Born in Haiti and raised in Miami, Tomm El-Saieh’s relationship with the country of his birth continues to inspire his abstract paintings, now on view at Chelsea’s Luhring Augustine Gallery. Haitian spiritual practice as well as the traditions of international abstraction inform El-Saieh’s fields of color and subtle geometric patterns that bloom over the canvases. (On view through Dec 22nd).
Under a recreation of the night sky as it appeared at the start of the Haitian Revolution, Firelei Baez presents a dramatic installation at James Cohan Gallery’s Lower East Side space featuring empowered female figures who assert their presence in the gallery and in history. Wearing a tignon that refers to the 18th century legal requirement for African-diasporic women to cover their hair, this casually posed yet regal figure lacks a mouth yet speaks with her eyes. (On view through June 16th).
