A glowing globe of hand-stitched prayer caps headlines ‘Nurun ‘ala Nur (Light Upon Light)’, Australian artist Abdullah M. I. Syed’s current show at Aicon Gallery. Positioned over a water-like, reflective blue surface, the light sculpture imitates a full moon, associating the sublime beauty of a celestial body with personal and group devotion. (On view through March 6th).
Brilliant yellow flowers dematerialize in the hazy afternoon light in Jane Freilicher’s vibrant still life from 1967, now on view at Kasmin Gallery in Chelsea. Fifteen paintings from the ‘50s to the ‘00s, demonstrate an “…air of just coming into being, of tentativeness that is the lifeblood of art,” as John Ashberry, Freilicher’s long-time friend, put it. (On view through March 13th).
Made over months if not years, Peter Sacks’ multilayered works at Sperone Westwater are composed of layers of typewritten text, cardboard, paint, textiles from around the world and more. Describing the mind as sedimentary in a 2019 New Yorker profile, Sacks layers meaning below the surface of each artwork, burying layers of imagery to convey the concept that more lies below, unseen. Here, a piece from his ‘Above Our Cities’ series turns the skies into a colorful riot over the relatively small skyline below. Is this a celebration? An apocalypse? Both? (On view on the Lower East Side through March 20th).
Color pools and flows in Oslo-based artist Ragna Bley’s acrylic on sailcloth paintings at Downs and Ross, offering a lushly colored alternative to drab, late-winter New York. Inspired by marine biology and the endlessly fascinating shallows and depths of the sea, each painting complicates the reference to water with its dynamism and color. (On view on the Lower East Side through March 6th).
Areas of darker and lighter blue in jazz pianist and composer Jason Moran’s bold new abstractions at Luhring Augustine suggest intervals of energy and calm, control and freedom. Moran made the works by placing pigment on Gampi paper, laid atop a keyboard, then enacting private performances – ‘surrogates to the concerts I was unable to perform in 2020,’ he explains. Paired with tracks from his new album, the works suggest both transcendence and engagement with the challenges of life over the past year. (On view at Luhring Augustine’s Tribeca space through Feb 27th).
Born in Mumbai, raised in Singapore and living in Brooklyn, Sahana Ramakrishnan draws on a multitude of sources, including Hindu, Buddhist and Greek mythology to create intriguingly enigmatic stories. Referring to ‘the innate mystery of the other,’ the group exhibition ‘A Stranger’s Soul is a Deep Well’ at Fridman Gallery showcases complex and unexplained imagery, including Ramakrishnan’s characterful animals, gathering around a vessel to ask for retribution. (On view on the Lower East Side through Feb 20th).
Gerald Lovell’s grandmother’s photo albums were a key inspiration in the young Atlanta painter’s motivation to create portraits of family and friends. Calling such source photos of family and person history ‘saving moments,’ Lovell sets out to make depoliticized, ‘honest depictions of the people I’m around.’ (On view at PPOW Gallery’s new Tribeca location through Feb 20th. Masks and social distancing are required).
A giant yellow emoji pillow greets visitors to Misaki Kawai’s latest show at The Hole on the Bowery, signaling that the artist’s sense of humor is still lively. Her bright, fun, faux-naïve style comes across in text paintings and furry sculptures that invite touch (a sign on the wall and a dispenser of hand sanitizer confirm that this is allowed). Citing the notion of ‘heta-uma,’ or ‘bad but good,’ Kawai challenges notions of taste, but all in good fun. (On view through Feb 14th. Masks and social distancing are required.)
Twelve untitled light sculptures from 1995 by Dan Flavin transform the white cube into a bath of color at David Zwirner Gallery’s 19th Street Chelsea location. Spaced along two walls, the color configurations change with each sculpture, inviting visitors who walk from piece to piece to reconcile cool and soothing blues and greens with intense reds and yellows. (On view through Feb 20th. Masks and social distancing are required.)
A young Iranian art student captures and analyses the dreams of various American subjects in Shirin Neshat’s two channel film and photography exhibition ‘Land of Dreams,’ encouraging viewers to ponder the stories and psychology of her subjects. Here, an installation of over one hundred photographs pictures New Mexico residents along with personal info – names and birthdates – written in Farsi and drawings relating to their dreams. (On view at Gladstone Gallery through Feb 27th).
Joy arises from moments of hope in photos of Harlem rallies shot by Gordon Parks in 1963, now on view at Jack Shainman Gallery. Elsewhere, a protester’s sign reading ‘Policy brutality must go’ connects powerfully to today’s protests while iconic images from Parks’ series Segregation Story document the lives of Alabama families impacted by discrimination. (On view at Jack Shainman Gallery’s two Chelsea locations through Feb 20th).
