Matthew Hansel in Post Analogue Studio at The Hole NYC

17th century Dutch still life painters delighted in the effect of light hitting rich fabric or shiny glass; contemporary Brooklyn artist Matthew Hansel is into optical delights of a different sort as he mimics digital distortion in oil and flashe paint.  Included in The Hole’s continuing investigation of how digital techniques have impacted non-digitally created art, this shaped painting throws a little fun-house mirror effect into a traditional momento mori.  (On view on the Lower East Side through May 19th).

Matthew Hansel, The Tide That Left and Never Came Back, oil and flashe paint on linen mounted on panel, 30 x 44 inches, 2019.

Mary Heilmann in ‘Paintings on Paper’ at David Zwirner Gallery

Mary Heilmann’s two acrylic on paper pieces, both titled ‘Negative Space,’ in David Zwirner Gallery’s summer ‘Paintings on Paper’ group exhibition look like sections of the gallery wall coming forward into the viewer’s space and casting impossibly dark shadows behind, a clever illusion created with simple means. (In Chelsea through August 15th).

Mary Heilmann, Negative Space One, 11 ½ x 11 ½ inches (left) and Negative Space Two, 12 x 15 inches, both are acrylic on handmade paper, 2014.