Yves Klein’s use of nude female models – daubed in his signature blue paint – as live paintbrushes increases in political incorrectness as the years go by. Now, Addie Wagenknecht has joined the ranks of artists who’ve responded with their own takes on Klein’s iconic objectification. Engaging a Roomba to paint as it skirted her nude body, Wagenknecht creates expressionist canvases with an algorithm and robot. (On view at Bitforms on the Lower East Side through Feb 11th).
Late artist Alan Shields was no stranger to the sewing machine or to using canvas to construct colorful abstractions. In an homage exhibition that makes connections between Shields’ work and that of younger colleagues, Cheryl Donegan’s track suits manipulate clothing prints, which are then printed onto new garments, complicating the path from idea to product. (On view at Van Doren Waxter on the Lower East Side through Feb 24th).
Featuring live flowering plants, Jeff Koons’ huge mirror-polished stainless steel bluebird not only represents nature but brings it into the gallery. It’s part of David Zwirner Gallery’s 25-year anniversary exhibition, which includes work by many of the world’s best-known western contemporary artists and makes clear the scale of the gallery’s art world involvement. (On view at 537 West 20th Street and all Zwirner locations in Chelsea through Feb 17th.)
An all-powerful, muscular man subjugates woman and destroys nature in a series of potent paintings by Judy Chicago from 1984, now on view at Salon94. His invincible nature comes into question, however, in this painting from a triptych titled ‘Rainbow Man,’ in which he strains to bend a rainbow that snaps out of his hands and boomerangs back into shape. More than thirty years after being painted, the artist’s warning has only become more relevant to contemporary attitudes to the earth and the environment. (On view on the Lower East Side through March 3rd).
Titled ‘Casting Call,’ Judith Henry’s installation of 300 small abstract sculptures look like mini-cobbled together robots or tools. Featuring eyes or resembling cameras, some meet our gaze; others appear to be small totems, like the figure at front here, resembling Shiva surrounded by a ring of fire. (On view at Bravin Lee in Chelsea through Feb 17th).
Art can be playful but doesn’t often involve play; Scott Alario’s images of an alien invasion – enacted with his young son – result in photos like this arresting image of a Star Wars limited edition cereal box used as avatar and shield. (On view at Kristen Lorello Gallery on the Lower East Side through Jan 27th).
Vintage fur handbags by Victoria Gitman amaze with their abundant color and detail at Garth Greenan Gallery in Chelsea. With the contours of the purses cropped, Gitman’s arrangements resemble color field painting or Peruvian feather work. (On view through Feb 17th).
Italian photographer Luca Campigotto’s cityscapes are bold and bright, though they’re shot after dark. Humans don’t feature much in the images yet our presence is felt through ubiquitous lights left on for safety, decoration, advertising and nighttime living. Here, Hong Kong glows with the intensity of over seven million lives being led and lit below. (On view at Laurence Miller Gallery through Feb 24th).
Obstacle courses constructed from lengths of black wood are a recurring part of Johannesburg-based artist Serge Alain Nitegeka’s practice, forcing gallery visitors to reconsider their environment while ducking and bending through the gallery. Having lived and moved often as a refugee during his childhood, Nitegeka connects his own political experience with the gallery visitor’s spatial experience. (On view at Marianne Boesky Gallery in Chelsea through Feb 24th).
Wang Ningde’s ‘Form of Light’ images, currently on view at Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery in Chelsea, appear to be photos but fool the eye. From straight on, thin strips of photographic film disappear and visitors see only the projection of images underneath, arranged via projection software to synch with the gallery’s light sources. (On view through Feb 17th).
The Museum of Modern Art’s current retrospective of Stephen Shore’s photography lauds his ‘poetics of the ordinary.’ Shot in Montana, though not obviously linked to a particular location, this composition at 303 Gallery encourages viewers to find aesthetic interest in unexpected times and places. (On view in Chelsea through Feb 17th).
Granted access to Nation of Islam leadership and communities in 1963, Life photographer Gordon Parks shot remarkable images including this portrait of women’s leader Ethel Sharrieff. Now on view at Jack Shainman Gallery’s 24th Street location, the arresting show overviews selections from Parks’ lesser-known yet powerful series. (On view through Feb 10th).
Levittown – a post WWII house development of 17,500 homes on Long Island seen from an aerial view on the gallery wall – has become synonymous with the crushing conformity of the suburbs. Brian Tolle’s carefully researched replica of the Levittown Cape Cod style house is realized in platinum silicon rubber and rests on a beanbag, armchair, kids toys and other typical items from American homes. In the gallery, Tolle’s deflated forms suggesting the melting away of past attitudes and lifestyles. (On view at C24 Gallery in Chelsea through Feb 27th).
The weeks turn to years in Byron Kim’s diaristic notes, jotted on his paintings of the sky on successive Sundays since 2001. The towers fall, Obama is elected president, Kim worries over his kids, ponders his work and enjoys an active social life – all set against the backdrop of shifting weather. (On view at James Cohan Gallery in Chelsea through Feb 17th).
“And yet it moves” is the translated titled of this new monumental steel sculpture by Mark di Suvero, referring to Galileo’s 17th century assertion (despite pressure from the Inquisition) that the earth is not stable. Likewise, this formidably weighty sculpture looks fixed but will rock on its axis if set in motion. (On view at Paula Cooper Gallery in Chelsea through Feb 3rd.)
From papier-mâché to paintings on panel, Barry McGee’s exhibition of recent work at Cheim & Read is packed with a superabundance of objects bearing McGee’s signature patterns and logos. In the back, a stack of surfboards is typical of the show’s visual overload, speaking to McGee’s boundless creative impulse. (On view in Chelsea through Feb 17th.)
Nature is vast, mankind is tiny in Cuban painter Tomas Sanchez’s landscapes. Here, a solitary cloud patrols a wooded terrain conspicuously absent of humans. (On view at Marlborough Contemporary through Feb 10th).
Paris-based Italian artist Beatrice Caracciolo’s ‘Tramontana’ refers in its title to a cold north wind, which appears to cause a landscape to hunker down in this expressive ink on paper artwork. (On view at Paula Cooper Gallery in Chelsea through Feb 3rd).
Though each painting in his first solo show at DC Moore Gallery is based on the torso of an eccentrically outfitted individual, Michael Stamm’s new paintings are remarkable diverse and inventive. Inspired by meetings with his therapist – with whom he avoided eye contact – Stamm’s headless characters offer enticing sartorial clues to identity. Here, the subject’s sweater contrasts a mountainous landscape above with licking flames below, connected by the French emblem translated, ‘it is established by God’s decree.’ (On view in Chelsea through Feb 3rd).
Kiyoshi Nakagami’s otherworldly abstractions, dramatically contrasting light and dark and rendered in pigment and gold dust, suggest a moment of cosmic creation or the beginning of an alien encounter. Scale and subject matter are hard to discern but the impact of Nakagami’s meticulously laid gold lines is profound. (On view at Ameringer McEnery Yohe gallery in Chelsea at the gallery’s temporary location on 19th Street).
What can a painting do that a photograph can’t? Carla Klein’s latest paintings, created from photos taken on visits to European greenhouses, set themselves apart by making familiar spaces seem strange. Frames and panels in the background look excessive, as if new spaces were propagating along with the plants. (On view at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery through Feb 15th).
Celebration is a synonym for freedom in Odili Donald Odita’s vibrant abstract paintings, canvases that act with joyous vitality against forces that would quiet and crush identity. (On view at Jack Shainman Gallery in Chelsea through Feb 10th).
Sublime images of cliff faces by Japanese artist Hiroshi Senju (as seen here in detail) begin as mulberry washi paper, sourced from a specialist paper maker who can only make the paper in winter. After creating texture by hand-rumpling the large paper sheets, Senju uses handmade brushes and natural and synthetic pigments to render the natural world as apparition. (On view at Sundaram Tagore Gallery in Chelsea through Jan 13th).
The visionary landscapes of Joseph Yoakum (1890-1972) and Robyn O’Neil (b. 1977) are Spartan and stylized, turning familiar natural forms of mountains, trees and more into apocalyptic omens. In this detail of a drawing by O’Neil, America’s national bird dominates a huddled crowd and an inhospitable landscape. (On view at Susan Inglett Gallery through Jan 27th).
Large new paintings by Arturo Herrera suggest movement across the canvas, as if wind or gravity partnered with the Berlin-based painter to drag earthy, autumn tones over a now partially obscured pattern. Usually involving half-seen layers, Herrera’s works continue to obscure and reveal. (At Sikkema Jenkins & Co. through Jan 20th).
Known for photographing opulent buildings from Italy to Havana, Michael Eastman’s latest series focuses on century-old neoclassical interiors in Buenos Aires. This slightly less extravagant but no less gorgeous college stairwell is the picture of tranquility in cool, blue and green-toned tile. That it is without students suggests timing or an oblique reference to something more sinister in Argentina’s past. (On view at Edwynn Houk Gallery in midtown through Jan 20th).
In her late 80s, late American sculptor and printmaker Elizabeth Catlett created this arresting print, now a highlight of her mini-retrospective at Burning in Water gallery in Chelsea. Here, Catlett synthesizes influences from African art, European modernism and more in a portrait that feels both cutting edge and connected with early 20th century avant-garde art. (On view through Feb 3rd).
Known for making alterations to documentary photography in work that questions both history and how we consume photography, Cai Dongdong reframes a shot of guerrillas on Lake Honghu at Klein Sun Gallery. Armed fighters contrast the lake’s tranquil beauty in a spot that saw conflict during China’s civil war. (On view in Chelsea through Jan 6th).
Photographer Sage Sohier looks ambushed by her former-model mother and her sister, who make Sohier up with gusto in this family portrait. Our sympathy is tempered by mom’s and sis’s smiles, but as Sohier stages beauty treatments and time at home in her mother’s company, viewers are prompted to consider the role of beauty and appearances in Sohier’s life and our own. (On view at Foley Gallery on the Lower East Side through Jan 7th).
Working without training on a handloom, Brent Wadden crafts wonky abstractions in pleasingly complementary colors and dizzying black and white lines. (On view at Mitchell-Innes and Nash’s Madison Ave location through Jan 5th).
If a hard-edged abstract painting liberated itself from the stretcher and tottered off, it might look something like Billy Copley’s acrylic on paper sculpture, which appears to be blowing streamers for the new year. (On view at Edward Thorp Gallery in Chelsea through Jan 27th).
