Chester Higgins, ‘Shared Memories’ at Bruce Silverstein Gallery

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Is this hand smothered by the US flag?  Supporting it?  Chester Higgins’ striking 2018 photograph, ‘State of Affairs’ continues the photographer’s six-decade photographic essay on the realities, triumphs and hardships of life for Black Americans with an image that is compositionally straightforward yet invites multiple interpretations.  The piece is a standout in the 80-year-old Brooklyn-based photographer’s current exhibition at Chelsea’s Bruce Silverstein Gallery, which includes work from his two dozen plus trips to the African continent alongside images from Harlem to Alabama, all of which richly demonstrate his love and respect for people of African descent. (On view in Chelsea through June 20th).

A closeup image of the American flag with an open hand in silhouette behind it.
Chester Higgins, State of Affairs, digital pigment print, 2018.

Katharina Fritsch, ‘Car and Caravan’ at Matthew Marks Gallery

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Katharina Fritsch’s sculptures elicit a mix of wonder and puzzlement, their careful manufacture and invitingly slick surfaces enticing us to ponder a strange shift in scale or unexpected color choice.  Here, a sculpture of a car and caravan in Fritsch’s solo show at Matthew Marks Gallery generates mild confusion at the incongruity of a Mercedes hauling a small camper (highlighted by the contrast between the car’s sleek black surface and the caravan’s white finish).  The artwork is based on a model of a toy that she presented at art school in 1979, a Pop art gesture that flirted with but flouted the prevalent minimalist aesthetic of the time. (On view in Chelsea through June 27th.)

A sculpture of a black car in front of a sculpture of a white caravan in a big, open-plan gallery.
Katharina Fritsch, Auto und Wohnwagen / Car and Caravan 1979/2026, vinyl ester resin, stainless steel, aluminum, lacquer, overall: 84 5/8 x 357 x 74 7/8 inches, 1979 / 2026.

Mark di Suvero, ‘Avanti!’ at Paula Cooper Gallery

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Preponderously heavy yet looking as if it just danced into Paula Cooper Gallery and paused for applause, Mark di Suvero’s 1986 ‘Nelly’ exemplifies the exuberance and solidity of the nonagenarian’s sculptures.  Across the gallery, ‘Avanti!’ from 1998 dares visitors to climb a small platform and use their own weight to shift a hulking great piece of steel suspended from a thick chain.  Both frightening and exhilarating, the experience of interacting with the metal behemoth takes visitors beyond the delight at dynamic forms to an appreciation of weight and actual movement.  (On view through July 17th).

An abstract sculpture roughly in the form of an X made of i-beams and other steel parts.
Mark di Suvero, Nelly, steel, 12 ft 6 inches x 18 ft 6 inches x 16 ft 10 ½ inches, 1986.

Gerhard Richter, ‘Landschaften’ at David Zwirner Gallery

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Though iconic German artist Gerhard Richter painted from photographs from the 1960s onward, his dry-brush painting technique abstracted images from family albums, books or magazines into intentional ambiguity.  Focusing on landscapes, David Zwirner Gallery’s current show of Richter’s work from the ‘60s to the ‘00s displays both abstract and representational work side by side and, in some works, in the same painting.  Here, Lichtung (Clearing) seems to proffer an idyllic glade in the near distance.  In the immediate foreground, however, Richter imposes a permeable barrier between viewers and the scenic break in the forest by applying green-toned abstract passages of paint on the painting’s surface.  Our inclination to mentally venture into the meadow beyond is arrested as the focus shifts to the surface of the canvas, changing the painting from a nature scene into an experience of light, color and tone.  (On view in Chelsea through July 10th).

A painting of a clearing in a forest, partly covered over and hidden by paint.
Gerhard Richter, Lichtung (Clearing), oil on canvas, 28 ½ x 40 1/8 inch, 1987.

Giuseppe Penone, ‘The Reflection of Bronze’ at Gagosian Gallery

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Trees in the forest near the northern Italian village of Giuseppe Penone’s birth have inspired the famed 79-year-old Arte Povera artist’s artwork from an early age, and they continue to prompt his poetic mediations in the form of bronze sculpture currently on view at Gagosian Gallery.  After passing through a large gallery dramatically lined with cork oak tree bark and small sculptural masks of acacia leaves, visitors encounter four sculptures titled ‘Clepsydra,’ a reference to ancient water clocks that marked time with a slow, steady release (or ‘theft’) of water.  For each, Penone removed (or ‘stole’) wood from a large tree to reveal a younger plant, stripping away the years and layers of growth to return to an earlier state. (On view in Chelsea through July 2nd).

A sculpture of a large tree trunk with a slice removed on top of which is a spindly, leafless tree.
Giuseppe Penone, Clepsydra [I], bronze, 130 11/16 x 51 3/16 x 49 5/8 inches, 2012.

Kay WalkingStick, ‘Mesas / Mountains / Sky’ at Hales Gallery

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Kay WalkingStick’s latest solo show at Hales Gallery in Chelsea, ‘Mesas/Mountains/Sky,’ follows her 2022 exhibition there, ‘Mountains/Canyons/Clouds,’ in presenting landforms and sky as subject matter for paintings that showcase the majestic beauty of the natural world.  Each fluidly painted scene is accompanied by abstract designs, patterns copied from Native American beadwork, pottery or other objects which belong to the cultures resident in the scene depicted.  Here, ‘Sage Brush and Cholla’ pictures plants important to Navajo communities while including a pattern with stepped forms around a cross symbol referring to the four directions of the universe. (On view in Chelsea through May 30th).

A landscape in the American Southwest.
Kay WalkingStick, Sage Brush and Cholla, oil on panel in two parts, 40 x 80 inches, 2025.
A geometric pattern superimposed on a dry landscape in the American west.
Kay WalkingStick, (detail of) Sage Brush and Cholla, oil on panel in two parts, 40 x 80 inches, 2025.

Elizabeth Peyton, mountains in my heart (the death of Sarpedon) at David Zwirner Gallery

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Known for washy, intensely colored close-up portraits of celebrity musicians and creatives, Elizabeth Peyton’s paintings and prints from the last three years at David Zwirner Gallery atomize her subjects, building their forms up from stark white backgrounds via individual brushstrokes.  In the show’s best works, a face takes up all or most of the picture’s space as if the subject is leaning in to take a look at us.  Rendered indistinctly in soft tones and floating marks, faces like Bob Dylan’s (pictured here) suggest impermanence and a wistfulness conveyed by this painting’s title, ‘I Was Young When I Left Home.’ (On view through May 2nd).

A painting of the left part of Bob Dylan's face.
Elizabeth Peyton, I Was Young When I Left Home (Bob Dylan), oil on board, 12 x 9 inches, 2024.

Robert Gober, ‘Plein Air’ at Matthew Marks Gallery

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Tiny prison windows appear in Robert Gober’s recently completed wall-mounted box sculptures at Matthew Marks Gallery, recalling the artist’s iconic barred windows and suggesting a place of confinement. This untitled sculpture adds meticulously hand-crafted window blinds and a rendition of Edouard Manet’s ‘Dead Christ with Angels,’ affixed to the back wall behind a fragile-looking non-functional lightbulb.  Pierced on the wrong side and iconographically incorrect in Manet’s ridiculed 1864 version, Gober’s Christ is missing the angels that would place the body in a timeline that leads to resurrection. Adding to the suggestion of stasis or failure, two cigarettes and a toothpick on the box’s floor suggest that someone has been waiting but perhaps, as the barred windows and nonfunctional light suggest, not seeing.  (On view in Chelsea through April 18th).

A box on the wall with blinds at the front and a lightbulb and picture visible inside.
Robert Gober, Untitled, aluminum, wood, clay, plaster, copper, epoxy putty, handmade paper, pewter, brass, glass, acrylic and oil paint, pastel, LED lights, string, 38 x 38 x 23 3/8 inches, 1990-2025.
A lightbulb made of ceramic and cracked is positioned in front of a cropped picture of Manet's Dead Christ with Angels.
Robert Gober, Untitled, aluminum, wood, clay, plaster, copper, epoxy putty, handmade paper, pewter, brass, glass, acrylic and oil paint, pastel, LED lights, string, 38 x 38 x 23 3/8 inches, 1990-2025.

Anish Kapoor, ‘Untitled’ at Lisson Gallery

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Walk in front of Anish Kapoor’s 15-foot-tall sheet of stainless steel at Lisson Gallery, and you will be flipped upside down and made huge, an effect both disarming and entertaining.  In another sculpture titled ‘Double Vertigo,’ two back-to-back sheets of curving steel reflect each other into infinity while their opposite sides distort gallery visitors’ appearances to the point of disorientation.  In his quest to know who we are as humans, Kapoor’s work often attempts to metaphorically look inside the body or aims to create a sublime experience beyond it.  His current show falls into the later category, immersing viewers not just in artworks but in environments of his own making. (On view in Chelsea through April 25th).

Three people stand in front of a tall, curving piece of reflective metal in a white-cube gallery.
Anish Kapoor, Non Object (Plane), stainless steel, 184 x 85 7/8 x 29 7/8 inches, 2010.

Alexis Rockman, ‘Feedback Loop’ at Jack Shainman Gallery

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For sheer beauty, no other current Chelsea show can beat Alexis Rockman’s watercolor and acrylic landscape paintings, part of his exhibition at Jack Shainman Gallery.  Attracted by washes of bright watercolor and acrylic, visitors are drawn into environments around the world that have experienced climate change-related fires or agricultural burns.  Oil and cold wax paintings in the main gallery juxtapose towering, burning landscapes with diminutive humans in boats on rivers in the foreground, helpless witnesses to the devastation.  A final gallery of ‘field drawings’ from the Great Lakes region were created from a kind of paint made with local materials – sand from the lakes or coal dust from a power plant – which he used to picture local fish, birds and more.  Part elegy at what is being lost, part appreciation of the beauty that remains, Rockman’s new work is a powerful reminder of the fragility of nature.  (On view in Chelsea through Feb 28th.)

Bird of paradise flower in foreground, blurry fire in the background of this washy watercolor.
Alexis Rockman, Osa Peninsula, watercolor and acrylic on paper, 18 x 24 inches, 2025.

Jeff Koons, ‘Porcelain Series’ at Gagosian Gallery

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Meticulously crafted in flawlessly smooth mirror-polished stainless steel, Jeff Koons’ large-scale new sculptures from his ‘Porcelain Series’ at Gagosian dazzle and dominate viewers, making the spacious gallery feel full.  Towering renderings of Aphrodite, the Three Graces and Diana are rooted in Greek and Roman myth but take their forms from diverse sources ranging from mass-produced collectibles to elite objects by Sevres or Meissen, continuing Koons’ practice of flattening distinctions between pop culture and ‘high art.’  Here, a kissing couple in courtly dress express desire for each other as the sculpture itself becomes an oversized object of desire, undergoing a scale shift that intensifies both romance and market appeal. (On view in Chelsea through Feb 28th).

A sculpture of two kissing people in 18th century dress in highly polished and painted steel.
Jeff Koons, Kissing Lovers, mirror-polished stainless steel with transparent color coating, 88 x 77 x 55 inches, 2016-25.

Eva Robarts, ‘Bikes, Bolts and Brooms’ at Nicola Vassell Gallery

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Titled ‘Bikes, Bolts and Brooms,’ Eva Robarts show of new sculpture at Nicola Vassell Gallery makes familiar objects feel both strange and wonderful by clustering them in colorful accumulations.  A rainbow of overlapping V-shaped bike frame segments and monochromatic panels made of roughly woven, crushed flat broom handles convey a certain amount of energy just by their tilting, dense arrangement of forms.  In the back room, this combination of a scythe and truck mirror titled ‘Dancers’ strikes a darker, dangerous note.  (On view in Chelsea through Feb 21st).

Eva Robarts, Dancers, scythe, trucking door mount mirror, steel hardware, 35 x 54 x 33 inches, 2021.

Esteban Cabeza de Baca, ‘Pollinators’ at Garth Greenan Gallery

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Though based on the east coast, Esteban Cabeza de Baca roots his artworks in his parents’ Mexican heritage and his childhood upbringing near the California / Mexico border.  In this painting in his latest solo show at Garth Greenan Gallery, the artist employs New Mexico soil along with dyes made of cochineal from insects and indigo along with acrylic and spray paint, merging contemporary and ancient materials.  A Maize god featured on Mayan artifacts inspired the green, human-plant hybrid figure pictured here on a segment of a wall which has broken away and is hovering in space at the center of this painting.  Accepting human figures onto its open plant-palm, the deity offers a chance to exist in communion with nature, a recurring theme of Cabeza de Baca’s work. (On view in Chelsea through Feb 21st).

Esteban Cabeza de Baca, Portals to the Lunar Maize God, New Mexico soil, acrylic, and spray paint on cochineal and indigo dyed canvas, 72 x 72 inches, 2025.

Cheryl Molnar, ‘The Overview’ at C24 Gallery

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The Malibu coast comes alive with dynamic curving shapes yet feels slightly foreboding in Cheryl Molnar’s collages of cut paper, photos and drawings on birch panel at C24 Gallery.  The sky’s swirling lines evoke an Edvard Munch-like ‘scream of nature’ while a disused pier with roller coasters suggests a tourist spot fallen on hard times.  The red and white patterns of beach umbrellas break-up the straight lines of the boardwalk while appearing to move like pin-wheels in the wind.  Cheer and unease compete in a masterfully crafted confrontation between human entertainments and nature’s sublime.  (On view in Chelsea through Feb 21st).

Malibu beach scene with red and white umbrellas, a swirling sky and cliffs in the background.
Cheryl Molnar, Malibu, gouache and mixed media collage on wood panel, 48 x 72 inches, 2019.
Detail of previous image, focusing on walkway along beach with umbrellas either side and cliffs in distance.
Cheryl Molnar, (detail) Malibu, gouache and mixed media collage on wood panel, 48 x 72 inches, 2019.

Nicolas Party, ‘Dead Fish’ at Karma Gallery

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Nicolas Party’s last major NY solo show alluded to the devastating effects of climate change with a huge mural of a raging forest fire; imagery of dead fish in his current exhibition at Karma again suggests a relationship of precarity with the natural world.  Inspired by Renoir’s still life paintings of fish and Goya’s tonally darker paintings of the same subject matter (both created during wartime), Party presents a small oil on copper painting and a 14-foot-high mural featuring a pile of fish, a symbol of mortality more stark for its isolation at the center of the artwork.  The shift in scale from the show’s diminutive oil on copper paintings to the vast wall piece unsubtly directs viewers back to a feeling of thought-provoking unease that pervades Party’s practice. (On view in Chelsea through Feb 14th).

Several dead fish lie in a pile at the center of a blank area.
Nicolas Party, Dead Fish, soft pastel on wall, 173 x 206 inches, 2026.

Nicole Cherubini, ‘Hotel Roma’ at Friedman Benda Gallery

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Three towering arrangements of curving stacked forms in Nicole Cherubini’s first solo show at Chelsea’s Friedman Benda Gallery represent Greek mythology’s Three Graces in a decidedly updated style. Cherubini’s versions partially preserve the white expanses of flesh on ancient marble trios while adding expressionist drips and splashes of color and terracotta material as if to partially cloth the normally nude characters.  In past work, Cherubini has treated sculpture and support as equally important; here for Grace number three, a long bench-like form extends away from the figure like the train of a dress or elements of a landscape. (On view in Chelsea through Feb 21st).

A stack of sculptural ceramic forms with a bench-like shape extending back into the gallery.
Nicole Cherubini, 3, earthenware, terracotta, sculptural clay, glaze, epoxy resin, Magic Sculpt, acrylic paint, steel rod, hardware, 87 ¼ x 146 x 26 ½ inches, 2025.

Lynn Geesaman at Yancey Richardson Gallery

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An almost eerie stillness pervades Lynn Geesaman’s 1999 photograph at Parc de Jeurre, an estate with gardens southwest of Paris, in a show of the late photographer’s strikingly beautiful photos from the 90s and early ‘00s at Yancey Richardson Gallery.  Here, no breeze sways the orderly rows of trees broken by the trunk of an older tree in the foreground.  The contrast between the strict planning of the planting and a sense of unpredictability represented by the soft, almost abstracting focus is typical of the show’s selection of Geesaman’s work and lends the photographs a surprising, dreamlike quality.  (On view in Chelsea through Feb 28th).

A landscape planted with rows of trees and one lone tree in the foreground.
Lynn Geesaman, Parc de Jeurre, France, lifetime chromogenic print, image: 28 x 27 7/8 inches, 1999.

Louise Bourgeois, ‘Gathering Wool’ at Hauser & Wirth Gallery

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Though Hauser and Wirth Gallery’s current exhibition of work by Louise Bourgeois focuses on the late artist’s abstract sculpture, many pieces incorporate found objects or include an element of representation that gives each work an extra charge.  Viewers first encounter a darkened gallery dominated by a metal submarine-like shape in two parts – one moving slowly in an out of the other on rails – meant to evoke mother/child dependency. Less unnerving but still pointing to the female body, one of the artist’s Poids sculptures features a humerously minimal assemblage of curving forms – a tire and two liquid-filled glass bowls positioned on an arched steel rod – that suggest a stooped, subservient form. Here, an untitled pink marble sculpture offers another spherical shape, this one with a chubby arm emerging from one side as if breaking out into independent life.  (On view in Chelsea through April 18th).

A marble sphere sits on top of a roughly carved marble block. A child's chubby upper arm comes from the sphere.
Louise Bourgeois, Untitled (With Hand), pink marble, 31 x 30 ½ x 21 inches, 1989.

Jacob Hashimoto, ‘The bittersweet fall into actuality’ at Miles McEnery Gallery

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Jacob Hashimoto’s new wall-mounted paper and bamboo sculptures at Miles McEnery Gallery have tantalizing titles (‘The problem with bubbles’ and ‘It was all possible until it wasn’t’) but are resolutely abstract.  Inspired by structures from circuit-boards to cells, Hashimoto has described his work as an open system that allows viewers in, validating a variety of experience.  Nevertheless, he seems to be edging closer to representation with this multi-colored, riotously patterned construction titled, ‘The bittersweet fall into actuality.’  Anchored in a form suggesting a tree, the artist’s step towards ‘actuality’ is still enjoyably open to interpretation. (On view in Chelsea through Dec 20th).

An artwork composed of layers of small paper disks with abstract patterning. The entire pattern suggests a tree at the center with surrounding abstract patterns.
Jacob Hashimoto, The bittersweet fall into actuality, acrylic, paper, bamboo, wood and Dacron, 60 x 48 x 8 ¼ inches, 2025.
Detail of the artwork showing abstract patterns of green, white and brown on circular disks.
Jacob Hashimoto, (detail) The bittersweet fall into actuality, acrylic, paper, bamboo, wood and Dacron, 60 x 48 x 8 ¼ inches, 2025.

Guanyu Xu, ‘Resident Aliens’ at Yancey Richardson Gallery

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Though they’re hard to read at first glance, it’s illegibility that draws viewers into Guanyu Xu’s photographs of apartment interiors at Yancey Richardson Gallery. At first appearing to be a digital collage, the images are of actual physical spaces temporarily hung with photographs and shot by Xu.  Here, the floor and curving wall anchor the scene, which is hung with a photo of a window (partially covering a doorway), a photo of a bookshelf affixed to a radiator along with larger and smaller images that make space strange.  The details draw us in – travel photos, personal snapshots and more express the particular character and interests of the apartment owner, each of whom lives in the US or China with varying immigration statuses.  Titled ‘Resident Alien,’ the focus on intimate personal details in each photographed interior challenges the exhibition title’s cold terminology. (On view in Chelsea through Dec 20th).

A photograph of an apartment with printed photos of different sizes and subjects hung on the wall.
Guanyu Xu, DJ-08182018-01172022, archival pigment print, 2022.
Photograph of an apartment interior with many photographs of various sizes hung from the wall.
Guanyu Xu, (detail of) DJ-08182018-01172022, archival pigment print, 2022.

Chiharu Shiota, ‘Echoes Between’ at Templon Gallery

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Visitors to Berlin-based Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota’s latest solo show at Templon Gallery in Chelsea immediately encounter a tunnel-like path through hanging fiberoptic threads, an enchanting space that invites wonder.  Tiny lights at the end of each thread affixed to the ceiling form walls of white light which open up to allow visitors to walk around a white chair placed at the center of the gallery.  Known for employing everyday objects that may carry histories of use, Shiota arranges a flurry of butterfly-like fabric tufts above the chair, perhaps alluding to a person or spirit who is no longer there.  Suggesting transformation and passage into another state of consciousness, wakefulness or life, the installation is a dramatic opener to a though-provoking show.  (On view in Chelsea through Jan 22nd).

A white chair sits in the center of a room, surrounded by hanging fiberoptic threads.
Chiharu Shiota, installation view of ‘Echoes Between,’ November 2025 at Templon Gallery, New York.

Alex Katz at Gladstone Gallery

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Early in his ninth decade, iconic painter Alex Katz commented that he was streamlining his schedule to channel his efforts into painting.  The energy expressed by the huge, vividly colored paintings in his solo show at Gladstone Gallery suggests that the strategy continues to be effective at age 98.  Ten-foot-tall paintings feature patterns of dappled light expressed in orange paint on white canvas – a recreation of the optical effects of moving from bright sun outdoors into a darkened interior.  Accompanied by a video by Matthew Barney of Katz alone in his studio climbing a ladder, painting or standing in contemplation, the show demonstrates Katz’s vigor and his appreciation of the possibility of intense visual experience in the natural world.  (On view through Dec 20th).

A doorway through which you can see 3 abstract orange and white paintings. Above the doorway is a screen with a man on a ladder painting the orange paintings.
Alex Katz, installation view at Gladstone Gallery, November 2025.

Jennifer Packer, “Dead Letter” at Sikkema Malloy Jenkins

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From the first painting in Jennifer Packer’s solo show at Sikkema Malloy Jenkins to the final piece, the artist pictures individuals in repose.  Several figures lie on couches while nearby, their intimates read, smoke or simply look on.  In other works, heads fill the canvas, appearing to be sleeping peacefully, though they are rendered in visceral, red tones.  Packer’s first show of new work at the gallery since the unexpected death of her partner in 2021 poignantly pictures moments of absence and presence, usually in the same painting, while continuing her signature focus on the unique beauty and value of her subjects.  Here, in a piece called ‘Melt,’ a figure slumps down with a bag by her feet, as if grateful to arrive in a peaceful place of rest.  (On view in Chelsea through Dec 13th).

A woman leans back against a chair, resting, with a shopping bag by her side on the floor.
Jennifer Packer, Melt, oil on canvas, 26 x 30 1/8 inches, 2025.

Kader Attia, ‘Shattering and Gathering Our Traces’ at Lehmann Maupin Gallery

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Born in the decade after Algerian independence, Kader Attia grew up in Paris and Algeria, forming a cross-cultural identity that continues to inspire his multi-disciplinary practice. For his latest show at Lehmann Maupin Gallery, Attia presents collages of spliced together African and European cultural objects, suggesting complicated interrelationships.  A film featuring a French supporter of the Algerian National Liberation Front, a French political scientist and the artist’s mother tells stories of colonial resistance alongside suitcases full of broken, light-reflecting mirrors that embody the notion of gathering and repair of shattered lives.  In the gallery’s main room, the installation ‘Resonance’ allows visitors to gently ring the bells installed in a series of birdcages, communicating with each other without words.  (On view in Chelsea through Dec 13th).

A room with bird cages hanging from ropes from the ceiling.
Kader Attia, installation view of ‘Resonance’ at Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York, Nov 2025.

Veronica Ryan, ‘Retrieval’ at Paula Cooper Gallery

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Three years after winning Britain’s biggest art prize Veronica Ryan’s evocative, small-scale sculpture invite intimate inspection at Paula Cooper Gallery.  Despite the many accolades that have come her way in recent years, Ryan continues to craft humble, abstract sculptures from a combination of ephemeral and found materials that speak to the memories and associations held by everyday objects.  Titled ‘Retrieval,’ the show includes objects covered in bandages and sacks of Himalayan salt crystals that open conversations about healing.  Pillow-like forms, pincushions and a giant doily speak to the labor and care shown by Ryan’s late mother, who embroidered the family’s pillowcases and made clothing.  Here, two small towers created by stacking pie tins and held together by crocheted wool represent a structure made to house bundles of salt and ceramic seeds, symbols of healing and growth. (On view in Chelsea through Nov 22nd).

Two circular columns of stacked materials inside of two close-fitting orange and a turquoise crocheted sacks.
Veronica Ryan, Totem, pie tins, crochet wool, plaster, thread, Himalayan salt, netting, air-dried clay, acrylic paint, pink totem: 35 x 12 x 9 inches, blue totem: 30 ¼ x 9 ¼ x 9 ¼ inches, 2024-25.
A circular column inside of two crocheted forms, supporting three small sacks.
Veronica Ryan, Totem, pie tins, crochet wool, plaster, thread, Himalayan salt, netting, air-dried clay, acrylic paint, pink totem: 35 x 12 x 9 inches, blue totem: 30 ¼ x 9 ¼ x 9 ¼ inches, 2024-25.

Scherezade Garcia, ‘Sea of Belonging’ at Praxis Gallery

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The sea is calm but overwhelming in Scherezade Garcia’s paintings at Praxis Gallery.  Swells and currents represented by thick, multi-toned and almost calligraphic lines create a dynamic that competes with the opulent decoration worn by serene, even regal characters.  Titles like ‘Splendor of a New World’ or ‘Map of the World’ harken to the historical arrival of Europeans in the Americas and the cultural intersections that resulted, represented in Garcia’s work by the combination of baroque forms and people with what she calls ‘cinnamon skin.’  Seeing water as a metaphor for transformation and movement, the artist’s opulent vision speaks to the beauty and possibilities of fluidity. (On view in Chelsea through Nov 1st).

A person resting in water in a golden life preserver with elaborate clothing, hair and jewelry.
Scherezade Garcia, Splendor of a New World, Gold Paints acrylic, charcoal, pastel on linen, 72 x 54 inches, 2025.
A person with golden hair, an elaborate collar and jewelry.
Scherezade Garcia, Splendor of a New World, Gold Paints acrylic, charcoal, pastel on linen, 72 x 54 inches, 2025.

Lawrence Weiner, AS OFTEN AS NOT at Gladstone Gallery

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Late conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner realized in 1968 that he could favor the idea of an artwork more than an actual physical object and went on to make hundreds of text-based artworks.  Around thirty are on display at Gladstone Gallery through Saturday, a mini-retrospective that starts with his iconic ‘Declaration of Intent’ to physically create – or not – an artwork.  Appearing on the wall just inside the gallery entrance in pale pink text, Weiner’s foundational principle is present but subordinate to bold statements in the main gallery, such as ‘SET AT THE POINT JUST BEFORE THE POINT OF NO RETURN’ or here, ‘AS OFTEN AS NOT,’ phrases that can take the mind to a place that an image cannot.  (On view at Gladstone Gallery’s 21st Street location in Chelsea through Oct 25th).

Text on the wall in black bold font reading 'As Often as Not'.
Lawrence Weiner, AS OFTEN AS NOT, language and the materials referred to, dimensions variable, 2017.

Gabriel Chaile, ‘Esto es America, o qual e o limite?’ at Marianne Boesky Gallery

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It’s easy to miss a tiny black and white photo of protestors in Bozeman, Montana at the entrance to Gabriel Chaile’s solo show at Marianne Boesky Gallery, but the marchers inspired the Argentinian artist to arrange his monumental adobe sculptures as if they’re conducting their own demonstration.  Known for anthropomorphic sculptures inspired by indigenous art in the Americas, Chaile created five enormous figures with large, stylized eyes, mouths and arms drawn flush with the vessel surface.  Here, a sculpture mimics the form of an oven, the open space inside the round mouth suggesting community production of sustaining bread.  Placed in a circular arrangement in the gallery (where Chaile created them in-place this summer), their powerful size and charming, fantastical quality prompt appreciation and respect for the relevance and beauty of indigenous cultural tradition.  (On view in Chelsea through Oct 18th).

Gabriel Chaile, installation view of ‘Esto es America, o qual e o limite?’ at Marianne Boesky Gallery, Sept 2025.

Pedro Reyes, new work at Lisson Gallery

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New stone, glass, silver and gold mosaics compliment stylized sculptures inspired by Pre-Columbian culture by Pedro Reyes in the Mexican artist’s latest solo show at Chelsea’s Lisson Gallery.  Adding bright notes of color and presenting a compact vocabulary of small-scale decorative forms, the small, wall-mounted mosaics recall architectural fragments.  One piece featuring scrolling forms is titled ‘Mitla,’ a reference to the Zapotec archeological site rich with patterned architecture.  Here, ‘Chaac’ recalls the Mayan deity associated with rain, thunder and lightning.  (On view in Chelsea through Oct 18th).

Abstract pattern of silver lines on blue/green background.
Pedro Reyes, Chaac, silver and glass mosaic, 18 ¼ x 11 ½ x 1 ½ inches, 2025.

Sonia Boyce, ‘Improvise with What We Have’ at Hauser & Wirth Gallery

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What is music when you can’t hear it?  ‘Silent Disco,’ a new video work by British artist Sonia Boyce at Hauser and Wirth Gallery in Chelsea, features headphone-wearing people dancing to music that the audience can’t hear.  In an added twist, the dancers are listening to two separate channels, dancing near others who may or may not be hearing what they are.  The dancers’ interactions, movements and obvious enjoyment become subject matter, positioning dance in a new light and maybe even tempting gallery visitors to join in with their own moves. (On view in Chelsea through Oct 18th).

A wall featuring three videos of people dancing and a patterned background.
Sonia Boyce, Silent Disco, 3-channel colour video with sound, duration 9:42 min, 2025.

 

Robert Longo, ‘The Weight of Hope’ at Pace Gallery

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A decade of monumental charcoal drawings by iconic Pictures Generation artist Robert Longo occupies all four of Pace Gallery’s public exhibition spaces, making the show one of the most impactful of the new fall season.  The notion that behind every picture is another picture is intrinsic to Pictures artists and describes Longo’s practice of sourcing images from the media, repurposing fleeing moments in the news cycle as permanent marker of historic moments.  The current exhibition includes images from Ukraine, fires in California, ISIS-destroyed sculpture at the ancient site of Ninevah and here, ice sheering off icebergs in Newfoundland.  Beautifully crafted in meticulous detail with stunning use of the charcoal medium, each drawing is a powerful reminder of the events shaping the world now. (On view in Chelsea through Oct 25th).

A man takes a photo of a 3-panel charcoal drawing of an iceberg in a gallery.
Robert Longo, Untitled (Iceberg for Greta Thunberg), charcoal on mounted paper, 2020.

Maria Berrio in ‘Soliloquy of the Wounded Earth’ at Hauser and Wirth Gallery

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Along one wall of New York-based Columbian artist Maria Berrio’s solo show at Hauser and Wirth Gallery, she depicts three Cumbia dancers in the guise of the Fates from Greek mythology, known for spinning a thread that will start, influence and end the life of each human.  What if this thread should be stolen from them, repurposed and deified, spun into banners and flags?  Throughout the show Berrio follows this storyline while also foregrounding female figures who seem to counter the misuse of the thread: an oracle on a horse, a levitating female figure and this young woman who walks with a brilliantly abundant banner.  Using her signature Japanese papers with watercolor painting, Berrio’s vibrant artworks offer a hopeful starting point for dreams. (On view in Chelsea through Oct 18th).

Maria Berrio, Songlines, collage with Japanese papers and watercolor paint on linen, 118 1/8 x 92 ¼ x 1 3/8 inches, 2025.
Maria Berrio, Songlines, collage with Japanese papers and watercolor paint on linen, 118 1/8 x 92 ¼ x 1 3/8 inches, 2025.

Samuel Fosso, ‘Autoportrait’ at Yossi Milo Gallery

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Shortly after leaving post-war Nigeria in the early 70s to join his uncle in Central Africa Republic, Samuel Fosso opened his own photo studio at the age of 13 and began making the photos that would rank him among the most important 20th century African photographers.  Now on view at Yossi Milo Gallery, a selection of work from ‘75 to ‘78 demonstrates the teen’s inventiveness and records Fosso’s experience of contemporary pop culture through self-styling.  In the gallery’s back room is work from the photographer’s 2008 ‘African Spirit’ series (also currently on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art) for which Fosso dressed himself as important leaders in the African diaspora from Dr Martin Luther King to Angela Davis by way of tribute.  (On view in Chelsea through Nov 8.)

A grid of 4 photos of a man dressed in different ways.
Samuel Fosso, work from the series ‘Autoportrait,’ installed at Yossi Milo Gallery, Sept 2025.

Post Times and 95 Gallon Gallery at the U-Haul Art Fair

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Led by the Armory Show, New York City is abuzz with art fairs this weekend, and one of the most unconventional is free, easy to get to and full of finds.  Parked along 22nd Street between 10th and 11th Aves, the U-Haul Art Fair consists of twelve U-Haul trucks and one 95-gallon trash can repurposed as an exhibition venue.  Apart from circumventing a tight real estate market and generally slow art sales, the galleries and independent curators of the fair are enjoying high visibility with their location outside some of Chelsea’s biggest galleries.  Participants range from LES gallery Post Times showing an absorbing assortment of mini-paintings by Minnesota artists Bruce Tapola and Melba Price to New York based artists Bradley Milligan’s and Dan Gausman’s bin housing Kian McKeown’s kinetic sculpture, ‘Cherry.’  (On view this weekend through Sunday, Sept 7th).

U-Haul truck with a ramp, man inside looking at a row of small paintings.
Post Times Gallery at the U-Haul Art Fair.
rail holding small paintings, one of a girl with red pigtails.
Installation of paintings by Bruce Tapola and Melba Price at Post Times, U-Haul Art Fair.
People looking in a big trash can with a modified lid.
95 Gallon Gallery at the U-Haul Art Fair.
white box with a motor turning two red balls around. Wall is marked by the red.
Kian McKeown, Cherry, at 95 Gallery Gallery, U-Haul Art Fair.

Robert Wilson, ‘Animals’ at Winston Wachter Gallery

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Opening at Chelsea’s Winston Wachter Gallery just a week before his death at the age of 83, theater director, playwright and visual artist Robert Wilson’s show of video portraits of animals from the last two decades invites visitors to appreciate the wondrous beauty of snowy owls, a black panther, skunks, elks and more.  The animals’ movements are limited, which invites gallery visitors to spend time observing their stately forms.  Known for staging experimental theater works that stretch time and employ periods of silence, Wilson carries the effect into the video works to sometimes comic, sometimes ethereal effect. (On view through Sept 13th).

a snowy owl perched on a branch against a white background of orange polka dots.
Robert Wilson, Snowy Owl (Orange Pantone Owl), seamlessly looped UHD video and audio, 43 in plasma screen, 2006.

Allison Katz, ‘Don’t ASK’ on the High Line

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Titled ‘Don’t’ Ask,’ painter Allison Katz’s 10th Ave High Line billboard poses nothing but unanswered questions. Not only do we not find out why the chicken crossed the road, we might now wonder if the rooster was being followed, and why and what the bold double-yellow, do-not-cross road markings might mean in the relationship drama between rooster and hen.  In the midst of Chelsea’s busy built environment, the billboard’s closeup on the visually pared-down scenario of birds and road acts like a giant magnifying glass, zooming in on what might be a curious happenstance or an element in a deeper narrative.  Graphically bold and suggesting comedy, Katz’s set up is an enjoyable launching point for conversation or imagination. (through August in Chelsea).

Allison Katz, installation of ‘Don’t Ask’ at 18th Street and 10th Ave, July 2025.

Nathalie Khayat, ‘Unfolded Proximities’ at Marianne Boesky Gallery

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With titles like ‘Clutch,’ ‘Trespass,’ and ‘Cradling,’ Nathalie Khayat’s new ceramic sculptures at Marianne Boesky Gallery suggest emotionally evocative human actions in clay form.  Yet each centers on a merger of architectural solidity (aided by stoneware construction) and plant-like organic growth, upward and outward. Weighty and deliberate yet offering the notion of development within those restraints, Khayat situates her practice in the experience of living in the crossroads city of Beirut, where she has described a tenuous and fluid quality to life.  (On view in Chelsea through Aug 15th.  Note summer hours.)

Nathalie Khayat, The Devouring of You, glazed stoneware, 21 ½ x 23 x 19 ½ inches, 2025.

Alicja Kwade in ‘Seasonal Drift’ at 303 Gallery

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303 Gallery’s summer group show ‘Seasonal Drift’ includes artwork by gallery artists that makes strange our notions of time and space.  Simultaneous with her similarly themed solo exhibition at Pace Gallery, a few blocks to the north, Alicja Kwade’s contribution at 303, ‘Trial Turn’ from 2019, employs minimal materials – steel rings and bricks – to prompt us to consider our place in the universe.  Typically elegant, the sculpture suggests oversized jewelry or the playfulness of hula hoops yet employs utilitarian (and ancient) building materials in a way that evokes gears or the functioning of machinery.  Numbering 12, 24, 36 and 48 on the four rings, the bricks create a system like those we create to navigate and manage life.  (On view through Aug 8th).

Alicja Kwade, Trial Turn, unique, stainless steel, bricks, 2019.

Whitfield Lovell in ‘Interlayered’ at DC Moore Gallery

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Whitfield Lovell’s immediately absorbing set of fifty-three charcoal-on-paper portraits in DC Moore’s summer group show ‘Interlayered’ pairs the faces of Black men and women with playing cards from a vintage deck, suggesting that as each card has its unique identity in a group, so do the individuals assembled here.  Lovell typically finds his subjects in late 19th and early 20th century photos sourced from a variety of places, from flea markets to photo archives;  isolated from their settings, each person has remarkable presence.  Paired with cards, Lovell suggests that in life, alone or together, they might play and/or be played.  (On view through Aug 6th).

Whitfield Lovell, The Card Pieces, 53 charcoal drawings on paper with attached playing card, 12 x 9 inches (each), 2018 – 2022.
Whitfield Lovell, The Card Pieces, 53 charcoal drawings on paper with attached playing card, 12 x 9 inches (each), 2018 – 2022.

Sam Moyer, ‘Woman with Holes’ at Hill Art Foundation

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Sam Moyer’s monumental ‘Fern Friend Grief Growth’ is the anchor of her show at the Hill Art Foundation, an exhibition made richer by including artworks by major contemporary artists who share Moyer’s interest in pushing the possibilities of materials.  This ‘stone painting’, as it was called when shown at The Parrish Art Museum last summer, employs painted plaster and segments of recycled marble to picture delicate plant structures that carry literal and (in the title) metaphorical weight.  Nearby, Liz Glynn’s partial recreation of Rodin’s ‘Walking Man’ sculpture abandons the heaviness of the original bronze like a shed skin while her nearby stainless-steel tumbleweed sculpture is more solid and lasting than the original.  From Isamu Noguchi’s ponderous ‘Woman with Holes’ to Robert Gober’s representation of an open window, the dynamic of contrast between weight and lightness generates continual interest.  (On view in Chelsea through Aug 1st).

Sam Moyer, Fern Friend Grief Growth, marble, acrylic on plaster-coated canvas mounted to MDF, 120 x 240 x 1 inches, 2024.
A fern leaf pattern made of canvas and stone.
Sam Moyer, (detail) Fern Friend Grief Growth, marble, acrylic on plaster-coated canvas mounted to MDF, 120 x 240 x 1 inches, 2024.

Robert Indiana, ‘The American Dream’ at Pace Gallery

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Robert Indiana’s 2013 Whitney Museum retrospective aimed to look beyond his popular ‘LOVE’ logo to a career that examined the complexities of American life.  In spring of this year, Kasmin Gallery’s focus on the late artist’s early career and Pace Gallery’s current career-spanning show again argue for Indiana’s importance as a Pop artist who probed darker aspects of U.S. history and identity.  At the exhibition entrance, the words ‘USA’ and ‘FUN’ are joined by the word ‘APOGEE,’ which suggests that the first two words represent notions alien to each other.  Elsewhere the words EAT and DIE are provocatively conjoined in one work while another bears the phrase ‘A divorced man has never been the president.’  When Indiana focused instead on numbers, as he does in this series of ten monumental sculptures installed on Pace Gallery’s terrace, the meaning derived from his own personal experience, as he considered each digit as a reference to important events and places in his own life. (On view in Chelsea through Aug 15th).

Robert Indiana, ONE Through ZERO (The Ten Numbers), cor-ten steel on painted aluminum base, conceived 1980, fabricated 2003.

Sally Gall, ‘Vertical World’ at Winston Wachter Gallery

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Inspired by a Grand Canyon rafting trip in 2021, New York photographer Sally Gall focused on the rugged landscapes of the Colorado Plateau to make ‘Vertical World’ a series of striking photos now on view at Winston Wachter Gallery in Chelsea.  While Gall’s more recent photo series have featured man-made objects seen from surprising angles – laundry-lines from underneath that look like flowers, distant kites in the sky which appear to be flat, abstract designs – her new work gives attention to the natural colors and patterns of rock surfaces.  The title of this piece, ‘Visitor,’ draws our attention to a small cactus in the foreground of the photo, a curvy interloper in the geometric barrenness of a vast wall of rock.  (On view through July 18th in Chelsea.  Note summer hours.)

Sally Gall, Visitor, archival pigment print, 33 x 50 inches, 2022.

‘American Vernacular: Art and Objects by Unknown Artists’ at Ricco/Maresca Gallery

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Ricco Maresca Gallery’s summer group show, ‘American Vernacular: Art and Objects by Unknown Artists’ ignites curiosity with a selection of folk-art objects and quirky functional forms by unknown makers. Dominating one wall, a Venetian blind from the late 50s – early ‘60s post-dates McCarthyism but nevertheless suggests patriotic peeping.  Nearby, a unique red, white and blue voting booth curtain documents the addition of a decorative touch to a polling station while a sample flag display featuring nesting flags predates Jasper Johns’ avant-garde flag paintings by c. forty years.  (On view in Chelsea through Sept 13th.  Note holiday hours and summer hours.)

Artist Unknown, Monumental Venetian Blind / Flag, Painted metal strips, canvas webbing, 86 x 116 in., ca. 1958-64.
Artist Unknown, Unique Voting Booth Curtain (Miller and Davis Co. Minneapolis, MN), Paint on canvas (in museum standard custom white frame), 43 1/2 x 29 1/4 in., ca. 1920-30.
Artist Unknown, Salesman Sample Flag Display, Printed cotton (professionally mounted), 58 x 36 in., 1912.

Tammy Nguyen, ‘A Comedy for Mortals: Paradiso’ at Lehmann Maupin Gallery

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Dante’s famous 14th century epic poem ‘The Divine Comedy’ led him from the inferno to purgatory to the heavens on a spiritual journey that inspired Tammy Nguyen’s trio of exhibitions at Lehman Maupin’s Seoul, London and now New York galleries.  Taking Dante’s pathway as a loose framework for her own consideration of the forces that shape our world, she combines abundant and diverse imagery to suggest the complexity of history.  Recurring images of Frankenstein recall the global impact of Indonesian volcano Mount Tambora’s massive volcanic eruption in 1815, which created stormy weather patterns that kept Mary Shelly indoors inventing her famous character.  Images of President Eisenhower’s head and segments of his 1961 farewell address warning of the rising military industrial complex appear alongside eagles that symbolize soaring American political ambitions while also recalling Dante’s encounter with an eagle who snatches him up to fly onward.  Competing notions of progress appear in the show’s densely layered, imagery-rich paintings, their own complexity suggesting an unstoppable progression of myriad events that impacts both present and future.  (On view in Chelsea through Aug 15th).

Tammy Nguyen, Beneath the Shadow of its Wing, watercolor, vinyl paint, pastel, silkscreen printing, rubber stamping, hot stamping, and metal leaf on paper stretched over wood and gator board panel, 70 x 48 x 2 inches, 2025.
Tammy Nguyen, (detail) Beneath the Shadow of its Wing, watercolor, vinyl paint, pastel, silkscreen printing, rubber stamping, hot stamping, and metal leaf on paper stretched over wood and gator board panel, 70 x 48 x 2 inches, 2025.

Thomas Demand, ‘Memorial’ from new work at Matthew Marks Gallery

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Thomas Demand’s photographs at Matthew Marks Gallery are a litmus test for how carefully we look at images, requiring viewers to take more than a quick glance.  Despite the allure of their large size (this one measures over six feet across) many appear to represent relatively mundane scenes, at least until the feeling that something is ‘off’ leads to the realization that each artwork is a photo of a carefully constructed, life-sized paper and cardboard sculpture replicating an image from the media.  Demand’s new work pictures an intercepted shipment of methamphetamines hidden amongst watermelons at the US/Mexico border and a closeup of a melting ice shelf that alludes to climate change.  Here, an image recreating a memorial at the site of the 2022 racially motivated shooting at a Buffalo supermarket turns Demand’s time-consuming practice of meticulously replicating the various flowers, signs and candles into an additional act of homage to those lost. (On view in Chelsea through June 28th).

Thomas Demand, Memorial, Framed UV print, 47 ½ x 82 inches, 2025.
Thomas Demand, (detail) Memorial, Framed UV print, 47 ½ x 82 inches, 2025.

Alicja Kwade, ‘Telos Tales’ at Pace Gallery

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In Alicja Kwade’s sculptural practice, clocks signal not just the movement of time but of organizational systems humans put in place to make sense of the world around us.  Kwade’s 2015-16 installation in Central Park involved a 16’ tall functional clock with a rotating face, and past work on paper employed scatterings of clock hands affixed to paper to record the amount of rainfall over time during a storm.  The artist’s current show at Pace Gallery again incorporates clocks, this time suspended in reflective stainless-steel cylinders and signaling cyclical movement and change.  Nodding to Aristotle’s theory of causes in the exhibition title, ‘Telos Tales,’ Kwade adopts the Greek philosopher’s explanation of change in terms of its causes asking with this piece, ‘Causa Efficiens’ where change comes from.  (On view in Chelsea through Aug 15th).

Alicja Kwade, Causa Efficiens, stainless steel, powder coated stainless steel, patinated bronze, clock and sound installation, dimensions variable, unique, 2025.

Michael Armitage, ‘Crucible’ at David Zwirner Gallery

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Michael Armitage’s solo show at David Zwirner Gallery’s elegant new Chelsea space pictures the fates of migrants who have lost their freedom and in some cases their lives in attempting to escape unlivable situations. Bronze sculpture in the gallery’s first room picture suffering bodies and includes an abstracted cruciform figure titled ‘Eli Eli Sabachthani,’ or ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’  A second space includes paintings of a woman selling lethal home brewed alcohol and a man scavenging for food.  Finally, in the gallery’s largest space, Armitage pictures a sinking raft of migrants and images of extreme hardship.  Two profoundly moving paintings of a mother and child and here, a man and baby, suggest the tragic end of a parent and child who are lost at sea yet appear to be passing into another realm.   (On view in Chelsea through June 27th).

Michael Armitage, Untitled, oil on Lubugo bark cloth, 79 x 59 ¼ inches, 2024.

Hope Gangloff at Susan Inglett Gallery, June 2025

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Summer never looked so good as in Hope Gangloff’s paintings of a vivid red barn, a spectacular lightning strike seen from a front porch and friends lounging lakeside, but the standout piece of her latest solo show at Susan Inglett Gallery is a double portrait of close-up magicians Matthew Holtzclaw and Prakash Puru.  Employing a wizardry of her own in recording the texture of each man’s suit and a wide range of tones in their faces, Gangloff delivers a knock-out work whose intense colors and typically distorted proportions give the piece its distinct dynamism.  (On view in Chelsea through June 7th).

Hope Gangloff, Matthew (Holtzclaw) and Prakash (Puru), acrylic on wood panel, 80 ½ x 48 inches, 2025.

Tomma Abts at David Zwirner Gallery

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Tomma Abts’ small abstract paintings at David Zwirner Gallery defy language, their dynamic forms and rich colors existing to provide stimulation to the eye.  Recurring spiraling shapes evoke wheels with uneven spokes or a curving staircase.  Other canvases feature angular forms emanating from a central point.  All suggest centrifugal force, including the less geometric composition ‘Saske,’ pictured here.  A profusion of soft feathery forms in yellow, turquoise and pink tones recall Edgar Degas’ paintings of 19th century stage performers and provocatively contrast the hard, light-catching metallic surface of a cast-bronze segment to the left. (On view in Chelsea through June 14th).

Tomma Abts, Saske, acrylic on canvas and cast bronze in two (2) parts, 18 7/8 x 15 inches, 2024.

Josefina Concha in ‘Walking Lines’ at Praxis Gallery

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Inspired by natural forms from skin to plants and animals, Chilean artist Josefina Concha’s sculptural textiles pull away from the wall with lively dynamism.  Each thick, textured surface is created from machine-sewn lines of thread that cause the surface to buckle, resembling fungi, growth rings of trees or the patterns of geodes.  Featured in Praxis Gallery’s group exhibition ‘Walking Lines,’ this piece – titled ‘Charco’ (pool) – is a standout in an excellent show of work by Latin American artists who are expanding textile traditions. (On view in Chelsea through June 3rd).

Josefina Concha E., Charco, sewing on canvas, 66 1/8 x 54 3/8 inches, 2025.

William Kentridge ‘A Natural History of the Studio’ Hauser & Wirth

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Internationally renowned for his stop motion animations made from charcoal drawings, South African artist William Kentridge’s drawings for his new nine-part film series are the focus of his first New York solo show at Hauser & Wirth Gallery. “The studio can be understood as an expanded head,” the artist says by way of introduction to ‘Self-Portrait as a Coffee Pot,’ a show that likens the artist’s creative process to percolating coffee.  Though the films play one-by-one in the back gallery, visitors first encounter drawings and work on paper that emerged from enforced studio time during the Covid lockdown.  Here, a full wall drawing featuring peonies (‘a backdrop for conversation in the studio’ according to Kentridge), Leon Trotsky’s head and the words ‘Let Me Live Again’ appear over pages from an accounts ledger, not only nodding to a recent project considering Russian composer Dimitri Shostavovich’s relationship with authoritarian power but generally touching on themes of freedom, renewal and power. (On view in Chelsea through Aug 1st).

William Kentridge, Drawing for Self-Portrait as a Coffee-Pot (Let Me Live Again), Indian ink, charcoal and collage on found paper from cash sales book, 2021.

Salman Toor, ‘Wish Maker’ at Luhring Augustine Gallery

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Stony-faced men in paintings titled ‘Angry Dads’ or ‘Uncles’ contrast images of young men with distant looks or softly downcast gazes in Salman Toor’s tour de force character studies in the Tribeca venue of his solo debut at Luhring Augustine Gallery’s New York locations.  Ever present in both shows is the uncomfortable coexistence of the artist’s traditional upbringing in Lahore, Pakistan, and the life he has made for himself in New York’s queer diasporic south Asian community.  This pairing of a defiant youth with a wall of disapproving older men encapsulates the drama, frustration, and absurdity of the conflict.  (On view in Chelsea and Tribeca through June 21st).

Salman Toor, ‘Boy, Dads,’ pencil, charcoal, and gouache on paper, 10 1/8 x 10 ½ inches, 2024.

Peter Moore, ‘New York Streets and Signs’ at Paula Cooper Gallery

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Late photographer Peter Moore captured images of iconic performance art in NYC from the early ‘60s on, documenting events by Yayoi Kusama, Trisha Brown, Nam June Paik and others that are now the stuff of legend.  Not only did he record artists, musicians and dancers, Moore also turned his camera on amusing signage and scenarios that presented themselves on the city streets.  Now on view at Paula Cooper Gallery, accompanied by Claes Oldenburg’s drawings of his own performative take on street life, Moore’s photos from the ‘60s to the ‘80s demonstrate his attentiveness and an appreciation for the lighter side of life.  (On view in Chelsea through June 14th).

Peter Moore, untitled (Dash Exterminating), gelatin silver print, 10 ¼ x 7 inches, 1977.

Laura Lima, ‘Bale Literal’ at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery

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Dozens of performers noiselessly cluster backstage waiting to go before the audience at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in a performance orchestrated by Brazilian artist Laura Lima.  All actors, or ‘ballerinas’ as the gallery terms some of them, are sculptures created by Lima’s studio and include beekeeping clothes modified to suggest a space suit, a hammer and a sickle, each sporting a long ‘Greek’ dress, and a black and red cross a la early 20th century artist Kazimir Malevich.  Sent out on a pulley system along one gallery wall and powered by an offstage bicycle, the inanimate figures are given life by lights, sound and careful movement of the pulley.  Strangely absorbing, the installation and its dancing figures reward visitors who are game for interpretation. (On view in Chelsea through May 30th.)

Laura Lima, installation view of ‘Bale Literal,’ at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, May 2025.

Jeppe Hein, ‘Expect a Miracle’ at 303 Gallery

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Happiness is Danish sculptor Jeppe Hein’s stock-in-trade.  Past work includes brightly colored benches he calls ‘social sculptures’ that invite strangers or intimates to stop and converse, walls of water that dare interaction and shiny balloons of metal that appear to float on the ceiling.  A new installation at Chelsea’s 303 Gallery presents a ceiling bedecked with swathes of fabric evoking waves, home to alluringly shiny lacquered plastic fish and other animals.  The text ‘expect a miracle,’ spelled out in balloon-like letters at the gallery front door is both poignant and hopeful.  (On view in Chelsea through May 31st).

Jeppe Hein, installation view of ‘Expect A Miracle,’ at 303 Gallery April 26th, 2025.

Willem de Kooning, ‘Endless Painting’ at Gagosian Gallery

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Though painting dominated Abstract Expressionist Willem de Kooning’s career, his bronze sculpture ‘Standing Figure’ takes over a room of paintings in a standout show of the iconic artist’s work at Gagosian Gallery in Chelsea.  Showcasing pieces from the ‘40s to the ‘80s, including major loans from MoMA and the Guggenheim and organized with the support of the Willem de Kooning Foundation, this expansive exhibition offers the opportunity to consider work from different periods of de Kooning’s career in light of his continual reference to the human body.  Placed in proximity to nearly figurative work from early career to the pared down, elegant abstractions of his final painting years, this monumental bronze recalls de Kooning’s observation that “even abstract shapes must have a likeness.” (On view in Chelsea through June 14th).

Willem De Kooning, Standing Figure, bronze, 148 x 252 x 80 inches, 1969-84.

 

Sharon Core, ‘Facsimile’ at Yancey Richardson Gallery

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Irving Penn’s flower photographs, featured in Vogue’s annual Christmas issues from 1967 – 1973 and published in a volume titled ‘Flowers’ in 1980, are the launching point and raison d’etre of Sharon Core’s new body of work at Yancey Richardson Gallery, ‘Facsimile.’  Meticulously shot and printed, the crisp clarity and stunning color of Penn’s images give way to freer renderings in Core’s renditions of Penn’s photos, which she painted using cyan, yellow and magenta Epson UltraChrome inks on Canson Photo Rag paper and then printed as an editioned book.  In her past work, Core has grown flowers that she’s then shot for still-life photos.  Other projects involved photographing her own recreations of food that has been depicted in famous artworks.  Here, she also considers the life of a subject prior to being captured in an image, but now the precursor is the medium of painting itself.  Since the invention of photography, its function in relation to painting has been debated; here, Core reveals in the complexities, ultimately forcing viewers to confront our own expectations.  (On view in Chelsea through April 12th).

Sharon Core, installation view of ‘Facsimile’ at Yancey Richardson Gallery, March 2025.

Tyler Mitchell, ‘Ghost Images’ at Gagosian Gallery

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Tyler Mitchell’s striking new photos in his show ‘Ghost Images’ at Gagosian Gallery aim to picture ‘unseen presences that are deeply felt.’  A young man seems to fade into a wooden wall in a nod to a self-portrait by mid-century photographer Frederick Sommer, while a young woman in ‘Gwendolyn’s Apparition’ appears multiple times in the same image striding or standing on a dusty road.  Here, Mitchell prints his image on fabric, hanging it loosely from a frame in contrast to the tautness of the kite, both hiding and revealing the young man holding it. (On view in Chelsea on 24th Street through April 5th).

Tyler Mitchell, The sky is cold but the wing blood hot, dye-sublimation print on fabric, walnut artist’s frame, 62 x 44 ¼ x 4 inches, 2024.

Joan Jonas, ‘Empty Rooms’ at Gladstone Gallery

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Though twelve paper sculptures hang from the gallery ceiling, a grid of drawings covers one wall and a video projection takes over another in Gladstone Gallery’s cavernous 21st Street space, Joan Jonas’ new installation ‘Empty Rooms’ feels more subtly presented than many of her past multimedia works.  Overhead, boxy forms dominate the gallery, floating like geometric clouds or 3-D kites and lit from within like lanterns.  Made of wrinkled paper (along with lights and steel frames), the sculptures connect with a towering grid of similarly textured paper bearing drawings of leafless trees.  Featuring the silhouette of a turbine and a young woman, a monochrome video adds a human actor to this enigmatic but intriguing view of the natural world. (On view in Chelsea through April 12th).

Joan Jonas, Empty Rooms (installation view) at Gladstone Gallery, March 2025.

En Iwamura, ‘Mask’ at Ross and Kramer Gallery

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Titled ‘Neo Jomon,’ Japanese ceramic artist En Iwamura’s sculpture at Ross and Kramer Gallery updates ancient Japanese pottery with a new consideration of the age-old ‘cord’ pattern.  Pulling a tool over clay that has started to harden, Iwamura achieves a textured effect that can look deceptively like fabric, even at close range.  Inspired by the mask collections in Osaka’s National Museum of Ethnology, which he visited while growing up, Iwamura infuses his forms with both mystery and humor.  (On view in Chelsea through March 22nd).

En Iwamura, Neo Jomon: Black Mask (Crack), glazed ceramic, gold, 31 x 31 x 9 inches, 2024.

Tatsuo Miyajima, ‘Many Lives’ at Lisson Gallery

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Everything changes, everything interacts and everything goes on forever.  Japanese conceptual artist and sculptor Tatsuo Miyajima embeds these concepts in his new work at Chelsea’s Lisson Gallery, presenting sculpture in which countdowns of LED numbers speak to Buddhist concepts of transformation.  Here, however, a circular panel is part of a series inspired by ancient Babylonian star maps that recorded observations of the cosmos on clay tablets.  Intended to point to constantly changing life beyond earthly boundaries, the series takes the mind both back in human time and far beyond human experience and understanding.  (On view through April 19th).

Tatsuo Miyajima, MUL.APIN – no 3, LED, IC, electric wire, painted wood panel, switching power supply, 35 3/8 x 35 3/8 x 3 inch, 2024.

Bo Bartlett, ‘The Skippers’ at Miles McEnery Gallery

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Beach-goers and surfers look out to sea and a small group of people gather as if for a memorial while an artist at work on his beach chair records it all in an intriguingly mysterious 22’ painting by Bo Bartlett at Miles McEnery Gallery.  The same tone permeates this painting of a young person pausing in the innocent pastime of stone skipping, perhaps to notice two girls walk by or, more ominously, to gaze out at a smoking blaze on the horizon.  Warm sand and blue skies belie the watchfulness and foreboding of Bartlett’s new work, suggesting the impending end of an idyll.  (On view through March 15th).

Bo Bartlett, The Skippers, oil on linen, 46 x 66 inches, 2024.

Laura Owens at Matthew Marks Gallery

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Known since the ‘90s for paintings that question what a painting is, LA artist Laura Owens pushes the boundaries again with must-see immersive artworks at Matthew Marks Gallery.  An old metal desk once installed at the gallery entrance was shipped to Owens’ LA studio, fitted with interactive elements (a moving roll of tape, a drawer that slides open on its own) and now welcomes visitors into a show of surprises.  In the first room, Owens flips walls and canvas, painting trompe l’oeil wires, candy and more on the walls, while the show’s five canvases hint at patterns derived from wallpaper designs. In the back space (pictured here), patterns, floating clouds and flowers take over walls set with small panels that open and close to reveal hidden pictures.  In another gallery, visitors are invited to gently handle books handmade by the artist, a reversal of the usual prohibition against touching and a trigger for our pleasure in discovery.  (On view through April 19th).

Laura Owens, Untitled, oil, acrylic, silkscreened Flashe, sand and flocking on clay-coated paper mounted to aluminum panels, egg tempera on panel, video, and sound (runtime 80 minutes), 184 1/8 x 258 5/8 x 532 7/8 inches, 2025.
Laura Owens, Untitled, oil, acrylic, silkscreened Flashe, sand and flocking on clay-coated paper mounted to aluminum panels, egg tempera on panel, video, and sound (runtime 80 minutes), 184 1/8 x 258 5/8 x 532 7/8 inches, 2025.
Laura Owens, Untitled, oil, acrylic, silkscreened Flashe, sand and flocking on clay-coated paper mounted to aluminum panels, egg tempera on panel, video, and sound (runtime 80 minutes), 184 1/8 x 258 5/8 x 532 7/8 inches, 2025.

Julian Opie at Lisson Gallery

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How present can you be while on your phone?  British artist Julian Opie offers his take on the question with a presentation of four nearly 10-foot-tall striding figures at Lisson Gallery in Chelsea, two of whom gaze down at digital devices.  Blatantly present due to their size, but mentally removed, the figures are emblematic of our distracted times while also monumentalizing digital connectedness.  Initially created for an exhibition in Busan, Korea, the figures could come from anywhere yet retain distinct characteristics in a mix-up of specificity and universality.  (On view in Chelsea through April 19th.)

Julian Opie, Red phone, Auto paint on aluminium, 119 1/8 x 54 3/8 x 19 1/4 in, 2023.

Nathalia Edenmont, ‘Out of Body’ at Nancy Hoffman Gallery

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Told many years ago that her eggs would never allow her to bear a child, Nathalia Edenmont pursued the theme of reproduction with a plan to transform discarded goose eggs into art. After performing the difficult task of cleaning the eggs, however, Edenmont found the associations too painful and shelved the project. Meticulously staged photographs of models wearing dresses composed of flowers or fruit followed, along with collages composed of butterfly wings, each alluding to fertility and beauty. More recently, however, Edenmont returned to the goose eggs, cracking them gently with her hands in patterns and here, setting a smaller hen’s egg in a larger goose egg. Not stopping at photography, for which she is known, the artist’s current show at Nancy Hoffman Gallery includes her recent sculpture, which substitutes strong materials for fragile. (On view in Chelsea through March 22nd).

Nathalia Edenmont, [sculpture, foreground] Out of a Fertile Summer Sun (Vincenzo), pure white Statuario marble (Carrara) on labradorite base (Madagascar), 23 ¾ x 27 ½ x 17 ¾ inches, 2024. [background] Out of Golden Rays of a Fertile Summer Sun, Photograph on Canson Platine Fibre Rag, 55 x 46 inches, 2024.

Thomas Schutte, ‘Women’ at Gagosian Gallery

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On the heels of Thomas Schutte’s career survey show at the Museum of Modern Art, the German artist’s provocative ‘Women’ sculpture series from the late ‘90s to 2006 at Gagosian Gallery invites viewers to take a closer look at one of Schutte’s most engaging and uncomfortable bodies of work. Arranged on cold, steel tables in reclining poses like odaliques, familiar from countless paintings and sculptures throughout European art history, the figures signal failure (one figure is pressed flat as if by a giant hand) and trauma (a rigidly tense gingerbread man-like cutout flings an arm into the air). A deflated sculpture with mask-like face and melting limbs recalls the distortions of Picasso’s nudes while others recall Henri Matisse’s or Aristide Maillol’s posed women. Reacting in the past to the constraints inherited by a post-war German artist, Schutte has presented models or proposals as artwork. Similarly, the Frauen exist on uncertain ground, both challenging and reinforcing objectification of the female form at a scale and a degree of polish that defies audiences not to engage. (On view through Feb 22nd).

Thomas Schutte, Bronzefrau Nr. 13 (Bronze Woman No. 13), bronze on steel table, 70 ¾ x 98 3/8 x 49 1/8 inches, 2003.

Camille Henrot, ‘A Number of Things’ at Hauser & Wirth Gallery

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Green rubber playground flooring transports visitors into an unexpected perceptual experience in Camille Henrot’s first New York solo show of playfully odd sculpture at Hauser and Wirth Gallery. Marked with a matrix-like grid that’s calming yet at the same time reminiscent of a guillotine paper cutter, the pattern reinforces the artist’s ongoing interest in the structures that organize society. Paintings inspired by etiquette books, sculpture that looks like abacuses (both the kind used as tools and children’s toys) and this group of dogs on leashes offer varied takes on relationships and power relations. (On view in Chelsea through April 12th).

Camille Henrot, installation view of ‘A Number of Things’ at Hauser & Wirth Gallery, Feb ’25.

Giorgio Morandi at David Zwirner Gallery

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Sixty years after his death, Italian artist Giorgio Morandi’s enigmatic still life paintings continue to exert remarkable influence. Coming on the heels of a much-talked-about show of the artist’s work on the Upper East Side by Rome-based Galleria Mattia De Luca last fall, David Zwirner Gallery’s current Morandi survey features work from the Magnani-Rocca Foundation (located near Parma, Italy) collected by musicologist and friend of Morandi, Luigi Magnani. The gallery’s first two rooms show how Morandi rejected organic still life, portraiture and metaphysical interests (akin to Giorgio deChirco and Carlo Carra) to arrive at the still life paintings of everyday objects that would occupy him for over forty years. Here, a cluster of vessels placed precariously close to the edge of a table testify to the artist’s constant experimentations with spatial arrangements and shifting tones. (On view through Feb 22nd).

Giorgio Morandi, Natura morta (Still Life), oil on canvas, 17 3/8 x 18 7/8 inches, 1948.

Na Kim at Nicola Vassell Gallery

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Mood and atmosphere are the subjects of Na Kim’s serial paintings of an imagined young woman, now on view at Nicola Vassell Gallery in Chelsea.  Gazing impassively from a dark interior, standing against an abstracted landscape so that her hair joins with the horizon line, or immersed to the shoulders in a dark pool, a solitary figure conveys subtly different emotions heavily dependent on the color and lighting of her surroundings.  Idealized, planar faces sometimes recall Paula Modersohn-Becker’s self-portraits while yellow, green and red tones bring Fauve portraiture to mind, but the focus of Kim’s work is reflected light and surrounding shadow that suggest various psychological states.  (On view in Chelsea through Feb 22nd).

Na Kim, Untitled: 8, oil on linen, 30 x 24 inches, 2024.

Simphiwe Mbunyuza at David Kordansky Gallery

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At over five feet tall, Simphiwe Mbunyuza’s monumental ceramics at Chelsea’s David Kordansky Gallery entice with their strong presence, striking color and unusual protrusions.  Bumps inspired by traditional Xhosa ritual vessels, house shapes that recall cylindrical South African dwellings and horns pointing to the importance of cattle in Xhosa life signal Mbunyuza’s engagement with aspects of his culture and upbringing including his spiritual identity.  The latter manifests in the sizes of the works, the larger pieces connecting to ancestors while smaller pieces are associated with the artist and his living relatives. Arranged specifically in the gallery and characterized by colors representing South African landscapes, Mbunyuza’s ceramics offer access to material and immaterial worlds.  (On view through Feb 22nd).

Simphiwe Mbunyuza, MTHIMKHULU, ceramic, 63 x 53 x 51 inches, 2024.

Louise Nevelson, Mirror-Shadow VI at Pace

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At the entrance to Pace Gallery’s exhibition of late work by iconic modern artist Louise Nevelson, the contrast between one all-white sculpture and many black-painted assemblages creates a dynamism that is revisited in the diagonals and curving forms of the artist’s sculpture from the 70s and 80s.  Nevelson’s oft quoted intent to “join the shattered world, creating a new harmony” is joined by an attempt to picture the sublime, manifest in works with titles referring to moonlight, reflections, night frost and here, mirrors and shadow.  (On view in Chelsea through March 1st).

Louise Nevelson, Mirror-Shadow VI, wood painted black, 1985, 9’ 9” x 11’ 7” x 1’ 9”, 1985.

Vija Celmins in ‘The Writing’s on the Wall’ at the Hill Art Foundation

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Small-scale and monochrome, the works opening the Hill Art Foundation’s group exhibition ‘The Writing’s on the Wall: Language and Silence in the Visual Arts,’ feel calculated to go unnoticed.  This is all the more reason to mentally detach from attention-grabbing work in nearby galleries and ponder a few lines from Adrienne Rich’s 1978 poem ‘Cartographies of Silence,’ printed on a nearby wall label: “Silence can be a plan rigorously executed…Do not confuse it with any kind of absence.” Nearby, the solitary word ‘dance’ typed repeatedly across the top of a paper by Christopher Knowles, a washy gray watercolor overlaid with a rigid grid by Agnes Martin and a stonily silent bronze bust of James Baldwin by Larry Wolhandler are alive with feeling unreliant on speech, a key intention of the show’s curator, Hilton Als.  Here, Vija Celmin’s giant eraser, crafted from balsa wood and paint, strongly suggests that expression is a process of laying down and removing.  (On view in Chelsea through March 29th).

Vija Celmins, Pink Pearl Eraser, acrylic on balsa wood, 6 ¾ x 19 ½ x 3 ¼ inches, 1966-67.

Svenja Deininger Paintings at Marianne Boesky

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Though given ample space on Marianne Boesky Gallery’s wall, this painting by Austrian artist Svenja Deininger converses with the paintings around it like individual words work together to make up a sentence. Before the holidays, Deininger’s paintings appeared next door at the gallery’s other location; newly installed in the gallery’s single large space, they can be considered singly, in sequence or all at once.  An adjoining mustard yellow monochrome canvas and another small painting featuring fan-like shapes call further attention to color and form in this untitled painting, a standout piece that evokes a large head amid architectural or design elements.  Though individual pieces offer enjoyable juxtapositions, the show’s greatest pleasure in in tracking evocative and subtle connections across multiple canvases. (On view through Jan 24th).

Svenja Deininger, Untitled, oil on linen, 74 ¾ x 57 1/8 inches, 2024.

Pete Turner at Bruce Silverstein Gallery

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A giraffe silhouetted against a red sky, white adobe buildings suffused with deep blue light and the brilliant orange of canned peaches stand out amongst the grid of album covers on Bruce Silverstein Gallery’s foyer wall, a testament to late photographer Pete Turner’s renowned and striking use of color.  In an exhibition that focuses on jazz album covers selected from over seventy covers Turner created over fifty years, the gallery positions the photographer at the forefront of the mid-20th century move toward artistic covers that express the identity of the music vs the brand of the record label.  Here, Turner’s interpretation of Joe Ferrell’s 1975 jazz album ‘Canned Funk’ suggests (literally) eye-popping surprise amid sweet, curving forms.  (On view through Jan 18th).

Pete Turner, Eye to Eye, archival pigment print, printed c. 2000s, 13 x 19 inches, 1968.

Lubaina Himid at FLAG Art Foundation

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Winner of the 2024 Suzanne Deal Booth / FLAG Art Foundation Prize, Lubaina Himid presents two bodies of related but visually distinct work at Chelsea’s FLAG Art Foundation that both offer and challenge the appearance of order and simplicity.   Himid’s ‘Strategy Paintings’ picture individuals seated at tables as they negotiate weighty problems hinted at in titles like ‘Pointless Heroism’ or ‘Bitter Battles.’  The figures’ wary eyes and each painting’s palpable tension suggest that solutions might not be found so easily.  In a separate exhibition space, Himid lines the walls with sixty-four plank paintings titled ‘Aunties.’  Nearly as tall as the room itself and abundantly decorated with used materials taken from furniture, floorboards, and travel crates, the planks evoke an assembly of benevolent guardians.  (On view in Chelsea through Feb 8th).

Lubaina Himid, installation view of Aunties, sixty-four painted wood planks, dimensions variable, 2023.
Lubaina Himid, detail view of Aunties, sixty-four painted wood planks, dimensions variable, 2023.

Esther Mahlangu at Ross + Kramer Gallery

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South African artist Esther Mahlangu’s designs energize Chelsea gallery Ross + Kramer with their vibrant patterns, sacred geometries for which the 89-year-old is internationally renowned.  Inspired by the house painting traditions of the Ndebele people and learned from her mother and grandmother, Mahlangu’s abstractions take the form of murals, ceramics, canvases and even this hand painted car, the star of a show featuring 30 paintings made over ten years.  (On view through Jan 25th).

Esther Mahlangu, installation view of ‘Esther Mahlangu: Time in Color’ at Ross + Kramer, Chelsea, Dec ’24.

Ruth Asawa in ’18 Women: 50 Years’ at Michael Rosenfeld Gallery

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’18 Women: 50 Years’ at Michael Rosenfeld Gallery is a tour de force of painting and sculpture, ceramic, textile and work in a variety of media created between 1918 to 1968 by some of the most influential artists of the mid-20th century.  Among the many standout pieces is Ruth Asawa’s S.391/50, a crocheted brass wire sculpture from c. 1958, which the gallery describes as taking the form of ‘six double-sided, trumpet-like shapes that expand outward from the central void’ in a dynamic composition of repeated looping line. (On view in Chelsea through Jan 25th.  Note that gallery hours change during the holiday period.)

Ruth Asawa, S.391/50, brass wire, 15 x 13 ½ x 12 ¾ inches, c. 1958.

Irving Penn, ‘Kinship’ at Pace Gallery

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Pace Gallery’s current exhibition of Irving Penn’s photographs from the ‘40s to 2000, curated by supremely image-savvy artist Hank Willis Thomas, is compact but impactful, featuring juxtapositions of photos with often radically different subject matter that nevertheless have some affinity. A 1947 studio portrait of New Yorker cartoonists poised on a scaffold hangs near a photo of a careful arrangement of blocks, immediately conveying careful arrangement and balance rather than humor or play.  Around the corner, two models in Issey Miyake echo the form of a neighboring image of two weathered cigarette butts, a parallel that crashes together the fashionable and the discarded.  Hung on gallery walls constructed to recall the temporary structures Penn used as sets, photos are positioned near each other but on different walls, similar yet different.  Here, tangled members of a wrestling family appear opposite an arrangement of seafood, both shot in 1948, demonstrating the ‘visual muscle memory’ that Willis Thomas argues ties together Penn’s 70-year career.  (On view in Chelsea through Dec 21st).

(left) Irving Penn, Dusek Brothers (1 of 3), vintage gelatin silver print, 7 11/16 x 9 5/8, image, ed of 41, New York, 1948. (right) Irving Penn, Bouillabaisse, chromogenic print, 24 x 20 inches, images, ed of 7, Barcelona, 1948.
Installation view. Irving Penn, ‘Kinship’ at Pace Gallery, Dec ’24.

Francis Alys at David Zwirner Gallery

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Driven by the poetic idea of bridging the 7,7 nautical mile wide Straight of Gibraltar, Francis Alys’ solo show at David Zwirner Gallery pictures fanciful connections between Moroccan and Spanish territory in the form of installation, video, painting and more.  One painting anthropomorphizes sea cliffs into human forms, while elsewhere a giant child stands in the Straight with two people-packed boats under her arms.  In the back gallery, beyond a lightbox displaying news articles about migration across the Mediterranean, a video features a row of kids from Morrocco and a similar line of Spanish youth at the beach, heading into the water carrying toy boats made from shoes (seen here in sculptural form elsewhere in the show).  Resembling both personal items lost in migration and suggesting resourceful toymaking, the boats are somber and lighthearted at the same time, expressing continued hope despite harsh realities.  (On view through Dec 18th).

Francis Alys, installation view of ‘Francis Alys: The Gibraltar Projects,’ Nov 2024.

Annie Leibovitz at Hauser and Wirth

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A photograph of the top hat and gloves that Abraham Lincoln wore when he was assassinated and a shot of Elvis Presley’s TV pierced by a bullet hole are two images with intriguing backstories in iconic photographer Annie Leibovitz’s mini-survey at Hauser and Wirth Gallery in Chelsea.  Less dramatic but more insightful are the many portraits of artists that include Simone Leigh’s hands shaping a piece of clay near a landscape that inspired Georgia O’Keefe, or an Icelandic glacier that vaguely resembles a neighboring shot of Cindy Sherman’s head.  Here, Leibovitz’s image of David Hockney, from a period in which he’d returned to the north of England, allows us an enjoyably intimate view of the artist at work. (On view through Jan 11th).

Annie Leibovitz, David Hockney, Bridlington, East Yorkshire, England, archival pigment print, 2024.

Richard Serra, Every Which Way at David Zwirner

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Installed at a diagonal in David Zwirner Gallery’s huge ground floor 20th Street space, late artist Richard Serra’s 2015 sculpture ‘Every Which Way’ forces a decision from entering visitors who must opt to turn right, left or wind their way between the 16 steel panels.  Regardless of how it is approached, the piece invites interaction and a physical comparison between a visitor’s body and the giant, weighty slabs of metal seven, nine or eleven feet tall that Serra likened to architecture.  Unlike Serra’s rolled steel sculptures with their curving walls and warm, brown patina, this piece’s abrupt flatness and grey steel surfaces convey austerity.  Their arrangement in shorter segments, however, gives visitors agency to explore this minimal but engaging arrangement of form.  (On view through Dec 14th).

Richard Serra, Every Which Way, steel, 2015.

Simone Leigh at Matthew Marks Gallery

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Simone Leigh’s handsome show of new work at Matthew Marks Gallery in Chelsea features several sculptures of female figures in skirts that, with their substantial size, convey power and solidity.  Larger than life, the torso and head of this generalized individual is nevertheless small in comparison to her skirt.  Composed of giant ceramic cowry shells, the material nods to past forms of currency and to esoteric spiritual knowledge.  Resembling the domed shapes of traditional Musgum architecture, West African spiritual objects, and face jugs from the American South, and alluding to many other aspects of African and diasporic culture, Leigh’s beautiful figures manifest complex cultural heritage and histories.  (On view in Chelsea through Dec 14th).

Simone Leigh, Untitled, earthenware, stoneware, and steel armature, 90 x 73 x 75 inches, 2023-24.

Jade Fadojutimi at Gagosian Gallery

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Titled ‘The Generosity of Trauma,’ this painting by British artist Jade Fadojutimi is one of only two works (along with ‘Sulking is a virtue’) in her show at Gagosian Gallery with a title. Typically colorful and energetic with areas that appear to either be plants or zones of pure abstraction, the artist’s new work explores identity through color.  She has said, “When I feel emotion, I see a color and that’s how my paintings come to life.’  In tune with global challenges like climate change and displacement and the artist’s personal experience with depression, Fadojutimi’s two works with oxymoronic titles suggest that pushing her practice forward through difficulty gives it its vibrant character. (On view in Chelsea through Dec 21st).

The Generosity of Trauma, acrylic, oil, oil pastel and oil bar on canvas, 98 7/16 x 68 7/8 inches, 2024.

Cecily Brown, The Five Senses at Paula Cooper Gallery

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Long inspired by Old Master painters, Cecily Brown’s latest solo show at Paula Cooper Gallery engages with the fruitful collaboration between 17th century painters Jan Brueghel the Elder’s and Peter Paul Rubens.  Brown’s work on paper – etchings, drawings with watercolor and monotypes – reworks aspects of the duo’s collaborative series of paintings ‘The Five Senses’ from 1617-18, abstracting and condensing the space of interior scenes.  This lush and engaging painting in the gallery’s main space takes that impulse further, proffering a recognizable plate of oysters with lobster at the center of the canvas while turning the room’s other forms into a fluid, fluctuating space from which faces and forms emerge.  (On view through Dec 7th).

Cecily Brown, The Five Senses, 89 x 83 inches, oil on linen, 2023.

Alteronce Gumby at Nicola Vassell Gallery

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If we were on a planet in another solar system, would we see color differently?  In his ongoing engagement with intense color, Alteronce Gumby’s scintillating new paintings at Nicola Vassell Gallery refuse to take our experience of the visible spectrum for granted.  Inspired by NASA’s James Webb telescope, art historical forebears and travel that has allowed him to witness the vibrant Holi festival in Indian, the Northern Lights and much more, Gumby’s new ‘Moonwalker paintings’ lure viewers in with their rich color and reflective surfaces.  Each piece resembles nebula and strata of the earth, taking us both into the heavens and down through geological history.  Shaped in a way to suggest speed and defiance of gravity and incorporating semi-precious stones and gems, each piece is infused with the pleasure of transport.  (On view in Chelsea through Dec 14th).

Alteronce Gumby, Waves of Possibilities, lapis lazuli, glass and acrylic on panel, 72 x 90 inches, 2024.
Alteronce Gumby, (detail) Waves of Possibilities, lapis lazuli, glass and acrylic on panel, 72 x 90 inches, 2024.

Olafur Eliasson, Light Ensemble at Tanya Bonakdar

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From his legendary 2003 installation of a sun in the Tate Modern (made with a semi-circle of lights and a mirror) to more intimate light environments and sculptures of colored glass, Olafur Eliasson creates transformative artworks using deceptively simple means. The centerpiece of the artist’s latest solo exhibition at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in Chelsea, ‘Your psychoacoustic light ensemble,’ challenges viewers to rethink how we perceive color, light and other natural phenomena while this time including sound.  In the gallery’s darkened central room, low frequency vibrations can be heard, felt and seen as projected lights respond to the sound waves.  Inviting us to sit and be immersed in the various stimuli, Eliasson describes our experience as ‘seeing ourselves hearing.’ (On view through Dec 19th).

Olafur Eliasson, Your psychoacoustic light ensemble, spotlight, glass lens, mirror foil, tripod, transducer, embedded computer system, dimensions variable, 2024.

Martha Jackson Jarvis at Susan Inglett Gallery

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With their lively, textured surfaces and bold striped patterns, Martha Jackson Jarvis’ large abstract paintings have a strong presence at Chelsea’s Inglett Gallery, but it’s their relationship to the artist’s family history that is most remarkable.  Inspired by research into her great-great-great-great grandfather’s service in the Revolutionary War as a free Black militiaman, Jackson Jarvis juxtaposes lines with abstraction to contrast straight paths of travel with the difficulties of navigating the landscape.  Circular forms point to abundant life, waving pieces of material suggest topography and lush colors juxtaposed with darker tones speak to the rich variety of the natural world.  (On view through Nov 30th).

Martha Jackson Jarvis, South of the North Star, black walnut ink, oil, acrylic, watercolor, arches cold press 300lb paper, and canvas, 99 x 44 x 3 inches, 2020.
Martha Jackson Jarvis, (detail) South of the North Star, black walnut ink, oil, acrylic, watercolor, arches cold press 300lb paper, and canvas, 99 x 44 x 3 inches, 2020.

Cameron Welch at Yossi Milo Gallery

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Cameron Welch’s mosaics at Yossi Milo Gallery pack a punch with their energetic collage-like mix of contemporary and historic imagery.  Here, Orpheus, the hero of Greek mythology who unsuccessfully descended into the underworld to bring back his wife Eurydice, holds the musical instrument with which he could charm both living and dead.  Crafted in ceramic, glass, marble and stone and enhanced with oil and acrylic paint, the artwork not only rethinks a mythological figure but melds ancient and contemporary material tradition. (On view in Chelsea through Nov 9th).

Cameron Welch, Orpheus in the Garden, marble, glass, ceramic, stone, spray enamel, oil and acrylic on panel, 96 ¾ x 80 5/8 inches, 2024.

Carrie Mae Weems at Gladstone Gallery

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In an interview accompanying her recent show at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, iconic photographer and artist Carrie Mae Weems said, “I know that I will be living with injustice for the rest of my life,” before going on to express her determination to advocate for change as it is currently needed.  Her 7-part video ‘Cyclorama: The Shape of Things,’ now on view at Gladstone Gallery after several museum appearances, combines vintage film of circus acts, footage from Amy Cooper’s notorious 2020 Central Park phone call, and scenes from the January 6th insurrection with shots of methodically moving contemporary dancers and more in a collage of imagery that ranges from beautiful to horrifying.  Projected on a circular screen like a 19th century narrative painting accompanied by changing lights and sound, Weems immerses us in the present moment, amplifying and clarifying the conversations and conflicts of the day.  (On view at Gladstone Gallery through Nov 9th).

Carrie Mae Weems, installation view of Cyclorama: The Shape of Things, A Video in 7 Parts, 2021, 7 parts, duration: 40 min, Barbara Gladstone Gallery, September 2024.

Pieter Schoolwerth Video at Petzel Gallery

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To appreciate Pieter Schoolwerth’s paintings in his current solo exhibition at Petzel Gallery, it’s advisable to first check out ‘Supporting Actor,’ the CG animation he made with artist Phil Vanderhyden.  While the priority given to computer-generated content might be a surprising move for most painters, that’s not the case for Schoolwerth, who has long been interested in how the digital world has impacted the space and time of painting.  Starring a digital avatar of musician Aaron Dilloway, who created the piece’s soundtrack, the animation starts with Dilloway’s transportation from art gallery (pictured here) to a bathroom to a bizarre nightclub of gyrating alien-figures.  In the gallery’s main space, paintings inspired by the animation combine inkjet-printed paintings with real paint in an ever more complicated consideration of where the ‘real’ lies and which medium plays the role of ‘supporting actor’. (On view in Chelsea through Oct 26th).

Pieter Schoolwerth, still from Supporting Actor, 4K video with sound by Aaron Dilloway, 2024, installed at Petzel Gallery, Sept 2024.

Paul Anthony Smith Multi Media at Jack Shainman

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It’s carnival season in Jamaica-born, Brooklyn based multi-media artist Paul Anthony Smith’s latest body of work now on view at Jack Shainman Gallery in Chelsea.  Starting with photos he took during celebrations in Trinidad and Tobago, Smith manipulates the images, prints them, adds paint and employs his signature picotage technique by which he creates patterns of tiny tears in the surface of the painted photographs.  Here, as in many pieces, the tear patterns take the form of fences or walls constructed of patterned concrete blocks.  Placed between viewers and the celebrants, the barriers allow looking but give viewers pause to question what kind of access we have to the places and cultures pictured.  (On view through Oct 26th).

Paul Anthony Smith, To be titled, unique picotage and spray paint on inkjet, print mounted on Dibond, acrylic paint, 51 ¼ x 81 x 2 ¼ inches, 2024.

Josh Kline at Lisson Gallery

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Among New York artist Josh Kline’s most memorable sculptures are his huge FedEx boxes filled with packing peanuts and disassembled, 3D printed Fed Ex employees.  Like that chilling indictment of exploitable or disposable labor, Kline’s scathing new work at Lisson Gallery considers the precarious position of artists and other creatives.  In the age of AI replacing humans, expensive MFAs and prohibitively expensive costs of living, what is the roll of artists?  Taking his own body as model, Kline’s scattered 3D printed heads, arms and legs suggest a complete merger between worker and product.  Printed with Kline’s own Chase credit card and titled ‘New York Artist,’ Kline suggests that he is both consumer and consumable in the ‘art industry.’ (On view in Chelsea through Oct 19th.)

Josh Kline, New York Artist, 3D-printed sculpture in acrylic-based photopolymer resin; Ikea chair, denim, UV protective coating, and museum wax, 2024.
Josh Kline, New York Artist, 3D-printed sculpture in acrylic-based photopolymer resin; Ikea chair, denim, UV protective coating, and museum wax, 2024.

Joel Shapiro at Pace Gallery

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Perhaps best known for abstracted sculptures that resemble human figures in motion, Joel Shapiro has, in the past decade, memorably suspended forms in the air in explosive installations.  Once again situated on the gallery floor, Shapiro’s new work at Pace Gallery is no less dynamic.  ‘Splay,’ (foreground) resembles an energetically sprawling figure, another piece abstracts an ocean wave, and the show’s central sculpture ‘ARK,’ projects colorful forms outward from a mass that appears to stand on the gallery floor on tiptoes.  (On view in Chelsea through Oct 26th).

Joel Shapiro, installation view of ‘Out of the Blue,’ Pace Gallery, 510 West 25th Street, Sept 2024.

Karen Knorr at Sundaram Tagore Gallery

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Inspired by sources from European folk tales to fables from India’s Panchatantra, Karen Knorr’s extravagantly beautiful mini-retrospective of photographs at Sundaram Tagore Gallery taps into the complex relations between humans and animals.  In her most recent body of work, Scavi, the artist pictures excavated sites in southern Italy that were covered by the 79 CE eruption of Mount Vesuvius.  To these she adds images shot elsewhere of animals, creating surprising connections.  Titled ‘Bacchus in Attendance, House of Neptune and Amphitrite,’ this image from a garden courtyard in Herculaneum features a leopard seated before a glass paste mosaic of Neptune and his wife, Amphitrite.   Associated with the god of wine, Bacchus, the leopard becomes a stand-in for the deity in a regal portrait of three divinities.  (On view through Oct 19th).

Karen Knorr, Bacchus in Attendance, House of Neptune and Amphitrite, Herculaneum, 58 x 72.5 inches, 2024.

Anthony Cudahy at GRIMM Gallery and Hales Gallery

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Anthony Cudahy’s simultaneous gallery shows at Hales Gallery in Chelsea and GRIMM Gallery in Tribeca are titled ‘Fool’s Gold’ and ‘Fool’s Errand,’ positing the artist as quixotic figure pursuing his own vision.  True to form, Cudahy’s bold colors, unharnessed to realistic representation, highlight figures or elements of an interior background.  Here, he draws our attention not to his friend, Sammy, in the chair, but rather to the glow of the bookshelf and a minimal still life with lemons.  Aiming to celebrate wonder in the everyday, Cudahy tilts Sammy’s head and angles his legs to guide our eye to books that might guide the mind into a world of thought and fruits which are in conversation with art history.  (On view in Chelsea at Hales Gallery and in Tribeca at GRIMM Gallery through Oct 19th).

Anthony Cudahy, Sammy, oil on linen, 72 x 72 inches, 2024.

Leonardo Drew, Number 427 at Galerie Lelong

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At the entrance to Leonardo Drew’s current solo show at Galerie Lelong is a huge, ten-foot-high grid of panels, each hosting a rich abundance of fragments, yet this towering, orderly artwork is overwhelmed by the dynamic chaos of a floor-to ceiling installation in the main gallery beyond.  The materials – wood, plaster and paint – appear to be weathered fragments from a natural disaster but are in fact deliberately distressed and arranged in clusters around the gallery’s two main columns.  In his urge to reinvent, Drew has reused elements from previous installations – projects for Art Basel in ’22 and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in ’23 – to respond to the specifics of Galerie Lelong’s industrial-architecture-turned-white-cube by banishing its austerity and taking over the space.  (On view in Chelsea through Oct 19th).

Leonardo Drew, installation view of Number 427, wood, plaster and paint, 3 parts, overall dimensions variable, 2024.

Wangari Mathenge at Nicola Vassell Gallery

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Wangari Mathenga doesn’t dream the way most people do.  Able to dream while awake and be awake yet dreaming, Mathenga eventually realized that her sleep patterns were atypical and, in her recent body of painting at Nicola Vassell Gallery, pictures herself between states of consciousness.  Though we see her pajama’d figure lying down, the artist’s interest is in the brain in an active sleep state and her pictures emerge from data taken from the cameras she set up in her home and the dream journals she keeps.  Originally intending to paint the dreams she recorded, Mathenge instead focused on her own moving figure in canvases that offer intimate insights yet picture a state of consciousness accessible only to her.  (On view in Chelsea through Oct 19th).

Wangari Mathenga, I’ve Learned How to Fly (Bedimmed Boundaries), oil on canvas, 55 x 82 inches, 2024.

Mitch Epstein at Yancey Richardson Gallery

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Over the past several decades, photographer Mitch Epstein’s series have memorably pictured conflict over land, energy consumption in the US, and landmarked trees in NYC; his latest body of work at Chelsea’s Yancey Richardson Gallery, ‘Old Growth’ continues to picture the land in a stunning homage to ancient trees across the country.  A redwood emerges from fog, a striated bristlecone pine stands at attention and this enormous sequoia towers over a tiny human in images that aim to inspire the protection of forests in light of their beauty and essential function in the environment.  (On view through Oct 19th).

Mitch Epstein, Congress Trail, Sequoia National Park, California, from the series Old Growth, 45 ¾ x 36 ¾ inches, 2021.

Hilary Pecis at David Kordansky Gallery

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The title of Hillary Pecis’ current New York solo show at David Kordansky Gallery, ‘Warm Rhythm’ perfectly describes the vibrant colors and abundant patterning of her new paintings.  Set in LA and often inspired by scenes she encounters in her cross-country runs or daily life in the city, her paintings both sooth and excite with their tranquil subject matter rendered in bold color.  The delectable quality of a still life with half-eaten lunch or this cozy scene with cat, reading lamp and mug carries over into delight at an orange house set against lush greens of a verdant front yard or the blooms spilling out of a vividly painted flower shop.  (On view in Chelsea through Oct 12th).

Hilary Pecis, Pepita, acrylic on linen, 44 x 34 x 1 ½ inches, 2024.

Francisco Ratti in ‘Misshapes’ at Praxis NY

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If figures appear at all in Praxis NY’s summer group show ‘Missapes,’ they pose in place or rarely dominate.  Instead, still lives are a commanding presence, particularly Francisco’s Ratti’s large indistinct arrangements of objects that simultaneously look low-res digital and handmade.  The Argentina-based artist’s practice involves drawing on a cell phone screen, then transferring his images to canvas.  Here, ‘Naturaleza’ (Nature) is a pleasant, conventional arrangement of flowers, plants and food stuffs but includes a more realistic painting of a tree trunk inserted onto the larger painting’s surface.  Gashed and supporting a haphazard sign warning that a property is being monitored, the tree imagery complicates what a painting can offer at one time.  (On view in Chelsea through Aug 30th).

Francisco Ratti, Naturaleza, acrylic on canvas, 59 x 78 ¾ inches, 2023.
Francisco Ratti, Naturaleza, acrylic on canvas, 59 x 78 ¾ inches, 2023.