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).
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).
