Using patterns scanned and printed from her collection of vintage kimonos, Chicago-based artist Mayumi Lake creates floral abstractions – adding a fringe of beads and other elements – that mix tradition and contemporary life. Designed to resemble huge flowers that might decorate a sacred place, the blooms grow in size and color in proportion to life’s difficulties. (On view at Miyako Yoshinaga Gallery in Chelsea through May 25th).
Angolan artist Keyezua’s ‘Fortia’ series (translated as ‘Strength’) features female figures in handmade masks and dramatic red gowns posing in an eroded landscape outside Luanda. Citing her father’s disability and early death, the artist aims to explore how her own identity developed as a young woman experiencing loss. (In ‘Refraction: New Photography of Africa and its Diaspora’ at Steven Kasher Gallery in Chelsea through June 2nd).
A Christmas cactus tangos with a dramatically dark black tulip in the foreground of Inka Essenhigh’s ‘Party of the Flames and Flowers,’ a standout painting in the artist’s solo show at Miles McEnery Gallery in Chelsea. Personified flowers compete to show off their beauty in an intriguing venue that mysteriously appears to be undersea. (On view through May 25th).
This 1980 painting on hand-woven linen by video art pioneer Beryl Korot (seen in detail) demonstrates the language she devised, based on the grid of woven cloth. The text is based on the account of the Tower of Babel in Genesis, an account in which language fragments. For Korot, Babel offers a chance to consider the ways that language and technology relate to human behavior. (On view at Bitforms through May 20th).
Mylar, balloon-shaped sculptures are the centerpiece of Tomas Saraceno’s stunning ‘Solar Rhythms’ exhibition at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in Chelsea – a show that envisions fossil fuel free flight via balloon. Reflected light decorates the gallery in ethereal patterns that connect our earthly realm to the wonderous possibilities of life in the air. (On view through June 9th).
When it comes to perspective in his paintings, David Hockney famously takes the road less traveled by adopting multiple viewpoints in one image. In this vibrantly colored painting of Garrowby Hill in Yorkshire, on view at Pace Gallery through the weekend, Hockney eliminates the corners of his canvas, introducing a technique that guides viewers on an enticingly colorful and quirky journey into an expanding landscape. (On view at Pace Gallery’s 25th Street Chelsea location through May 12th).
Inspired by Louis Lozowick’s 1935 ‘Strike Scene’ lithograph, Hank Willis Thomas’s stainless steel ‘Strike’ is a powerful symbol of resistance. A highlight of the artist’s latest two-gallery solo show at Jack Shainman Gallery, the sculpture presents a fragment of a scenario that speaks to a broader history of struggle. (On view in Chelsea through May 12th).
A paper floats into the frame of a Krazy Kat cartoon, and Krazy questions the ‘kwee mokks’ all over it. This scenario captivates one of Marcus Weber’s oddball characters, who are themselves unexpected and unexplained. Though their unibrows suggest an adult seriousness, they avidly read the funnies, positioning their identity somewhere between adult and kid and tantalizingly out of reach. (At Thomas Erben Gallery in Chelsea through May 19th).
Ceramics get comic and weird in The Hole NYC’s sprawling exhibition of art made from clay. Theo A. Rosenblum’s ‘King Carrot’ grins enthusiastically in the main gallery, setting the tone for a show that includes Alice Mackler’s amorphous female figures, a delinquent Bart Simpson portrait by FriendsWithYou and much, much more. (On view on the Lower East Side through May 6th).
Using acrylic, oil and bleach on linen, LA painter Pamela Jorden combines the colors of day and night in a dramatic tondo that draws us into summery pink, yellow and blue zones while actively repelling our approach in angular dark areas. Drawing her painterly vocabulary from the history of abstraction, Jorden aims to rethink landscape, referencing varied sources, from J.M.W. Turner to tide pools. (On view at Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery on the Lower East Side through May 6th).
Will Cotton’s paintings of models and confectionery merge erotic desire and the temptation of sweets; here, sugar wins out as a tower of cake takes center stage at the International Print Center in Chelsea. If this looks like a sculpture that won’t age well, don’t be fooled; this indulgent stack of goodies is made of handmade paper – a standout in the Print Center’s show of American hand paper-making since the 60s.
A lone palm stands peaceful and unmolested above the collision of man-made material and nature photography that is Letha Wilson’s ‘Steel Face Concrete Bend (Kauai Palm)’ at GRIMM on the Lower East Side. Inside a steel frame, concrete printed with a landscape photo abuts an actual photographic print as man and nature messily come into contact. (On view through April 22nd ).
The human figure emerges gracefully from marble, bronze and wood in Pace Gallery’s major exhibition of Barbara Hepworth’s sculpture from the 30s to the 70s. In the foreground, ‘One, Two, Three (Vertical)’ from 1974 frames this view of towering sculpture from Hepworth’s totemic Family of Man series – an ‘Ancestor’ on the left and ‘Bridegroom’ in the back. (On view in Chelsea through April 21st).
Teresita Fernandez’s show last spring at Lehmann Maupin featured an American landscape constructed of charcoal, maps burned into paper and a ceramic wall panel featuring raging flames. Currently on view on Chelsea, ‘Fire (United States of America),’ forcefully continues Fernandez’s consideration of the US landscape as contentious and combustible. (On view in Chelsea through May 5th).
The title of Sam Moyer’s ‘Spencertown’ (seen here in detail) refers to the New York town where iconic painter Ellsworth Kelly lived and worked before his death in 2015. Bold geometric shapes – constructed of marble and painted canvas – also hint at a fascination with Kelly’s practice of reducing real-world objects and scenes to an abstract language. Here, Moyer pushes the idea a step further by incorporating actual fragments of the 3-D world in her artwork. (At FLAG Art Foundation in Chelsea through May 19th).
Ancient and 20th century, Chinese and European cultural heritage come into direct contact in XU ZHEN’s sculpture of a Tang Dynasty warrior holding Brancusi’s ‘Sleeping Muse.’ Currently part of an exhibition at James Cohan Gallery that has transformed the exhibition space into a garden with walking paths that replicate protest marches, the piece aims to provoke conversation on many levels. (On view on the Lower East Side through April 22nd).
In his latest show at Marianne Boesky Gallery, Barnaby Furnas morphs Grant Woods’ iconic American Gothic (now on view at the Whitney) into an eerie portrait of pitchfork-clutching quadruplet sisters defined by their flatness and conformity. Other paintings feature charging bison and Mt Rushmore, summoning iconic ‘American’ imagery to question what that means now. Even Furnas’ new experiments in painting technique – he has worked with the research group ARTMATR to digitally replicate his labor-intensive paint application techniques – align with the sense that these robotic characters lack a human element. (On view in Chelsea through April 14th).
How would a rag rug inspire a ceramic sculpture? Francesca DiMattio’s huge porcelain and stoneware sculptures mimic the shaggy surface of a Moroccan boucherouite rug, a technique aided by her use of a garlic press to extrude clay. Mixing references to art history and decorative arts, DiMattio’s new work is a riotous assertion of history’s continued presence in today’s art and design. (On view on the Lower East Side at Salon94 Bowery through April 21st).
Rock climbers at sunset, a windswept beach and a wildly colored tropical lagoon are literally on the mind of this character by Erik Parker at Mary Boone Gallery. Experienced or received notions of the world literally construct identity in this psychedelic portrait. (On view in Chelsea through April 21st).
Though abstract, Marsha Cottrell’s ‘Environments’ series suggest aerial views of a cityscape or a tangram puzzle. Printed layer over layer with variations in each printing, the image appears to be shrinking away from us in space while blocking an intriguing portal. (On view through April 21st at Van Doren Waxter on the Lower East Side).
Citing Alexander Calder’s mobiles and Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ beaded sculptures as touch-points, Jean-Michel Othoniel presents ‘black tornados’ at Perrotin on the Lower East Side. Made of aluminium beads threaded onto a steel armature, the glittering twisters reflect light and suggest movement while presenting natural phenomenon as glamorous ornament. (On view on the Lower East Side through April 15th).
Known for her 3-D printed human figures, Karin Sander’s ‘Kitchen Pieces’ first offer a puzzle – is the fruit real or meticulously made? Sander isn’t beating Zeuxis, the ancient Greek artist who painted grapes so believably that the birds tried to eat them. The grapes and other fruit and veg attached to the wall with specially made nails are real. The process of searching for evidence of this –which is surprisingly difficult to discern – is the takeaway. (On view at Carolina Nitsch through April.)
Berlin-based artist Claudia Wieser takes the 1976 BBC drama ‘I, Claudius’ as inspiration for a gorgeous exhibition featuring wallpaper printed with towering busts from antiquity and a series of refined painted vessels atop a large ceramic tiled pedestal. Rather than tell a story or suggest particular meanings, Wieser evokes elegance and opulence using low-brow materials like wood and mirror-polished steel, perhaps a parallel to politically corrupt Roman rulers whose culture non-the-less produced prized artwork. (On view at Marianne Boesky Gallery in Chelsea through April 14th).
A faintly reflected man in a white shirt and tie looks on while a hand fondles jewels in the window of a looted shop in photographer Stan Douglas’ careful staging of a hypothetical New York City blackout. Strangely calm, the scene suggests looting as leisure activity and – given the man’s gaze – as potential romantic encounter. (On view at David Zwirner Gallery’s 525 West 19th Street location through April 7th).
Thomas Demand’s meticulous paper sculptures from his ‘Dailies’ series pay homage to ordinary objects that were encountered, considered extraordinary for a moment, photographed, then forgotten. After reconstructing a scene shot on his phone as a paper sculpture, Demand prints the image as a vivid dye transfer print. Positioned on Demand’s wall of anonymous lockers, the banal becomes something wondrous again. (On view in Chelsea at Matthew Marks Gallery through April 7th).
Often political, never shy, Kay Rosen’s text-based wall art is bold and outspoken at Alexander Gray Associates. Just four letters speak volumes in this installation titled ‘White House v. America.’ (On view in Chelsea through April 7th).
After a stint photographing patriotic camps and schools in Russia, US photojournalist Sarah Blesener turned her focus to schools like the Utah Patriot Camp, a short summer camp in Utah that aims to help kids memorize the articles of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and more. Blesener’s goal – to invite conversation about nationalism vs patriotism – makes for a timely and provocative body of work. (On view at Anastasia Photo on the Lower East Side through April 1st).
A superabundance of color and curving forms characterize Brazilian artist Maria Nepomuceno’s ‘imaginary nature,’ as she calls her sculpture composed of woven straw, beads, ceramics and resin forms. With direct links to the human body – beads are cells, straw references skin – the artist’s life affirming constructions celebrate nature in its eye-popping variety. (On view at Sikkema Jenkins and Co in Chelsea through April 7th).
Though they conjure Monet’s quiet gardens at Giverny, Zhang Enli’s new abstract canvases were inspired by Shanghai’s greenery. Known for representational paintings of everyday objects that twist and turn – cord, branches, wire – and immersive painted installations, Zhang’s new work continues to suggest movement. (On view at Hauser & Wirth through April 7th).
Titled ‘Devotional Flowers,’ Mimi Lauter’s show of soft pastel and oil pastel blooms at Derek Eller Gallery suggests mystical experience as a sunflower morphs into a blazing sun and landscape. Critics have praised the young LA artist’s work as ‘enthralling’ and ‘rapturous.’ Today and tomorrow are the final days to test for yourself the transcendent power of Lauter’s petals. (On view on the Lower East Side through March 18th).
Pleasure is the driving factor in Carrie Moyer’s eye-popping new work at DC Moore Gallery in Chelsea. Here, ‘Jolly Hydra: Unexplainably Juicy’ suggests the multi-headed hydra of Greek mythology as it encounters blocks and washes of bubble gum-bright color and sensually curving bodily forms. (On view through March 22nd).
Peering down from chartered planes and helicopters, photographer Jeffrey Milstein sees the world from an ordering distance. Here, a container ship moves ahead with tugs in its wake. Like Milstein’s aerial photos of cities and transportation networks, his nautical views turn monumental manmade objects into a creative play of color and form. (On view at Benrubi Gallery through March 17th).
Vignettes repainted by Chris Oh from a highly detailed early northern Renaissance painting transcribe a scene of veneration onto a soccer ball. In the original 15th century painting, St Anthony honors the Christ child. Here, he appears like an apparition on another object of worship. (On view on the Lower East Side at Sargent’s Daughters through March 11th).
Working with materials salvaged from destroyed buildings, Dutch artist Marjan Teeuwen creates abstract arrangements of forms that suggest paintings. Here, she worked in an abandoned school in Johannesburg, South Africa during a 2015 residency to create an installation that speaks to a key theme – the inevitability of destruction and but also the hope of renewal. (On view through April 14th at Bruce Silverstein Gallery in Chelsea.)
Lesley Dill describes Emily Dickinson’s poems as having a physical effect on her as she experienced ‘an ocean of images’ while reading. Similarly, Dill’s series of sculptural characters now on view at Nohra Haime Gallery in Chelsea are covered and overpowered by their own words. The show includes figures like John Brown and Sojourner Truth – who were driven by powerful experiences of the spiritual world. (On view in Chelsea through March 17th).
Gao Rong’s meticulously crafted and embroidered pay phone replicates the chips and scratches of a once-shiny public pay phone. As the importance of the payphone diminishes in the face of cell phone usage, Gao Rong’s 2012 sculpture lovingly preserves its memory in cloth, foam and wood. (On view at Klein Sun Gallery through March 11th).
Naked feet running along the shore at night in this painting by Benjamin Degen at Susan Inglett Gallery could belong to cavorting friends or fleeing migrants. The lack of distinction is the point; Degen created his latest paintings “…in celebration of human movement” and in favor of choosing liberation over self-destruction. (On view in Chelsea through March 10th).
Bodies threaten to dissolve into abstract forms in intriguing new paintings of women by young Brooklyn-based artist Danielle Orchard at Jack Hanley Gallery. Here, a coy figure either hides behind a flower or is about to take it in hand as a microphone. (On the Lower East Side through March 11th).
Inspired by Robert Altman’s 1973 film ‘The Long Goodbye,’ Dave McDermott latest paintings consider the private investigator/protagonist who mucks through complicated and broken lives to do his job. This saucer-eyed cat – made of swirls of blue and red yarn lined up over hot pink paint – bears witness to humanity’s flaws. (On view at GRIMM on the Lower East Side through March 11th.)
Thornton Dial included an image of himself, banging a pan to bring people together to start a meal in the upper portion of this riff on William Merritt Chase’s Still Life with Watermelon. As seen in this detail of a larger painting, he included a second real frying pan filled with paintings of eggs positioned near lusciously colored fruits, suggesting the bounty that an artist can provide. (At David Lewis Gallery on the Lower East Side through March 18th).
Designers Amanda McGowan and Mattie Rivkah Barringer, who create garments under the name Women’s History Museum, explore a barely-there aesthetic partly inspired by their experience of tiny, ‘almost unintelligible’ Instagram images of clothing. Though this outfit looks like it may be worn by a fashion-conscious desert island cast-away, the mannequin’s position before a faux-cottage suggests a whimsical escapee from a fairy-tale. (On view at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise on the Lower East Side through February 25th).
Though it resembles an oversized segment of wall and molding, Leonardo Drew’s ‘Number 201’ is a standout in Sikkema Jenkins & Co’s current nature-focused show. Using materials originally derived from nature and often used in building, Drew’s construction marries nature and culture in enticing forms. (On view in Chelsea through Feb 24th).
After complaining that she could paint her signature subject matter – little girls behaving badly – blindfolded, that’s just what Kim Dingle did to create the work in her recent series. Using her hand as a guide, Dingle maps out characters like these from memory in oil on Plexiglas. Here, two slightly sinister looking girls, drawn with fluidity and proportions reminiscent of Mickey Mouse, exchange compliments on each others’ wild hair. (On view at Sperone Westwater Gallery on the Lower East Side through March 3rd).
Quilts by Gee’s Bend Quiltmakers Mary Lee Bendolph (background) and Loretta Pettway Bennett (foreground) are the highlight of Kaufman Repetto’s current group show, an exhibition that asks what’s new for art as more female artists have come to prominence over the past several decades. Bennett’s denim quilt suggests that the contributions of many have produced a prize result. (On view in Chelsea through Feb 24th).
Li Wei flies through the air and walks on water in photos at Galerie Richard that appear to document gravity defying feats and even common sense. Using mirrors (here, this technique is obvious), cranes and wires, the Beijing-based artist gives himself superpowers that other artists can only dream of. (On view on the Lower East Side through March 11th).
Jamian Juliano-Villani enchants critics with her latest show of realist paintings featuring “plenty funny” (Art Forum) yet “haunting (Art in America) collaged-together imagery. The “closely watched rising star’s” (Artnet) “impressive…gonzo paintings” (The New Yorker) include this blue-furred model strutting the runway with Key Food bags – a setup that offers entre into a strange alternative universe. (On view at JTT Gallery on the Lower East Side through Feb 24th).
Arcmanoro Niles’ portraits – set in the Washington DC neighborhood where he grew up – feature not only their posed subjects but a host of secondary, ghoulish characters who the artist calls ‘seekers.’ Though this boy’s vibrant youth is made magical by his glittery hair, an odd creature wrapped around his feet could be setting the boy up for a fall. (On view at Rachel Uffner Gallery on the Lower East Side through Feb 25th).
Gil Batle is back with a second solo show at Ricco/Maresca of ostrich eggs carved with stories of various inmates encountered during the artist’s past prison sentences. Every bit as absorbing as his first show here in 2016, this exhibition features eggs like ‘Abducted,’ which explores a murdering dentist’s tales of alien interference in his life. (On view in Chelsea through Feb 24th).
By passing polarized light through scrolled and bunched transparent films, German artist Martin Klimas creates an enticing abstraction in an array of tones and colors. (On view at Foley Gallery on the Lower East Side through Feb 18th).
Books are bound with covers of cigarettes or melted crayons, studded with nails like a fetish object or stuffed with garbage in Allan Stone Projects’ exhibition of Barton Benes’ book sculptures. This book from c. 72-74 is at the mercy of a giant safety pin, perhaps holding the book together, keeping it closed or treating it like a punk or a diapered baby? (On view in Chelsea through Feb 24th).
Nearly twenty years after his last New York solo show, British artist Jason Martin is back with limited palette paintings in swathes of oil paint as lush and thick as frosting. (On view at Lisson Gallery’s 24th Street location through Feb 24th).
Robert Indiana’s mid-1960s monument to love continues to work its magic on audiences around the world as the artist nears his 90th birthday. Now at Paul Kasmin Gallery, this towering steel sculpture multiplies and magnifies the term in all its myriad understandings. (On view at Paul Kasmin Gallery’s 27th Street location through March 3rd).
In a sequence of six photos by South African artist Robin Rhode, an acrobatic mathematician contorts his body to project a ‘Lute of Pythagoras,’ a series of pentagrams locked together in pleasing mathematical proportion. At the gallery entrance, Rhode quotes Swiss architect and urban planner Le Corbusier’s assertion that humanity attempts to save itself from chaos through geometry. Rhode’s efforts to better humanity by joining art and geometry feel poignantly quixotic. (On view at Lehmann Maupin Gallery in Chelsea through Feb 24th).
A practical mentality dominates Eddie Martinez’s current two gallery solo show at Mitchell-Innes and Nash. Not finding a studio last summer, he painted in his yard. Finding inspiration in his daily drawings on family stationery, he scaled them up as eight-foot tall paintings. Titled ‘Love Letter,’ the second body of work would seem to refer to his wife’s name at the top of each painting though given the significance of drawing to his evocative abstract forms, he may have another muse in mind. (On view in Chelsea through Feb 24th).
Italy-based Korean sculptor Jukhee Kwon gets a lot out of books, specifically paper sculptures created by slicing into volumes in geometric patterns that cause pages to descend to the ground or explode outwards. Here, a New Testament morphs into ‘Campana’ (bell), a gravity-defying cascade of a delicate form. (On view at Ierimonte Gallery on the Lower East Side through March 16th).
Inspired by a woodblock print from Hiroshige’s ‘100 Famous Views of Edo,’ Tabaimo extends the life of the 19th century artwork in an animation that gives life to a mysterious female figure behind the balcony screen. Despite a spilled vessel and briefly flailing octopus tentacles, the scene retains its sense of tranquility and intrigue. (On view at James Cohan Gallery’s Lower East Side location through Feb 25th).
Once so abundant in the U.S. that their flocks sounded like thunder as they darkened the sky, passenger pigeons were hunted to extinction by the early 20th century. The final survivor, Martha, died in the Cincinnati Zoo over one hundred years ago, but inspired New York-based British realist painter Clive Smith’s painting of a commemorative plate, now on view at Marc Straus Gallery on the Lower East Side. Titled ‘Beak, Claw, Hand, Brush,’ this and other works in Smith’s series equate the labor of beak and hand, soberly suggesting that our own future may go the way of the passenger pigeon. (On view through Feb 9th).
There’s trouble in the tropics in Katherine Bernhardt’s latest solo show of pattern paintings at Canada New York. Watermelons appear alongside toilet paper, birds in flight next to cigarettes as nature contrasts man-made products in paintings with ominous titles like ‘Climate Change.’ Here, in ‘Dole + Darth Vader,’ the Sith lord is surrounded by Dole bananas, linking a fictional face of evil to a company criticized for damaging the environment and harming workers. (On view on the Lower East Side through Feb 11th).
A chain link fence rises like steam before a fiery sunset in Leigh Ruple’s ‘Metropolitan Avenue,’ an otherwise nondescript industrial scene turned electric by intense light, bands of color and prowling cats. (On view at Morgan Lehman Gallery in Chelsea through Feb 10th).
With their squat bodies, long legs and tiny heads, William King’s sculpted caricatures of important men or at least self-important ones are a highlight of Derek Eller Gallery’s current group show. Arms akimbo, each seems to demand to know what’s going on, as if they don’t quite approve of the work of nearby paintings on clothing by Annabeth Marks, Annie Pearlman’s vivid abstractions and Rachel Eulena Williams’ stitched canvases. (On view on the Lower East Side through Feb 11th.)
Like Rachel Whiteread’s resin water tower, installed on a New York rooftop in the late 90s, Demetrius Oliver’s cast resin turbines exalt the humble devices used to harness our most precious natural resources. In combination with other pieces in ‘Pneumato,’ his current solo show at Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery, Oliver considers the natural world through everyday objects. (On view through Feb 11th).
As a young man, Melvin Edwards chose a career in art over football, but explains that the physicality of the sport remained in his sculpture. He explores a more critical consideration of the game in Goal Line Stance, a steel sculpture from 2017 that stands out in Galerie Lelong’s current show – an exhibition prompted by NFL players’ protests against social injustice (On view through Feb 17th in Chelsea).
Medieval-looking characters converse at table in Zach Bruder’s arrestingly anachronistic painting, which pictures the Middle Ages in an abstracted or folksy 20th century painting style. Substituting detail and realism for expressive forms, Bruder cloaks a familiar-seeming scene in an alien appearance. (On view at Magenta Plains on the Lower East Side through Feb 11th).
Still life paintings by Tom Wesselmann at Gagosian Gallery are literally the biggest show of the moment in Chelsea. At over 27 feet long, this arrangement of sun glasses, lipstick and more from 1973 was meant to represent the objects a woman might leave by a bedside table. (On view through Feb 24th).
Miami-based artist Kelley Johnson’s latest solo show opens with 2-D paintings and advances to artworks that literally fly off the wall thanks to PVC rods zinging outward. This piece, titled ‘Wall Kite,’ is grounded at the moment, but appears to be ready to launch upward. (On view at Freight and Volume Gallery on the Lower East Side through Feb 4th).
Yves Klein’s use of nude female models – daubed in his signature blue paint – as live paintbrushes increases in political incorrectness as the years go by. Now, Addie Wagenknecht has joined the ranks of artists who’ve responded with their own takes on Klein’s iconic objectification. Engaging a Roomba to paint as it skirted her nude body, Wagenknecht creates expressionist canvases with an algorithm and robot. (On view at Bitforms on the Lower East Side through Feb 11th).
Late artist Alan Shields was no stranger to the sewing machine or to using canvas to construct colorful abstractions. In an homage exhibition that makes connections between Shields’ work and that of younger colleagues, Cheryl Donegan’s track suits manipulate clothing prints, which are then printed onto new garments, complicating the path from idea to product. (On view at Van Doren Waxter on the Lower East Side through Feb 24th).
Featuring live flowering plants, Jeff Koons’ huge mirror-polished stainless steel bluebird not only represents nature but brings it into the gallery. It’s part of David Zwirner Gallery’s 25-year anniversary exhibition, which includes work by many of the world’s best-known western contemporary artists and makes clear the scale of the gallery’s art world involvement. (On view at 537 West 20th Street and all Zwirner locations in Chelsea through Feb 17th.)
An all-powerful, muscular man subjugates woman and destroys nature in a series of potent paintings by Judy Chicago from 1984, now on view at Salon94. His invincible nature comes into question, however, in this painting from a triptych titled ‘Rainbow Man,’ in which he strains to bend a rainbow that snaps out of his hands and boomerangs back into shape. More than thirty years after being painted, the artist’s warning has only become more relevant to contemporary attitudes to the earth and the environment. (On view on the Lower East Side through March 3rd).
Titled ‘Casting Call,’ Judith Henry’s installation of 300 small abstract sculptures look like mini-cobbled together robots or tools. Featuring eyes or resembling cameras, some meet our gaze; others appear to be small totems, like the figure at front here, resembling Shiva surrounded by a ring of fire. (On view at Bravin Lee in Chelsea through Feb 17th).
Art can be playful but doesn’t often involve play; Scott Alario’s images of an alien invasion – enacted with his young son – result in photos like this arresting image of a Star Wars limited edition cereal box used as avatar and shield. (On view at Kristen Lorello Gallery on the Lower East Side through Jan 27th).
Vintage fur handbags by Victoria Gitman amaze with their abundant color and detail at Garth Greenan Gallery in Chelsea. With the contours of the purses cropped, Gitman’s arrangements resemble color field painting or Peruvian feather work. (On view through Feb 17th).
Italian photographer Luca Campigotto’s cityscapes are bold and bright, though they’re shot after dark. Humans don’t feature much in the images yet our presence is felt through ubiquitous lights left on for safety, decoration, advertising and nighttime living. Here, Hong Kong glows with the intensity of over seven million lives being led and lit below. (On view at Laurence Miller Gallery through Feb 24th).
Obstacle courses constructed from lengths of black wood are a recurring part of Johannesburg-based artist Serge Alain Nitegeka’s practice, forcing gallery visitors to reconsider their environment while ducking and bending through the gallery. Having lived and moved often as a refugee during his childhood, Nitegeka connects his own political experience with the gallery visitor’s spatial experience. (On view at Marianne Boesky Gallery in Chelsea through Feb 24th).
Wang Ningde’s ‘Form of Light’ images, currently on view at Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery in Chelsea, appear to be photos but fool the eye. From straight on, thin strips of photographic film disappear and visitors see only the projection of images underneath, arranged via projection software to synch with the gallery’s light sources. (On view through Feb 17th).
The Museum of Modern Art’s current retrospective of Stephen Shore’s photography lauds his ‘poetics of the ordinary.’ Shot in Montana, though not obviously linked to a particular location, this composition at 303 Gallery encourages viewers to find aesthetic interest in unexpected times and places. (On view in Chelsea through Feb 17th).
Granted access to Nation of Islam leadership and communities in 1963, Life photographer Gordon Parks shot remarkable images including this portrait of women’s leader Ethel Sharrieff. Now on view at Jack Shainman Gallery’s 24th Street location, the arresting show overviews selections from Parks’ lesser-known yet powerful series. (On view through Feb 10th).
Levittown – a post WWII house development of 17,500 homes on Long Island seen from an aerial view on the gallery wall – has become synonymous with the crushing conformity of the suburbs. Brian Tolle’s carefully researched replica of the Levittown Cape Cod style house is realized in platinum silicon rubber and rests on a beanbag, armchair, kids toys and other typical items from American homes. In the gallery, Tolle’s deflated forms suggesting the melting away of past attitudes and lifestyles. (On view at C24 Gallery in Chelsea through Feb 27th).
The weeks turn to years in Byron Kim’s diaristic notes, jotted on his paintings of the sky on successive Sundays since 2001. The towers fall, Obama is elected president, Kim worries over his kids, ponders his work and enjoys an active social life – all set against the backdrop of shifting weather. (On view at James Cohan Gallery in Chelsea through Feb 17th).
“And yet it moves” is the translated titled of this new monumental steel sculpture by Mark di Suvero, referring to Galileo’s 17th century assertion (despite pressure from the Inquisition) that the earth is not stable. Likewise, this formidably weighty sculpture looks fixed but will rock on its axis if set in motion. (On view at Paula Cooper Gallery in Chelsea through Feb 3rd.)
From papier-mâché to paintings on panel, Barry McGee’s exhibition of recent work at Cheim & Read is packed with a superabundance of objects bearing McGee’s signature patterns and logos. In the back, a stack of surfboards is typical of the show’s visual overload, speaking to McGee’s boundless creative impulse. (On view in Chelsea through Feb 17th.)
Nature is vast, mankind is tiny in Cuban painter Tomas Sanchez’s landscapes. Here, a solitary cloud patrols a wooded terrain conspicuously absent of humans. (On view at Marlborough Contemporary through Feb 10th).
Paris-based Italian artist Beatrice Caracciolo’s ‘Tramontana’ refers in its title to a cold north wind, which appears to cause a landscape to hunker down in this expressive ink on paper artwork. (On view at Paula Cooper Gallery in Chelsea through Feb 3rd).
Though each painting in his first solo show at DC Moore Gallery is based on the torso of an eccentrically outfitted individual, Michael Stamm’s new paintings are remarkable diverse and inventive. Inspired by meetings with his therapist – with whom he avoided eye contact – Stamm’s headless characters offer enticing sartorial clues to identity. Here, the subject’s sweater contrasts a mountainous landscape above with licking flames below, connected by the French emblem translated, ‘it is established by God’s decree.’ (On view in Chelsea through Feb 3rd).
Kiyoshi Nakagami’s otherworldly abstractions, dramatically contrasting light and dark and rendered in pigment and gold dust, suggest a moment of cosmic creation or the beginning of an alien encounter. Scale and subject matter are hard to discern but the impact of Nakagami’s meticulously laid gold lines is profound. (On view at Ameringer McEnery Yohe gallery in Chelsea at the gallery’s temporary location on 19th Street).
What can a painting do that a photograph can’t? Carla Klein’s latest paintings, created from photos taken on visits to European greenhouses, set themselves apart by making familiar spaces seem strange. Frames and panels in the background look excessive, as if new spaces were propagating along with the plants. (On view at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery through Feb 15th).
Celebration is a synonym for freedom in Odili Donald Odita’s vibrant abstract paintings, canvases that act with joyous vitality against forces that would quiet and crush identity. (On view at Jack Shainman Gallery in Chelsea through Feb 10th).
Sublime images of cliff faces by Japanese artist Hiroshi Senju (as seen here in detail) begin as mulberry washi paper, sourced from a specialist paper maker who can only make the paper in winter. After creating texture by hand-rumpling the large paper sheets, Senju uses handmade brushes and natural and synthetic pigments to render the natural world as apparition. (On view at Sundaram Tagore Gallery in Chelsea through Jan 13th).
The visionary landscapes of Joseph Yoakum (1890-1972) and Robyn O’Neil (b. 1977) are Spartan and stylized, turning familiar natural forms of mountains, trees and more into apocalyptic omens. In this detail of a drawing by O’Neil, America’s national bird dominates a huddled crowd and an inhospitable landscape. (On view at Susan Inglett Gallery through Jan 27th).
Large new paintings by Arturo Herrera suggest movement across the canvas, as if wind or gravity partnered with the Berlin-based painter to drag earthy, autumn tones over a now partially obscured pattern. Usually involving half-seen layers, Herrera’s works continue to obscure and reveal. (At Sikkema Jenkins & Co. through Jan 20th).
Known for photographing opulent buildings from Italy to Havana, Michael Eastman’s latest series focuses on century-old neoclassical interiors in Buenos Aires. This slightly less extravagant but no less gorgeous college stairwell is the picture of tranquility in cool, blue and green-toned tile. That it is without students suggests timing or an oblique reference to something more sinister in Argentina’s past. (On view at Edwynn Houk Gallery in midtown through Jan 20th).
In her late 80s, late American sculptor and printmaker Elizabeth Catlett created this arresting print, now a highlight of her mini-retrospective at Burning in Water gallery in Chelsea. Here, Catlett synthesizes influences from African art, European modernism and more in a portrait that feels both cutting edge and connected with early 20th century avant-garde art. (On view through Feb 3rd).
Known for making alterations to documentary photography in work that questions both history and how we consume photography, Cai Dongdong reframes a shot of guerrillas on Lake Honghu at Klein Sun Gallery. Armed fighters contrast the lake’s tranquil beauty in a spot that saw conflict during China’s civil war. (On view in Chelsea through Jan 6th).
Photographer Sage Sohier looks ambushed by her former-model mother and her sister, who make Sohier up with gusto in this family portrait. Our sympathy is tempered by mom’s and sis’s smiles, but as Sohier stages beauty treatments and time at home in her mother’s company, viewers are prompted to consider the role of beauty and appearances in Sohier’s life and our own. (On view at Foley Gallery on the Lower East Side through Jan 7th).
Working without training on a handloom, Brent Wadden crafts wonky abstractions in pleasingly complementary colors and dizzying black and white lines. (On view at Mitchell-Innes and Nash’s Madison Ave location through Jan 5th).
If a hard-edged abstract painting liberated itself from the stretcher and tottered off, it might look something like Billy Copley’s acrylic on paper sculpture, which appears to be blowing streamers for the new year. (On view at Edward Thorp Gallery in Chelsea through Jan 27th).
Andrea Grutzner turns framed excerpts from the built environment into surprising and colorful abstractions; here, in six images from her Tanztee series, amid wildly patterned clothes, Grutzner builds a structure from the arms and hands of dancers at a tea dance in rural Germany. (On view at Julie Saul Gallery through Feb 3rd).
Commissioned by Harper’s Bazaar in 1961, Richard Avedon photographed over thirty weddings at New York City’s Town Hall, recording hopeful beginnings. These images became the opening photos in his 1964 collaboration with James Baldwin, ‘Nothing Personal,’ a photographic portrait of the USA in which joy gives way to darker social realities. Now on view at Pace Gallery, the series is stunningly relevant to contemporary life. (On view at Pace Gallery’s 24th Street location through Jan 13th).
Rainy days aren’t what they seem in Brazilian artist Cleverson Oliveira’s world. Look closely at this detail of a vine-filled, wetland landscape and the raindrops on the surface of the image transform into black and white oblong shapes resembling tiny heads with towering hairdos. (On view at Miyako Yoshinaga in Chelsea through Jan 6th).
Bosco Sodi’s hand-formed ceramic cubes at Paul Kasmin Gallery are new but appear weathered, evoking mankind’s ancient and ongoing relationship with clay. Behind, a mixed media painting continues Sodi’s signature practice of mixing pigment, sawdust, glue and other materials into an explosive, vividly colored abstraction. (On view at Paul Kasmin Gallery through Jan 6th).
