Wholly abstract yet suggesting recognizable forms, late painter Sonia Gechtoff’s canvases invite and resist interpretation simultaneously. Successful from a young age with shows at the San Francisco Museum of Art (now SFMoMA) and the De Young Museum, Gechtoff’s move to New York’s male-oriented abstract expressionist art scene in the late 1950s slowed her career and recognition. Her current retrospective at 55 Walker (run by Bortolami, kaufmann Repetto and Andrew Kreps Gallery) contributes to correcting the record of her importance, showcasing work from the ‘50s to 2017, the year before her death at age 91. It includes ‘Celestial Red,’ a composition dominated by circular forms evoking the planets and moons of a solar system, and behind them all, a powerful, glowing celestial body not fully known or seen. (On view in Tribeca through Aug 26th).
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Mika Horibuchi at 55 Walker
Betrayal and concealment are words applied to Mika Horibuchi’s deceptively masterful paintings at 55 Walker, which replicate her grandmother’s amateur watercolors. At first glance, triangular tabs appear to be adhered to the surface to hold up a printed photo. A closer look reveals that they, like the ‘photo,’ are meticulously painted. The cat image is a rendition of a printed snapshot sent to the artist in Chicago by her grandmother in Japan, who has taken up painting later in life. A nearby display case shows the original snapshots along with other photos, drawings, and more. Here, the professional mimics the hobbyist, but the work conveys respect and consideration. (On view in Tribeca through March 26th).
Ernie Barnes at 55 Walker
An artist from his childhood and an NFL player for five years in the early 60s, late painter Ernie Barnes merged his talents in the visual arts and sports to create the powerful paintings now on view at 55 Walker in Tribeca. Barnes saw body language and movement on the field in visual terms, using time outs to sketch the game’s lines and shapes on paper. Here, three towering figures are no less dynamic for standing still; crowding together with oversized elbows and hands, they convey the danger of contact sports. (On view in Tribeca through Oct 30th. Masks required).
Marcia Schvartz at 55 Walker
Exiled to Spain, then Brazil in the late 70s during Argentina’s military junta, Argentinian artist Marcia Schvartz returned to Buenos Aires in 1983, settling in the working class and bohemian neighborhood of San Telmo. Frank portraits of her friends and neighbors followed, along with this depiction of a mystical encounter at one of the city’s major train stations now on view in an exhibition of Schvartz’s work at Tribeca gallery 55 Walker. Downplaying the opulent and busy surroundings of the station, Schvartz concentrates on a tender encounter between a mom and an ethereal visage. (On view through Sept 7th).