Whitney Oldenburg at Chart Gallery

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A sculpture titled ‘Feeding Frenzy’ – three giant chrysalis forms studded with red paper admission tickets – announces Whitney Oldenburg’s first New York solo at Chart Gallery as an energetic and ambitious debut.  In addition to suggestive titles, unusual materials hint at storylines – Feeding Frenzy mixes in ear plugs, helmets to bring to mind a raucous concert. Composed of molds of ‘Feeding Frenzy’ along with row after row of generic acetaminophen, ‘High Tide,’ pictured here, alludes to medicated states.  Also resembling a shell big enough for Venus to arrive on, the sculpture remakes the natural world through human materials as eclectic as lollipop sticks and tiki wall, one of Oldenburg’s idiosyncratic works that beg a closer look. (Gallery opening hours change during the holidays. Check opening hours before visiting.  On view in Tribeca through Jan 6th).

Whitney Oldenburg, High Tide, molds of Feeding Frenzy, metal, clay, lollipop sticks, tiki wall, generic acetaminophen, leather, linen, resin, 60 x 51 x 28 inches, 2023.
Whitney Oldenburg, (detail) High Tide, molds of Feeding Frenzy, metal, clay, lollipop sticks, tiki wall, generic acetaminophen, leather, linen, resin, 60 x 51 x 28 inches, 2023.

 

Jacolby Satterwhite at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Vastly larger than any work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Jacolby Satterwhite’s commissioned six-channel projection ‘A Metta Prayer’ transforms the museum’s cavernous lobby space into a celebratory, uplifting and politically insistent digital realm.  Inspired by the Buddhist mantra of loving-kindness, phrases including, “May we always hear ourselves clearly” and “May your martyred fate start a revolution against hate” (seen here) appear over computer generated individuals running as if in a video game to collect ‘mantra coins.’  In the segment pictured here, dancer O’Shea Sibley appears in white sweats, filmed months before he was murdered in a racist and homo-phobic attack in a Midwood gas station last summer.  Satterwhite’s prayer continues, ‘May your candid grace deface, replace this senseless race.’ (The museum will be closed Jan 1st.  On view through Jan 7th.)

Installation view of The Great Hall Commission: Jacolby Satterwhite, A Metta Prayer, Dec 2023.

Lynda Benglis at 125 Newbury

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Octogenarian artist and Process Art icon Lynda Benglis continues to explore organic abstraction in lively new works at 125 Newbury in Tribeca.  By placing sheets of abaca paper – from a type of banana tree native to the Philippines – on either side of forms made of bamboo reeds or aluminum wire, Benglis creates dynamic shapes that recall exoskeletons or chrysalises.  Titled ‘Skeletonizer,’ the show’s work references types of moths, appropriate to the dynamic sculptures that appear to climb the gallery walls. (Gallery opening hours change during the holidays. Check opening hours before visiting.  On view through Jan 13th).

Installation view of ‘Skeletonizer’ at 125 Newbury, Dec 2023.

Paulette Tavormina at Winston Wachter

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Immediately arresting for their beauty and dramatic lighting, Paulette Tavormina’s still life photos from the past several years are a standout at Winston Wachter Fine Art in Chelsea. Formerly a Hollywood food and prop stylist and contributor to National Geographic and the New York Times, Tavormina marshals her skills to create contemporary reinterpretations of still lifes by 17th century painters, including one of the first female still life artists, Giovanna Garzoni; Spanish painter of dramatically-lit scenes Frances de Zurbarán; and Dutch Golden Age still life painter Adriaen Coorte.  Tavormina – who comes from a line of avid gardeners – makes the work her own by growing most of the fruits and flowers that she uses and adding surprise elements like the pair of goldfish in the vase pictured here. (On view through Jan 6th.)

Paulette Tavormina, Dutch Tulips & Goldfish, archival pigment print, ed of 5, 36 x 36 inches, 2021.

Jennifer Carvalho at Helena Anrather Gallery

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Derived from art historical textbooks and web sources, Canadian artist Jennifer Carvalho’s painted remakes of medieval and Renaissance imagery now on view on the Lower East Side at Helena Anrather Gallery recontextualize ancient expressions of strong feeling or devotion.  Performing what the gallery calls ‘art historical archaeology,’ Carvalho digs up new meaning by cropping a face to put a focus on an abundance or tears or zeroing in on a hand supported by another person’s hands that foregrounds an emotive or tender moment.  Here, disembodied arms with hands in a pose related to mourning hover over a space featuring decorative gothic architecture and a curtained bed, foregrounding a surreal but expressive gesture in a space that combines both the public and private.  (On view through Dec 22nd).

Jennifer Carvalho, Clasped hands (study of mourning), oil on canvas, 2023.

Meleko Mokgosi Paintings at Jack Shainman

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Botswanan-American artist Meleko Mokgosi’s recent paintings at Jack Shainman Gallery, grouped under the title ‘Spaces of Subjection,’ dig into the formation of subjecthood – how does a person being pictured become who they are to viewers  Inspired in part by French philosopher Michel Foucault’s writings about identity formation as it derives from networks of societal influences, Mokgosi’s paintings picture individuals from various sources including studio photographs and advertising.  Here, he combines a photograph taken in Atlanta of Nelson and Winnie Mandela who were speaking in the US, an image of the Mandelas with Coretta Scott King and her children, and a young woman seated on the floor and a man in a tux from South African studio portraiture from the 1950s.  Known for being both subordinated by power and on the flip side, representing power, the Mandelas and Kings also exist in a power relationship with each other (enacted in Coretta Scott King’s 1986 trip to South Africa) that contrasts the presence of the two lesser-known figures. (On view through Dec 22nd).

Meleko Mokgosi, Spaces of Subjection: Black Painting V, oil on canvas, 96 x 72 x 2 inches, 2022.

Minako Iwamura in ‘Transcendence’ at JDJ Gallery

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Work by sixteen artists in JDJ Gallery’s light-filled new Tribeca gallery space argues for the vitality and variety of abstract and near-abstract 2-D work by harnessing form, color and light to create alternative places and states.  Minako Iwamura’s selection of several small paintings on wood panel and larger works including Plexus (pictured here) speak to the New York-based artist’s interest in duality which she expresses by combining linear geometry and swelling, organic forms.  Alluding to the human form in their curving shapes yet transcending the corporeal with a network of thin, white lines that take the mind beyond the painting’s boundaries, Iwamura suggests a mind-expanding awakening. (On view through Jan 13th).

Minako Iwamura, Plexus, oil and white charcoal on cradled wood panel, 40 x 30 x 1.5 inches, 2023.

Derek Fordjour, CONfidence MAN at Petzel Gallery

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Visitors to Derek Fordjour’s impressive multimedia exhibition at Petzel Gallery can enjoy two free, live performances daily, take in vibrant new paintings and walk through a magical, life-sized diorama.  By far the most entertaining show in a particularly rich moment in the Chelsea galleries, Fordjour’s ‘Score’ sinks it in the basket while questioning what success is.  Known for images of Black athletes and performers whose excellence lands them in complicated performative roles, Fordjour includes this loaded painting titled CONfidence MAN.  One of the most attractive pieces in an enticing new body of 2D work, this colorful portrait shows a dapper man surrounded by balloons.  Despite the dazzle, he is posed in front of a skull in the window behind him suggesting that customers might do well to be wary. (Show is on view through Dec 22nd, performances through Dec 16th.

Derek Fordjour, CONfidence MAN, acrylic, charcoal, cardboard, glitter, oil pastel and foil on newspaper mounted on canvas, 85 x 65 inches, 2023.

Calida Rawles at Lehmann Maupin Gallery

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LA painter Calida Rawles’ realist paintings of women and girls submerged in water both clearly define their subjects and at the same time obscure them through shadow and reflection, suggesting a simultaneous state of knowing and unknowing.  Titled ‘A Certain Oblivion,’ Rawles first major solo show at Lehmann Maupin Gallery presents still and clean bodies of water that appear to offer a place of refuge, even therapy to women who float in or glide through the water, faces barely breaking the surface.  Yet several paintings come from source photos taken after dark and were even painted in low light in the studio, complicating and making uncertain the watery realms depicted.  (On view in Chelsea through Dec 16th).

Calida Rawles, We Knew It Was Coming, acrylic on canvas, 96 x 120 x 2 inches, 2023.

Eric N. Mack at Paula Cooper Gallery

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Eric N. Mack calls himself a painter whose medium is fabric – new work at Paula Cooper Gallery in Chelsea is mostly hung on stretchers that support not canvas but collaged fabric fragments.  Like painting, Mack’s work foregrounds color and pattern, but the artist doesn’t add these elements to the canvas, rather he encounters them as found materials.  Instead of creating transparency and texture from paint, these are qualities of the surface itself.  Sourced from divergent origins – Mack might use fabric from couture clothing or neighborhood markets – the artist collapses quality distinctions in his dynamic abstractions.  (On view through Dec 22nd in Chelsea).

Eric N. Mack, Strewn Sitbon, fabric on aluminum stretcher, overall: 41 x 34 ½ x 6 inches, 2023.

Dana Schutz at David Zwirner Gallery

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The Face, one of the first works in Dana Schutz’s absorbing show of recent paintings and bronzes at David Zwirner Gallery, pictures a surreal scene of figures supporting and hiding under a huge mask.  Barely able to control the giant visage, one character bends over to pick up a rock, perhaps intending to fire it in anonymity at a foe (us?) from behind the face.  Rife with allegory, Schutz’ new work configures various groupings of individuals in unclear yet meaningful interactions – gathering to paint together, sitting on a couch as if on a talk show or clustered together in a circle, arms on shoulders.  Crowded into the picture plane, dynamic and rendered in vibrant colors, the figures recall not only the exaggerated features of Italian Commedia dell’arte masks but theatrical storylines that foreground human folly.  (On view in Chelsea through Dec 16th).

Dana Schutz, The Face, 108 x 138 inches, oil on canvas, 2023.

Stefan Rinck at Nino Mier Gallery

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With only fossilized remains to go on, how do we know what dinosaurs actually looked like?  German sculptor Stefan Rinck asks (and answers) this tongue-in-cheek question to humorous effect in a show of stone sculpture featuring cute lizards, now on view at Nino Mier Gallery’s Tribeca space.  Though the ancient reptiles have been fashioned of even more ancient material – stones including sandstone, marble and limestone, their look is decidedly contemporary – some even sport Crocs.   In the case of ‘Baguettesaurier,’ a horned creature of polished diabase, who’s to say dinosaurs didn’t also pick up a baguette on the way home?  (On view through Dec 16th).

Stefan Rinck, Baguettesaurier, diabase, limestone, 31 ½ x 18 7/8 x 19 ¾ inches, 2023.

Farah Atassi in ‘The Echo of Picasso’ at Almine Rech

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Fifty years after Picasso’s death, international gallery Almine Rech launches its new Tribeca space with ‘The Echo of Picasso,’ a group exhibition of work by contemporary artists whose work converses with their influential forebear.  Farah Atassi’s ‘Reclining Woman with Oranges’ at the gallery’s entrance juxtaposes various grids – rectangular picture frames, grey lines against a peach-toned background and angular patterns on the central figure’s dress – with curving, organic forms that include a chaise longue and scattered oranges.  In a show heavy on the human figure, artists from Karel Appel to Rashid Johnson explore contemporary consciousness through distortions pioneered in the early 20th century.  (On view through Dec 16th).

Farah Atassi, Reclining Woman with Oranges, oil and glycerol on linen, 63 x 78 ½ inches, 2023.