You don’t have to make it to Chelsea to see New York’s hottest shows this month. Peter Doig’s first New York solo show in a decade takes place on the Upper East Side at Michael Werner Gallery and in the West Village at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise where new canvases feature ping-pong players, human moths and mysterious landscapes.
Also on the painting front, South African artist Marlene Dumas’ figurative paintings in her retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art are dark but arresting. Critics from the LA Times Christopher Knight to the New York Times Roberta Smith point out the prominent pros and cons of the show, and it’s easy to walk through and create your own checklist of art historical references, not an unrewarding task.