Sage Sohier at Foley Gallery

Photographer Sage Sohier looks ambushed by her former-model mother and her sister, who make Sohier up with gusto in this family portrait. Our sympathy is tempered by mom’s and sis’s smiles, but as Sohier stages beauty treatments and time at home in her mother’s company, viewers are prompted to consider the role of beauty and appearances in Sohier’s life and our own. (On view at Foley Gallery on the Lower East Side through Jan 7th).

Sage Sohier, Mum and Laine making me up, Washington D.C., archival pigment print, 28h x 33.75w, 2004.

Yoon Ji Seon at Yossi Milo Gallery

Physical transformation is nothing new for Korean youth; one recent poll reported that 50% of young women in their 20s have had a cosmetic procedure. Seoul-based artist Yoon Ji Seon alters her features aggressively by stitching over photographic self-portraits printed on linen, but she does so with a wild creativity that rejects conventional beauty norms. (At Yossi Milo Gallery through Dec 5th).

 Yoon Ji Seon, Rag Face #15022, sewing on fabric and photograph, 24” x 16.5”, unique, 2015.

Angelo Filomeno at Galerie Lelong

Italian artist Angelo Filomeno is known for making the macabre gorgeous. Here, a detail from a bright yellow silk support shows a pretty assortment of embroidered tropical fish; but decay is never far away, as evidenced by scuttling black beetles and a ravaged angelfish. (At Chelsea’s Galerie Lelong through Jan 31st).

Angelo Filomeno, detail from ‘Tropical Still Life in Yellow,’ embroidery and crystals on silk shantung stretched over linen, 78 x 39 inches, 2014.

Martin Puryear at Matthew Marks Gallery

The Phrygian cap, worn as a symbol of emancipation in the French revolution and before, inspired American sculptor Martin Puryear’s new work at Chelsea’s Matthew Marks Gallery. As a series of sculptures that point to freedom, Puryear’s work goes beyond formally attractive objects to suggest justice as its own form of beauty. (Through Jan 10th).

Martin Puryear (foreground), Big Phrygian, painted red cedar, 2010-2014.

Rosana Castrillo Diaz at Ameringer McEnery Yohe

San Francisco-based Spanish artist Rosana Castrillo Diaz revels in the pleasures of minimal forms and pure white color in her untitled composition created with cotton on paper at Chelsea’s Ameringer McEnery Yohe Gallery. (Through Dec 13th).

Rosana Castrillo Diaz, Untitled, 58 x 58 inches, cotton on paper, 2013.