Celebrated Romanian painter Victor Man is known for courting the unknowable in his paintings, creating a sense of mystery. In this painting, the oddness is profound. Abstract hair meets meticulous realism on the face, a youthful face contrasts a mature neck and the third eye keeps things in constant movement. (At Chelsea’s Barbara Gladstone Gallery through April 18th).
Victor Man, Grafting/or Lermontov Dansant Come Saint Sebastien, oil on wood, 8 ½ x 6 3/8 inches, 2014.
In the digital age, Alison Rossiter is an artist who still finds plenty to explore in the analogue photography world. Using expired photo papers (some of which date back to the 19th century), Rossiter pours or dips liquid developer on the papers, putting them together in austerely beautiful constructions like this one. (At Chelsea’s Yossi Milo Gallery through April 4th).
Alison Rossiter, From the series Splits, Haloid Military, expired October 1957, processed 2015 (#3), four gelatin silver prints, 24” x 20” each element, unique.
‘How Iraqi Are You?’ asks the title of Iraqi born, San Francisco-based artist Hayv Kahraman’s current solo show of paintings at Chelsea’s Jack Shainman Gallery. Based on a 12th century text about everyday Iraqi life, Kahraman’s paintings loosely tell stories from her own life, including this piece, which refers to her experience of having been smuggled out of Baghdad to Sweden. (Through April 4th).
Hayv Kahraman, Kachakchi, oil on linen, 79 x 108 x 2 inches, 2015.
New York artist Yuken Teruya continues to craft amazingly meticulous works on paper from unlikely materials, including a series of floral growths from the front pages of the New York Times in his latest solo show. Here, a plant rises from a photo accompanying an article about illegal logging in the Amazon rainforest. (At Josee Bienvenu Gallery through April 11th.)
Yuken Teruya, Minding My Own Business (The New York Times, October 19, 2013), 9 newspapers, wire, glue, 2 x 12.5 x 12.5 inches, 2013-2015.
Young Brooklyn artist Lauren Luloff equates human bodies and surrounding vegetation in pieces like ‘2 Jenns in the Forest’ in her show ‘Water Vessels’ at Chelsea’s Marlborough Gallery. Using bleach on bedsheets, she creates ghostly images assembled as fragments on the stretcher. (Through March 28th).
Lauren Luloff, 2 Jenns in the Forest, bleached bedsheets and fabric, 111 x 118 inches, 2015.
The FLAG Foundation’s ‘A Secret Affair’ is one of the best shows of the moment in Chelsea, and one of the most appropriately titled, given that it’s tucked away high on the 9th and 10th floors of the foundation’s 545 West 25th Street exhibition space. Curated by Louis Grachos from Glenn and Amanda Fuhrman’s collection, rooms like this one show off the quality of the collection as well as the Fuhrmans’ penchant for sculptures of couples. (Through May 16th).
Installation view of ‘A Secret Affair: Selections from the Fuhrman Family Collection,’ at the FLAG Art Foundation, including work by Louise Bourgeois (foreground), Yinka Shonibare (left), Juan Munoz (middle), Maurizio Cattelan (back), March 2015.
Known for stunning backlit photos of bawling kids and anthropomorphized animals, New York/LA photographer Jill Greenberg takes a departure with her latest photos of paintings she’s made just for the camera. Like a painting, each image is unique and perfectly captures the lush possibilities of her material. (At Chelsea’s ClampArt through March 28th)
Jill Greenberg, ‘140814 Painting 58016,’ unique archival pigment print, 58 x 77 inches, 2014.
A selection of small sculptures made by kinetic installation artist Jon Kessler and given as gifts over the years to family and friends, now presented at Salon94 Freemans, is a change of pace but no less zany than the artist’s major works. (On the Lower East Side through March 28th).
Jon Kessler, Keeper of the Key, mixed media, 13 x 8.5 x 5 inches, 2013.
LA artist David Korty’s shelf-paintings assemble a set of shapes that combine both positive and negative cut-outs, brushstrokes and patterns, all basic components of the artist’s toolbox. (At Wallspace through March 28th).
David Korty, Blue Shelf #38, ink, paper, pencil, silkscreen and paint on canvas, 79 x 93 inches, 2015.
Titled ‘Playground,’ this piece by architect turned modernist sculptor Tony Smith was inspired by ancient mud-brick buildings. Two public installations of the sculpture in Beverly Hills, CA and Rochester, NY entice visitors to go through the opening but in New York, visitors to Chelsea’s Matthew Marks Gallery are invited to appreciate at a little more of a remove. (Through April 18th).
Tony Smith, Playground, steel, painted black, 64 x 128 x 64 inches, 1962.
Calling it ‘the strongest expression of grief he has ever seen,’ Alfredo Jaar is showcasing an image by the late Dutch photojournalist Koen Wessing as part of his latest NY solo show. Wessing’s image depicts the reaction of two Nicaraguan women to news that their father has been killed in the revolution in 1978. Gradually, their images disappear in an increasingly bright blast of light, often used by Jaar as a metaphor for blindness. (At Galerie Lelong through March 28th).
Alfredo Jaar, Shadows, installation with LED lights, aluminum, video projection and six lightboxes with black and white transparencies, 2014.
Brazilian artist Thiago Rocha Pitta’s new videos track minute, artist-introduced changes to tiny segments of the landscape in Argentina. Here, a cascade of sand runs like a never-ending hourglass. (At Marianne Boesky Gallery on the Lower East Side through March 22nd.)
Thiago Rocha Pitta, Temporal maps of a non sedimented land #1, video, 2.33 min, 2015.
Major Leipzig school artist Rosa Loy’s painting ‘Comfort’ loudly signals spring with giant snowdrops and rebirth with the strange orb emerging from a central figure who may have just risen from a hole in the ground. (At Friedman Benda Gallery through March 28th).
Rosa Loy, Trost, casein on canvas, 63 x 82.75 inches, 2009.
Using colorful corrugated thermoplastic, British artist Matthew Darbyshire has recreated often-seen items in Airbnb listings, making an otherwise unlikely connection between Michelangelo’s David and an old industrial radiator. (At Lisa Cooley Gallery on the Lower East Side through March 29th).
Matthew Darbyshire, CAPTCHA No. 24- David (foreground), multi-wall polycarbonate, silicone and steel armature, 78.7 x 31.5 x 23.5 inches, 2015.
New York artist Kehinde Wiley turns the tables on canonical western art history in paintings which substitute contemporary characters of African descent for European figures. Here, in a centerpiece of Wiley’s current Brooklyn Museum exhibition, a young man plays the role of odalisque. (Through May 24th).
Kehinde Wiley, installation view of ‘Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic,” Brooklyn Museum, February, 2015.
Iconic French designer and architect Jean Prouve’s 1956 Villejuif Demountable House – designed for a school in Villejuif in south Paris – fills a side room at Gagosian Gallery’s 24th Street Chelsea location, turning it into a chic platform to show off sculpture by the late John Chamberlain. (Through April 4th).
Installation view of ‘Chamberlain/Prouve’ (in collaboration with Galerie Patrick Seguin) at Gagosian Gallery, 555 W. 24th Street, March 2015, including Jean Prouve, Villejuif Demountable House, metal, wood, aluminum and glass, 11.5 x 35 x 29 ft, 1956.
Titled ‘Morning Glory,’ this installation of hand-cast acrylic light sculptures by visual artist and landscape designer Paula Hayes is devoid of actual plant life (vs the terrariums and gardens for which Hayes is known) but trapeze-like hangers cleverly suggest fast-growing vines. (At Salon94 Bowery through March 21st).
Paula Hayes, installation view of ‘Morning Glory,’ at Salon94 Bowery, Feb 2015.
Isamu Noguchi’s red ‘Octetra’ sculpture from 1968 is a standout for color alone in Pace Gallery’s current exhibition of the 20th century modernist’s sculpture. Designed for a playground, it was inspired by Noguchi’s regard for his friend Buckminster Fuller’s notion of the tetrahedron as the primary building block of nature. (At Pace Gallery’s 508-510 West 25th Street location through March 21st).
Isamu Noguchi, Octetra, cement, paint, 8’ 7 ½ inches x 9’ 10” x 8’ 7,” 1968.
When a New York Times critic praised 18th century Spanish painter Luis Melendez’s intensely realist still life paintings at the National Gallery of Art in ’09, he was captivated by Melendez’s stunning ‘near-photographic verisimilitude.’ In her photographic homage to Melendez, New York photographer Paulette Tavormina closes the gap between painting and photo with assemblages of fruit, vegetables, meats and various kitchen items that extoll the beauty not only of Melendez’s work but of the bounty of the natural world. (At Robert Mann Gallery through March 21st).
Paulette Tavormina, Still Life with Jamon Iberico, after L. M., archival pigment print, 26 x 48 inches, 2014.
More than many vehicles, pick-up trucks seem loaded with sentimental value. Alone in Matthew Marks Gallery’s large 24th Street gallery, this machine-carved, solid stainless steel replica of a baled truck by Charles Ray feels like a monument to a memory. Ray’s exacting sculptural process – involving model making and scanning – took six years, giving the sculpture even more import. (Through April 18th).
Charles Ray, Baled Truck, solid stainless steel, 33 x 50 x 118 inches, 2014.
Referred to as ‘pressed flower’ sculptures, several crushed Fiat 500s are a colorful draw in designer Ron Arad’s first solo show at Paul Kasmin Gallery’s West 27th Street gallery, along with his gridded 3D car in the foreground. Fascinated by flattened objects (he has a collection which includes toys and soda cans), Arad likens the cars to action painting in sculptural form. (Through March 14th).
Ron Arad, installation view of ‘In Reverse’ at Paul Kasmin Gallery, Feb 2015.
The star of Subodh Gupta’s exhibition at Hauser & Wirth is this fountain, titled, ‘This is not a fountain,’ apparently in deference to Magritte’s pipe and Duchamp’s notorious 1917 urinal. Like those works, it begs the question of what’s original and what’s a copy. A constant flow of recycled water cascades over an accumulation of pots and pans used in daily life in India simultaneously suggesting individual lives and the sameness of a common culture. (In Chelsea through April 18th).
Subodh Gupta, ‘This is not a fountain,’ old aluminum utensils, water, painted brass taps, PVC pipes, motor, 2011-13.
Against video of sunsets shot on a Rauschenberg residency in Florida, numbers flash in anticipation of the 18 minutes prior to sunset in veteran video-artist Charles Atlas’ latest solo show at Chelsea’s Luhring Augustine Gallery. Titled ‘The Waning of Justice,’ the show decries the current political state of the country with help in the back gallery from legendary drag performer Lady Bunny. (Through March 14th).
Charles Atlas, installation view of ‘The Waning of Justice,’ at Luhring Augustine, Feb 2015.
California artist Marlon Mullen reduces the world to blocks of color and general forms, conveying the gist of his source material – ads and images in art magazines – in striking simplicity. (At JTT Gallery on the Lower East Side through March 15th).
Marlon Mullen, Untitled, acrylic on canvas, 36 x 24 inches, 2012.
Titled ‘Marker’s Mark,’ Julia Dault’s solo debut at Chelsea’s Marianne Boesky Gallery is all about process. One of her signature sculptures, created by bundling together rolled pieces of Formica and Plexiglas reflects a huge painting in gorgeous pastel hues, marked with a brayer roller in a creative mix of hand-made and mechanical processes. (Through March 21st).
Julia Dault, Untitled 38, 8:45am – 12:30pm, Feb 19th 2015, Formica, Plexiglas, Everlast boxing wraps, string, 2015.
Marking the 20th anniversary of Nancy Graves’ death, a show at Mitchell-Innes & Nash of sculpture and paintings from the 80s based on maps of the ocean floor or the surface of the moon evidence a respect for nature and a drive to experiment with form. The exhibition also includes the camel sculptures that made her name in the late 60s/early 70s. (In Chelsea through March 7th).
Nancy Graves, installation view at Mitchell-Innes and Nash, Feb 2015.
Is Lamar Peterson sick of painting? As he clutches his stomach in apparent discomfort in this tongue-in-cheek self-portrait, the artist appears to have taken in too much from the dishes of paint littering his bed. His sheets navigate the borders between hard-edge abstraction and messy representation, creating an amusing portrait of the artist uncomfortably inhabiting both styles. (At Chelsea’s Fredericks & Freiser Gallery through March 14th.)
Lamar Peterson, Satin Sheets, oil on canvas, 85 x 57 inches, 2014.
Inspired by a hermit living in the Maine woods with only a radio to hear news of the outside world, Dutch artist Jasper de Beijer created, then photographed paper dioramas depicting major world events from his memory rather than from documentation. Here (seen in detail), de Beijer recalls the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in all its terror. (At Chelsea’s Asya Geisberg Gallery through March 14th).
Jasper de Beijer, 12-26-2004 (from Mr Knight’s World Band Receiver’), c-print, 45×25” x 71,” 2014.
Esko Mannikko, Untitled, from the series Organized Freedom, archival pigment print in artist’s frame, 37 x 53 inches, 2012.
New York-based German photographer Vera Lutter continues to makes beautiful, ghostly images with room-sized camera obscura, capturing scenes like this of an ephemeral Empire State Building in contrast to more stolid brownstones in the foreground. (At Gagosian Gallery’s 976 Madison Ave address through March 7th).
Vera Lutter, Empire State Building, II: November 28, 2014, unique gelatin print, 91 x 56 inches, 2014.
Louise Nevelson, Untitled, broom, dustpan, metal, paint and wood on board, 63” x 48” x 7 ¾’, 1985.
