Dana Schutz’s ‘Fight in an Elevator,’ the title piece for her show at Chelsea’s Petzel Gallery, recalls NFL player Ray Rice’s scandalous attack on his fiancée in a hotel elevator but levels the playing field as an abstracted man and woman give as good as they get in a futurist-inspired rumble. (Through October 24th).
Dana Schutz, Fight in an Elevator, oil on canvas, 96 x 90 inches, 2015.
London-based painter Ellen Macdonald snaps her audience to attention by juxtaposing abstraction and figuration in this painting of a hand and a neighboring abstract work composed of looping lines on a vivid orange background. (At Nicelle Beauchene Gallery on the Lower East Side through August 14th).
Ellen Macdonald, Untitled (U include the, wall between and you), oil on linen, 24 x 18 inches, 2015.
Admiringly called ‘expertly constructed, aggressively psychedelic and curiously weird’ recently by the New York Times, Steve DiBenedetto’s latest abstract canvases flirt with representation but elude it, hinting at a half-understood world beyond. (At Derek Eller Gallery through April 25th).
Steve DiBenedetto, Catholic Deli, oil on linen, 60 x 72 x 1.375 inches, 2012 – 15.
A mirror buried in a tangle of orange-blossomed plants turns this lush landscape by Arkansas-based artist and musician Stephanie Pierce into an enigmatic self-portrait. (At Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects on the Lower East Side through June 29th).
Stephanie Pierce, Cosmos, oil on canvas, 2013.
Small and meticulously handmade, New York artist Lori Ellison’s untitled ink on notebook paper drawings on view at McKenzie Fine Art on the Lower East Side jettison high production values in favor of an absorbingly obsessive art practice. (Through Feb 16th).
Lori Ellison, Untitled, ink on notebook paper, 11 x 8 ½ inches, 2013.
