Paul Anthony Smith at Jack Shainman Gallery

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It’s carnival season in Jamaica-born, Brooklyn based multi-media artist Paul Anthony Smith’s latest body of work now on view at Jack Shainman Gallery in Chelsea.  Starting with photos he took during celebrations in Trinidad and Tobago, Smith manipulates the images, prints them, adds paint and employs his signature picotage technique by which he creates patterns of tiny tears in the surface of the painted photographs.  Here, as in many pieces, the tear patterns take the form of fences or walls constructed of patterned concrete blocks.  Placed between viewers and the celebrants, the barriers allow looking but give viewers pause to question what kind of access we have to the places and cultures pictured.  (On view through Oct 26th).

Paul Anthony Smith, To be titled, unique picotage and spray paint on inkjet, print mounted on Dibond, acrylic paint, 51 ¼ x 81 x 2 ¼ inches, 2024.

Nengi Omuku at Kasmin Gallery

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Pretty, peachy-pink tones pervade Nigerian artist Nengi Omuku’s paintings on Yoruban sanyan fabric to otherworldly and calming effect in her first New York solo show at Kasmin Gallery.  But while several works feature scenes of respite in a garden or enjoyment of community, others hint at troubled political times in Nigeria.  Here in ‘Orange Bougainvillea,’ Omuku surrounds faintly visible individuals with flowers as if to engulf them in the beauty of the landscape.  (On view in Chelsea through Oct 19th).

Nengi Omuku, Orange Bougainvillea, oil on sanyan, 86 5/8 x 87 3/8 inches, 2024.

Sky Glabush at Stephen Friedman Gallery

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Sky Glabush, a Canadian artist who lives and works in the countryside outside of London, Ontario, takes inspiration from nature and early modernist art.  His arresting landscape paintings at Stephen Friedman Gallery in Tribeca alternate electric orange and yellow toned scenes with tranquil blues and purples, conveying a breadth of responses to an abundantly varied natural world.  Marked by their geometricized orderliness, Glabush’s huge paintings of forest scenes emphasize a linear quality that’s echoed in the vertical forms of gallery visitors standing before them.  Vibrant and driven by pattern and form, Glabush’s landscapes enticingly argue for the transformative and wondrous aspects of the natural world.  (On view through Oct 17th).

Sky Glabush, River Through Trees, oil and sand on canvas, 96 x 72 inches, 2024.

Hilary Pecis at David Kordansky Gallery

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Hilary Pecis’s still-life paintings at David Kordansy Gallery are anything but still.  Vibrant colors vie for attention with bold patterns in scenes that are empty of people but feel bursting with activity.   Here, a yellow tablecloth tilts at an impossible angle to show viewers a mid-meal scene from multiple perspectives at once.  Though the food looks good, it’s our appetite for color and design that is whetted by this dynamic painting.  (On view in Chelsea through Oct 12th).

Hilary Pecis, Lunch in Frogtown, acrylic on linen, 74 ½ x 64 x 1 5/8 inches, 2024.

Anthony Cudahy at GRIMM Gallery and Hales Gallery

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Anthony Cudahy’s simultaneous gallery shows at Hales Gallery in Chelsea and GRIMM Gallery in Tribeca are titled ‘Fool’s Gold’ and ‘Fool’s Errand,’ positing the artist as quixotic figure pursuing his own vision.  True to form, Cudahy’s bold colors, unharnessed to realistic representation, highlight figures or elements of an interior background.  Here, he draws our attention not to his friend, Sammy, in the chair, but rather to the glow of the bookshelf and a minimal still life with lemons.  Aiming to celebrate wonder in the everyday, Cudahy tilts Sammy’s head and angles his legs to guide our eye to books that might guide the mind into a world of thought and fruits which are in conversation with art history.  (On view in Chelsea at Hales Gallery and in Tribeca at GRIMM Gallery through Oct 19th).

Anthony Cudahy, Sammy, oil on linen, 72 x 72 inches, 2024.