David Hammons at The Drawing Center

The US flag is shelter and garment for the individual depicted in this 1969 body print/screenprint by David Hammons, now on view in a powerful show of Hammons’ meticulous body prints at the Drawing Center.  Made by applying oil to his skin, pressing his body to paper and applying powdered pigments, the print is one of many that incorporate the US flag to question its meaning for Black communities.  (On view in SoHo through May 23rd.  Appointments, masks and social distancing required.  Admission charges waived).

David Hammons, Pray for America, screenprint and pigment on paper, 1969.

Lorna Simpson at Hauser & Wirth

In the Arctic, ‘so much believed to be white is actually – strikingly – blue,’ writes award-winning American poet Robin Coste Lewis in a text applied to the wall at the entrance to Lorna Simpson’s solo show at Hauser & Wirth.  Titled ‘Darkening’ and featuring monumentally scaled paintings combining text and images from Ebony magazine, the AP and National Archives, the new work pictures bodies and icy landscapes commenting on, as Simpson has explained, ‘inhospitable conditions and how to survive those conditions.’  (On view in Chelsea through July 27th).

Lorna Simpson, Blue Turned Temporal, ink and screenprint on gessoed fiberglass, 102 x 144 x 1 3/8 inches, 2019.

Jaya Howey at Bureau Inc

Under a stunning sunrise, time runs out, nature takes its course and a masked figure keeps up appearances in this attractively simple yet hard-to-interpret painting by Brooklyn artist Jaya Howey. How it all fits together seems to be less important than noting how it’s all happening at once. (At Bureau on the Lower East Side through June 15th).

Jaya Howey, Opening Narrative with Frame Work 3, oil and acrylic on canvas, ceramic, epoxy, 119 x 94cm, 2014.