Plants, ponds and (for a time) cows generated New York painter Lois Dodd’s subject matter as she painted the natural world in canvases that provocatively mix figuration and abstraction. This 1963 image, painted on summer vacation in Maine, continued Dodd’s studies in pattern, merging avant-garde painting style with bucolic pleasure. (At Alexandre Gallery in the 57th Street area, through Feb 25th).
Inspired by art history and contemporary fashion, LA-based oil painter Jesse Mockrin offers glimpses of androgynous creatures with long necks, doll-like features and strangely bone-less fingers. (At Nathalie Karg Gallery on the Lower East Side through Dec 6th).
Meleko Mokgosi’s provocative pairing of three regal African women with a massive bull implies that we’re looking at two powerful forces. The diptych’s subtitle is ‘Lerato: Philia I’ the Setwana word for love (used as a noun in reference to a woman) followed by a suffix that brings to mind excessive devotion. (At Jack Shainman Gallery on 20th and 24th Streets through Oct 22nd).
Chicago-based octogenarian Margot Bergman makes her New York solo debut with highly emotive, expressionist portraits created on canvases found in thrift stores and flea markets and reworked into double portraits. Here, a kindly, elderly face peers out from the forehead of a pouty-lipped blond, perhaps foretelling the younger woman’s future or portraying her internal voice. (At Chelsea’s Anton Kern Gallery through Aug 19th).
Karen Lederer’s ‘Hipster Wellness’ is a standout in Driscoll Babcock’s summer group show of painting by young artists who follow new approaches to traditional still life. Bright colors dominate, particularly a glowing bowl of Cheetos, which balances the orange color squares on an art book about Josef Albers. Painted as if seen in digital space, the picture includes Lederer’s own hand, not wielding a brush but as if poised to take a selfie. (In Chelsea through Aug 12th).
