Tomas Sanchez at Marlborough Gallery

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

It’s no surprise that #meditation is one of the first tags Cuban painter Tomas Sanchez uses when posting images of new paintings to Instagram.  His intensely detailed, imagined landscapes are inspired by his daily meditative practice and celebrate the sublime on both a vast and tiny scale, eliciting wonder at nature’s complexity.  Sanchez’s first show at Marlborough New York in over 15 years offers a decade of work – new and loaned from collections.  It features not only verdant scenes but a selection of paintings featuring vast fields of discarded consumer items and trash, a disturbing contrast to the boundlessness of nature in the paintings. (On view through Jan 22nd. Note holiday hours and closures.)

Tomas Sanchez, Inner Lagoon…Thought-Cloud, acrylic on canvas, 78 ¾ x 78 ½ inches, 2016.

Cynthia Daignault at Kasmin Gallery

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Visiting Gettysburg National Military Park can amount to moving from one memorial to another, but Cynthia Daignault’s new series of paintings at Kasmin Gallery, inspired by the Civil War battlefield, focus not on the built environment but the natural world.  Called ‘a rumination on the meaning of site and time’ by the gallery, Daignault’s work features ‘witness trees,’ which were alive in the 1860s and are still in place today.  Surrounded by graves, the trees operate outside of a human timeframe and offer an alternative perspective on historic events.  Painting titles include terms like ‘synecdoche’ or ‘chiaroscuro,’ suggesting that parts of an image can tell a larger story or that events exist in shades of light and dark.  Here, ‘Gettysburg (Stereoscopic)’ nods to the popular 19th century photographic technique that creates depth by presenting two near identical images side-by-side.  (On view through Jan 8th. Note holiday hours and closures.)

Cynthia Daignault, Gettysburg (Stereoscopic), oil on linen, 30 x 60 inches, 2021.

Faig Ahmad at Sapar Contemporary

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Titled ‘Pyr,’ Azerbaijani artist Faig Ahmed’s current solo exhibition at Sapar Contemporary in Tribeca refers to the Greek word for fire, a term for a Sufi spiritual guide and the name of his country, ‘a Land Protected by Holy Fire.’  The standout works – three carpet sculptures that appear to melt with heat or rise like a flame – are each titled after a historically important Azerbaijani thinker.  Here, the piece ‘Yahya Bakuvi’ refers to the 15th century philosopher and scientist and features muted colors and restricted geometries that allude to self-control.  (On view through Jan 6th. Note holiday hours and closures.)

Faig Ahmed, Yahya Bakuvi, handmade wool carpet, 125 5/8 x 51 1/8 inches, 2021.

Catherine Murphy at Peter Freeman Inc

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Catherine Murphy’s ‘Begin Again’ greets visitors at the entrance of Peter Freeman Inc’s SoHo gallery, questioning the foundation of the artist’s realist painting practice by juxtaposing emotive gestures with skilled rendering.  Painted black outlines resemble ancient handprints in caves or body outlines traced by children and are a stark contrast to Murphy’s naturalistic rendering of her left hand and arm.  The painting’s wallpaper-like background suggests an unstoppable creative impulse akin to kids painting on the living room walls.  Recently called ‘one of America’s greatest living realist painters’ in the New Yorker and ‘one of our great artists’ in Hyperallergic, Murphy in her mid-70s testifies to the importance of keeping her practice fresh by ‘beginning again.’ (On view in SoHo through Jan 7th. Note holiday hours and closures.)

Catherine Murphy, Begin Again, oil on canvas, 46 ½ x 48 inches, 2019.

John Pai in ‘The Unseen Professors’ at Tina Kim Gallery

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Dense and complex, this piece by octogenarian sculptor John Pai, now on view in a show of work by three 20th century Asian-American sculptors at Chelsea’s Tina Kim Gallery, evokes a scientific or mathematical model in flux.  Piece by piece, Pai welded short steel rods together in a hands-on practice he likened to drawing.  Reflecting subconscious activity and taking inspiration from music, science, architecture and more, Pai’s dynamic constructions elicit wonder at complex structures in our own thought processes and the world around us.  (On view through January 29th. Note holiday hours and closures.)

John Pai, Slice of Wave to Go, welded steel, 23.5 x 32 x 30.5 inches, 1980.

Olive Ayhens at Bookstein Projects

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Olive Ayhens meets the abundance of people and buildings in New York with a profusion of recorded detail in her new series of ink and watercolor paintings at Bookstein Projects. Painted in a topsy turvy style combining multiple perspectives, Ayhens’ dynamic cityscapes look as if the buildings are in movement, perhaps shuffling down the sidewalk shoulder to shoulder like New York’s notably absent human residents. Painted in her new West Village neighborhood during the pandemic, Ayhens work reflects a sense of jittery nervousness via its architecture.  (On view on the Upper East Side through Jan 7th.  Note holiday hours and closures).

Olive Ayhens, Orange Luxury, watercolor and ink on paper, 23 x 30.5 inches, 2020.

Elmgreen and Dragset at Pace Gallery

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Titled ‘The Painter, Fig. 1,’ this lacquered bronze sculpture by Berlin-based duo Elmgreen and Dragset appears to be offered as an illustration of an artist in action and is prominently displayed in the window of Pace Gallery’s Chelsea building.  In the adjoining gallery, other sculptures hint at themes of regret, loneliness and the will to dominate; nearby, this artist responds.  It’s unclear if he’s laying down black paint or scraping off white paint to reveal the darkness beneath; either way, he appears to be putting a dramatic end to his monochrome existence.  (On view in Chelsea through Dec 18th).

Elmgreen and Dragset, The Painter, Fig. 1, bronze, lacquer, linen, paint, 98 7/16 x 100 3/8 x 23 5/8 inches, 2021.

Studio DRIFT at The Shed

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Amsterdam-based design duo Ralph Nauta and Lonneke Gordijn, aka Studio DRIFT, create objects of wonder that range from lights created with dandelion seeds to mysteriously floating concrete blocks.  Both are on view in their current exhibition at The Shed in Hudson Yards through the end of the week, offering the chance to marvel at objects that pair nature and technology.  Here, ‘Fragile Future,’ is a sculpture/lamp that has been created by hand gluing dandelion seeds to LED lights, a juxtaposition of natural and the man-made materials that encourages appreciation of the beauty and possibility of nature’s designs.  (On view through Dec 18th.)

DRIFT, Fragile Future, Dandelions, LED lights, phosphor bronze, printed circuit board, 2007-21.

Ken Price, Pluto Bowl at Matthew Marks Gallery

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If images of factories, billowing smokestacks and oil-slicked water sound alien to traditional ceramic decoration, the title of Ken Price’s mid-90s series, ‘Plutoware,’ at Matthew Marks Gallery plays along.  Intended to be a pun on the word pollution, the iconic sculptor’s scenes of environmental damage set up a fundamental contrast between intimately scaled and beautifully colored plates, bowls and vessels and depictions of giant manufacturing and co-generation plants.  Though Price’s work would seem to project despair, his wife, Happy Price explains an alternative point of view, saying, ‘When you look at the Pluto Ware some people only see pollution, darkness, and grim and then other people—like myself—see a kind of strange dark beauty.’  (On view through Dec 18th in Chelsea).

Ken Price, Pluto Bowl (Green Sludge), glazed ceramic, 2 ½ x 7 ¼ x 7 ¼ inches, 1995.

Mira Dancy at Chapter NY

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After a recent move from New York to Southern California, Mira Dancy presents new work at Chapter Gallery depicting female figures in her trademark glowing neon colors who now revel in the natural world.  This pregnant goddess holds a ball in her palm that resembles the earth, suggesting a female power on an epic scale.  (On view in Tribeca through Dec 18th).

Mira Dancy, Life Line, acrylic on canvas, 80 x 60 inches, 2021.

Arthur Simms at Martos Gallery

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Known for sculptures made of materials wrapped in hemp rope, Arthur Simms makes a departure in this ’96 piece by encasing two bicycles in wire, allowing us to see the license plates, central structure and bucket-like portable toilet on this tricked out super vehicle.   On view in Simm’s select 30-year retrospective at Martos Gallery, this sculpture and other wrapped works were inspired by carts used by homeless New Yorkers as well as the carts used by market vendors in Simm’s home country of Jamaica.  (On view on the Lower East Side through Dec 23rd).

Arthur Simms, Bicycle, bicycles, wire, wood, bottles, plastic, metal and objects, 67 x 93 x 30 inches, 1996.

Portia Zvavahera at David Zwirner Gallery

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Every morning, Zimbabwe-based artist Portia Zvavahera and her grandmother would recall and share their dreams, now, the artist paints imagery from her nocturnal subconscious to promote healing and reject negative energy.  In her first New York solo show at David Zwirner Gallery, spectral forms and owl-like figures surround the characters, representing both spiritual danger and deliverance.  (On view in Chelsea through Dec 18th).

Portia Zvavahera, Woman with owls, oil based printing ink and oil bar on canvas, 82 ½ x 68 ¼ inches, 2021.

Robert Gober at Matthew Marks Gallery

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Drawings of barred windows contrast sculptural tableau depicting open windows in Robert Gober’s new work at Matthew Marks Gallery’s 22nd Street location. While the bars suggest imprisonment, a series of wooden windows offer varying degrees of access into personal space resembling – to judge by the weathered sash and can of lithium grease in this version – an aging farmhouse.  Titled ‘Help Me,’ the piece suggests urgent need as it offers objects that stand in for the house’s inhabitants and possibly allude to the body.  Despite the pretty hand-painted designs on a lively curtain that appears to catch the breeze, uncertainty, sentiment, nostalgia and even delight at Gober’s meticulously hand-crafted objects combine to leave a feeling of thought-provoking unease.  (On view through Dec 23rd).

Robert Gober, Help Me, pewter, glass, synthetic plastic polymer, epoxy putty, acrylic paint, wood, cotton, epoxy resin, 30 ¼ x 30 3/8 x 18 ¾ inches, 2018 – 2021.