From the serene to the lively, Bruce Silverstein Gallery’s selection of portrait photos by Lisette Model (seen here), Diane Arbus and Rosalind Fox Solomon turn everyday folks into intriguing characters. Model’s electric photo of a singer at Café Metropole contrasts a gloved man on the Promenade des Anglais, Nice and the momentary repose of a bather at Coney Island, but all suggest that moments of delicious eccentricity are just around the corner. (On view in Chelsea through Sept 8th).
‘Geomantria,’ the title of Lauren Sparks’ show last spring Kate Werble Gallery succinctly introduces the concept of geometry as magic in the Brooklyn painter’s canvases. In this grid of nine works – part of a three-person group exhibition of abstract painting at Chelsea’s Cheim & Read Gallery, curated by Jack Pierson – Sparks plots out six points with relationships that shift according to the ash, papier mache, glitter, yarn and other materials she applies to woven strips of canvas. (On view through August 30th).
Gianni Versace’s 1991-92 jacket, featuring a Madonna and child embroidered in crystals, draws on the gold tile and opulent patterning of Ravenna’s Byzantine architecture. Part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s stunning ‘Heavenly Bodies’ Costume Institute exhibition, the garment joins icons from the Met’s collection in a contemporary reinterpretation of opulence. (On view on the Upper East Side through Oct 8th).
Argentinian artist Carina Lopez Winschel turns the abundance of nature into material for abstraction in paintings that explode with form and color at Praxis Art in Chelsea. (On view through Aug 31st).
Peg board, orange plastic wrap, beard hair and other unexpected art materials create surprise and immediacy in Aaron Fowler’s meditative self-portrait at Totah Gallery on the LES. Salon94 Gallery, which also showed Fowler’s work earlier this month, explains the donkey “…as a symbol of human imperfection and signifying the potential for transformation.” (On view through Aug 26th at Totah Gallery).
A peaceful beach scene turns into a jittery fly-eye view of the seaside at the hand of Japanese artist Kensuke Koike, who alters vintage postcards and photos by slicing and rearranging the images in strips. (On view in ‘Interventions’ at Yancey Richardson Gallery in Chelsea through Aug 24th).
In South African artist Nicholas Hlobo’s cut canvas artworks, ribbons refer to the feminine while leather points to the masculine. In this detail of a larger work, the ribbons and the canvas they hold together defy gender assignment in curves and openings that evoke the body and geography. (On view in Chelsea at Lehmann Maupin Gallery through August 24th).
Cats feature in LA painter Linda Stark’s work as portals to the divine or the unknowable – one starred in a past painting as the cat-headed god Bastet, in another as a third eye on the artist’s self-portrait. Here, Stark’s cat, Ray, stares coolly out of a pink haze rimmed in blue that evokes Art Deco colors and neon light. (On view at Matthew Marks Gallery in Chelsea through August 17th).
Fred Wilson continues to consider African diasporic populations of the Mediterranean in a selection of recent work commissioned for the 15th Istanbul Biennial, currently on view at Pace Gallery in Chelsea. Uncharacteristically dark-toned Iznik tile walls include the text ‘Black is Beautiful’ and ‘Mother Africa’ in elaborate Arabic script while chandeliers combine black Murano glass from Venice with metal elements that evoke Ottoman design. Wilson’s installation merges diverse traditions with dramatic flair and elegance, suggesting complexity in the histories his art investigates. (On view through August 17th).
French street artist JR is back in town this summer with a show of photography, sculpture and installation that continues his outspoken advocacy for vulnerable populations. In this aerial overview, we see the eyes of Mayra, an undocumented immigrant who arrived in California as a child. Used as backdrop for a picnic on both sides of the US/Mexican border, the image counters division with unity. (On view at Galerie Perrotin on the Lower East side through August 17th).
A disembodied, boneless hand by Brooklyn artist Genesis Belanger is equal parts attractive and creepy, part of a table-top arrangement of stoneware sculpture that includes a languid cigarette, two partially consumed Pink Lady apples and a lamp with a severely pinched-waist. Part of Nathalie Karg Gallery’s summer group show ‘Distortions,’ Belanger’s sculpture provocatively blurs the line between human bodies, food and consumer objects in what the New Yorker proffered as ‘funny-pages Surrealism.’ (On view on the Lower East Side through August 15th).
Inspired by traditional grave-marking sculpture, Late Malagasy artist Jean-Jacques Efiaimbelo’s artistic practice continues in the vibrant work of his male descendants. Galerie Perrotin’s beautifully installed selection of symbolically rich figurative scenes, carved from the sacred wood Mendorave, includes this sculpture of a music group. Somber but lively, the musicians play Tsapiky music – popular at funerals and other ceremonies. (On view on the Lower East Side through August17th).
Robert Gober’s sculpture ‘Heart in a Box’ demonstrates more commitment than sending a valentine card or loading a text with heart-eye emojis. A standout in the Flag Art Foundation’s smart summer group show, ‘Dime Store Alchemy,’ curated by Jonathan Rider, it advances the exhibition’s meditation on art delivered in a particular setting, box or kind of framing device. Gober’s typical handcrafting is an added thrill as what appears to be a cardboard box is actually painted corrugated aluminum. (On view through August 17th).
Drake Carr’s acrylic and airbrush on canvas sculptures bring animation into three dimensions in a way that feels both fresh and disconcerting. To the right, a dancer looks set to leap off the wall. Behind, Carr nods to his mother’s window dressing business with a curtain arrangement that frames two weight lifters in a dramatic domestic setting. Two freestanding characters to the left represent residents of Flint (Carr hails from Michigan) whose odd gestures represent the unnatural quality of the city’s tainted water. (On view on the Lower East Side at The Hole NYC through August 12th).
Humor, irony and abjection abound in Greene Naftali Gallery’s summer group show ‘Painting Now and Forever, part III,’ a collaboration with Matthew Marks Gallery, but none of these qualities are found in British artist Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s fictional portrait titled ‘Jubilee.’ Instead, Yiadom-Boakye’s elevated characters – backlit in this case by a golden glow – are quietly exalted, seemingly above everyday life and happy in their own company and thoughts. (On view in Chelsea through August 17th).
Summer takes a slightly sinister turn at Pierogi Gallery’s ‘Les Fleur du Mal’ group show; here, a photo from the late Williamsburg gallery scene stalwart Meredith Allen’s ‘Melting Ice Pops’ series documents a Pokemon treat as it morphs into a dripping demon. (On view on the Lower East Side through Aug 4th).
