Jaime Miranda-Bambaren in Foley Square and Thomas Paine Park

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Surrounded by the notable buildings of downtown Manhattan’s civic center, Jaime Miranda-Bambaren’s sculptures crafted from the roots of felled Peruvian trees add an additional historic component to the urban landscape.  Scattered around Foley Square and neighboring Thomas Paine Park and located in front of New York’s most prominent courthouses, 13 spheres sculpted from the abandoned root systems of illegally felled Peruvian trees act as witness to destruction but also offer hope.  Titled 13 Moons (Seeds), the sculptures represent the regenerative possibilities of nature.  (Join an architecture tour and see the pieces in person!  On view through June 20th in Foley Square).

Jaime Miranda-Bambaren, installation view of 13 Moons (Seeds) in April 2023 in Foley Square, Manhattan.

Cecily Brown at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Cecily Brown’s energetic brushwork comes to a boil at the center of her 2006-08 painting, Memento Mori I, a highlight of her current retrospective at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.   The museum identifies the roiling mass of white, blue and pinkish tones in the foreground as a tablecloth and place settings being yanked from the table, a reference to an English poem meant to instruct young people not to tip their chairs back.  Elsewhere, a female nude dances with death (inspired by an Edvard Munch print), a tabletop still life proffers an enormous, blood red lobster claw and the heads of two children are positioned to form a skull.  Such reminders of mortality and offers of moral instruction recall highlights from the Met’s historic European painting collections, suggesting the themes’ the continued resonance.  (On view on the Upper East Side through Dec 3rd).

Cecily Brown, Memento Mori I, oil on linen, 2006-08.

David Gilbert at Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery

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Patterns of sunlight and shadow falling over arrangements of cut paper and painted canvas give LA artist David Gilbert’s new work at Klaus Gallery an ephemerality that speaks to art as a process of making.  Calling him a ‘discerning scavenger of poignant and beautiful things,’ the gallery points out how Gilbert captures moments in which something special arises from arrangements of everyday objects.  In this image, a single pink bead and isolated dots of red color at top right add balance and interest to the predicament of the dove at center, which may or may not be captured by both painted and actual netting as it attempts to fly upward into the blue.  (On view in Tribeca through May 6th).

David Gilbert, Dove, archival inkjet print, 13 x 8.6 inches, 2023

Alice Tippit, I Sea at Nicelle Beauchene Gallery

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Alice Tippit’s pared-down, graphically bold paintings – now on view at Nicelle Beauchene Gallery – feature clearly defined objects seen in silhouette, yet they are deliberately difficult to read.  Carefully chosen titles add to the ambiguity and to the sense that the potential meaning behind each painting is a puzzle to be cracked.  This painting’s blue/white color scheme hints at icy ocean depths alluded to in the title ‘I Sea,’ which is also reminiscent of the frosty response, ‘I see.’  Balance creates additional drama as a floating hammer supports a possibly fragile vase on which rests a cigarette that recalls a smoking gun.  (On view in Tribeca through April 29th.

Alice Tippit, I Sea, oil on canvas, 18h x 15w inches, 2022.

Arturo Kameya at GRIMM Gallery

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Titled ‘The UFOs,’ Peruvian artist Arturo Kameya’s new show at Tribeca’s GRIMM Gallery conveys an otherworldly atmosphere through dark-toned paintings (made more subdued by mixing paint with clay powder) that tell strange tales.  A man buried alive attracts the attention of news crews in one image while an ancient Peruvian mummy emerges from a cooler bag in another.  Even the everyday can seem bizarre as a roach sits up, eating from a tiny plate in one picture while in another, a shower-head/water heater dangerously mixes water and electricity.  Here, a planter cut and painted to resemble a swan seems to come to life to sip water from a leaky hose that has morphed into a fountain, blurring the lines between the real and man-made nature. (On view through May 6th).

Arturo Kameya, Swan Lake, acrylic and clay powder on canvas, 29 5/8 x 25 5/8 x 1 ½ inches, 2023.

Kennedy Yanko at Deitch Projects

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A quote from John Cage at the entrance to Kennedy Yanko’s show at Deitch Projects declares that silence doesn’t exist; even if nothing at all can be heard, the sounds of the body’s systems functioning will advance themselves.  Yanko’s new sculptures likewise assert the aesthetic potential of humble materials: dried sheets of paint and found metal.  In their contrast between smooth and rough surfaces and complementary colors like the green and purple, sculptures like ‘An Ode to Hugs’ (pictured here) are driven by Yanko’s intuitive method and for her, the ‘livingness of her medium.’ (On view in SoHo through April 22nd).

Kennedy Yanko, An Ode to Hugs, paint skin, metal, 97 x 94 x 42.5 inches, 2023

Leo Villareal, Digital Sculptures at Pace Gallery

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Can you capture the feeling of a sunset and make it last?  New media artist Leo Villareal has explained that his latest ‘digital sculptures’ – LED lights and electronics behind acrylic panels – at Chelsea’s Pace Gallery, have a similar effect to watching natural phenomena.  Titled ‘Interstellar’ and inspired by images from space, including photos from the James Webb Telescope, the new wall-mounted works manifest in a range of palettes, from calming blue/greens to blazing yellow/orange tones.  Powered by custom coding, the imagery constantly morphs, enticing viewers to linger.  (On view through April 29th).

Leo Villareal, installation view of ‘Interstellar’ at Pace Gallery, April 2023.

Shellyne Rodriguez at PPOW Gallery

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New Yorkers get on with their business, striding forward in this colored-pencil on black paper drawing by Bronx-based artist Shellyne Rodriguez at PPOW Gallery in Tribeca.  Informed in layout by ‘80s Hip Hop poster designs by Buddy Esquire, Rodriguez’s diagram includes the upbeat phrase ‘together but separately and in agreement’ in English, Spanish, Twi, Kichwa and other languages.  Sourced from a Zapatista text, the words “show how our autonomy can be embedded within our collectivity.” (On view in Tribeca through April 22nd).

Shellyne Rodriguez, BX Third World Mix Tape no. 4, Caminos (Slow and Steady), color pencil on paper, 62 x 46 inches, 2022.

Tony Cragg at Lisson Gallery

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Protesters and police clash in a blaze of color in British sculptor Tony Cragg’s 1987 piece ‘Riot’ a sculptural installation running the length of one of Lisson Gallery’s Chelsea spaces.  Forty years ago, Cragg made a name for himself with artworks and installations composed of found plastic elements, a material that lacked the associations carried by more traditional media like bronze, marble or wood.  Inspired by social unrest in ‘80s Britain, Cragg employs a modern material, fragmented and formerly discarded, to illustrate conflict between citizen and state. (On view in Chelsea through April 15th).

Tony Cragg, detail of installation of Riot, 1987 at Lisson Gallery in Chelsea, March ’23.

Helen Frankenthaler at Gagosian Gallery

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Helen Frankenthaler’s abstract paintings allude to landscapes and moods; a showcase of the artist’s work from the ‘90s at Gagosian Gallery conveys the pleasures of colors and feelings observed in nature.  Pioneer of an influential staining technique in mid-century American abstraction, Frankenthaler here adds an overt, textured brushstroke that emphasizes the surface of the canvas.  Appearing to hover over aqua-toned pools of color and an underlying dark depth, the long orange mark sets in play a complicated and shifting illusion of depth. (On view through April 15th on 24th Street in Chelsea).

Helen Frankenthaler, Poseidon, acrylic on canvas, 70 ¾ x 100 inches, 1990.

Gerhard Richter at David Zwirner Gallery

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Though they were finished over five years ago, 91 year old German artist Gerhard Richter’s ‘final paintings’ from 2016-17 at David Zwirner Gallery feel current; together with smaller-scale work on paper, the paintings have been a ‘must-see’ since opening in mid-March.  Richter’s muscular painting process involved scraping layers of paint from the surface of his paintings with a large self-designed squeegee.  Never sure of what his technique would yield, Richter surrendered at least part of a painting’s outcome to chance; the resulting images embody movement, resisting the static quality of a finished piece. (On view in Chelsea through April 29th).

Gerhard Richter, Abstraktes Bild (Abstract Painting), oil on canvas, 78 ¾ x 98 3/8 inches, 2016.

Josephine Halvorson, Disconnect Box at Sikkema Jenkins

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Josephine Halvorson can turn the most mundane roadside object, from discarded refuse to aged signage, into an object worthy of contemplation.  In her latest solo show at Sikkema Jenkins & Co titled ‘Unforgotten,’ the Massachusetts-based painter zeros in on remnants from the past, including a tumbleweed, a neglected work bulletin board and this rusted disconnect box.  A pleasingly symmetrical pattern of circular holes coexists with bullet holes, both of which let the late day sunlight pass through to create bright ovals of orange light.  The umber tones in the box and the landscape contrast a cloudless blue sky, adding beauty to a setting that few would value.  (On view in Chelsea through April 22nd).

Josephine Halvorson, Disconnect Box, acrylic gouache on panel, 32 x 26 inches, 2022.