Brooklyn-based, Sri-Lanka raised artist Nadia Haji Omar has found inspiration for her abstract forms in Tamil, Sinhala, Arabic and French letter forms. This untitled dye and acrylic canvas nods to language as much as to natural forms found in the water or under a microscope. (At Kristen Lorello Gallery on the Lower East Side through June 12th).
Sargent’s Daughters’ homage to Dutch New Yorker Anton van Dalen includes this painting from 1986 featuring behavior psychologist B.F. Skinner, whose pigeon experiments included a plan to train the birds to guide missiles in WWII. Himself a pigeon fancier, van Dalen reimagines the pigeon’s world to fascinating effect. (On the Lower East Side through June 12th).
Iconic German artist Sigmar Polke created this painting the year after a trip that took him around Asia, from Papua New Guinea to Thailand and beyond. Painted on checked fabric, Polke’s hovering, calligraphic mountains compete with a rectangular pattern of curving black splashes, creating an almost mythical realm at center. (At David Zwirner Gallery’s 20th Street location through June 25th).
Belgian artist Luc Tuymans is known for paintings that evoke memories. Here, cars reflected in the canals of the Dutch town of Ridderkerk are based on Polaroids taken by the artist. A solid stone bridge meets the evocative green-tinged murk of the canal, recalling moments of leisure spent pondering the water from the land. (At David Zwirner Gallery in Chelsea through June 25th).
Though William Bailey’s serene still life arrangements share subject matter with Giorgio Morandi’s paintings of bottles, jars and vases, their contours are perfectly complete and clear, achieving comparative gravity and a sense of permanence. Still, Bailey’s objects embody a sense of apartness that makes them captivating. (At Betty Cunningham Gallery on the Lower East Side through June 11th).
