Shara Hughes at Marlborough Gallery

Titled ‘Trips I’ve Never Been On,’ Shara Hughes’ solo show at Marlborough Gallery includes slightly surreal scenarios like this one, a juxtaposition of landscapes that seems both dream-like and real. (In Chelsea through March 12th).

Mushroom Hunt, oil, acrylic, flashe, caulk, spray paint and enamel on canvas, 64 x 54 inches, 2015.
Mushroom Hunt, oil, acrylic, flashe, caulk, spray paint and enamel on canvas, 64 x 54 inches, 2015.

Clare Grill at Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects

This small painting by New York artist Clare Grill is a standout in a group show at Lower East Side gallery Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects for its lively color and suggestion of a sympathetic face framed by lighter color, curving bands. (Through March 13th).

Clare Grill, Lizard, oil on linen, 18 x 15 inches, 2015.
Clare Grill, Lizard, oil on linen, 18 x 15 inches, 2015.

Vanessa Prager at The Hole NYC

In person, the subjects of LA painter Vanessa Prager’s heavily painted portraits only faintly emerge from their textured backgrounds; in photos, they materialize more readily. The implications of being more visible on a screen aren’t lost on Prager, who has installed peep-holes through out the gallery to carry on a conversation about the absence and presence of images today. (At The Hole NYC on the Lower East Side through Feb 29th).

Vanessa Prager, Night Gaze, oil on panel, 48 x 48 inches, 2016.
Vanessa Prager, Night Gaze, oil on panel, 48 x 48 inches, 2016.

Amy Sillman at Sikkema Jenkins & Co

“I don’t care about beauty at all,” New York painter Amy Sillman has declared about the imperfect figures and heavily worked canvas of her paintings. Recent works at Sikkema Jenkins & Co are titled after the German word for metabolism, a nod to the process of changing paint into images that land provocatively between abstraction and figuration, suggesting both bodies and furniture in a color palette that simultaneously soothes and excites. (In Chelsea through March 12th).

Amy Sillman, Table 2, oil on canvas, 75 x 66 inches, 2015.

Eddie Martinez at Mitchell-Innes and Nash

Eddie Martinez continues to mine art history in increasingly abstract paintings now on view in Chelsea at Mitchell-Innes and Nash.  Tapping into diverse sources of inspiration – from Basquiat’s jittery line to de Kooning’s boldly outlined bodily forms – Martinez creates strangely familiar paintings to ponder. (Through March 5th).

Eddie Martinez, Park Avenue Peace Out, oil, enamel, silkscreen ink and spray paint on canvas, 108 x 144 inches, 2015.
Eddie Martinez, Park Avenue Peace Out, oil, enamel, silkscreen ink and spray paint on canvas, 108 x 144 inches, 2015.