Jane Corrigan at Feuer/Mesler

After a stand-out show featuring paintings of sporty girls at Kerry Schuss Gallery last fall, Jane Corrigan is back on the Lower East Side with three large canvases at Feuer/Mesler. It’s hard to tell if the ragtag subject of ‘Gatherer’ is eyeballing us or her scattered carrots with a wild look; either way, the effect is disarming. (Through July 31st.)

Jane Corrigan, Gatherer, oil on canvas, 70 x 50 inches, 2015.

Lily Ludlow at Canada

Lily Ludlow’s angular abstractions at first look like x-rays of Cubist paintings, but her deliberately indistinct canvases (actually sanded down) gradually materialize into charged interactions between nude or semi-clothed characters. (At Canada on the Lower East Side through Dec 14th).

Lily Ludlow, The Knifers, acrylic, pencil, graphite, chalk on canvas, 2014.

Inka Essenhigh in ‘Sargent’s Daughters’ at Sargent’s Daughters

It’s hard to tell if this enchanted scene is aided or threatened by the dark-faced spirit behind a frolicking young woman and two sprites. Titled ‘The 1%,’ this painting by New Yorker Inka Essenhigh suggests that their bliss is tenuous. (At Sargent’s Daughters through July 26th).

Inka Essenhigh, The 1 %, oil on canvas, 30 x 12 inches 2014.

Alice Mackler at Kerry Schuss Gallery

At eighty-two years old, Alice Mackler is enjoying a career revival with this show at the Lower East Side gallery Kerry Schuss, inspiring nods to Matisse’s odalisques (Time Out) and William Steig cartoons (Gallerist NY).  (Through July 26th).

Alice Mackler, Untitled, glazed earthenware, 2013.