German artist Peter Pillar spotted this surprising image of a woman being silenced by a ghostly hand while driving as he himself was traveling on the highway. As part of a series for which he photographed ads on the back of trucks, then removed text and non-image related info, Pillar lays bare how the images send particular messages. It’s an enticing challenge to imagine what’s would be sold by the original ad. (At Andrew Kreps Gallery through Aug 19th).
Chicago-based octogenarian Margot Bergman makes her New York solo debut with highly emotive, expressionist portraits created on canvases found in thrift stores and flea markets and reworked into double portraits. Here, a kindly, elderly face peers out from the forehead of a pouty-lipped blond, perhaps foretelling the younger woman’s future or portraying her internal voice. (At Chelsea’s Anton Kern Gallery through Aug 19th).
Young Saskatchewan-based artist Zachari Logan asserts a new place in the natural world for the male body in works like ‘Leshy,’ a human figure created from flora and fauna, beautifully rendered in pastels on black paper. (At Julie Saul Gallery in Chelsea through Aug 12th).
Realist painter Don Nice pairs soda pop and pop corn in a Warholian consideration of the allure of brightly packaged processed food. These two paintings hang side by side in Nice’s current show at Driscoll Babcock Galleries, as if arranged for our viewing and eating pleasure. (In Chelsea through Aug 12th).
Karen Lederer’s ‘Hipster Wellness’ is a standout in Driscoll Babcock’s summer group show of painting by young artists who follow new approaches to traditional still life. Bright colors dominate, particularly a glowing bowl of Cheetos, which balances the orange color squares on an art book about Josef Albers. Painted as if seen in digital space, the picture includes Lederer’s own hand, not wielding a brush but as if poised to take a selfie. (In Chelsea through Aug 12th).
