Mark Handforth at Luhring Augustine Gallery

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Known for adopting materials that resemble urban infrastructure (streetlamps, signage) and manipulating them with apparently Herculean effort into whimsical sculpture, Mark Handforth scales down the size but delivers on delight in a show of new work at Luhring Augustine Gallery in Tribeca.  Tall burnt matchstick sculptures and deliciously candy-colored aluminum columns accompany ‘Harlequin Star,’ a sculpture that appears to be a guardrail casually folded into a star shape with a neon accent.  Handforth has commented on the recurring stars in his work, identifying the shape as something “so recognizable that [it] cease[s] to exist.”  Though its ubiquity may make it mundane, Handforth harnesses unexpected materials and light to make this star a standout.  (On view through July 28th).

Mark Handforth, Harlequin Star, aluminum, prismatic foils and LED light, 80 x 68 x 28 inches, 2023.

Yayoi Kusama Sculpture at David Zwirner Gallery

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Giant steel flowers, undulating yellow and black polka dot pumpkins and a selection of over thirty vibrantly patterned paintings by Yayoi Kusama at David Zwirner Gallery deliver the delight and pleasure expected of the iconic Japanese artist’s work.  The daughter of plant nursery owners, nature has always played a role in Kusama’s over 60-year career; via flowers and plants, Kusama’s latest New York show presents a message of love for life, even as select painting titles allude to dark times and the difficulties of family life.  Three steel sculptures titled ‘I Spend Each Day Embracing Flowers’ is a natural background for selfies, enlisting gallery-goers in spreading Kusama’s upbeat message.  (On view in Chelsea through July 21st).

Yayoi Kusama, I Spend Each Day Embracing Flowers (foreground), stainless steel and urethane paint, 98 x 111 x 106 inches, 2023.

Seth Price, Weeptober at Petzel Gallery

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Seth Price starts many pieces in his show of new work at Petzel Gallery by working with an AI to generate an image, which he prints onto a surface and embellishes with paint, applied by brush or his own body.  He photographs what he’s created, then uses software to add virtual objects to the digital image.  Finally, he prints these later additions back onto the original painting in a back and forth digital/analogue process that foregrounds the collaboration between artist and machine.  The depth in many images is created by metallic, cylindrical shapes that disrupt easy reading of a flat, painted surface and create visual interest in this arrestingly unusual body of work. (On view in Chelsea through June 3rd).

Seth Price, Weeptober, acrylic paint, generatively produced image reverse-transferred into acrylic polymer, and UV-print on aluminum composite, 96 x 76 1/8 x 1 inches, 2022-23.

Takako Yamaguchi at Ortuzar Projects

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Situated between landscape painting and pattern-driven abstraction, Takako Yamaguchi’s new paintings at Ortuzar Projects in Tribeca are a beautiful and dynamic stylization of nature.  This coastal scene features two swirls of clouds or waves, rising up to form an Ionic column over a tranquil sea.  Below, the painting’s sense of space is complicated by a band of crisp wave forms while a glowing metal leaf triangle at top right further disrupts a realistic, 3-D rendering of space.  Titled ‘Pivot,’ the painting’s constant perspectival shift rewards continued looking.  (On view through June 13th).

Takako Yamaguchi, Pivot, oil and metal leaf on canvas, 60 x 40 inches, 2022.

Daniel Gordon at Kasmin Gallery

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Unlike classic Dutch still life, Daniel Gordon’s ‘Philodendron with Sardines and Lobster’ at Kasmin Gallery lacks the typical superabundance of a table piled high with fruit, meats and other delicacies, allowing for a more focused appreciation of the artist’s detailed, hands-on production of each item on display. After finding or taking a photograph of each object he intends to depict, Gordon prints images of the object, cutting and gluing them over forms that are placed into an arrangement of similarly crafted objects and then photographed to produce the final image.   Because they’ve originated in photographic images, lobster, fish, plant and vase on the one hand look believable as a flat image and yet are obviously 3-D renderings.  The space of the image is temporarily unclear, the medium blurred, creating pleasurable moments of uncertainty. (On view through June 3rd).

Daniel Gordon, Philodendron with Sardines and Lobster, pigment print with UV lamination, 49 7/8 x 40 inches, 2023.

Inka Essenhigh, Flower King at Miles McEnery

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Chic-looking hybrid people/flowers greet visitors to Inka Essenhigh’s show at Miles McEnery Gallery, part of a painting featuring an outdoor rave attended by fabulous flora.  In other works, leaves cluster together to become figures and tree trunks turn into bell-bottom wearing legs, a charming anthropomorphizing of the natural world.  Associated with Disney as much as Dali, Essenhigh’s fantastical vision taps into a desire to connect with nature while also exploring possible surreal outcomes of that wish.  (On view through June 3rd).

Inka Essenhigh, Flower King, enamel on canvas, 76 x 62 inches, 2022.

Liu Xiaodong at Lisson Gallery

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As a student, Beijing-based painter Liu Xiaodong traveled in the historically important region of Shaanbei, China; three decades later, his new body of work at Lisson Gallery considers changes not only in the area but in Chinese culture.  Several large canvases feature youth in their free time, playing in the river, drinking beer or making as if to fight while their friends look on in amusement.  Wearing counterfeit designs and clutching their phones, the youth are more connected to the bustling city behind them than nature or the monuments dotting the surrounding hills.   Prominently pictured behind the youth, the ancient Yan’an Pagoda (associated with the Communist Party for its time headquartered in the area) has been supplanted in prominence by the city’s new towers. (On view in Chelsea through June 10th).

Liu Xiaodong, Brawl, oil on canvas, 98 3/8 x 118 1/8 x 2 inches, 2018.

Josefina Concha at Praxis Gallery

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Chilean artist Josefina Concha’s textile-based sculptures, now on view at Chelsea’s Praxis Gallery, are immediately intriguing for their color, form and technique as well as their playful engagement with art history.  Situated front and center in the gallery is a table covered with undulating fabric, an update on Judy Chicago’s famous Dinner Party installation with a new guest list that includes Concha’s expressive, sewn paintings of Alice Neel, Velasquez and Francis Bacon installed over the table.  Elsewhere, a vibrantly colored, minimal panel pays homage to Agnes Martin while these two clustered organic forms recall the open blooms of Georgia O’Keeffe’s paintings. (On view through June 2nd).

Josefina Concha, Skin Foundations, sewing on canvas, 70 7/8 x 65 3/8 inches, 2023.

Mark Bradford at Hauser & Wirth

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The monumental mixed media artwork ‘Manifest Destiny’ dominates the first room of Mark Bradford’s exhibition at Hauser & Wirth Gallery, its tattered surfaces giving it the feeling of a barely surviving relic, its huge scale making it unavoidable.  Emblazoned with a phrase, ‘Johnny Buys Houses,’ that brings to mind road-side signage for fly-by-night real estate operatives and titled after a term that describes relentless European expansion across the North American continent, the piece signals dubious practices with regard to land, property and ownership. (On view in Chelsea through July 28th).

Mark Bradford, Manifest Destiny, mixed media, dimensions variable, ’23.

Kelly Akashi at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery

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Kelly Akashi’s poetic assemblages of sculpture in glass, stone, bronze and rammed earth at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery heighten awareness of her materials and processes while juxtaposing human concepts of time with comparatively vast measures of time on earth and in the universe. Here, the glass sphere titled ‘Cosmic Axis,’ brings to mind the axis around which the earth rotates while also alluding to the connection between heavenly and terrestrial realms.  Surrounded by photos of distant nebula taken by telescopes, the sculpture feels especially present in the space of the gallery, its delicacy contrasted by a large concrete pedestal and enhanced by cherry blossoms on top that extend into the space of the sphere. (On view in Chelsea through June 10th).

Kelly Akashi, Cosmic Axis, Flame-worked borosilicate on rotating cast concrete pedestal, 77 x 22 x 22 inches, 2022-23.

Tim Gardner Solo Show at 303 Gallery

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A gold panner in moonlight, a lone boy at a scenic outlook and a camper van headed into the mountains were some of the evocative but lonely subjects of Canadian artist Tim Gardner’s last solo show at 303 Gallery, created during the days of pandemic isolation.  His new watercolor and ink paintings at 303 have subtracted humans from the picture entirely, instead featuring horses, police bikes (minus riders) and flowers.  While the bikes beg the question of where the humans are, Gardner’s horses and flowers have a powerful and lively presence of their own. Here, a cluster of tulips sways in unison, a welcome pronouncement of the arrival of spring and nature’s beauty.  (On view in Chelsea through May 25th).

Tim Gardner, Untitled (garden), watercolor and ink on paper, 11 x 13 ½ inches, 2023.

Hayal Pozanti at Timothy Taylor Gallery

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Although it’s their vibrant color that leaps out, Hayal Pozanti’s oil stick paintings of the natural world rely on shape to reinterpret the landscape as a conduit to emotional states.  Over many years, Pozanti has devised her own language of forms, here rendered in curving and organic masses as blushing, enormous pink flowers. Via her new, large-scale paintings at Timothy Taylor Gallery’s new Tribeca location, the artist not only celebrates her recent move to the Vermont countryside but explores how intense color can release strong feeling. (On view through May 27th).

Hayal Pozanti, Magic Music We Make With Our Lips, oil stick on linen, 2023.

Ho Jae Kim at Harper’s Gallery

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Ho Jae Kim’s new paintings at Harper’s Gallery in Chelsea manifest a divine light perceived just beyond reach through archways or stage backdrops.  As he was preparing work for this show, this young Brooklyn-based artist’s step-father ended his own life, prompting Kim’s desire to help his family heal and appreciate the beauty of life.  Inspired by Dante’s vision of supernatural light as he ascended from the Inferno to Purgatory in ‘The Divine Comedy,’ Kim announces the arrival of hope through floods of bright color that counter the literal deep waters surrounding the marooned character in this painting.  (On view through May 6th).

Ho Jae Kim, Day 19: Wilson, oil, inkjet transfer, enamel and paper on canvas, 2023.

Clare Rojas at Andrew Kreps Gallery

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The title of Bay Area artist Clare Rojas’ show at Andrew Kreps Gallery, ‘Go Placidly,’ captures the quiet and restrained feel of paintings featuring a reserved, dark-haired woman.  It also casts an ominous pall on this painting, ‘They Were Both Stuck Inside,’ in which it appears that a woman who has fallen from a ladder (perhaps in an interaction with the bird in the background) has ‘gone’ in a final way.  Complicated by a tiny mosquito which has landed on the woman’s leg, the painting’s narrative – perhaps best explained by a book on the back table titled ‘The Same Old’ – suggests that sometimes the unexpected arrives in a profoundly impactful way.  (On view through May 6th).

Clare Rojas, They Were Both Stuck Inside, oil on linen, 60 x 43 1/8 inches, 2022.