Raymond Saunders at Andrew Kreps Gallery and David Zwirner Gallery

Thought-provoking and pleasurable as it was, Andrew Kreps Gallery’s 2022 exhibition of iconic west coast painter Raymond Saunders’ work turns out to have been just a taster for the artist’s tour de force three-gallery show now on view at Kreps and David Zwirner Gallery, curated by Ebony L. Haynes.  Known for poetic compilations of text, signage, drawing, and materials from everyday life, Saunders’ paintings – mostly from the 80s and 90s – show him making layered allusions to the act of art making.  In this untitled piece from the mid ‘90s, faint drips, frost-like paint marks and a huge white brushstroke bring to mind an artist’s stylistic options.  A monumental fruit at center seems to nod to still life tradition while a page from a text on how to build a flat human figure drawing model, positioned near a text giving instruction on how to play a game, slyly suggests a calculation of artistic success.  (On view through April 5th/6th).

Raymond Saunders, Untitled, acrylic, spray paint, chalk, collage, and mixed media on canvas, 23 ¼ x 20 5/8 inches, 1995.

Luciana Pinchiero at Praxis Gallery

The striking figures of three life-sized Greek goddesses, accompanied by the silhouettes of three women adopting positions from a how-to book about drawing the nude figure pose dramatically at the center of Luciana Pinchiero’s first NY solo at Praxis Gallery in Chelsea.  Crafted from flat pieces of material, these classic and current representations of women literally lack dimensionality.  Inspired by ancient stories of idealized women from Pygmalion’s sculpture-turned-live-woman to the Venus de Capua who poses as if holding up a mirror, Pinchiero’s sculpture and her paper collages juxtapose imagery from different eras to question how much representation of women has actually changed over time.  (On view in Chelsea through March 9th).

Luciana Pinchiero, installation view of Bad Posture at Praxis International Art, Jan ’24.

Rammellzee in ‘Wild Style’ at Jeffrey Deitch Gallery

Forty years after the release of the independent film ‘Wild Style,’ a chronicle of the early days of New York hip hop culture, Jeffrey Deitch Gallery celebrates with a star-studded exhibition of writing, painting and sculpture that captures the creativity and energy of emerging urban youth cultures in the late 70s and early 80s.  Rammellzee’s sculpture Gasholear, surrounded by a cloud of spacecraft capable of producing lettering, is an astounding sight at the center of the main gallery.  Grasping a combination guitar/double halberd, this futuristic character is a machine/robot/human force to reckon with. (On view in SoHo through Jan 13th).

Rammellzee, The Gasholear (THE RAMM:ELLl:ZEE), c. 1987-1998, 180 pound exoskeleton of the RAMM:ELLl:ZEE, found objects, wireless sound system, paint and resin), dimensions variable.

Meleko Mokgosi at Jack Shainman Gallery

Botswanan-American artist Meleko Mokgosi’s recent paintings at Jack Shainman Gallery, grouped under the title ‘Spaces of Subjection,’ dig into the formation of subjecthood – how does a person being pictured become who they are to viewers  Inspired in part by French philosopher Michel Foucault’s writings about identity formation as it derives from networks of societal influences, Mokgosi’s paintings picture individuals from various sources including studio photographs and advertising.  Here, he combines a photograph taken in Atlanta of Nelson and Winnie Mandela who were speaking in the US, an image of the Mandelas with Coretta Scott King and her children, and a young woman seated on the floor and a man in a tux from South African studio portraiture from the 1950s.  Known for being both subordinated by power and on the flip side, representing power, the Mandelas and Kings also exist in a power relationship with each other (enacted in Coretta Scott King’s 1986 trip to South Africa) that contrasts the presence of the two lesser-known figures. (On view through Dec 22nd).

Meleko Mokgosi, Spaces of Subjection: Black Painting V, oil on canvas, 96 x 72 x 2 inches, 2022.

Eric N. Mack at Paula Cooper Gallery

Eric N. Mack calls himself a painter whose medium is fabric – new work at Paula Cooper Gallery in Chelsea is mostly hung on stretchers that support not canvas but collaged fabric fragments.  Like painting, Mack’s work foregrounds color and pattern, but the artist doesn’t add these elements to the canvas, rather he encounters them as found materials.  Instead of creating transparency and texture from paint, these are qualities of the surface itself.  Sourced from divergent origins – Mack might use fabric from couture clothing or neighborhood markets – the artist collapses quality distinctions in his dynamic abstractions.  (On view through Dec 22nd in Chelsea).

Eric N. Mack, Strewn Sitbon, fabric on aluminum stretcher, overall: 41 x 34 ½ x 6 inches, 2023.