Olive Ayhens at Bookstein Projects

Olive Ayhens meets the abundance of people and buildings in New York with a profusion of recorded detail in her new series of ink and watercolor paintings at Bookstein Projects. Painted in a topsy turvy style combining multiple perspectives, Ayhens’ dynamic cityscapes look as if the buildings are in movement, perhaps shuffling down the sidewalk shoulder to shoulder like New York’s notably absent human residents. Painted in her new West Village neighborhood during the pandemic, Ayhens work reflects a sense of jittery nervousness via its architecture.  (On view on the Upper East Side through Jan 7th.  Note holiday hours and closures).

Olive Ayhens, Orange Luxury, watercolor and ink on paper, 23 x 30.5 inches, 2020.

Louise Kruger at Lori Bookstein Fine Art

Cleverly placed near the gallery entrance, late sculptor Louise Kruger’s bulky ‘Standing Dog’ could –for an instant – be mistaken as a real pet tagging along with gallery visitors. Other charmingly odd wood figures stand out amongst work in fabric and metal by an artist who developed her own unique folk/pop artistic language. (At Chelsea’s Lori Bookstein Fine Art through Oct 4th).

Louise Kruger, Standing Dog, pine, 27 x 16 x 38 inches, c. 1970-75.