South African artist Esther Mahlangu’s designs energize Chelsea gallery Ross + Kramer with their vibrant patterns, sacred geometries for which the 89-year-old is internationally renowned. Inspired by the house painting traditions of the Ndebele people and learned from her mother and grandmother, Mahlangu’s abstractions take the form of murals, ceramics, canvases and even this hand painted car, the star of a show featuring 30 paintings made over ten years. (On view through Jan 25th).
Renowned for his involvement in the downtown 80s New York art scene, Kenny Scharf coined the term ‘Pop Surrealism’ to describe his energetic blend of cartoon and pop imagery. Now on view at huge scale, the artist’s 1995 site-specific mural ‘The Heads,’ created in 1995 for the Center of Fine Arts in Miami fills Tribeca’s 60 White in all its dream-like glory. Stretching throughout the vast space, the paintings are accompanied by a quote from Scharf recalling dreams of space travel. (On view through January. Check with the gallery for the exact closing date. Note that gallery hours change during the holiday period).
Looking to turn over a new leaf in 2025? Do it literally with jewelry designer Mallory Weston’s Shattered Begonia Brooch #3, a wearable artwork that pushes boundaries by combining jewelry and textile working techniques. Part of her NODES series, which also features a dangerously spiky-looking prickly pear and enormous monstera leaf necklace, the piece grabs the attention by combining natural subject matter with a digital-aesthetic achieved with a tiled titanium construction. It is on view in R & Company’s sprawling Objects USA, a showcase of 100 objects by 55 makers. (In Tribeca through Jan 10th. Note that gallery hours change during the holiday period).
Azerbaijani artist Faig Ahmed’s new textile works at Sapar Contemporary transform regionally specific carpet styles from his home country into contemporary artwork by radically altering traditional patterns and foregrounding the conceptual aspects of each work. ‘The Knot,’ the title piece for the show, foregrounds and monumentalizes the most basic technique of carpet-making. The gallery explains that this luxuriously dark, central knot, represents the invisible work, stories and histories that go into the making of each piece. (On view in Tribeca through Jan 6th. Note that gallery hours change during the holiday period).
’18 Women: 50 Years’ at Michael Rosenfeld Gallery is a tour de force of painting and sculpture, ceramic, textile and work in a variety of media created between 1918 to 1968 by some of the most influential artists of the mid-20th century. Among the many standout pieces is Ruth Asawa’s S.391/50, a crocheted brass wire sculpture from c. 1958, which the gallery describes as taking the form of ‘six double-sided, trumpet-like shapes that expand outward from the central void’ in a dynamic composition of repeated looping line. (On view in Chelsea through Jan 25th. Note that gallery hours change during the holiday period.)
