Palm tree paintings made in LA artist Yutaka Sone’s garden and rattan palm trees created by craftspeople in Mexico point to the artist’s exploration of Aztec history in Michoacan, Mexico, the subject of Sone’s upcoming film. (At David Zwirner Gallery through Feb 20th).
Yutaka Sone, Sky and Palm Tree Head #5, (on the wall), acrylic on canvas, 85 x 102 ½ inches, 2013. In foreground, two ‘Tropical Compositions’ in rattan, metal and paint, 2011 and 2012.
Austrian Pop artist Kiki Kogelnik lays out bodies for view in ‘Cold Passage,’ an oil painting that offers and denies access to its subjects by abstracting heads into round emoji-like circles (though the painting is from 1964) and silhouetted bodies as if they’re flat cutouts or crime scene chalk outlines. (At Simone Subal Gallery through Feb 7th).
Kiki Kogelnik, Cold Passage, oil and acrylic on canvas, 59 ¾ x 48 inches, 1964.
The rhythmic concentric rings in calming cool colors in this painting by Cuban artist Luis Martinez Pedro might bring to mind drops of water falling on the surface of the water, but don’t be too sure. The work features in a group show of art by ‘The Ten,’ a group formed in the late 50s of concrete artists in Cuba who resisted depicting forms from nature. (At David Zwirner Gallery through Feb 20th).
Luis Martinez Pedro, Aguas territorials (Territorial Waters), oil on canvas, 39 9/16 x 30 ½ inches, 1964.
Known for videos made from photos taking during his painting process, Dutch artist Jacco Olivier embraces abstraction in his latest projections at Marianne Boesky’s Lower East Side space. Without the narrative found in his previous painted videos, the recent work becomes meditative; it’s not so much watching paint dry as watching it drift slowly across the canvas. (Through Feb 14th).
Jacco Olivier, Equilibrium II, HD Animation, 3 min, 20 seconds, projection size: 37 3/8 x 33 ½ inches, 2015.
It’s important to know but hard to guess how New York artist Lisa Oppenheim sources the materials she uses to make her images – in this case, swirling clouds or monstrous faces that emerge from book matched wood. Using a thin sheet of veneer from Eastern Red Cedar, the artist created a camera-less photogram, which she then framed in Eastern Red Cedar and in birch, a wood used to imitate cedar. (At Tanya Bonakdar Gallery through Feb 20th).
Lisa Oppenheim, Landscape Portraits (Eastern Red Cedar)(Version I), set of four silver gelatin photograms in Eastern Red Cedar and Birch frames, 51 5/8 x 55 inches, 2015.
Molly Zuckerman-Hartung made a splash in the last Whitney Biennial with a huge painting on drop cloth that had been spray painted, pierced with a dremmel and stitched together with an industrial sewing machine. ‘Fruited Void,’ a standout in a two-person show at Lower East Side gallery Lyles & King, likewise is roughly handmade – fabrics with seeping stains meet in uneven tucks – but a warm palette and curving colors convey a softer sensibility. (Through Feb 7th).
Molly Zuckerman-Hartung, Fruited Void, acrylic and oil on sewn silk, cotton, linen, 55.125 x 65.125 inches, 2014.
Nigerian American artist Odili Donald Odita aims to make paintings that ‘exist before language,’ a strategy that works immediately in his high-impact wall mural at Jack Shainman Gallery’s 24th Street space in Chelsea. (Through Jan 30th).
Odili Donald Odita, Installation view of ‘The Velocity of Change,’ at Jack Shainman Gallery, Dec 2015. On view through Jan 30th, 2016.
Titled ‘Quaint Abstractions,’ new ball-point and Gelly roll pen drawings by pseudonymous New York artist Butt Johnson are mind bogglingly precise. Now that deskilling has become an art world buzzword, is meticulously rendered artwork quaint? (At CRG Gallery on the Lower East Side through Feb 21st).
Butt Johnson, Study for Regression Towards the Mean, ballpoint ink on metallic foil paper, 8.5 x 11,” 2013.
Pleasure starts to look like panic in Katherine Bradford’s large painting of beach-goers frolicking in turquoise waters when you learn its title, ‘Fear of Waves.’ Themed on swimmers and water, the show’s paintings entice as they demonstrate a range of moods from the ominous to the magical. (At Canada New York on the Lower East Side through Feb 14th).
Katherine Bradford, Fear of Waves, oil on canvas, 84 x 72 inches, 2015.
In 11R’s serendipitous pairing of ceramics by Jennie Jieun Lee and multiple exposure photograms by Mariah Robertson, each artist creates visual interest by defying convention. Robertson punctuates gorgeously-hued abstractions by cutting her photo paper into a rough, tapering point. Lee crafts vessels from glaze-splashed curls of clay. (At 11R on the Lower East Side through Feb 7th.)
Installation of ceramic by Jennie Jieun Lee and Mariah Robertson, 11R, January 2016.
In the 60s, New York painter Janet Fish reveled in painting reflections she observed on everyday objects and packaged foods. Here, a package of plantains turns mundane supermarket fare into a canvas demonstrating light at play. (At Chelsea’s DC Moore Gallery through Feb 13th).
Janet Fish, Plantains in a Box, oil on canvas, 44 x 44 inches, 1969.
Beijing-based artist Li Hongbo’s installation at Klein Sun Gallery creates a powerful creature from prosaic materials, if you interpret a snaking line of giant binder clips as a dragon. Textbooks flap like birds in the air above, pave a pathway below, and are carved into the shape of students at desks in the back of the gallery, all begging the question of how education might have the power to shape a society. (In Chelsea through Feb 13th).
Li Hongbo, installation view of ‘Textbooks’ at Klein Sun Gallery, January 2016.
Penelope Umbrico continues to mine Flickr’s vast on-line archive of images for collage-like assemblages that gently and beautifully point out the homogeneity of our camera-driven visual culture. Her latest show – and first at Chelsea’s Bruce Silverstein Gallery – zeros in on photos that have been copyrighted by amateur photographers against the back wall. In the foreground, screen shots of images tagged ‘full moon’ run on a scroll on and on along the gallery floor. (Through Feb 20th).
Installation view of ‘Penelope Umbrico: Silvery Light,’ at Bruce Silverstein Gallery, January 2016.
An Artforum critic recently identified a central quality of young New York painter Jennifer Packer’s style by explaining that her paintings capture a ‘state of perpetual becoming.’ In this painting dedicated to the artist’s late college painting instructor, flowers emerge explosively from a shadowy yet brilliant mass, existing as suggestions of color and form. (At Chelsea’s Sikkema Jenkins & Co through Jan 23rd).
Jennifer Packer, Breathing Room, Flowers for Frank Bramblett, oil on canvas, 48 x 29 inches, 2015.
Sixteen years before his solo debut at LA’s Ferus Gallery, Andy Warhol was just another art student at Carnegie Tech. Here, the whimsical character, if not the elegantly wavering line of his later commercial illustrations is prefigured in a student assignment from 1946. (At Betty Cunningham Gallery on the Lower East Side through Feb 13th).
Andy Warhol, Kids on Swings, tempera on board, 31 x 26 7/8 inches, 1946.
Chinese landscape painting meets Monet’s haystacks in clever cultural hybrids by Queens-based Chinese artist Zhang Hongtu at the Queens Museum. (Through Feb 28th).
Zhang Hongtu, Monet, Study of Pi Ma Ts’un and Jie So Ts’un, oil on canvas, 2007.
Conveyor belts of alien-like creatures, tropical landscapes in day-glo colors, and a high-wire act define the turbulent interior life of this person by New York artist Erik Parker. A silhouette of a lone shepherd towards the bottom of the painting remains like a suppressed hope for simpler times. (At Paul Kasmin Gallery’s 297 Tenth Ave space through Jan 23rd).
Erik Parker, Tastemaker, acrylic on canvas, 90 x 80 inches, 2015.
New York artist Juan Fontanive conjures the delightful flickering motion of butterflies and hummingbirds in motorized frames that act as flipbooks for 72 screen printed images at Chelsea’s Danese Corey. (Through Feb 6th).
Juan Fontanive, Ornithology P, four-color screen print on Bristol paper, stainless steel, motor and electronics, 5 x 4.25 x 3/75 inches, 2014.
LA-based experimental film maker Pat O’Neill’s first New York solo gallery show includes film and sculptures like this surreal, suggestive assemblage. (At Chelsea’s Mitchell-Innes & Nash through Jan 23rd).
Pat O’Neill, Safer than Springtime, fiberglass, aluminum, steel, paint, 48 x 39 x 30 inches, 1964.
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov’s new paintings include several that look like illustrations from a children’s storybook (recalling Ilya Kabakov’s former profession as an illustrator when he lived in the Soviet Union). Here, circular patterns layered over this painting’s surface look like snow, obscuring the cheery scenes beneath and suggesting a gradually advancing loss of sight. (At Chelsea’s Pace Gallery through Jan 23rd).
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, The Six Paintings about the Temporary Loss of Eyesight (In the Room), oil on canvas, 44 x 77 inches, 2015.
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.
Dutch artist Rachel de Joode creates a striking optical illusion at The Hole NYC with two flat photographic images mounted to PVC that momentarily appear to be 3-D. Part of The Hole’s excellent exhibition of art indebted to photographic processes, de Joode’s images of man-handled clay exist in a dimension of their own. (On the Lower East Side through Jan 16th).
Rachel de Joode, ‘Here I am and things that exist. Ow! XIV (foreground), archival inkjet print on PVC with pedestal, 60 x 34 x 14 inches, 2015.
Greg Smith’s handmade camera, crafted from linoleum, canvas,
digital camera parts and more is a standout in Yossi Milo Gallery’s exhibition
of camera related art. Mixing the
haphazard with digital know-how and a craft-oriented look, this tool is one of
a kind. (In Chelsea through Jan 23rd).
Greg Smith, Linoleum Camera, linoleum, canvas, gesso,
thread, paper, graphite, pushpin, lens, copper, epoxy, digital camera parts,
wood, hardware, 2014.
Nigerian American artist Toyin Ojih Odutola’s meticulous, patterned rendering of human skin both attracts admiration and repels understanding of her subjects. In her latest show at Chelsea’s Jack Shainman Gallery, Odutola blocks an easy read on a wall of celebrity portraits by darkening the skin of Caucasian subjects. Here, she treats the skin of two nudes as a decorative surface for a dappled pattern of light and dark color. (Through January 30th).
Toyin Ojih Odutola, Quality Control, marker and pencil on paper, 64 ¾ x 41 15/16 inches, 2015.
Don’t be surprised if the smell of coffee and the sound of breaking ceramics greet you on a visit to Yoko Ono’s two-gallery show at Chelsea’s Andrea Rosen Gallery and Galerie Lelong. The artist entices audience participation with free coffee and abundant materials. ‘Mend Piece’ suggests that fixing crockery will ‘mend the earth at the same time.’ (In Chelsea through Jan 23rd).
Yoko Ono, Mend Piece (Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, 2015/2016), ceramic, glue, tape, scissors and twine, dimensions variable, 1966/2015.
A velociraptor and protoceratops replica skeleton watch over an exhibition at Andrea Rosen Gallery of thought-provoking objects dedicated to the idea of perpetual adaptation and change. On the floor, Anne De Vries pictures crowds on odd-shaped, organic forms. To the right, Tetsumi Kudo’s plastic and polyester flower, references growth post-nuclear contamination. (In Chelsea through January 23rd).
Installation view of Asdzaa Nadleehe at Andrea Rosen Gallery, December 2015.
Young New York artist Tschabalala Self draws on the art historical tradition of the reclining nude to present a doll-like body composed of parts (including an extra leg). It’s a figure that looks to be made for changing. (At Thierry Goldberg Gallery on the Lower East Side through January 16th).
Tschabalala Self, Pieces of Me, oil and acrylic on paper, 60 x 44 inches, 2015.
Anthony Pearson’s organic and geometric forms, hand-scored in flat layers of tinted hydrocal, alternate between all-white and black compositions and lead the eye through a series of experiments in light and shape. (At Marianne Boesky Gallery in Chelsea through January 16th).
Anthony Pearson, detail of ‘Untitled (Four Part Etched Plaster),’ pigmented hydrocal and medium coated pigment hydrocal in four walnut frames, 12 ½ x 9 ½ x 1 ¾ inches, 2015.
Influential LA photographer James Welling merges photos of dancers, modernist architecture and landscapes in one of his most beautiful series to date. ‘Choreograph,’ currently on view at David Zwirner Gallery, derives its brilliant colors from intense Photoshop experimentation and its dynamism from the ghost-like images interacting on Welling’s unique stage. (In Chelsea through January 16th).
James Welling, 7809, inkjet print, 42 x 63 inches, 2015.
Frank Stella’s huge Wooden Star I sits under the stars on the Whitney Museum’s outdoor terrace; in league with a red and white Empire State Building behind, it’s like a giant Christmas ornament for the city. Tiny, 3-D printed versions by the artist are available for sale in the museum’s gift shop. (Through Feb 7th).
Frank Stella, installation view of Wooden Star I, 2014, at the Whitney Museum, Dec 2015.