallery, through Oct 22nd).
LA artist Wayne White combines set design with his signature word paintings to eye-popping effect in his latest Chelsea solo exhibition at Joshua Liner Gallery. Using found prints or paintings as backgrounds, he adds phrases that are completely at odds with their tranquil subject matter and more in keeping with iconic movie lines; here, the phrase, ‘I’m gonna play like you didn say that’ dominates a mountainscape. (Through Oct 8th).
While living in an artfully converted shipping container next to a Costco parking lot in Queens, New York sculptor Lars Fisk developed his hugely entertaining concept of a real-world place rolled up into a tidy, circular package. His first show at Chelsea’s Marlborough Gallery features the largest ‘Lot Ball’ to date, along with balls inspired by subway signs and a Mr Softee truck. (Through Oct 15th).
At the center of Rashid Johnson’s ‘architectural grid work,’ classically trained pianist Antoine Baldwin plays jazz compositions on a piano fixed high in the structure. Complex and intriguing sounds merge with an arrangement of evocative objects – plants in planters hand-made by the artist, blocks of shea butter, stacks of books relating to African-American culture and early video work by Johnson. Together they continue the artist’s theme of freedom and anxiety experienced by African-American men in America, offering escape through lush greenery (signaling travel to a warmer land) and abundant reading material (liberation for the mind) or imprisonment by a rigid grid. (At Hauser & Wirth Gallery through Oct 22nd).
Without cell phones at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the founding fathers had to make do with paintings made after the fact. Not so in Mark Wagner’s imaginatively collaged ‘Wish You Were Here,’ in which he collages a scene from the back of the $2 bill with myriad fragments of $1 bills to portray George Washington through a different lens. (At Pavel Zoubok Gallery in Chelsea through Oct 15th).
In David Opdyke’s nimble hands, subtly altered vintage postcards meant to stoke civic pride instead provoke dismay in a new series on view at Chelsea’s Magnan Metz Gallery. Opdyke prophesies doom in drawings, textiles and animations themed on class warfare and a dysfunctional government. Here, an august Chicago High School experiences a surreal trauma inflicted by a giant pencil (Through Oct 22nd).
Jonas Woods’ monumental painting of late basketball player Dwayne Schintzius offers a tragic figure for contemplation. After a promising start in college basketball, health problems thwarted Schintzius’ career before he died due to complications of leukemia in his early 40s. At over seven feet tall, with a mullet hairstyle as renowned as his sports skills, Schintzius was a particular type of American hero; Woods prompts us to ask what kind with his over nine-feet-tall canvas. (At Chelsea’s Anton Kern Gallery through Oct 22nd).
Art audiences love experiential art (witness long lines at every Yayoi Kusama walk-in sculpture, the Rain Room, etc), so it’s somewhat surprising how few painters offer to envelop viewers in their work. Sarah Cain is not one of the reticent artists, however. Her installation, Dark Matter, at Chelsea’s Galerie Lelong covers the gallery floor in bold patterns on lino, competing with but also complimenting vibrant canvases that employ beads, pinwheels, string and more to take the composition off the canvas. (Through Oct 15th).
Excessive squeezes of oil paint – created using pastry bags – on Xu Zhen’s canvases reach toward the viewer like living creatures, invoking coral or clusters of candy-colored undersea invertebrates. Produced by the artist’s ‘MadeIn Company’ and titled ‘Made in Heaven,’ the work nods to factory-like art production (referencing Jeff Koons’ ‘Made in Heaven’ photo series, for example) while offering a lush abstraction that looks good enough to eat. (At James Cohan Gallery through Oct 8th).
Gillian Wearing’s now classic video of herself dancing uninhibitedly in a London shopping arcade in 1994 – causing discomfort with the idea of turning public into private space – is precedent setting in the International Center of Photography’s group show ‘Public, Private, Secret,’ which considers how identity is created both openly and in secret. (Through Jan 8, 2017).
Ydessa Hendeles’ ‘Partners (The Teddy Bear Project)’ is a standout in ‘The Keeper,’ the New Museum’s intriguing homage to obsessive collections of deeply meaningful, often personal, artifacts. The installation presents over three thousand photographs from diverse family albums of individuals with their teddy bears, taken since the stuffed animal came into existence thanks to Teddy Roosevelt’s hunting exploits. Here, teddies break through class barriers, age differences and cultural divides as the world embraces a mass-produced consumer good. (Through Sept 25th).
Sleeping bags filled with rubble from nearby construction sites make for an eerie sculpture by British artist Mike Nelson. Placed in semi-hidden locations on the High Line, the bags contrast the luxurious living conditions being created in the neighborhood’s new buildings with solitary, make-do survival. (In ‘Wanderlust’ on the High Line through March 2017).
Smart cars snag great parking spaces in New York; this one, created by Harlem-based artist Nari Ward, enjoys a privileged place on the High Line where an admiring audience regularly surrounds it. Inspired by an abandoned car that hosted a lime tree in his father’s yard in Jamaica, Ward planted an apple tree in this car, lining the exterior with rubber tire treads and turning a symbol of nimble urban driving into a stationary support for nature. (On the High Line through March 2017).
Tony Matelli pioneered his hyper-realistic sculptures before the social media era, yet they seem made for photographing and sharing. This bronze sleepwalker is a major traffic-stopper on the High Line not just as an art object in its own right but as a catalyst for audience interaction. (In ‘Wanderlust’ on the High Line through March 2017).
Sweden-based artist Nathalia Edenmont is both collector and artist – using rare butterfly wings she acquires at fairs in Singapore and Paris, she creates labor-intensive collages that uniquely comment on nature’s beauty. (At Chelsea’s Nancy Hoffman Gallery through Sept 1st.)
We are like characters in a disaster movie, writes photographer Hiroshi Watanabe – though terrible events loom, we carry on with life as usual. Here, snow-covered persimmons make for a beautiful image but one that warns of a fast-arriving, harsher season. (At Chelsea’s Benrubi Gallery through Aug 26th).
Wild abandon meets danger in this 1974 photo by counterculture photographer Roger Steffens, though what appears to be a fatal leap is an illusion – the young woman landed safely on the ledge directly beneath her. Under the titled ‘The Family Acid,’ Steffens’ photos chronicle the lives of his friends and family as they embody the changing mores of an era. (At Benrubi Gallery in Chelsea through Aug 26th).
Neatly tiled platforms suggest a clean and ordered place while glasses with red sticks hint at incense offerings in New York artist Libby Rothfeld’s evocative ‘Option #1,’ currently at Canada New York on the Lower East Side. The setup entices us to make up our own story – one in which a fragile crown sporting a fairy-like face might find its way to an Asian supermarket shopping basket filled with potatoes… (Through August 26th).
Sopheap Pich’s bamboo and rattan flower is made of natural materials but resembles computer-generated imagery. In fact, this flower – from the cannonball tree – has personal meaning to the artist. It represents the tree that sheltered Buddha during his birth and is found near Buddhist temples and Pich’s home. (At Tyler Rollins Fine Art in Chelsea through Aug 26th).
From a 1962 painted black rectangle by Sol LeWitt to a series of canvases hung from the ceiling by Oscar Murillo, Pace Gallery’s ‘Blackness in Abstraction’ discusses varieties of blackness, touching on race, the life of the spirit and simplicity of form. (On 25th Street in Chelsea through Aug 19th).
German artist Peter Pillar spotted this surprising image of a woman being silenced by a ghostly hand while driving as he himself was traveling on the highway. As part of a series for which he photographed ads on the back of trucks, then removed text and non-image related info, Pillar lays bare how the images send particular messages. It’s an enticing challenge to imagine what’s would be sold by the original ad. (At Andrew Kreps Gallery through Aug 19th).
Using found objects, Fred Wilson tells a story of a man – in the form of a classic Greek bust – who lies broken before a stoic young African woman in the artist’s 2005 ‘Love and Loss in the Milky Way.’ Surrounded by glowing white milk glass objects (plates and various vessels) with two motherly figures positioned behind them, their disastrous encounter becomes a racially charged rendition of Romeo and Juliet. (At Pace Gallery on 24th Street in Chelsea through Aug 19th).
Chicago-based octogenarian Margot Bergman makes her New York solo debut with highly emotive, expressionist portraits created on canvases found in thrift stores and flea markets and reworked into double portraits. Here, a kindly, elderly face peers out from the forehead of a pouty-lipped blond, perhaps foretelling the younger woman’s future or portraying her internal voice. (At Chelsea’s Anton Kern Gallery through Aug 19th).
Nancy Shaver marshaled work by twenty-four artists to create ‘Quilt,’ a wall collage of Shaver’s own fabric panels and works in other media which spreads out over Derek Eller Gallery’s walls like a kudzu of patterns and pop culture references. (On the Lower East Side through Aug 19th).
Young Saskatchewan-based artist Zachari Logan asserts a new place in the natural world for the male body in works like ‘Leshy,’ a human figure created from flora and fauna, beautifully rendered in pastels on black paper. (At Julie Saul Gallery in Chelsea through Aug 12th).
Realist painter Don Nice pairs soda pop and pop corn in a Warholian consideration of the allure of brightly packaged processed food. These two paintings hang side by side in Nice’s current show at Driscoll Babcock Galleries, as if arranged for our viewing and eating pleasure. (In Chelsea through Aug 12th).
Karen Lederer’s ‘Hipster Wellness’ is a standout in Driscoll Babcock’s summer group show of painting by young artists who follow new approaches to traditional still life. Bright colors dominate, particularly a glowing bowl of Cheetos, which balances the orange color squares on an art book about Josef Albers. Painted as if seen in digital space, the picture includes Lederer’s own hand, not wielding a brush but as if poised to take a selfie. (In Chelsea through Aug 12th).
Imi Knoebel’s large potato paintings are a standout in Luhring Augustine’s impressive intergenerational summer painting exhibition. Organic and geometric shapes seem to vie for dominance while muted tones struggle with vibrant color. (At Luhring Augustine Gallery through August 12th).
Jennifer Dalton’s contribution to FLAG Foundation’s summer group show stays with visitors in a unique way. Custom-printed gum balls invite chewing, once you’ve decided between, ‘Tell Me Everything’ or ‘Don’t Tell Me Anything.’ The balls act as mini-personality test – are you prepared for a long story, or would you rather not know? (At FLAG Art Foundation through August 12th).
Alicia Gibson’s charmingly messy abstraction revels in the possibilities of nail decoration and personal expression in ‘Nail Polishing Club remix.’ Gumdrops, hats and very celebratory tombstones come to mind in this riotous appreciation of a female art. (In ‘X’ at Lyles & King through Aug 12th).
At the start of Dutch artist Bas Jan Ader’s 19 second video, Fall 1, the artist perches on a chair on a roof. As we watch with increasing unease, he leans over until he causes himself to tumble to the ground below. Absurd yet emotionally jolting, Ader’s video portrays the artist as dare devil willing to take risks and foretells his eventual disappearance at sea during the creation of another event-as-artwork. (At Metro Pictures in Chelsea through Aug 5th).
Does abstract art tap into a subconscious human understanding of the order of the universe? Curator and artist, Matthew Ronay asks this question in Andrea Rosen Gallery’s summer group show. His own colorful wooden sculptures explore forms recalling (in his words) ‘alien deep sea creatures, glandular secretions, vibrating fields of energy, and tongues and protrusions on scales indeterminable.’ (In Chelsea through August 5th).
Inspired by a poem that describes a shaft of sunlight that, contrary to its nature, brings darkness to mind, Barbara Gladstone Gallery’s summer group exhibition includes Nora Schultz’s enormous, ungainly window blinds, which look as if they were crafted by a giant’s child. Installed in the room furthest from the sun, their functionality is denied, their obtusely large and rough construction emphasized. (In Chelsea through July 29th).
Displayed under glass and supported by carefully crafted supports, Alan Wiener’s two bricks and a stone are everyday objects given the royal treatment but the mini-pedestals actually steal the show. Created from aquaresin in controlled pours, their shapes suggest candy, bones and ancient architectural embellishments. (At 11R through July 29th).
Abstracted eyes float before a male and a female head like afterimages in strangely ethereal canvases by New York-based Brit Eve Ackroyd. Evocative of dream-states, Ackroyd’s paintings bring to mind simultaneous layers of experience, from the conscious to the unconscious, memory to the present moment. (In ‘On Painting’ at Kent Fine Art in Chelsea through July 29th).
Robert Raphael’s cool-colored constructions of ropes are actually created in ceramic, rendering a traditionally functional material functionless. (At LMAK Gallery through July 30th.)
A phenomenal landscape meets a monumental project to collect data at mind-boggling expense ($1b+) in John Kelsey’s pretty watercolor of an NSA Data Center in Williams, Utah. (At Marlborough Gallery through July 29th).
‘Record Lines this Summer,’ a group show at Magenta Plains Gallery, takes its title from the delays expected at TSA airport checkpoints in July and August. In that context, Zach Bruder’s painting of Father Time holding a shoe up for contemplation takes on new meaning…is this shoe going to set off an alarm, or is he suggesting walking as a better mode of transport?
Cancer treatment in 2009 caused Sarah Bednarek to experience hallucinations of a geometric world; in her show at Morgan Lehman Gallery, she manifests these visions as sculptural forms that seem to simultaneously offer the mysteries of a red void and the domestic banality of veneered wood. Behind, Leigh Ruple’s vividly colored, lethargic character is barely contained by the canvas. (In Chelsea through July 29th).
Sharon Madanes merges her preoccupations with hand washing and chairs in this standout painting in DC Moore Gallery’s summer group exhibition. Wearing beads of water like jewelry, an unknown woman (in a cheongsam?) reaches into our space – the seats and table behind suggest we’re about to dine with this mysterious character. (In Chelsea through July 29th).
Shaped artworks on paper by young Brooklyn artist Gretta Johnson are abstract but bring specific objects to mind, as the show’s title ‘Jackets/Machines/Hair,’ affirms. Here, what looks like a heraldic symbol featuring modified fly whisks and a door hinge invites speculation. (At Feuer/Mesler on the Lower East Side through July 29th).
This painting of a sculptural fragment by German modernist artist Emy Roeder, a man puzzling over an abstract sculpture, and a portrait head by German artist Edwin Sharff are all meticulously paintings by Marti Cormand of artworks labeled ‘degenerate’ by the Nazis during WWII. Displaying the images as a series of 5 x 7 inch ‘postcards’ downplays their radicality but emphasizes the fact that their aesthetic has been wholly assimilated into contemporary art. (At Josee Bienvenu Gallery through July 22nd).
Caroline Larsen’s paintings are a deliberate tour-de-force of low-brow associations, resembling latch-hook or embroidery, created by squeezing oil paint through pastry bags and mounted on cheap wall coverings. Seemingly designed to test whether there’s any fertile ground left in the fine art vs kitsch debate, they deliberately elude the kind of transcendence that this majestic mountainscape might suggest. (At The Hole NYC through July 24th).
T Magazine described a sketchy painting of a happy pregnant woman by Trevor Shimizu as having ‘emotional depth’ that ‘transcends that of an emoji.’ Perhaps it’s because Shimizu doesn’t set the bar very high on his draftsmanship or finish that his paintings charm with their earnestness and humor. His latest show was inspired by parenthood, reflecting on sleep deprivation (front) and breastfeeding in public (rear). (At 47 Canal on the Lower East Side through July 30th).
A generic meeting room, scaled down to doll-size and crafted in minute detail by Roxy Paine is the centerpiece of Pierogi’s summer group show ‘False Narratives.’ The absence of tables as protective barriers suggests that honesty and vulnerability will be part of whatever discussions take place here; a bulletin board on the wall offers topics of conversations that include ‘captives and fugitives’ and ‘chance and fate.’ (On the Lower East Side through July 31st).
Young Brooklyn-based, Irish artist Gerard Mullin merges paint and design in hand-carved abstract works that never seem to stop moving. (At Kristen Lorello Gallery on the Lower East Side through July 15th).
The folks behind-the-scenes have taken over the scene at David Zwirner Gallery’s 533 West 19th Street, location in Chelsea, where some forty artists who work at the gallery are showing their own work. Here, Jay Pluck’s hand painted wallpaper pattern is a welcome sliver of Matisse-like color and pattern installed unexpectedly between galleries. (Through Aug 5th).
At eight feet high, Katherine Bernhardt’s vibrant, textile-like painting overwhelms with powerful graphics while her subject matter – plantains, cigarettes, basketball and Lisa Simpson – samples pop culture and everyday objects with strong associations. (At Canada New York through July 15th).
At first glance, Adam Parker Smith’s shiny mylar balloon sculptures don’t look long for this world; inside of each, however, are resin & fiberglass interiors and metal armatures that give the sculptures heft. Arranged around a faux rock garden, the balloons resemble classic Greek sculptures reinterpreted with humor – Venus stands in the foreground with a champagne bottle body barely covered by a flying scarf while Augustus towers to the rear of the gallery. (At The Hole on the Lower East Side through July 24th).
“Bodies merge with stuff,” explains LA sculptor Anna Sew Hoy of her recent sculptures, succinctly introducing her intention to build bodies that allow reshaped thinking. Installed at Koenig and Clinton Gallery in Chelsea, denim ‘worms’ and arms lifted to create an oval shape bespeak fluidity and openness. (Through July 29th).
Caroline Wells Chandler’s crocheted smiley creatures run and jump along the gallery wall in Danese Corey Gallery’s textile-related summer group show, ‘Common Threads.’ Goofily happy, they are pure fun. (In Chelsea through July 29th).
Designer Cey Adams – former street artist and Founding Creative Director of Def Jam Recordings – memorializes victims of random gun violence in this site-specific mural at Chelsea’s Jane Lombard Gallery. (Through August 12th).
As summer travel season rolls around, ‘Shrines to Speed’ at Chelsea’s Leila Heller Gallery acts as something of a cautionary tale. Sylvie Fleury’s smashed and sliced car – covered in nail polish – rests near an ominous pair of van doors by Richard Prince and a crushed Fiat 500 by Ron Arad. All are enticing objects but each undermines the glamor of car culture. (In Chelsea through July 9th).
At the top of a stepped pile of dirt, a domed chamber houses bees (contained in the top of the structure by a screen) and offers visitors a place to sit for quiet contemplation. Artist Terence Koh explains that the ‘bee chapel’ came to him in a dream as a way of offering sanctuary to the beleaguered insects. (At Andrew Edlin Gallery on the Lower East Side through July 1st.)
Self-taught super realist painter Lordan Bunch paints children from class photos and photo-booth shots, pulling their identities from oblivion to act as memento mori. (At Foley Gallery on the Lower East Side through June 30th).
Russian-American artist Asya Reznikov takes on the role of Manet’s bar maid at the Folies-Bergere, only she serves the demands of just one client and from her own body. Transplanted from the public realm into the domestic sphere, Reznikov’s character still manages a tight ship but with little apparent enjoyment. (At Nancy Hoffman Gallery in Chelsea through July 1st).
Glass, mirrors and distorted perspectives turn nature into a candy-colored wonderland in new photos by Paris-born, NY photographer Karin Laval. This hyped-up version of nature literally moves into the gallery space as Laval presents an image on the wall and as sculpture. (At Chelsea’s Benrubi Gallery through July 1st.)
Miroslav Tichy surreptitiously photographed unsuspecting women in the Czech Republic for decades; the resulting images are often celebrated in New York galleries and museums. For her solo show at the New Museum, Polish-born artist Goshka Macuga created this tapestry, featuring women from Tichy’s photos (and other sources) along with two women who wear body suits based on Tichy’s drawings. The women in the tapestry clean Karl Marx’s tombstone, summoning not workers but women to unite. (At the New Museum through June 26th).
Taking an 80s aesthetic as inspiration, Ben Sander’s steel vase is a surprisingly sturdy support for an abstract design of floating shapes and heavily textured lines of lavender paint. Sander’s accompanying 2-D work behind likewise balances the substantial – thick marks resembling giant paint strokes – with unanchored shapes including ping pong and Wiffle balls to offer an amusing musing on taste. (At Chelsea’s Asya Geisberg Gallery through June 25th).
Large mirrors intersect with clear glass frames in Berlin-based Polish artist Alicja Kwade’s first solo show at 303 Gallery, confusing the sightlines and adding intrigue to the gallery’s stunning new space on 21st Street. In the foreground, Kwade offers a beautiful brass sculpture that suggests the trajectory of a slowing spinning and falling hoop, arresting a sequence of events as a sculpture. (In Chelsea through June 30th).
East Asian tradition meets folk tale characters in the late Kirk Magnus’s ceramic demon, now part of the artist’s mini-30 year retrospective at James Cohan Gallery. Magnus’ deep knowledge of the world’s ceramic arts and his sense of humor are evident in a variety of vessels crafted with different techniques and featuring an assortment of oddball characters. (On the Lower East Side through June 26th).
From this single-projection light work from 1968 now on view at Pace Gallery to his stunning transformation of the Guggenheim Rotunda into a light installation in 2013 James Turrell suggest that light can manifest in physical form. Juke Green – glowing an emerald green that suffuses the room with color – conjures a giant gem or a portal into another world. (At Pace Gallery’s 534 West 25th Street location.)
Whether she is Venus, Sister Ray (a Velvet Underground character), or Penthesilea, the Amazonian Queen, Danish artist Peter Linde Busk’s recurring female character has a jittery, incomplete quality owing to her construction from cast-off and fragmentary materials. Here, Smalti, natural stones, ceramics and more compose a faceless, imperfect creature. (At Derek Eller Gallery on the Lower East Side through June 19th).
Iconic Italian Arte Povera artist Mario Merz demonstrated his ongoing interest in the Fibonacci sequence this spiral table from 1982, now on view at Sperone Westwater Gallery. Merz translates the Fibonacci numbers – in which each number is the sum of the previous two – into a symbolic display of nature’s beautiful bounty. (On the Lower East Side through June 25th).
Known for painting muscled men who radiate strength, Indonesian artist Nyoman Masriadi creates a painting seething with tension as two guards interrogate a party-goer who claims to be ‘on the list.’ Each towering painting in the show (this one is over six feet tall) seethes with drama as it pokes fun at various powerful men. (At Paul Kasmin Gallery’s 293 Tenth Ave location through June 18th).
An ostrich, Asiatic black bear and other animals look to be constructed of cigarettes but have actually been crafted from Sculpey and acrylic by Amanda Nedham. A standout in Invisible Export’s group exhibition on the current cultural status of smoking, Nedham equates animals threatened by habitat loss with another endangered species – the smoker. (At Invisible Exports on the Lower East Side through June 19th).
‘We were dealing with art as a way of mediation,’ explained late West Coast painter Lee Mullican of his pattern-driven, energetic work inspired by Native American art and design. (Seen here in detail.) (At James Cohan Gallery’s Chelsea location through June 18th).
Richard Tuttle celebrates fifty years of art making with a show of work from his last 26 New York solo shows. ‘Titel 3’ from 1978 typifies Tuttle’s sometimes ephemeral arrangements; a washy drip of brown watercolor on the wall interacts with a crisp, green arch of paper, creating a succinct contrast between chance and deliberate gestures. (At Pace Gallery’s 25th Street location through June 11th)
Sargent’s Daughters’ homage to Dutch New Yorker Anton van Dalen includes this painting from 1986 featuring behavior psychologist B.F. Skinner, whose pigeon experiments included a plan to train the birds to guide missiles in WWII. Himself a pigeon fancier, van Dalen reimagines the pigeon’s world to fascinating effect. (On the Lower East Side through June 12th).
A foam couch, a broken glass table and lamps made of driftwood define young New York artist Jessi Reaves’ slacker design aesthetic in furniture art now on view at Bridget Donahue. Here, plywood, foam and driftwood create a giant letter ‘O’ which is simultaneously a seat, shelving and an opportunity to experience an ‘Oh…’ moment while discovering Reaves’ forays into unfinish. (On the Lower East Side through June 5th).
Press images of 1920s movie stars inspired Cindy Sherman’s latest body of work – photos of women who have aged out of the young starlet role but who still wear cupid lips, smoky eye shadow and wistful expressions. (At Metro Pictures in Chelsea through June 11th).
Known for clever analogue photo manipulation, John Houck’s latest body of work adds painting to the mix. Houck paints around items borrowed from friends – here a mason jar – in successive arrangements, gradually building one composite photo that disrupts traditional picture space. (At On Stellar Rays on the Lower East Side through May 22nd).
Brooklyn-based artist Elizabeth Ferry takes fuzzy dice to a new level with these tactile plaster, paint and foam cubes, now on view at Bushwick’s Honey Ramka. (On view through May 15th).
Columbian artists Diego Alvarez and Maria Paula Alvarez treat wood as if it were paper in both meticulous lattices that mimic Bogota’s fencing and this cedar oak plywood sheet that drapes over a Plexiglas shelf like a piece of fabric. (At Magnan Metz Gallery through May 21st.)
Light up wall decorations, picture frames and clocks are the hosts for Chadwick Rantanen’s unusual art project, which takes the form of adaptors that allow one battery to be used in place of another. With adaptors in the form of bees sticking out the back of this clock, the device is forced to keep its kitschy face to the wall. Resistance to tackiness and artistic innovation become the subject matter. (At Essex Street through May 16th).
Vietnam-based artists The Propeller Group make a surprising connection between brass bands in New Orleans and Vietnam in a mesmerizing video created for the New Orleans biennial, Prospect 3. Here, a funeral band wades into the Mekong Delta, making an elaborate journey as they accompany the dead toward the afterlife. (At James Cohan Gallery on the Lower East Side through May 15th).
Titled ‘post-paintings,’ as if they’re pioneering a new art form after painting, Strauss Bourque-LaFrance’s wall sculptures are in fact made from 2 x 2” posts and cropped pictures from the New York Post newspaper. Colored like a quilt and featuring snippets of Post sports coverage, this piece evokes all-American pastimes. (At Rachel Uffner Gallery on the Lower East Side through May 16th).
Working between London and Botswana, American artist Chloe Sells shoots the natural beauty of the Okavango Swamps, then uses screens, overlays and hand painting in the darkroom to create unique prints with what the artist calls a ‘dreamy effect.’ (At Julie Saul Gallery in Chelsea through June 11th).
Shot around the world from Peru to Greece, Yorgo Alexopoulos’ videos of the natural world are a low-key sublime, prompting appreciation of beautiful landscapes unblemished by mankind. (At Chelsea’s Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery through June 11th.)
With oppressive systems as his theme, British artist Adam McEwan presents sculptures of supercomputers that move data, a rendition of airport security trays and this walk-in sculpture of the letter ‘K.’ The letter stands in for Kafka and a character in ‘The Trial’ as well as a hieroglyph for an open hand. The most convincing way to understand the mood of the piece, however, is to climb the terrifyingly steep stairs. (At Petzel Gallery through April 30th).
New York artist Amy Lincoln carefully studies particular plants, then incorporates them in paintings of the natural world so crisp and vibrantly colored, they’re almost hallucinogenic. (At Morgan Lehman Gallery in Chelsea through May 7th).
Arranged in vitrines or along this long shelf, Katy Fischer’s ceramic objects look like archaeological finds. They’re a humorous take on the notion that ceramics must have use-value and yet provocative in prompting consideration of what those uses might be. (At Lower East Side gallery Louis B. James through May 1st).
Painter and sculptor Volker Hueller is known for mining art history, remixing styles and associations from yesteryear into a contemporary visual vocabulary. In this recent painting, on view at Lower East Side gallery 11R, he turns one of his signature, geometric characters into art object, suggestively equating face and vase. (Through April 24th).
Above a barely noticeable landscape of frothing waves and neon-colored bridges, a strange assortment of alien characters array themselves like a contemporary, psychedelic thangka in Keiichi Tanaami’s ‘Vision in the Womb.’ The Japanese icon blends eroticism and the lingering terror of Tokyo’s firebombing in a hallucinatory scene that stuns in its creative profusion. (At Chelsea’s Sikkema Jenkins & Co through April 23rd).
Conceptual art pioneer Robert Barry uses language to transport viewers; in this handsome installation, cast resin letters painted a vibrant red form words like ‘intimate,’ ‘apparent’ that evoke strong associations. (At Chelsea’s Mary Boone Gallery through April 23rd).
Using her home and the surrounding landscape in Amagansett as subject matter, Jennifer Bartlett offers two versions of the same view. Both have been constructed with a graining brush, a tool that allows her to paint in parallel lines, taking her longstanding relationship with the grid to new directions. (At Paula Cooper Gallery through April 23rd).
A visit to the Alhambra in Spain inspired Oxford, England-based Sudanese artist Ibrahim El-Salahi to begin his ‘Flamenco’ series, in which he celebrates the music and dance of Andalusia in his signature, modernist style. (At Salon94 on the Lower East Side through April 18th).
Young Johannesburg artist Serge Alain Nitegeka pushes abstraction off the wall at Marianne Boesky Gallery in Chelsea, altering the gallery with paintings that project into the room while simultaneously acting as portals into 2D illusionary spaces. (Through April 23rd).
Evocative sculpture by New York artist Sarah Braman creates a nexus between mass produced furniture and the unique art object, coldly minimal forms and a potentially cozy bedroom, a mined metal and unexploited nature in the form of a gorgeous sunset. (At Chelsea’s Mitchell-Innes & Nash through April 16th).
This shot by Rosalind Fox Solomon comes across as simple enough at first…until you register that the caregiver is a crybaby, caring for a bunny and wearing a beard, defying expectations at every turn. The unexpected and odd dominate Fox Solomon’s selection of images from her archive, shot over three decades and around the world, now on view at Bruce Silverstein Gallery in Chelsea. (Through April 16th).
Fruity filling oozes from cracked dough like blood seeping from a wound in this painting of two stacked donuts by Emily Eveleth. The painting’s title ‘Façade,’ suggests we’re only getting half of the story and backs up the impression that these donuts can be read as stand-ins for much more. (At Danese Corey Gallery in Chelsea through April 16th).
Mary Weatherford’s Casa Reef is a standout in Skarstedt Gallery’s excellent painting show in Chelsea, bringing to mind Yves Klein’s body prints, but in geometric blocks that suggest an underwater structure emerging from swirling white foam pushed by a (literal, neon) current. (In Chelsea through April 16th).
Iconic photographer Malick Sidibe – who will be 80 this year – pulls out more joie de vivre from his famous archives of Malian night-life with images shot at parties over the decades. Here, three young men dressed as secret agents let us in on the fun of their masquerade. (At Chelsea’s Jack Shainman Gallery through April 23rd).
