Even if you’re tired of Zoom meetings, you’ll be tempted to join Mongolian artist Uuriintuya Dagvasambuu’s online gathering in this painting at Sapar Contemporary, part of her New York solo show debut. Featuring a woman in traditional dress, flower stalks composed of tiny humans an undersea woman with her pet dog and more, each painted video frame is an introduction to a fascinating earthly or mystical world. (On view in Tribeca through April 30th.)
Betrayal and concealment are words applied to Mika Horibuchi’s deceptively masterful paintings at 55 Walker, which replicate her grandmother’s amateur watercolors. At first glance, triangular tabs appear to be adhered to the surface to hold up a printed photo. A closer look reveals that they, like the ‘photo,’ are meticulously painted. The cat image is a rendition of a printed snapshot sent to the artist in Chicago by her grandmother in Japan, who has taken up painting later in life. A nearby display case shows the original snapshots along with other photos, drawings, and more. Here, the professional mimics the hobbyist, but the work conveys respect and consideration. (On view in Tribeca through March 26th).
Catherine Murphy’s ‘Begin Again’ greets visitors at the entrance of Peter Freeman Inc’s SoHo gallery, questioning the foundation of the artist’s realist painting practice by juxtaposing emotive gestures with skilled rendering. Painted black outlines resemble ancient handprints in caves or body outlines traced by children and are a stark contrast to Murphy’s naturalistic rendering of her left hand and arm. The painting’s wallpaper-like background suggests an unstoppable creative impulse akin to kids painting on the living room walls. Recently called ‘one of America’s greatest living realist painters’ in the New Yorker and ‘one of our great artists’ in Hyperallergic, Murphy in her mid-70s testifies to the importance of keeping her practice fresh by ‘beginning again.’ (On view in SoHo through Jan 7th. Note holiday hours and closures.)
In the corner of a cavernous space that opens to the outdoors, a man rests in his immaculate office next to a retaining wall holding back hundreds of dark cows with yellow tags in their ears. Such surreal juxtapositions are rife in Anna Conway’s meticulous imagined painted scenarios, prompting consideration of how space effects the psyche. (On view at Fergus McCaffrey through Dec 23rd).
Fans of Marilyn Minter’s super realist paintings – and their sullied glitz – will want to catch her early work included in the group exhibition ‘Bad Conscience’ at Chelsea’s Metro Pictures. Here, ‘Spill’ from 1976 conveys the ‘ugh’ feeling of encountering a spilled drink on institutional linoleum. (Through Feb 22nd).
Marilyn Minter, Spill, oil on canvas, 60 x 60 inches, 1976.
