Reflecting the complexity of women’s lives, Ethiopian painter Hana Yilma Godine literally makes her characters multi-dimensional, fashioning their images from oil and acrylic, magazines, newsprint, fabric and more. This standout piece from her first New York solo show at Fridman Gallery features overlapping female figures who may represent the same figure at different points in life. (On view on the Lower East Side through Nov 1st. Masks and social distancing are required).
Emily Mae Smith’s subversive broom-bodied character appears in close-up with a view of mice, wheat and a polluted environment reflected in her eyes in this highlight of the artist’s current show at Simone Subal Gallery. Derived from Disney’s Fantasia, the broom appears poised to clean up the landscape she surveys, perhaps in aid of the mice and wheat, species who’ve been on the planet a long time. Her crown of hair, composed of gingko leaves, points to the trees’ role in removing huge amounts of CO2 from urban environments. (On view on the Lower East Side. Masks and social distancing are required and appointments recommended.)
It’s not hard to slip from male to female in Cindy Sherman’s reckoning. A bit of makeup and a change of clothing, and the iconic photographer became both halves of jet-set couples who are the subjects of her latest body of work at Metro Pictures Gallery in Chelsea. With exceptions, Sherman has shied away from portraying male figures in the past; her current characters embrace gender fluidity in colorful or opulent clothing from Stella McCartney’s archive. Placing them against backgrounds that Sherman shot in Bavaria, Shanghai and, here, Sissinghurst Castle Garden in England, the artist tempts viewers to read the identities of these eccentric characters. (On view through Oct 31st. Masks and social distancing are required.)
Amid vibrantly colored décor from an earlier time period, two sisters hold children who have disappeared in Titus Kaphar’s ‘Not My Burden’ at Gagosian Gallery’s 21st Street space in Chelsea. A much-anticipated follow-up to select paintings shown online when TIME commissioned a cover from Kaphar after George Floyd’s murder, the exhibition features work in which children have literally been cut out of the canvas, representing the anxiety and fear experienced by Black mothers. (On view through Dec 19th. Appointments, masks, social distancing, contact info and a health questionnaire are required).
‘Don’t think too much about it,’ advises the title of this colored pencil drawing by young Yale MFA candidate Brianna Rose Brooks, but the awkward closeness and intimate immediacy of woman and butterfly is arresting. Brooks’ two portraits are standouts in Gladstone Gallery’s blockbuster ‘Drawing 2020’ exhibition, which includes recent work by over 100 artists. (On view in Chelsea. Masks and social distancing are required and appointments are recommended.)
Drawn to art made outside of the gallery system, the iconic late artist Jean Dubuffet pursued his own non-academic style in abstract installations meant to bring to mind scenes of busy urban life. Chelsea’s Pace Gallery explains that ‘Le Cirque,’ a 13’ high sculpture from 1970 currently installed on 25th Street, recreated the ‘visual frenzy of an urban plaza.’ In an accompanying letter from the artist to his dealer, Pace founder Arne Glimcher, Dubuffet points to ancient sources of inspiration for this towering, encompassing sculpture, including stones placed at crossroads or assembled for commemoration. (On view through Oct 24th. Appointments, masks and social distancing are required.)
In every roll of film Luchita Hurtado shot, there’d be an image in shadow, explains her son, the artist Matt Mullican. Shadows dominate two walls of drawings featuring the artist’s own silhouette in a show now on view at Hauser & Wirth Gallery, conveying a rich, inner life that the artist didn’t care to display to the public. Yet elements like a feather or these bands of vibrant color offer clues to emotions and mental states that belie Hurtado’s apparent withdrawal. (On view in Chelsea through Oct 31st. Visits can be arranged by timed reservation.)
Native people are seen as creative agents, rejecting the colonial gaze in a powerful presentation at the Brooklyn Museum organized by artist Jeffrey Gibson and curator and professor Christian Crouch. Photos, text, ceramics and more from the institution’s Native American study collection and archives join Gibson’s own joyously colored paintings, sculpture and here, photography. Dance emerges in the show as a healing act while Gibson’s costumes, inspired by 19th century Ghost Dance, offer protection. (On view at the Brooklyn Museum of Art through Jan 10th).
Known for his paintings of poodles, Brooklyn based artist Susumu Kamijo takes the dog’s form as a launchpad for explorations of color, pattern and form. Here, the dog breaks up into floating organic shapes that come together to form a canine apparition. Similarly real-but-not-quite, the dog’s mouth opens in an enthusiastic bark but its half closed eyes suggest restraint. (On view at Jack Hanley Gallery on the Lower East Side and at Marvin Gardens in Ridgewood, NY through Oct 11th. Masks and social distancing are required.)
Inspired by the sunlight flashing through the trees on a road trip in France, New York based Belgian painter Harold Ancart embarked on a series of paintings now attracting attention at David Zwirner Gallery in Chelsea. This fiery abstracted mass brings to mind not just autumn foliage but a giant flaming match or burning bush. Tranquil blue sky behind the tree sets off the intense energy of this living organism. (On view through Oct 17th. Masks and social distancing required and appointments recommended).
Gina Beavers’ tongue in cheek (or burger in eye) self-portrait at Chelsea’s Marianne Boesky Gallery pictures the artist literally becoming what she consumes online. Inspired by the similarity of the images we look at via social media, be it enticing food or makeup tutorials, Beavers creates sculptural paintings that MoMA called ‘visceral, vexing, often grotesque…’ when she showed at the museum last year. (On view through Oct 17th. Masks and social distancing required and appointments recommended).
Young Bronx-based painter Cheyenne Julien’s portrait of her father speaks powerfully to his love of music and his comfort in his own space. Surrounded and transported by music, he appears to both meet his viewer’s gaze and look beyond and upwards. A huge pink-toned foot at the painting’s foreground is boldly positioned, the rest of his body relaxed suggesting confident comfort. (On view at Chapter NY on the Lower East Side through Oct 10th. Masks and social distancing required and appointments recommended.)
