Takashi Murakami at Gagosian Gallery

Hands down, one of the hottest shows of the season in Chelsea is Takashi Murakami’s current solo at Gagosian Gallery, featuring towering demons guarding an ancient Japanese sacred gate crafted by Japanese artisans. After Japan’s 2011 earthquake and tsunami, Murakami watched the nation turn to things spiritual…with this show, he makes a response by offering up his own quasi-religion. (Through Jan 17th).

Installation view of Takashi Murakami’s ‘In the Land of the Dead, Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow,’ Gagosian Gallery, Nov 2014.

Dan Colen at Gagosian Gallery

Multi-media artist and media darling Dan Colen points to Disney films as a source for his latest, mostly abstract, paintings collectively called ‘Miracle.’ Here, ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ features an arc of sparkles painted in raw pigment and oil. Colen’s process-based style is so fashionable at the moment as to prompt the question of whether this piece demonstrates magic with painting or marketing. (At Gagosian Gallery through October 18th).

Dan Colen, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, oil and raw pigment, 67 x 102 inches, 2013.

Nancy Rubins at Gagosian Gallery

California artist Nancy Rubins has been collecting aluminum figures originally found on playgrounds; for her first major NY installation since showing at Lincoln Center in ’06, she combines them like organic masses into wall projections and freestanding sculpture to painterly effect. (At Gagosian Gallery’s 21st Street space through Sept 13th.)

Installation view of Nancy Rubins, ‘Our Friend Fluid Metal,’ at Gagosian Gallery’s 21st Street location, July, 2014.

Glenn Brown at Gagosian Gallery

Quasi-familiar characters from art history, made repulsive by acrid colors with Fauve-like contrasts create uneasy new paintings at Gagosian Gallery by British artist Glenn Brown. Here, an unknown gentleman’s jaundiced, spotchy skin and cloudy eyes signal moral or physical disease. (At Gagosian’s 21st Street location through June 21st).

Glenn Brown, Reproduction, oil on panel, 53 1/8 x 39 ¾ inches, 2014.

Urs Fischer at Gagosian Gallery on the Lower East Side

New York gets a chance to see select sculptures made by some of 1,500 participants in Swiss artist Urs Fischer’s retrospective at LA’s Geffen Contemporary last summer. Select pieces have been cast in bronze and are on view at Gagosian Gallery’s atmospheric Lower East Side pop-up in an old Chase bank. (Through May 23rd).

Urs Fischer, mermaid (in middle ground of photo), cast bronze, 40 ½ x 48 x 84 inches, 2014.