Linda Goode Bryant in ‘Social Works’ at Gagosian Gallery

Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ piles of candy, Oscar Murillo’s pallets of freshly made chocolate and Betty Woodman’s ceramic fragments are some of the most meaningful and memorable free gifts artists have offered to New York art audiences in recent years.  Now, Linda Goode Bryant’s floating farm at Gagosian Gallery joins in with daily offerings of freshly grown and harvested produce.  Tiny bags of basil, cilantro and green beans await someone’s dinner plate but also testify to Bryant’s efforts to supply healthy food to communities with restricted access to produce via Project EATS, the urban farming organization she founded in 2009.  (On view in Chelsea through Aug 13th.  Masks and social distancing required.)

Linda Goode Bryant, Are we really that different?, installation, dimensions variable, 2021.

 

Altoon Sultan at McKenzie Fine Art

Farm machinery inspired the brightly colored forms of Vermont painter Altoon Sultan’s new paintings. Created in egg tempera on calfskin parchment, this glowing instrument is an alluring piece of rural Pop art. (At McKenzie Fine Art on the Lower East Side through March 26th).

Altoon Sultan, Tall Red, egg tempera on parchment stretched over wood panel, 9 ¼ x 6 ½ inches, 2016.

Jackie Nickerson at Jack Shainman Gallery

If these photographs of farm workers holding tools of their trade look like they’re wearing masks, it’s due in part to artist Jackie Nicherson’s desire to make documentary photography that doesn’t exploit its subject.  Instead, her recent series, ‘Terrain,’ shot on Southern and East African farms, zeros in on part-hidden individuals to focus attention one of Africa’s biggest industries. (At Jack Shainman Gallery’s 20th Street location through Feb 15th).  

Jackie Nickerson, installation view of ‘Terrain,’ at Jack Shainman Gallery, February, 2014.