Anna Conway at Fergus McCaffrey Gallery

Anna Conway’s surreal landscapes and tense interior scenes often feature working men whose importance is questionable.  Here, in an oil painting from 2004 featured in her current solo show at Fergus McCaffrey Gallery in Chelsea, four men in uniform lie flat on sandy soil to reach into a man-made pool.  Their tiny figures, echoed in the forms of spindly trees above them, appear ill-equipped to correct whatever problem lurks below.  Titled ‘Pound of Cure,’ the piece presents the unpleasant consequences of someone’s lack of foresight.  (On view through Dec 23rd).

Anna Conway, Pound of Cure, oil on panel, 44 x 60 inches, 2004.

Anna Conway at Fergus McCaffrey

In the corner of a cavernous space that opens to the outdoors, a man rests in his immaculate office next to a retaining wall holding back hundreds of dark cows with yellow tags in their ears. Such surreal juxtapositions are rife in Anna Conway’s meticulous imagined painted scenarios, prompting consideration of how space effects the psyche. (On view at Fergus McCaffrey through Dec 23rd).

Anna Conway, detail of Devotion, oil on canvas, 44 x 72 inches, 2015.

Noriyuki Haraguchi at Fergus McCaffrey Gallery

This gorgeous reflecting pool by Japanese artist Noriyuki Haraguchi – an update on his iconic versions from the 70s – is the picture of serenity in the pristine upstairs gallery of Chelsea’s Fergus McCaffrey Gallery. Contrary to appearances, though, the pool is full of spent machine oil, a symbol of our attraction to a natural resource with not-so-beautiful byproducts. (Through Feb 21st).

Noriyuki Haraguchi, Oil Pool, steel, spent motor oil, 24 x 12 feet.