Kara Walker at Sikkema Jenkins

Over the past few years, Kara Walker has moved away from her signature antebellum figures seen in silhouette enacting various barbarisms on each other.  In the back galleries of Chelsea’s Sikkema Jenkins, they return with vigor and malice, begging the question of what’s changed since they made Walker’s name in the mid-90s.  (Through May 22nd).  

Kara Walker, Wall Sampler 1, cut paper and paint on wall, dimensions variable, 2013.

Rona Pondick at Sonnabend Gallery

It comes as no surprise that Kafka’s ‘Metamorphosis’ is a favorite of New York artist Rona Pondick, whose new sculptures at Chelsea’s Sonnabend Gallery continue her trademark combination of her own head and other cast body parts with plant or animal bodies.  Here, a wallaby’s stylized, beautiful form merges with a drooping hand and hanging head, suggesting a dragging weight. (Through April 27th).  

Rona Pondick, Wallaby, stainless steel, 2007-12.

Matthew Fisher at the New York Center for Art and Media Studies (NYCAMS)

Matthew Fisher’s tidy waves look like carefully coiffured heads rising from the deeps and arranged in careful rows, like a school picture or choir rehearsal in the light of an apocalyptically weird sun.  (At Chelsea’s New York Center for Art and Media Studies through April 12th.)

Matthew Fisher

Andrew Masullo at Mary Boone Gallery

Andrew Masullo prefers the term ‘stuff maker’ to ‘artist’ as a way of describing his practice.  Crowns, teeth, mountain ranges and more come to mind with this tiny 5×7 inch canvas with its zippy orange, ardent red and preppy pink/green color combo. (At Chelsea’s Mary Boone Gallery through April 27th.)  

Andrew Masullo, ‘5404,’ 5” x 7,” oil/canvas, 2011-12.

Adrien Ghenie at Pace Gallery

Romanian artist Adrien Ghenie often paints historical figures from Hitler to Darwin, blotting out their features in aggressive smears of paint.  Here, a woman’s comfortable, bourgeois home-life comes under attack as the furniture appears to explode or dissolve into pools of paint as she sends a helpless glance heavenward. (At Pace Gallery’s 534 West 25th Street location through May 4th).  

Adrien Ghenie, Pie Fight Interior 8, oil on canvas, 2012.