Ugo Mulas at Matthew Marks Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest ShowPosted on Comments are Disabled

Late Italian photographer Ugo Mulas made his name documenting the Venice Biennials from 1954 – 1972 and establishing relationships with Italy’s major post-war artists.  In the ‘60s, his purview expanded to New York where he met and photographed now iconic avant-garde artists from Barnett Newman to Marcel Duchamp.  These photos and more at Matthew Marks Gallery in Chelsea offer a peek at yesteryear’s art scene, from the police closing a Warhol loft party to intimate shots of Jasper Johns at work.  Here, Roy Lichtenstein inhabits one of his cartoon scenarios with good humor.  (On view through August 16th).

Ugo Mulas, Roy Lichtenstein, vintage gelatin silver print, 10 ½ x 17 7/8 inches, 1964.

Dona Nelson at Lisson Gallery

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Dona Nelson’s walk around frames turn painting into sculpture, insisting that viewers have access to (and equally value) both front and back.  In ‘Bells,’ blues and greens with a horizontal section of yellow suggest a sunset seen through a window while sections of white canvas deceptively imply transparency.  (On view in Lisson Gallery’s ‘Painters Reply:  Experimental Painting in the 1970s and now through Aug 9th.)

Dona Nelson, Bells, acrylic and acrylic medium on canvas, 80 x 80 inches, 2017.

Amy Bennett at Miles McEnery Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest ShowPosted on Comments are Disabled

Amy Bennett’s meticulously rendered oil on panel paintings catalogue disfunction in the suburbs, from a distant couple in ‘Anniversary’ sitting on two different sides of a wrap-around porch to the deeply sad images of kids in ‘Drills’ who practice hiding in school.  Privy to moments that are both tense and personal for each painting’s isolated characters, our remove from them (sometimes aided by a bird’s eye perspective) adds alienation and intrigue.  Here, ‘Floating Lessons’ parallels and seem to prefigure another of the show’s best and most alarming images in which a body (alive?) floats in an above-ground pool.  Bennett’s disturbing but fascinating vision stops viewers from conflating comfortable surroundings with happiness or family life with security. (On view through August 16th at Miles McEnery Gallery in Chelsea.)

Amy Bennett, Floating Lessons, oil on panel, 22 x 22 inches, 2018.

Dana Hoey at Petzel Gallery

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Photographer Dana Hoey describes former world champion boxer Alicia Ashley’s shadowboxing as ‘sublimely beautiful.’  Here, in a 44-foot-long wall mural at Chelsea’s Petzel Gallery, Ashley engages with Hoey’s humanoid, diamond-patterned assemblages in a series of movements that showcases the boxer’s art and her agency.  (On view in Chelsea through August 2nd).

Dana Hoey, Alicia “Slick” Ashley Shadow-boxing, vinyl wall adhesive, 168 x 528 inches, 2019.

Graham Nickson in ‘Summer!’ at Betty Cuningham Gallery

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New York Studio School dean Graham Nickson’s beach paintings have been described as “extreme, impenetrable, and haunting” for their isolated figures inhabiting landscapes pared down to horizontal bands of color.  Here, a lone figure’s ambiguous activity (Is she shielding her face from the sun?  Reading a giant book?) lends mystery and import to a leisure activity that might otherwise be overlooked.  (On view in ‘Summer!’ at Betty Cuningham Gallery on the Lower East Side through August 2nd).

Graham Nickson, Untitled from Bather Series, acrylic on canvas in artist’s frame, 48 x 48 inches, c. 1980.

Gina Beavers in ‘Painting/Sculpture’ at Marianne Boesky Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest ShowPosted on Comments are Disabled

Gina Beavers’ acrylic and foam constructions feel delightfully excessive, their high relief suggesting an eagerness to be noticed.  Inspired by glossy social media images of food, makeup and more, the work both revels in and critiques consumption, a point Beavers emphasizes by packing five paintings onto one cube, currently on view at Marianne Boesky Gallery in Chelsea.  Here, thick brushes and lush lips conflate on-line makeup tutorials with the painter’s art, humorously questioning art’s role in selling product.  (On view in ‘Painting/Sculpture’ through August 9th).

Gina Beavers, Lips with Painter’s Lips, acrylic and foam on canvas on panel with wood frame, framed: 31 x 31 x 8 inches, 2019

Tony Cox at Marlborough Gallery

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Dramatically colored abstract forms rise off the canvases in Tony Cox’s engaging new show of textured panels at Marlborough Gallery in Chelsea.  Inspired by psychotherapy and Jungian psychology, Cox emerged from a recent health crisis to create labor intensive works that reward contemplative viewing.   (On view through August 2nd).

Tony Cox, Shadow Taser, thread, acrylic, suede, lamb leather, twisted lipcord, poly stuffing on canvas in walnut frame, 73 ½ x 57 ½ inches, 2019.

Robin Kang in ‘Pool Party’ at C24 Gallery

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Robin Kang morphs circuit board imagery into patterns resembling peacock feathers in a textile created with a digitally operated Jacquard hand loom.  An abundance of gold from metallic yarns suggests a link to the divine, the receding space a throne-like seat or corridor leading to the beyond.  (On view in ‘Pool Party’ organized by Field Projects at C24 Gallery in Chelsea through Sept 21st).


Robin Kang, Daggerwing, hand jacquard woven wool, chenille, hand dyed cotton and metallic yarns, 53 x 65 inches, 2016.

Mary Heilmann Sculpture at Gladstone Gallery

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Mary Heilmann’s red and black ceramic sculpture ‘Curl’ seems to defy its title with its angular panels, yet each segment dynamically spins around a central core like a step on a spiral staircase seen from above.  Each tile evokes a riser with three treads or a chunky version of the Egyptian deity Isis’ throne in Constructivist colors that make a bold statement.  (On view at Gladstone Gallery’s 24th Street Chelsea location through July 26th).

Mary Heilmann, Curl, glazed ceramic, 15 ½ x 20 ½ x 2 ¼ inches, 1984.

Kevin Umana at DC Moore Gallery

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Music, 20th century design and the dingy tiles of New York’s Holland Tunnel have inspired New York-based painter Kevin Umana’s abstract canvases.  Here, the artist nods to the award-winning film ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’ in the color scheme of this small, energetic, and fractured painting.  (On view in Chelsea at DC Moore Gallery through August 8th).

Kevin Umana, One O’clock Jump, acrylic with marble dust on linen, 12 x 12 inches, 2019.

Math Bass in ‘Throwback Jack’ at Fredericks & Freiser

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In Fredericks & Freiser Gallery’s group show homage to painter John Wesley’s erotically charged Pop aesthetic, Math Bass presents a painting from her ‘Newz!’ series in which pared down, ambiguous signs connect her paintings to Wesley’s.  When a similar painting was installed as a mural in the lobby of the Hammer Museum last fall, the black shape could be read as a one-sleeved shirt.  Here, a dog emerges to play with the pink ball and extended foot.  (On view in Chelsea through July 26th).

Math Bass, Newz!, gouache on canvas, 30h x 70s inches, 2019.

Polly Apfelbaum at Lisson Gallery

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Why paint?  In 1975, Artforum magazine posited the question to artists at a moment when enthusiasm for more contemporary approaches – from conceptual art to video – seemed to have pushed painting out of the vanguard.  Lisson Gallery’s summer group show visits responses then and now as painters pushed the boundaries of what could be considered painting.  Here, Polly Apfelbaum’s synthetic velvet and dye piece ‘Blue Joni’ takes painting off the stretcher and even off of the wall.  (On view in Chelsea through August 9th).

Polly Apfelbaum, Blue Joni, crushed four way stretch synthetic velvet and dye, 152.4 x 426.7cm, 2016.

Tajh Rust in ‘Vernacular Interior’ at Hales Gallery

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Tajh Rust’s portrait of a mom and her daughter embracing on the kitchen floor has a counterpart in a second family picture in which the mother meets our gaze while cradling her child’s head.  The comparison reveals how easy it is to make eye contact with the child vs her assured mother as they occupy private space in a tender moment.  Nevertheless, the girl’s eye becomes the focal point of the painting, highlighting the power of her keen observation.  (On view in ‘Vernacular Interior’ at Hales Gallery in Chelsea through July 20th).

Tajh Rust, Idowu I, oil on PVC, 182.9 x 121.9 cm, 2019.

Claudia Martinez Garay in ‘Ilaciones’ at Timothy Taylor Gallery

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Young Peruvian artist Claudia Martinez Garay’s paintings on plaster in the form of squash associate identity with the products of the land, personality with nourishment.  Though gourds go through quick cycles of growth and decay relative to humans, this shape appears ancient, taking the mind back through distant human histories tied closely to the land.  (On view at Timothy Taylor Gallery in Chelsea through July 26th).

Claudia Martinez Garay, Untitled (head), plaster and watercolor, 5 7/8 x 5 1/8 x 5 1/8 inches, 2018.

Sharon Core at Yancey Richardson Gallery

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From a pastry case featuring a banana split crafted from burlap, plaster and paint to a monumental canvas hamburger, Claes Oldenburg’s sculpted foodstuffs are familiar favorite foods made alarming through their size and materials.   Photographer Sharon Core explores the attraction and repulsion of Oldenburg’s ‘60s classics (including the burger and ice cream) to great effect in her show at Chelsea’s Yancey Richardson Gallery by hand-crafting and photographing a selection of Oldenburg dishes using real food.  In contrast to perfectly-presented delectables commonly featured on social media, Core’s edible recreations of Oldenburg’s artworks initially attract, then repulse, questioning just what we want from food these days.  (On view through July 3rd).

Sharon Core, USA Flag, Fragment, archival pigment print, 40 x 50 7/8 inches, 2019.

Dana Powell at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery

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The pre-fireworks have already begun in anticipation of July 4th’s big celebrations, not just in NYC neighborhoods but in Chelsea at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, where Dana Powell’s ‘TBT’ recalls the thrills of unsanctioned pyrotechnics.  (On view in Chelsea through July 26th).

Dana Powell, TBT, oil on linen, 11 x 14 inches, 2019.