While sketching a tree stump in an area of trees lost to climate change near his home, California sculptor Charles Long was inspired by the devastation caused by patriarchal culture to merge a cross section of the dead plant with that of a human penis. Strangely humanoid, the transection is rendered in a huge scale at the back of Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, a plaintive and comedic monument to loss. (On view in Chelsea through Feb 9th).
Trees appear to dance and sway at the center of Beauford Delaney’s gorgeously curvy nature scene from c. 1945. As Fauvist colors turn the park into a riot of color, specifics of place or season feel beside the point. (At Michael Rosenfeld Gallery through Aug 5th).
Ian Ruhter, Snow on Pines, Lake Tahoe, 30 x 40 inch pigment print, 2010.
Belgian artist Patrick Van Caeckenbergh’s meticulous drawings resemble photographs but record trees embellished by his imagination into wondrous monstrosities. (At Lehmann Maupin Gallery on the Lower East Side through August 21st).
Patrick Van Caeckenbergh, Drawing of Old Trees during wintry days 2007-2014, pencil and paint on paper, 21.06 x 30.79 inches, 2007 – 2014.
Known for graphite-on-paper drawings of trees, Massachusetts-based artist Sandra Allen creates an almost abstract, immensely powerful image from the trunk of a tree in ‘Ballast’ from 2009. (At Danese Corey through July 31st).
Sandra Allen, Ballast, graphite on paper, 11 x 18.5 feet, 2009.
