Ellie Murphy’s ‘Omega Female’ is a standout in ‘To Be A Lady,’ a diverse group show of work by 45 female artists at the 1285 Avenue of the Americas Art Gallery. Using acrylic yarn, cotton, and steel in one of her signature large yarn sculptures, Murphy creates a figure as totemic as it is folksy, suggesting a anthropomorphized sea creature with long tentacles as well as a prairie settler with brown braid and print-patterned, pillow-like head. (Through Jan 18th).
In a 20-year retrospective of his work at Chelsea’s Metro Pictures Gallery, Gary Simmons’ ‘Stardust, Blizzard’ from 2006 is a standout. Simmons turns two terms for cocaine into beautiful but haunting text images using his signature, hand-smearing technique. (Through Jan 19th.)
In advance of Ghanaian artist El Anatsui’s show of monumental works at the Brooklyn Museum opening early next month, Chelsea’s Jack Shainman Gallery is currently showing elegant new, quasi-textile artworks created from the artist’s signature material – metal sourced from recycled liquor bottles. (through Jan 19th).
The party continues in the Museum of Modern Art’s atrium (which this fall has housed group dance sessions and a monumental garage sale) with British designer Philip Worthington’s interactive installation, ‘Shadow Monsters.’ When visitors stand in front of a lightbox, vision recognition software tracks their movements and adds teeth, tongues, eyes and more to their shadows in two huge projections on the atrium walls. (Through January 2nd.)
Artist Nicholas Party is aptly named considering his mixed media installation, ‘Dinner for 24 Dogs’ which he designed for a dinner party at Salon 94 this fall. Seen here afterwards at Salon94’s Freemans Alley space, 24 hand painted ceramic plates that once held artistically arranged edibles rest on a sliced, patterned table while wooden dogs wait patiently below to support the diners who complete this participatory artwork. (At the LES’s Salon 94 Freemans through Dec 22nd).