Ugo Mulas at Matthew Marks Gallery

Late Italian photographer Ugo Mulas made his name documenting the Venice Biennials from 1954 – 1972 and establishing relationships with Italy’s major post-war artists.  In the ‘60s, his purview expanded to New York where he met and photographed now iconic avant-garde artists from Barnett Newman to Marcel Duchamp.  These photos and more at Matthew Marks Gallery in Chelsea offer a peek at yesteryear’s art scene, from the police closing a Warhol loft party to intimate shots of Jasper Johns at work.  Here, Roy Lichtenstein inhabits one of his cartoon scenarios with good humor.  (On view through August 16th).

Ugo Mulas, Roy Lichtenstein, vintage gelatin silver print, 10 ½ x 17 7/8 inches, 1964.

David Weiss at Matthew Marks Gallery

Before late Swiss artist David Weiss joined forces with Peter Fischli to become the charmingly eccentric duo Fischli and Weiss, he traveled widely, drawing as he went.  Also inspired by underground comics, Weiss produced drawings like this tongue-in-cheek take on Giacometti’s famously reduced figure, currently on view at Matthew Marks Gallery’s 24th Street location. (On view through April 6th).

David Weiss, Untitled (Giacometti), watercolor, ink and graphite on paper, 9 3/8 x 6 ½ inches, 1978.

Ken Price at Matthew Marks Gallery

Late sculptor Ken Price evoked bodies and nature in a humorous, accessible and endlessly colorful way for decades until his death in 2012.  In a show of work from the ‘90s to 2010 at Matthew Marks Gallery, Price’s evocative forms continue to elicit puzzlement and delight in equal measure.  (On view on 24th Street in Chelsea through Dec 22nd).

Ken Price, Formerly The Slump, fired and painted clay, 5 ¼ x 18 ½ x 13 ¾ inches, 2001.

Linda Stark in ‘Painting Now and Forever, part III’ at Matthew Marks Gallery

Cats feature in LA painter Linda Stark’s work as portals to the divine or the unknowable – one starred in a past painting as the cat-headed god Bastet, in another as a third eye on the artist’s self-portrait. Here, Stark’s cat, Ray, stares coolly out of a pink haze rimmed in blue that evokes Art Deco colors and neon light.  (On view at Matthew Marks Gallery in Chelsea through August 17th).

Linda Stark, Ray, oil on canvas over panel, 36 x 36 inches, 2017.

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye in ‘Painting Now and Forever, part III’ at Greene Naftali Gallery

Humor, irony and abjection abound in Greene Naftali Gallery’s summer group show ‘Painting Now and Forever, part III,’ a collaboration with Matthew Marks Gallery, but none of these qualities are found in British artist Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s fictional portrait titled ‘Jubilee.’  Instead, Yiadom-Boakye’s elevated characters – backlit in this case by a golden glow – are quietly exalted, seemingly above everyday life and happy in their own company and thoughts.  (On view in Chelsea through August 17th).

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Jubilee, oil on canvas, 41 ½ x 35 ¾ inches, 2016.