Spencer Finch, ‘One Hundred Famous Views of New York City (after Hiroshige)’ at James Cohan Gallery

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Using glass, paint, light and other materials, Spencer Finch makes artworks that mimic natural effects, such as fog in an Emily Dickinson poem or the atmosphere of Monet’s Giverny.  Now on view at James Cohan Gallery, his latest body of work pays homage to the decades-long influence of Japanese aesthetics on his practice.  Watercolor paintings overlaying contemporary views of New York and Hiroshige’s One Hundred Famous Views of Edo from the mid-19th century offer fragmentary but tantalizing glimpses of urban landscape. Here, Finch’s stained-glass panels installed over the gallery windows create the effect of light reflected in a New England pond, recalling moon-viewing traditions in Japan.  (On view through Oct 4th in Tribeca).

A room with a tall ceiling and arched windows with large panels of stained glass. small stacks of grey bricks are clustered on the floor of the gallery.
Spencer Finch, Moonlight (Reflected in a Pond), stained glass, dimensions variable, 2025 and on the floor, Fourteen Stones, concrete bricks, 2025.

Alexandre da Cunha at James Cohan Gallery

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James Cohan Gallery’s austere, white cube front room hosts two equally minimal sculptural forms by Brazilian artist Alexandre da Cunha that allude poetically to labor and the human body.  Two precast concrete manholes nestle together, aligning their openings to provide a passage through both forms and pointing to their function as portals for workers.  On the wall nearby, a circular form made of shovel handles and backed with colorful fabrics from t-shirts, a cleaning cloth, a bed sheet, a tea towel, a hand towel, a sarong and more again points to the bodies and domestic routines of the individuals wielding shovels in their work life.  Industrial or personal in scale, heavy or light, each set of found materials finds beauty in the built environment and its making. (On view through Dec 21st).

Alexandre da Cunha, (right) Public Sculpture (Touch I), precast concrete, 86 x 86 x 30 in, 2024 and (left) Vitral (Rosetta), shovel handles, t-shirts, cleaning cloth, bed sheet, tea towel, hand towel, sarong, fabric cut outs, 80 ¾ x 80 ¾ x 2 3/8 inches, 2024.

 

Kaloki Nyamai at James Cohan Gallery

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Nairobi-based artist Kaloki Nyamai’s New York solo debut at James Cohan Gallery introduces an artist who uses acrylic paint, stitching and photo transfer to create complex surfaces that suggest complicated histories.  This painting’s title, ‘The one who stole my heart,’ features a figure leaning back into a man whose outward-looking eyes connect with our gaze.  In contrast to the couple’s intimate, relaxed moment, partially visible figures in the background raise their arms in what could be celebration or protest.  Elsewhere, photo transfers contrast happy moments of communal activity with news articles about political unrest as Nyamai juxtaposes the lives of individuals with larger social happenings.  (On view through May 4th).

Kaloki Nyamai, Ula wosiee ngoo yakwa II (The one who stole my heart), mixed media, acrylic, collage stitching on canvas, 2024.
Kaloki Nyamai, (detail) Ula wosiee ngoo yakwa II (The one who stole my heart), mixed media, acrylic, collage stitching on canvas, 2024.

Eamon Ore-Giron at James Cohan Gallery

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Can a deity’s identity change over time?  Struck by Octavio Paz’s observation that interpretations of a sculpture of Coatlicue in Mexico City’s Museo Nacional de Antropologia have gone from “goddess to demon, demon to monster and from monster to masterpiece” in the centuries since Spanish conquest, Eamon Ore-Giron imagines contemporary identities for familiar divinities in new paintings, ceramics and textiles at James Cohan Gallery.  Here, in ‘Talking Shit with Mama Killa,’ Ore-Giron pictures the Incan moon goddess with her geometric fan-shaped crown creating angular and organic shapes that cover her upper head while the lower half of her face is transformed by triangular patterns and tear-like blue drops.  Characterized by angular features that appear to be morphing, this divinity’s identity is capable of shifting and updating by the moment.  (On view in Tribeca through Oct 21st).

Eamon Ore-Giron, Talking Shit with Mama Killa, mineral paint and flasche on canvas, 72 x 72 inches, 2023.

Alison Elizabeth Taylor Marquetry at James Cohan

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Alison Elizabeth Taylor’s intricately crafted, marquetry hybrid images of friends and family at James Cohan Gallery picture an array of pleasures that include a tropical hotel bar, a young woman playing guitar on the front steps of a house and friends enjoying time together.  The first piece in the show – an image of a cactus created by collaging together thin pieces of wood veneer and other materials and titled ‘Decision Fatigue’ – introduces her technique and points to the unending possibilities for choosing and creating images out of the variety of materials at her disposal, which include not only wood but photographed and textured material as well as paint.  In what feels like Taylor’s most integrated assemblages of materials to date, the artist’s skill is foremost on display (in the tones of Javier and Will’s faces and hair in this image, for example), and the biggest pleasure is not the subject matter but the artist’s skill in rendering it.  (On view in Tribeca through June 24th).

Alison Elizabeth Taylor, Javier and Will in CDMX, marquetry hybrid, 56 x 47 ¾ inches, 2022.

Helene Appel at James Cohan Gallery

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Soap suds, sand and spaghetti are the mundane subjects of Helene Appel’s extraordinary new paintings at James Cohan Gallery.  A muted palette and minute detail make it necessary to draw close to finely detailed renderings of beach sand and glistening soap bubbles.  From a few feet away, this painting (seen in detail) delights as a trompe l’oeil rendering of a delicately colored fishing net while doubling as an energetically free, grid-busting abstraction. (On view on the Lower East Side through July 27th).

Helene Appel, detail of Blue Net Painting, acrylic and watercolor on linen, 92 ½ x 155 ½ inches, 2018.

Michele Grabner at James Cohan Gallery

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Handmade blankets rendered in bronze and boldly colored paintings based on the blankets’ patterns orient Michele Grabner’s latest body of work toward the domestic, the personal and the tactile. Each blanket’s form looks ghostly, harkening back to the bodies that used it to stay warm. As 2-D images on the wall, the cozy factor is replaced by a reference to the grid, the ubiquitous underlying principle to much mid-20th century art. Grabner suggests that context is key. (At James Cohan Gallery’s Chelsea location, through Jan 28th).

Michele Grabner, Untitled, bronze, 43 ½ x 20 x 12 ½ inches, unique, 2016. Background painting: Untitled, oil on burlap and canvas, 86 ½ x 120 inches, 2016.
Michele Grabner, Untitled, bronze, 43 ½ x 20 x 12 ½ inches, unique, 2016. Background painting: Untitled, oil on burlap and canvas, 86 ½ x 120 inches, 2016.

Trenton Doyle Hancock Paintings at James Cohan

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An epic battle between divine beings – scrawny-armed ‘Undom Engle’ on the left and the pink, wolf-like creature ‘Repaint’ to the right – vividly kicks off Trenton Doyle Hancock’s intense new show at James Cohan Gallery. Though it helps to know the language of Hancock’s invented mythology and his recurring characters, each new work is its own richly imagined tale. (At James Cohan Gallery’s Lower East Side location through Nov 27th).

Trenton Doyle Hancock, The She Wolf Amongst Them Fed Undom’s Conundrum, acrylic and mixed media on canvas, 72 x 108 x 4 1/2 inches, 2016.
Trenton Doyle Hancock, The She Wolf Amongst Them Fed Undom’s Conundrum, acrylic and mixed media on canvas, 72 x 108 x 4 1/2 inches, 2016.

Spencer Finch, Thank You at James Cohan Gallery

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Spencer Finch literally changes the atmosphere inside James Cohan Gallery by creating an installation of hanging glass panels that create fog-like conditions inside the space. The shifting panels obscure the view across the gallery only from certain spots, meaning that visitors have to keep peering intently ahead to make out what’s there – an experience akin to moving through fog. (At Chelsea’s James Cohan Gallery through Nov 26th).

Spencer Finch, Thank You, Fog, 85 glass panels, aircraft cable, muted grey walls, dimensions variable, 2016.
Spencer Finch, Thank You, Fog, 85 glass panels, aircraft cable, muted grey walls, dimensions variable, 2016.

Xu Zhen at James Cohan Gallery

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Excessive squeezes of oil paint – created using pastry bags – on Xu Zhen’s canvases reach toward the viewer like living creatures, invoking coral or clusters of candy-colored undersea invertebrates. Produced by the artist’s ‘MadeIn Company’ and titled ‘Made in Heaven,’ the work nods to factory-like art production (referencing Jeff Koons’ ‘Made in Heaven’ photo series, for example) while offering a lush abstraction that looks good enough to eat. (At James Cohan Gallery through Oct 8th).

Xu Zhen, Under Heaven – 2808TV1512, oil on canvas, aluminum, 90 3/8 x 70 ¾ x 5 ½ inches, produced by MadeIn Company, 2014.
Xu Zhen, Under Heaven – 2808TV1512, oil on canvas, aluminum, 90 3/8 x 70 ¾ x 5 ½ inches, produced by MadeIn Company, 2014.

Aliza Nisenbaum in ‘Intimisms’ at James Cohan Gallery

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Mexican-born, New York-based assistant art professor Aliza Nisenbaum’s focus on U.S. immigrants inspired James Cohan Gallery’s excellent summer group show ‘Intimisms,’ which features close portraits of artists’ friends and family. Here, her painting of the Women’s Cabinet of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs is more public yet portrays the individuality of each community leader. (In Chelsea through July 29th).

Aliza Nisenbaum, MOIA’s NYC Womens Cabinet, oil on linen, 68 x 85 inches, 2016.
Aliza Nisenbaum, MOIA’s NYC Womens Cabinet, oil on linen, 68 x 85 inches, 2016.

Kirk Magnus at James Cohan Gallery

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East Asian tradition meets folk tale characters in the late Kirk Magnus’s ceramic demon, now part of the artist’s mini-30 year retrospective at James Cohan Gallery. Magnus’ deep knowledge of the world’s ceramic arts and his sense of humor are evident in a variety of vessels crafted with different techniques and featuring an assortment of oddball characters. (On the Lower East Side through June 26th).

Kirk Magnus, Green Guardian, earthenware and colored slips and glazes, 16 ½ x 13 x 13 ½ inches, 2008.
Kirk Magnus, Green Guardian, earthenware and colored slips and glazes, 16 ½ x 13 x 13 ½ inches, 2008.

The Propeller Group at James Cohan Gallery

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Vietnam-based artists The Propeller Group make a surprising connection between brass bands in New Orleans and Vietnam in a mesmerizing video created for the New Orleans biennial, Prospect 3. Here, a funeral band wades into the Mekong Delta, making an elaborate journey as they accompany the dead toward the afterlife. (At James Cohan Gallery on the Lower East Side through May 15th).

The Propeller Group, installation view of The Living Need Light, The Dead Need Music (2014) at James Cohan Gallery, April 2016.
The Propeller Group, installation view of The Living Need Light, The Dead Need Music (2014) at James Cohan Gallery, April 2016.

Bill Viola at James Cohan Gallery

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Bill Viola explores his signature themes of rebirth, endurance and physical/spiritual transformation in ‘Inverted Birth,’ a large-scale video at Chelsea’s James Cohan Gallery. Here, black, red, white and clear liquids, perhaps symbolizing elemental materials of earth, blood, milk and water, pour away from the subject (as the video runs backwards) suggesting a reversal of time. (Through Jan 30th).

Bill Viola, installation view of ‘Inverted Birth’ at James Cohan Gallery, through Jan 30th.

Beatriz Milhazes at James Cohan Gallery

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Brazilian artist Beatriz Milhazes continues to conjure a joyous mood and rhythmically flowing forms in abstract paintings and new sculptures at James Cohan Gallery. She’s said that without the inspiration of Carnival, she wouldn’t be an artist; these sculptures even evolved from some made in collaboration with craftsmen who make floats for Carnival. (In Chelsea through Nov 28th).

Beatriz Milhazes, installation view of ‘Marola’ at James Cohan Gallery, Oct 2015.

Elias Sime at James Cohan Gallery

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Addis Ababa-based artist Elias Sime carries away electronic components by the truck-full from Africa’s largest open-air market in order to create gorgeous installations like this colorful collage at Chelsea’s James Cohan Gallery. (Through Oct 17th).

Elias Sime, Tightrope 7, reclaimed electronic components and wires on panel, 8 ½ x 39 ¼ feet (estimated), 2009-2014.

KRIWET in ‘All Watched Over’ at James Cohan Gallery

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In colors that suggest political banners, Dusseldorf-based artist KRIWET created this bold ‘comic strip’ in 1970, using letters to create mental pictures. It is part of the group exhibition ‘All Watched Over’ at Chelsea’s James Cohan Gallery, which muses on the power of futuristic technology to improve life. (Through Aug 7th)

KRIWET, Comicstrip, 1970.

Yinka Shonibare, Rage of the Ballet Gods at James Cohan

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Few these days think that the gods are responsible when an earthquake or tsunami hits, but British/Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare pictures the wrath of Zeus (background) and Poseidon (front right) to comment on climate change in his latest solo show at James Cohan Gallery. Placed directly on the floor in their bold (signature Shonibare) fabrics, the gender-bending divine dancers emanate power.

Yinka Shonibare, installation view of ‘Rage of the Ballet Gods’ at James Cohan Gallery, May 2015.

Xu Zhen in ‘By Proxy’ at James Cohan Gallery

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Shanghai artist-provocateur Xu Zhen shows a piece from his ‘Eternity’ series at James Cohan Gallery that literalizes the idea of ‘East meeting West’ in an absurd combination of classical refinement and enlightenment. (In Chelsea through Jan 17th).

Xu Zhen, Eternity-Aphrodite of Knidos, Tang Dynasty Sitting Buddha, glass fiber-reinforced concrete, marble grains, sandstone grains, mineral pigments, steel, 139 ¾ x 35 13/16 x 35 13/16 inches, 2014.

Alison Elizabeth Taylor in ‘The Fifth Season’ at James Cohan Gallery

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Brooklyn-based artist Alison Elizabeth Taylor’s more recent New York solo show in Fall ‘13 at Chelsea’s James Cohan Gallery was a gratifying chance to witness her wizardry with wood veneer in 2-D scenes of natural destruction; but her contribution to the gallery’s excellent summer group show – a western home invaded by a storm tossed tree – is a knockout. (Seen in detail.) (Through August 8th).

Alison Elizabeth Taylor, Kitchen (detail), wood veneer, oil, acrylic, shellac, 92 x 116 inches, 2014.

Fred Tomaselli, Penetrators (Large) at James Cohan

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Brooklyn collage artist Fred Tomaselli’s first New York solo show since 2006 dazzles with images like this bird vs serpent standoff, set in a fiery swirl of red and orange under an improbably colorful night sky. The show also features New York Times front covers with photos altered to equally hallucinogenic effect. (At Chelsea’s James Cohan Gallery through June 14th).

Fred Tomaselli, Penetrators (Large), photo-collage, acrylic, resin on wood panel, 72 x 72 inches, 2012.

Ingrid Calame at James Cohan Gallery

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“The whole surface of the world is a potential drawing,” said LA artist Ingrid Calame in a recent interview.  “How do you represent something as huge as the world?”  Calame answers her question by mapping a small section of the world and making it feel large.  For this room-sized installation, Calame visited the Indianapolis Motor Speedway pits, tracing the stains and tire tracks and reproducing them here in a blaze of electric colors.  (At Chelsea’s James Cohan Gallery through Feb 8th.)  

Ingrid Calame, Indianapolis Motor Speedway Pits, #4, #7, #9, #26, #32, #33, #35, #37, #39, #40, as installed:  13’ 5 ½” x 41’ 9” x 30’, pigment on wall, 2013.

Alison Elizabeth Taylor at James Cohan Gallery

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Brooklyn-based artist Alison Elizabeth Taylor is known for scenes of people in the landscape and decrepit interiors, all meticulously crafted from wood veneer.  In her latest solo show at Chelsea’s James Cohan Gallery, she wields her signature technique and adds paint in service of depicting nature mangled by humans.  (through Nov 30th).  

Alison Elizabeth Taylor, Transparent Eye, wood veneer, shellac and oil on panel, 2013.

Shi Zhiying at James Cohan Gallery

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Chinese artist Shi Zhiying’s oil paintings of vessels and stone carvings at Chelsea’s James Cohan Gallery were inspired by her travels in China, Cambodia and India.  Strong tonal contrast and a grisaille color scheme impart a somber restraint that speaks to the spiritual import of her subject matter. (Through July 26th).  

Shi Zhiying, Rock Carving of Thousand Buddhas, oil on canvas, 2013.

Spencer Finch at James Cohan Gallery

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In 1846, Henry David Thoreau took soundings to measure the depth of Walden Pond, disproving local legends that claimed it was bottomless.  A century and a half later, Spencer Finch’s soundings recorded location, depth and surface color at hundreds of different points on Walden Pond, creating a visual record of both surface and depths.   (At Chelsea’s James Cohan Gallery through June 15th)

Spencer Finch, Walden Pond (surface/depth), rope, cloth, twine, 298 watercolors on watercolor paper, 120 feet long, 2013.

Hiraki Sawa at James Cohan Gallery

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London-based, Japanese artist Hiraki Sawa’s videos tend towards the whimsical, featuring tiny airplanes flying through his apartment or miniature rocking horses buried deep in flokati rugs.  ‘Lineament,’ a new two-screen installation at Chelsea’s James Cohan Gallery takes a more serious turn as Sawa meditates on a friend’s sudden, profound memory loss with images of gears and an unraveling record suggesting erasure.  (Through April 27th).  

Hiraki Sawa, installation shot of Lineament, dual channel HD video with audio, 18:47 min, 2012.

Shinique Smith at James Cohan Gallery

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Shinique Smith’s fabric sculptures bring to mind the way we fashion our identities through clothing, even when her bright bunches of used garments are bunched together and hung from the ceiling.  Here, the artist turns her work jeans into a Hans Bellmer-esque assemblage of biomorphic shapes that touch on body image and the sensuous. (At James Cohan Gallery, Chelsea through March 16).  

Shinique Smith, Soul Elsewhere, artist’s clothing, fiber-fil and rope, 2013.

Wang Xieda at James Cohan Gallery

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Wang Xieda, Sages’ Sayings 026, bronze, edition of 7, 2006.
Wang Xieda, Sages’ Sayings 026, bronze, edition of 7, 2006.

‘Drawing in space’ is a familiar term used to describe abstract sculpture, but it turns literal in Wang Xieda’s new bronze sculpture at James Cohan Gallery, which brings Chinese calligraphy into three-dimensions.  (In Chelsea through Feb 9th).

Fred Tomaselli at James Cohan Gallery

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Fred Tomaselli at James Cohan Gallery, Dec '12.
Fred Tomaselli at James Cohan Gallery, Dec ’12.

This collage by Fred Tomaselli  (seen here in detail), is hidden away in James Cohan Gallery’s back viewing room but has been a big attention grabber on tours lately, and no wonder.  Its color, pattern and mesmerizing detail give your eyes (all 20 of them?) and brains a workout.

Trenton Doyle Hancock at James Cohan Gallery

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Trenton Doyle Hancock, Plate of Shrimp, acrylic and mixed media on canvas, 2012.
Trenton Doyle Hancock, Plate of Shrimp, acrylic and mixed media on canvas, 2012.

For a decade, Trenton Doyle Hancock’s busy, messy and captivating collages told the tales of his invented creatures – the Mounds and the Vegans.  He leaves those characters behind in his latest solo show at Chelsea’s James Cohan Gallery, but not before making this disconcerting self-portrait in which his eye and mostly removed face emerges from the open maw of a screaming, striped Mound. (through Dec 22nd)

Yinka Shonibare at James Cohan Gallery

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Yinka Shonibare, Revolutionary Kid (fox girl), mannequin, Dutch wax printed cotton, fibreglass, leather, taxidermy fox head, steel base plate, BlackBerry and 24 carat gold gilded gun, 2012.
Yinka Shonibare, Revolutionary Kid (fox girl), mannequin, Dutch wax printed cotton, fibreglass, leather, taxidermy fox head, steel base plate, BlackBerry and 24 carat gold gilded gun, 2012.

Yinka Shonibare’s crafty revolutionary looks set for success with money, guns and communications, as embodied by his ’12 ‘Revolution Kid (fox girl),’ spotted today in the back viewing room of Chelsea’s James Cohan Gallery.  Toting a blackberry and a 24 carat gold gilded gun and dressed in Shonibare’s signature Dutch-imported, ‘African’ textiles, she begs the question of who she is and who’s backing her.