Eden Seifu at Deli Gallery

Self-taught young Seattle-based painter Eden Seifu’s second solo show at Deli Gallery in Tribeca pits joy against terror in spiritually-oriented paintings brimming with energy.  In ‘Our Joined Hands Make a Landing Strip for Angels,’ a loving couple’s clasped hands create a pathway in the air on which tiny angels dance while ‘I Don’t Care if the Black Dog Gets Me’ pictures the horror of an attack on a young woman.  Here, the title figure in ‘The Angel of Pilgrimage’ holds a shell, a symbol for the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage in Spain, reminding viewers of the pathways on which we all, with more or less awareness, tread. (On view through July 21st).

Eden Seifu, The Angel of Pilgrimage, acrylic on canvas, 28 x 22 inches, 2023.

Hannah Wilke at Ronald Feldman Gallery

Hannah Wilke’s two drawings of herself as an angel after Renaissance artist Albrecht Durer, now on view at Ronald Feldman Gallery in SoHo, stand out among photo, video and sculpture from the 70s to the early 90s by the feminist art icon.  Although known for having defied feminist conventions by displaying her own body in provocative ways; here, Wilke’s audience gazes on her profile not her figure as she manifests as a celestial being.  Recalling Durer’s engraving ‘Melancholia,’ in which a female angel represents the artist’s melancholy, Wilke expressionist version offers a more freeing vision.  (On view in SoHo through Nov 30th).

Hannah Wilke, (detail of) Self-Portrait as Angel with Durer Wing, Nov 1, 1976.

Mernet Larsen in ‘Let’s Get Figurative’ at Nicelle Beauchene Gallery

Mernet Larsen’s eerie nativity scene is a standout in Nicelle Beauchene Gallery’s mini-survey of current trends in figurative painting. Though the figures’ boxy shapes recall the Cubism-mocking ‘Cubies’ cartoons from a century ago, flashes of oddness (in the position of the angels’ feet, a spill on Mary’s lap) punctuate an already charged atmosphere. (On the Lower East Side through Nov 15th).

Mernet Larsen, Nativity, acrylic and mixed media on canvas, 74 x 31.5 inches, 2005.

Francesco Clemente at Mary Boone Gallery

Angels sleep under rainbows in Francesco Clemente’s ‘Angels’ Tent,’ while top-hatted men act oppressively (one enslaves two figures) in the ‘Devil’s Tent.’ The lushly decorated Mughal style tents signal Clemente’s nomadic lifestyle while making a strong contrast between good and evil. (At Chelsea’s Mary Boone Gallery through Dec 20th).

Francesco Clemente, installation view of Angels’ Tent and Devil’s Tent at Mary Boone Gallery, Nov, 2014.