Worlds collide in Beijing-based artist Jia Aili’s huge, apocalyptic paintings at Gagosian Gallery in Chelsea. An ominous, oval-shaped portal appears to generate flashes of lightning and cause a disruption in space and time while to the left, a puffy, cloud-like figure shoots up toward a mysterious black orb. Whether this is an alien-invasion or some kind of terrestrial catastrophe, the drama is deeply absorbing. (On view at Gagosian Gallery’s 21st Street location in Chelsea through April 13th).
‘Self Portrait as Afterparty’ continues Brooklyn-based painter Julie Heffernan’s ongoing quasi-self-portrait series, here in a post-apocalyptic scenario in which she eschews plates of spaghetti to gather sacks of game. An abandoned dinner, piles of rocks, some of which have smashed the chairs, and a picture of an exploding volcano suggest that the end of the world has come but this goddess-like survivor can fend for herself. (At Chelsea’s PPOW Gallery through Nov 16th).
Julie Heffernan, Self Portrait as After-party, oil on canvas, 2013.
