A fish-headed creature with legs runs desperately on a treadmill in this painting by Dana Schutz, epitomizing the pervasive anxiety and grotesque shape-shifting that energize her huge new paintings at Petzel Gallery. In one of the show’s largest paintings, Schutz depicts a mountaintop crowded with oddball characters with competing interests (from a landscape artist to a yogi), none of whom look enlightened. Elsewhere, a worried man in a business suit carefully washes a monster he can’t escape. Malaise abounds in Schutz’s portrayal of a dangerous and uncertain world. (On view at Petzel Gallery through Feb 23rd).
