Kang Seok Ho at Tina Kim Gallery

The short lag times between reading late artist Kang Seok Ho’s paintings at Tina Kim Gallery as abstractions and then understanding them as representations of the human body generates little thrills of discovery.  In this untitled painting, the energy of the bold floral pattern is overwhelming; a second later, two arms to either side resolve vivid leaf-like shapes into the pattern on a skirt, seen from behind.  Abstraction becomes decoration, fine art becomes fashion, and flatness turns into curving form in just seconds while reading this vibrant and monumental painting.  In selected paintings from c. 20 years at Tina Kim, radical cropping (Kang worked from photos he took or found in mass media sources) allowed the artist to zero in on bodies without faces, the better to put the focus on form over identity.  Inspired by Asian landscape painting, Kang connected his contemporary vision of life with histories of rendering the natural world, rooting observations of the now with enduring imagery from the past.  (On view through July 29th in Chelsea).

Kang Seok Ho, Untitled, oil on canvas, 92 ½ x 80 ¾ inches, 2005.

Billy Childish at Lehmann Maupin Gallery

Though Billy Childish is known for his stunningly prolific production of punk and garage albums, volumes of poetry and thousands of paintings, his latest show of canvases at Lehmann Maupin Gallery exudes tranquility.  Here, a lone shore pine dominates the canvas, reaching out to the blue and white strata of sky with its branches.  In other paintings, solitary figures navigate canoes or swim in frigid-looking waters, suggesting a journey that must be undertaken alone.  (On view in Chelsea through Jan 7th).

Billy Childish, tree – seattle, oil and charcoal on linen, 96 x 72 x 2 inches, 2022.

Richard Bosman at Nicelle Beauchene Gallery

No one falls off a cliff or screams into the rain in Richard Bosman’s paintings at Nicelle Beauchene Gallery, a departure from the artist’s signature film noir subject matter.  Instead, a selection of Bosman’s work from the past thirteen years pays homage to icons of European/U.S. art history in the form of a painting on wood recreating Van Gogh’s palette and a view of mid-20th century abstract artist Barnett Newman’s studio.  The show’s highlight and biggest work is a 2015 installation titled ‘Museum Wall,’ a selection of paintings mimicking a Frieda Kahlo portrait, James Ensor’s masked characters, Van Gogh’s sunflowers and more.  Painted as if in elaborate frames, each canvas is pinned directly to a grey-painted wall like a poster, an homage to influential artists that also comments on the easy consumption of art. (On view in Tribeca through July 29th).

Richard Bosman, Museum Wall, oil on canvas, dimensions variable, 2015.

Becky Suss at Jack Shainman Gallery

During the pandemic, many people became extremely familiar with their domestic spaces.  Philadelphia-based artist Becky Suss turned up the intensity on her introspection by moving back into her childhood home with her young child and proceeding to paint scenes of her childhood bedroom from different points in her life.  Now on view at Jack Shainman Gallery, the new work reveals how she mined her memory for details from her past, creating scenes within scenes; here, each window in the dollhouse represents a setting from a different children’s story. (On view in Chelsea on 24th Street through June 18th.)

Becky Suss, 8 Greenwood Place (my bedroom), 84 x 60 x 2.5 inches, oil on canvas, 2020.

Catherine Murphy at Peter Freeman Inc

Catherine Murphy’s ‘Begin Again’ greets visitors at the entrance of Peter Freeman Inc’s SoHo gallery, questioning the foundation of the artist’s realist painting practice by juxtaposing emotive gestures with skilled rendering.  Painted black outlines resemble ancient handprints in caves or body outlines traced by children and are a stark contrast to Murphy’s naturalistic rendering of her left hand and arm.  The painting’s wallpaper-like background suggests an unstoppable creative impulse akin to kids painting on the living room walls.  Recently called ‘one of America’s greatest living realist painters’ in the New Yorker and ‘one of our great artists’ in Hyperallergic, Murphy in her mid-70s testifies to the importance of keeping her practice fresh by ‘beginning again.’ (On view in SoHo through Jan 7th. Note holiday hours and closures.)

Catherine Murphy, Begin Again, oil on canvas, 46 ½ x 48 inches, 2019.