Simen Johan’s stunning image of sea lions (seen here in detail) has the creatures rising to the right in a digitally manipulated crescendo of activity. The composition and atmospheric background recalls Gericault’s famously dramatic 19th century shipwreck scene, ‘The Raft of the Medusa,’ though it is animals that embody intense emotion. (At Yossi Milo Gallery in Chelsea through Aug 10th).
Dutch artist Anouk Kruithof’s vaguely anthropomorphized stand features a printed sheet of vinyl bearing a picture (a screenshot) of a deliberately blurred ID card posted by the TSA to its Instagram account alongside contraband found on the traveller. It’s a strange and provocative rematerialization of web-disseminated images. (At Bitforms on the Lower East Side through July 31st).
Inspired by a poem that describes a shaft of sunlight that, contrary to its nature, brings darkness to mind, Barbara Gladstone Gallery’s summer group exhibition includes Nora Schultz’s enormous, ungainly window blinds, which look as if they were crafted by a giant’s child. Installed in the room furthest from the sun, their functionality is denied, their obtusely large and rough construction emphasized. (In Chelsea through July 29th).
Displayed under glass and supported by carefully crafted supports, Alan Wiener’s two bricks and a stone are everyday objects given the royal treatment but the mini-pedestals actually steal the show. Created from aquaresin in controlled pours, their shapes suggest candy, bones and ancient architectural embellishments. (At 11R through July 29th).
Abstracted eyes float before a male and a female head like afterimages in strangely ethereal canvases by New York-based Brit Eve Ackroyd. Evocative of dream-states, Ackroyd’s paintings bring to mind simultaneous layers of experience, from the conscious to the unconscious, memory to the present moment. (In ‘On Painting’ at Kent Fine Art in Chelsea through July 29th).
Robert Raphael’s cool-colored constructions of ropes are actually created in ceramic, rendering a traditionally functional material functionless. (At LMAK Gallery through July 30th.)
Masks populate the mask-like features of ‘Whatever Guy,’ a portrait by Nicole Eisenman of a zoned-out and alienated character. (At Marc Straus Gallery through July 29th).
A phenomenal landscape meets a monumental project to collect data at mind-boggling expense ($1b+) in John Kelsey’s pretty watercolor of an NSA Data Center in Williams, Utah. (At Marlborough Gallery through July 29th).
‘Record Lines this Summer,’ a group show at Magenta Plains Gallery, takes its title from the delays expected at TSA airport checkpoints in July and August. In that context, Zach Bruder’s painting of Father Time holding a shoe up for contemplation takes on new meaning…is this shoe going to set off an alarm, or is he suggesting walking as a better mode of transport?
Cancer treatment in 2009 caused Sarah Bednarek to experience hallucinations of a geometric world; in her show at Morgan Lehman Gallery, she manifests these visions as sculptural forms that seem to simultaneously offer the mysteries of a red void and the domestic banality of veneered wood. Behind, Leigh Ruple’s vividly colored, lethargic character is barely contained by the canvas. (In Chelsea through July 29th).
Sharon Madanes merges her preoccupations with hand washing and chairs in this standout painting in DC Moore Gallery’s summer group exhibition. Wearing beads of water like jewelry, an unknown woman (in a cheongsam?) reaches into our space – the seats and table behind suggest we’re about to dine with this mysterious character. (In Chelsea through July 29th).
Shaped artworks on paper by young Brooklyn artist Gretta Johnson are abstract but bring specific objects to mind, as the show’s title ‘Jackets/Machines/Hair,’ affirms. Here, what looks like a heraldic symbol featuring modified fly whisks and a door hinge invites speculation. (At Feuer/Mesler on the Lower East Side through July 29th).
This painting of a sculptural fragment by German modernist artist Emy Roeder, a man puzzling over an abstract sculpture, and a portrait head by German artist Edwin Sharff are all meticulously paintings by Marti Cormand of artworks labeled ‘degenerate’ by the Nazis during WWII. Displaying the images as a series of 5 x 7 inch ‘postcards’ downplays their radicality but emphasizes the fact that their aesthetic has been wholly assimilated into contemporary art. (At Josee Bienvenu Gallery through July 22nd).
Caroline Larsen’s paintings are a deliberate tour-de-force of low-brow associations, resembling latch-hook or embroidery, created by squeezing oil paint through pastry bags and mounted on cheap wall coverings. Seemingly designed to test whether there’s any fertile ground left in the fine art vs kitsch debate, they deliberately elude the kind of transcendence that this majestic mountainscape might suggest. (At The Hole NYC through July 24th).
Brian Belott’s eclectic, messy collaged artwork pops up regularly in New York group shows; this month for Gavin Brown’s Lower East Side summer group show, Belott’s the organizer, having asked artist friends to contribute their own reinterpretations of iconic artwork. Among the standouts, Giva Beavers remakes Van Gogh’s Starry Night as if rendered in bacon and Melissa Brown brings Holbein’s Ambassadors up to date in paint and lottery scratch-off ink on aluminum. (Through July 30th).
T Magazine described a sketchy painting of a happy pregnant woman by Trevor Shimizu as having ‘emotional depth’ that ‘transcends that of an emoji.’ Perhaps it’s because Shimizu doesn’t set the bar very high on his draftsmanship or finish that his paintings charm with their earnestness and humor. His latest show was inspired by parenthood, reflecting on sleep deprivation (front) and breastfeeding in public (rear). (At 47 Canal on the Lower East Side through July 30th).
A generic meeting room, scaled down to doll-size and crafted in minute detail by Roxy Paine is the centerpiece of Pierogi’s summer group show ‘False Narratives.’ The absence of tables as protective barriers suggests that honesty and vulnerability will be part of whatever discussions take place here; a bulletin board on the wall offers topics of conversations that include ‘captives and fugitives’ and ‘chance and fate.’ (On the Lower East Side through July 31st).
Young Brooklyn-based, Irish artist Gerard Mullin merges paint and design in hand-carved abstract works that never seem to stop moving. (At Kristen Lorello Gallery on the Lower East Side through July 15th).
The folks behind-the-scenes have taken over the scene at David Zwirner Gallery’s 533 West 19th Street, location in Chelsea, where some forty artists who work at the gallery are showing their own work. Here, Jay Pluck’s hand painted wallpaper pattern is a welcome sliver of Matisse-like color and pattern installed unexpectedly between galleries. (Through Aug 5th).
At eight feet high, Katherine Bernhardt’s vibrant, textile-like painting overwhelms with powerful graphics while her subject matter – plantains, cigarettes, basketball and Lisa Simpson – samples pop culture and everyday objects with strong associations. (At Canada New York through July 15th).
At first glance, Adam Parker Smith’s shiny mylar balloon sculptures don’t look long for this world; inside of each, however, are resin & fiberglass interiors and metal armatures that give the sculptures heft. Arranged around a faux rock garden, the balloons resemble classic Greek sculptures reinterpreted with humor – Venus stands in the foreground with a champagne bottle body barely covered by a flying scarf while Augustus towers to the rear of the gallery. (At The Hole on the Lower East Side through July 24th).
These assisted readymade sculptures by Nicole Wermers were inspired by awnings but have been fitted with custom textiles and turned to the side to create vertical columns. Their patterns recall post-war minimal painting a la Daniel Buren, but rolled up, their potential is hidden. (At Chelsea’s Tanya Bonakdar Gallery through July 29th).
Though she was allied with the pre-war Parisian avant-garde, Meraud Guinness Guevara favored realism. This 1938 still life foregrounds an intimate arrangement of curving kitchen objects while a more austere selection of white forms stands behind at attention. (In ‘In Good Company’ at Lori Bookstein Fine Art through July 29th).
“Bodies merge with stuff,” explains LA sculptor Anna Sew Hoy of her recent sculptures, succinctly introducing her intention to build bodies that allow reshaped thinking. Installed at Koenig and Clinton Gallery in Chelsea, denim ‘worms’ and arms lifted to create an oval shape bespeak fluidity and openness. (Through July 29th).
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).
Global art commerce comes to mind in Sadie Benning’s painting of abstracted airplanes bearing mini-paintings on their wings. The planes disappear right off the panel in an apparently never-ending cycle of supply and demand. (At Callicoon Fine Arts on the Lower East Side through July 29th).
Caroline Wells Chandler’s crocheted smiley creatures run and jump along the gallery wall in Danese Corey Gallery’s textile-related summer group show, ‘Common Threads.’ Goofily happy, they are pure fun. (In Chelsea through July 29th).
Designer Cey Adams – former street artist and Founding Creative Director of Def Jam Recordings – memorializes victims of random gun violence in this site-specific mural at Chelsea’s Jane Lombard Gallery. (Through August 12th).
As summer travel season rolls around, ‘Shrines to Speed’ at Chelsea’s Leila Heller Gallery acts as something of a cautionary tale. Sylvie Fleury’s smashed and sliced car – covered in nail polish – rests near an ominous pair of van doors by Richard Prince and a crushed Fiat 500 by Ron Arad. All are enticing objects but each undermines the glamor of car culture. (In Chelsea through July 9th).
Spanish artist Cristina de Miguel offers an update on Picasso’s 1905-6 Boy Leading a Horse with a version that crops the boy (as if shot on film) and adds expressionist patches of color reminiscent of the post-war CoBrA group. The horse’s expression – he’s in on the joke? – adds humor. (At Freight and Volume on the Lower East Side through July 10th).
At the top of a stepped pile of dirt, a domed chamber houses bees (contained in the top of the structure by a screen) and offers visitors a place to sit for quiet contemplation. Artist Terence Koh explains that the ‘bee chapel’ came to him in a dream as a way of offering sanctuary to the beleaguered insects. (At Andrew Edlin Gallery on the Lower East Side through July 1st.)
