John Riepenhoff at Broadway

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While traveling the world in his various roles as art dealer, artist, art activist, art impresario, and beer and cheese maker, John Riepenhoff has made time to appreciate the night sky from a variety of vantage points, from urban rooftops to wilderness.  In the latest from his ongoing series of sky paintings created in the dark of night and now on view at Broadway in Tribeca, he continues to configure the heavens in surprising ways, filling canvases with vertical dashes or elliptical forms that suggest a view from inside a rain storm. Blooms of purple-reddish color and scattered flecks of orange or yellow light further encourage appreciation for the wonders of nature.  (On view through July 15th).

John Riepenhoff, Skies, acrylic, flashe and oil on linen, 44 x 50 inches, 2022.

Clementine Keith-Roach at PPOW Gallery

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Clementine Keith-Roach’s sculptures at PPOW Gallery combine found vessels with casts of her own body to explore her experience of motherhood.  During her first pregnancy, the artist felt as if she was a ‘labouring vessel’ and made the connection literal by joining carefully painted limbs to used and worn ceramics.  Paired with her husband Christopher Page’s paintings depicting mirrors with no reflection and cloud-filled windows, the exhibition explores interiority in both the physical and psychological realms.  (On view through July 1st in Tribeca).

Clementine Keith-Roach, Lost Object, terracotta vessel, jesmonite, paint, 22 ½ x 21 ¼ x 17 ¾ inches, 2022.

Robert Colescott at George Adams Gallery

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The late artist Robert Colescott, painter of the iconic art-historical remake ‘George Washington Carver Crossing the Delaware,’ addressed racial stereotypes by confronting them head-on.  Here, in ‘Nouvelle Cuisine’ from 1988, now on view at Tribeca’s George Adams Gallery, Colescott lifts the cover off of the inequitable power structure in this fine dining establishment.  Hidden labor and a trash can full of wasted food speak to behind-the-scenes realities ignored in the candle-lit dining room.  (On view through July 1st).

Robert Colescott, Nouvelle Cuisine, acrylic on canvas, 84 x 72 inches, 1988.

Alex Israel at Greene Naftali Gallery

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Known for huge paintings of sunsets, giant sculptures of dark sunglasses and other emblems of life in Los Angeles, Alex Israel continues to channel the allure of Hollywood and its environs with wave paintings and a fantasy street scene sculpture at Greene Naftali Gallery.  Titled ‘Sunset Coast Drive,’ the 44-foot-long strip of fictional and real buildings includes Israel’s own studio at one end and his favorite burger place at the other.  In the foreground of this photo, Israel revives a mural he painted on a building in Venice, CA before it was painted over.  The rest of the gallery is dominated by vividly colored acrylic on fiberglass panels depicting crashing waves inspired by Hokusai and surfing logos.  Their bright colors are alluring, but abstracted to the point of resembling reaching hands, the waves may be less innocuous than they first seem.  (On view in Chelsea through June 25th).

Alex Israel, Sunset Coast Drive (detail), 26 x 528 x 43 inches, 2022.
Alex Israel, Waves, acrylic on fiberglass, 99 x 99 inches, 2022.

Glenda Leon at Bienvenu Steinberg & Partners

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Cuban artist Glenda Leon’s conceptual artwork varies from a grid of colorful used soaps decorated with line drawings made from hair, to a textile depicting the molecular structure of controlled substances that appear to be constellations in the night sky; in its own way, each piece makes poetic reference to the human body.  Both soap and textile works are included in her current solo show at Bienvenu Steinberg and Partner in Tribeca, along with this Remington typewriter, its keys covered with pieces of chewed gum.  Coming from the mouth, origin of the spoken word, to arrest the written word that might otherwise be created with this typewriter, the gum represents a form of sticky control.  (On view in Tribeca, through June 30th).

 

Glenda Leon, Chewed Words, 2018-2021.Remington Portable #3 typewriter, chewing gum.

Vickie Vainionpää at The Hole NYC

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Citing the “mysterious and utterly sensual paintability of CGI,” Montreal-based artist Vickie Vainionpää combines digital and traditional art-making with her hand-painted renderings of alluring, digitally-generated forms.  A new body of oil on canvas paintings and an immersive video at The Hole in Tribeca from her continuing ‘Soft Body Dynamics’ series feature thick, undulating tubes of color winding through space.  Like reflective mylar party balloons, the upper squiggle feels celebratory while the lower, intestine-like duct is slightly visceral though the palette brings cotton candy to mind.  (On view through June 18th).

Vickie Vainionpää, Soft Body Dynamics 73, oil on canvas, 58 x 48 inches, 2022.

Bendt Eyckermans at Andrew Kreps Gallery

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The dramatically-patterned drawn curtains in this painting by young Antwerp-based artist Bendt Eyckermans shut out the sun, but a sense of illumination is nevertheless strong in this symbol-laden interior scene at Andrew Kreps Gallery.  Working in the studio that both his artist father and grandfather have used before him, the youngest artist in a lineage that goes back at least five generations ponders his inheritance by picturing objects with meaningful history.  A sculpture reminiscent of his father’s work crouches on the table in this picture titled ‘The successor,’ while two figures on the left (one nearly hidden behind the other) presumably picture artistic forebears.  A green marble on the orange-toned carpet reads like a warning to self not to slip in their watchful presence.  (On view in Tribeca through June 18th).

Bendt Eyckermans, The successor, oil and ink on linen, 74 3/8 x 62 5/8 inches, 2021.

Becky Suss Paintings at Jack Shainman

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During the pandemic, many people became extremely familiar with their domestic spaces.  Philadelphia-based artist Becky Suss turned up the intensity on her introspection by moving back into her childhood home with her young child and proceeding to paint scenes of her childhood bedroom from different points in her life.  Now on view at Jack Shainman Gallery, the new work reveals how she mined her memory for details from her past, creating scenes within scenes; here, each window in the dollhouse represents a setting from a different children’s story. (On view in Chelsea on 24th Street through June 18th.)

Becky Suss, 8 Greenwood Place (my bedroom), 84 x 60 x 2.5 inches, oil on canvas, 2020.

Brad Kahlhamer at Garth Greenan Gallery

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Human or animal, alive, dead or in spirit form, the most haunting and memorable aspect of Brad Kahlhamer’s current solo show at Garth Greenan Gallery are the many faces that populate his graphically strong paintings.  In this untitled canvas, several heads have hair that extends down and out like roots, joining stylized figures and a modified dream catcher to create connections across space and between characters.  This half-human, half raptor individual appears tranquil but the figures around her suggest intense inner life.  (On view in Chelsea through June 18th).

Brad Kahlhamer, detail from Untitled, mixed media on canvas, 104 ¾ x 138 inches.
Brad Kahlhamer, Untitled, mixed media on canvas, 104 ¾ x 138 inches.

Lauren Halsey at David Kordansky Gallery

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The architecture and people of South-Central Los Angeles inspire LA artist Lauren Halsey’s sculptures at David Kordansky Gallery’s new Chelsea location, from low relief carvings of barbershop advertising to this sprawling mixed media installation titled ‘My Hope.’  Featuring a version of Kindle’s Do-nuts colossal signage, a doll-sized version of a church service, mini-pyramids and much more, the assemblage speaks to the vibrancy of life in Halsey’s neighborhood.  A collector of images since youth, Halsey expands her archives in daily early morning walks through the streets of South-Central; here, her findings from all over combine to create an architecture of pride and promise.  (On view through June 11th).

Lauren Halsey, My Hope, mixed media, installation dimensions variable approximate installation dimensions: 152 x 214 x 125 inches, 2022.

Glenn Kaino at Pace Gallery

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Just as this fifty-foot-long sculpture by Glenn Kaino at Pace Gallery multiplies and extends Olympic gold winner Tommie Smith’s raised fist on the podium at the 1968 Olympics, the athlete’s gesture for social justice continues to impact protest in and beyond the sports world. The installation – Kaino’s first at Pace Gallery – comes on the heels of his ‘Pass the Baton’ NFT project, through which digital renderings of a baton used by Smith in record-breaking races have been sold to raise funds for activist organizations.  The piece is on view through Saturday, but if you don’t catch it at Pace Gallery, an earlier, larger sculpture from the Bridge series will go on view next year in the Smithsonian’s permanent collection in Washington DC.  (On view through June 11th in Chelsea).

Glenn Kaino, installation view of Bridge (Raise Your Voice in Silence) at Pace Gallery, June 2022.

Celeste Rapone at Marianne Boesky Gallery

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Celeste Rapone’s dynamic paintings at Marianne Boesky Gallery create interest through the distortions of their mostly female central figures.  Viewers must first make sense of twisting limbs, then take in story-suggesting details which here include cough drop wrappers, a weed and a parking ticket at the bottom on the canvas.  Dressed in a pink track suit, the woman here appears to be an over-enthusiastic volunteer, digging a cavernous hole for a tiny oak sapling, all while somehow simultaneously standing in the hole and balancing on tippy-toe on a skinny wrought iron fence.  Interested in how women can ‘occupy impossible positions’ both literally and metaphorically, Rapone manifests complicated mental states in physical form.  (On view through June 11th).

Celeste Rapone, Muscle for Hire, oil on canvas, 67 x 67 inches, 2022.

Scooter LaForge at Theodore Art

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Dozens of brightly colored creatures, cobbled-together from everyday objects and other found materials by Scooter LaForge form a fun menagerie at Theodore Art in Tribeca.  Those featuring LaForge’s expressive faces, familiar from his expressionist painting practice, are immediately engaging with their lively aura and quirky expressions.  LaForge tells AM New York that making them brought him joy, a feeling that he extends to his audience.  (On view through June 18th).

Scooter LaForge, Red Dog, mixed media, 14 x 8 x 6 inches.