Barry McGee at Cheim & Read Gallery

These days, San Francisco street art legend Barry McGee is more likely to show his work in galleries and museums than outdoors, but his installation in the back room of Cheim & Read Gallery in Chelsea – a collection of around 400 elements bulging off the wall – pops with a white-cube defying energy.  (Through Oct 26th).  

Barry McGee, Untitled, 400 elements; ink, graphite, acrylic, screenprint, photographs on paper, found objects and frames, 2005-2013.

Andrew Schoultz at Morgan Lehman Gallery

San Francisco-based artist Andrew Schoultz alters Morgan Lehman’s white cube gallery by papering the walls with sections replicating building bricks.  It’s the perfect backdrop for pieces that picture natural and man-made disasters, including this acrylic and collage image of a tornado demolishing a red brick building.  (At Chelsea’s Morgan Lehman Gallery through October 12th).  

Andrew Schoultz, Tornado (Up in the Air), acrylic, collage, graphite, and string on wooden panel, 2013.

Brian Adam Douglas at Andrew Edlin Gallery

Brian Adam Douglas’ surreal, Neo Rauch- like images of anonymous characters intently engaged in their individual tasks are intriguing, but are even more amazing for being constructed entirely of paper.  Though his solo show at Chelsea’s Andrew Edlin Gallery was inspired by mankind’s ability to rebuild after natural disasters, here each character experiences a momentous occasion of his or her own.  (Through Oct 26th).  

Brian Adam Douglas, The Memory of You is Never Lost Upon Me, cut paper on birch panel with UVA varnish, 2011.

Daniel Gordon in ‘Jew York,’ at Untitled Gallery

Brooklyn-based Daniel Gordon presents one of his signature photo collages at Untitled Gallery on the Lower East Side, a selection of apples and pears that update Cezanne’s twisted perspectives on fruit by adding multiple digital perspectives against contemporary but dated background textiles.  (Through July 26th).  

Daniel Gordon, Pink Ladies and Pears, chromogenic print, 2012.

Dave McDermott at Thierry Goldberg Gallery

Brooklyn-based artist Dave McDermott’s ‘The Purgatorial Moment (with Piano)’ evokes dread or nostalgia, depending on how your childhood music lessons went.  Floating blocks of color and the slanting line of a player’s back suggest a zone of intense concentration in a tiny house filled with the effort of music making. (At the Lower East Side’s Thierry Goldberg Gallery through June 2nd).

Dave McDermott, ‘The Purgatorial Moment (with Piano), oil, canvas, wax, 23K gold, yarn on panel, 2013.