Albert Oehlen at Gagosian Gallery

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German painter Albert Oehlen’s continuously morphing style has been associated with ‘bad painting’ and a sense of being “on the way to becoming something else,” two qualities which linked him in his mind to another celebrated and influential artist, Paul McCarthy who he has invited to show with him now at Gagosian Gallery.  Oehlen’s new work features a recurring abstracted form resembling a corporate logo, a modified pi symbol or, in proximity to the figurative sculpture by McCarthy, a squat torso with two long legs.  Seen in various color combinations and even as a cast aluminum sculpture, the form merges with or boldly erupts from fields of gestural abstraction.  Here, the ambiguous shape appears defaced by paint, a suggestion that the medium still has power to shake things up.  (On view in Chelsea through April 22nd).

Albert Oehlen, Omega Man 15, acrylic and oil on canvas, 2021.

LaToya Ruby Frazier at Gladstone Gallery

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In a time when public monuments and memorials are being reconsidered, LaToya Ruby Frazier’s Carnegie Prize Winning installation ‘More Than Conquerors: A Monument for Community Health Workers of Baltimore, Maryland 2021-2022,’ is a model for way forward, not by not singling out one achiever but by lauding a community of heroic individuals who dedicate their personal and work lives to helping others access better health care.  Now on view at Gladstone Gallery, in Chelsea, the artwork features photos of and interviews with eighteen individuals like Kendra Lindsey.  A carer for her family since she was a child, Lindsey was inspired to start a health and wellness business, become an auxiliary police officer and support local community groups in addition to working as a community health worker.  As a tribute and an act of advocacy for appropriate pay, ‘More than Conquerors’ is a moving and illuminating look into the lives and motivations of an under-appreciated yet vital workforce.  (On view through April 15th).

LaToya Ruby Frazier, ‘More Than Conquerors: A Monument for Community Health Workers of Baltimore, Maryland 2021-2022’, 18 stainless steel IV poles, 66 archival inkjet prints, dimensions available, 2022.

Edward Burtynsky at Sundaram Tagore Gallery

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Renowned Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky has spent a lifetime documenting mankind’s impact on the planet, picturing German coal mines, vast industrial landscapes in China and more recently, salt pans, gold tailings, oil bunkering and more in sub-Saharan Africa.  His current exhibition of photos shot in Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and beyond at Chelsea’s Sundaram Tagore Gallery includes otherworldly landscapes created by the harvesting of salt, including these Salt Ponds near Naglou Sam Sam in Senegal. In shallow, man-made ponds, microorganisms change color as evaporation causes salinity to increase, resulting in a spectacular, painterly display. (On view in Chelsea through April 1st).

Edward Burtynsky, Salt Ponds #4, Near Naglou Sam Sam, Senegal, pigment inkjet print on Kodak Professional Photo Paper, 48 x 64 inches, 2019.

Rose B. Simpson at Jack Shainman Gallery

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Because they’re hollow, ceramic artist Rose B. Simpson’s sculptures “hold space,” she explained in a recent interview with Vogue.  She went on to say, “I often think about the space inside as holding intention; I want them to go out and do work in the world and be vessels for that intention I’m putting out there.” Three large vessel-like sculptures in Simpson’s current exhibition at Jack Shainman Gallery are a powerful presence, marked by signs that relate to specific meaningful ideas for the artist, representative of her internal thought processes and development.  Titled ‘The Road Less Traveled,’ Simpson’s show introduces this already very successful artist to New York audiences as a maker who follows her own way.  (On view in Chelsea through April 8th).

Rose B. Simpson, (foreground) Vital Organ: Stomach, clay, twine, grout, 91”, 2022, (background) Reclamation IV, clay, steel, lava and bone beads, leather, grout, 88 x 15 x 13 inches, 2022.

Seung-taek Lee at Canal Projects

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Prominent Korean artist Seung-Taek Lee’s untitled stone and rope installation at Canal Projects occupies but does not dominate the center of the art institution’s large SoHo space.  Shaped by the cords that have bound it, each hanging stone represents time and human intervention in nature; hung by ropes that form lively V patterns, the arrangement is minimal but dynamic. Inspired by environmental movements of the 60s and 70s that emerged as South Korea transformed the basis of its economy from agriculture to industry, Lee has created performances with the wind and harnessed fire to creatively collaborate with nature.  The earth itself – in the form of a huge painted vinyl balloon resting on the gallery floor – has joined Lee on a bike ride through Beijing, appeared in various natural spots and on earth day this year will be used in a performance on Governors Island. (On view on Canal Street in SoHo through May 22nd).

Seung-Taek Lee, (foreground) Untitled, stone, rope, dimensions variable, 1982-2022. (background) Earth Play, oil on vinyl balloon, 21’ diameter, 1989-1996.

Minerva Cuevas at Kurimanzutto

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‘In Gods we Trust,’ is the provocative title of Minerva Cuevas’ new exhibition at Chelsea’s Kurimanzutto Gallery, a show featuring sculptures of pre-Hispanic deities and vintage magazine ads promoting powerful multi-national oil companies.  Here, a priest of Tlazolteotl, an Aztec deity associated with lust and excess, sits on the pages of financial newspapers, an oil-like substance applied to his mouth and dripped on his arms.  The interrelation of power and oil (a substance also used by pre-Hispanic cultures) also appears in the artist’s huge and damning wall mural featuring nature-inspired corporate logos of companies that have helped bring about climate crisis.  (On view in Chelsea through April 15th).

Minerva Cuevas, Tlazolteotl Priest, foamular, acrylic paint and financial newspapers, ’22 – ‘23

Saif Azzuz at Nicelle Beauchene Gallery

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After traversing a mini-maze of metal barricades decorated with sharply cut outlines of foliage, visitors to Saif Azzuz’s installation in Tribeca at Nicelle Beauchene Gallery reach a painting of an idyllic scene representing downtown Manhattan prior to European arrival.  Inspired by his Yurok family’s connection to the land in California, Azzuz considers how access to and use of the land has shifted over time around what’s now Collect Pond Park, once downtown’s major source of drinking water and now an area occupied by Manhattan’s vast court buildings and jail.  (On view through March 25th).

Saif Azzuz, installation view of ‘Says Who,’ featuring (back wall) Under the willow tree (let the earth stabilize your postcolonial insecure jitter), acrylic on canvas, 96 x 160, 2022.

Berenice Abbott at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Right on the heels of a show of photographer Berenice Abbott’s Greenwich Village portraits and urban landscapes at Chelsea’s Marlborough Gallery, fans of the iconic early 20th century New York City chronicler can enjoy the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s new exhibition of images from Abbott’s 1929 album shot around town.  Freshly back from an eight year-long stay in Paris where she pivoted to photography and established her own successful studio, Abbott arrived in New York and enthusiastically fell to documenting the thriving city as she found it.  Also included in the Met’s show are works by Abbott’s contemporaries and her ‘Changing New York’ series from ’35-’39, including this view of a 9th Ave Automat. (On view on the Upper East Side through Sept 4th).

Berenice Abbott, Automat, 877 Ninth Avenue, gelatin silver print, 1936.

Hew Locke, The Relic at PPOW Gallery

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Two ships appear to float in the center of PPOW’s Tribeca gallery space, their tattered sails and apparition-like figures on the cabins and crates suggesting that they’ve floated in from another place and time.  The sense of disorientation is key to Guyanese-British artist Hew Locke’s consideration of Guyana’s colonial past and its future as the country experiences an oil boom.  The dilapidated house on the deck of this ship is echoed in photographs on the wall of Guyanese houses that have seen better days; Locke adds acrylic renderings of water inundating the lower levels as a warning that human aspirations can be washed away by greater forces.  (On view in Tribeca through April 1st).

Hew Locke, The Relic, wood and mixed media, 88 5/8 x 98 3/8 x 24 ¾ inches, 2022.

Maya Brodsky at George Adams Gallery

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From the modestly sized to the tiny, Maya Brodsky’s realist paintings at George Adams Gallery draw audiences closer to inspect and appreciate detailed images of the artist, her young daughter and her grandmother.  Though several scenes of Brodsky’s daughter Eda in the hospital after being born are touching in their tenderness and most of the show’s paintings showcase beautiful light effects (sunlight or artificial light), the most moving paintings are of Dusya, Brodsky’s grandmother.  As Dusya rubs Maya’s foot or fastens the buttons of her own sweater, Brodsky renders her fine crown of straight white hair or her well-used hands with loving detail and a sense of gravity that feels profound. (On view in Tribeca through April 1st).

Maya Brodsky, Open/Close, oil on mylar mounted on panel, 5 5/8 x 5 ¼ inches, 2019.

Derrick Adams at FLAG Art Foundation

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Painter Derrick Adams has long been inspired by the sights and people of his Brooklyn neighborhood, from wig shops to the faces of his neighbors.  Recent work on view at the Flag Art Foundation in Chelsea continues this interest while announcing a new direction; inspired by movies, Adams adds another layer of narrative and visual power to over a dozen new works that continue his exploration of Black leisure and joy in everyday life.  One day while working on a photo shoot in a Brooklyn park, Adams observed a young Black couple installing and relaxing in a hammock.  The scenario struck him as cinematic and inspired this happy ode to life’s pleasures enjoyed by the couple, a squirrel, pigeons and even a public monument.  (On view through March 11th).

Derrick Adams, JUST, acrylic on wood panel, 95 x 71 7/8 inches, 2022.

Patti Warashina in ‘Robert Pfannebecker’ at R & Company

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R & Company’s celebration of post-war American craft collector Bob Pfannebecker includes nearly 70 objects by over 30 artists that are a feast for the eyes, including stunners like Patti Warashina’s ‘Deco for Kottler.’   Head of the ceramics program at University of Washington, Seattle for decades, Warashina nods to fellow professor Howard Kottler with the title of this streamlined and elegant piece from her ‘Stacked Loaf’ series.  Though abstract, this stacked form resembles architecture and rising clouds.  (On view in Tribeca through April 14th).

Patti Warashina, Deco for Kottler, from the Basket, Loaf and Arch Series, glazed ceramic, 6 (l) x 20 (w) x 27 inches (h), 1970.

Mark Thomas Gibson at Sikkema Jenkins & Co

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Mark Thomas Gibson’s new paintings at Sikkema Jenkins & Co feature hands, feet and legs but no full figures, a selective focus that ominously suggests multiple players unknown to us and perhaps to each other. White hands clasp in prayer, proffer a rope-bound fist or a broken wristwatch while a solitary Black hand holds a critical theory text by Achille Mbembe about democracy under threat.  All the while, menacing cartoonish whistles sound their warnings amid a leaking system of pipes in a cacophonous mele that seems about to explode. (On view through March 11th).

Mark Thomas Gibson, All A Go (Steampipes and Hands), ink on canvas, 66 1/8 x 86 ¼ inches, 2022.

Nicole Eisenman at Print Center New York

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Known as a painter, Nicole Eisenman’s forays into sculpture over the past few years have earned her accolades in gallery shows and the 2019 Whitney Biennial; now, her decade-long experimentation with printmaking is the subject of an informative and visually gratifying show at the Print Center New York.  Emphasizing process and creativity, a series of eight prints made during stages of the creation of the 2012 etching ‘Watermark’ illustrate her progress.  Here in the final version, Eisenman brings us into the intimacy of her family home, complete with her mother, father and her two children who read books at center.  We see the scene through Eisenman’s eyes as she eats from a bowl and looks out over a room alive with unspoken thoughts.  (On view through May 13th).

Nicole Eisenman, Watermark, etching and aquatint, ed of 25, printed and published by Harlan & Weaver, New York, 2012.