Alessandro Pessoli’s painted figures usually look like they’ve emerged from a dream or hallucination; these absurdly phallic Maiolica ceramic sculptures, fittingly titled Sancho Panza & Don Chiscotte, lack the typical atmospheric surroundings of Pessoli’s paintings, but their lighthearted vibrant colors and mobile-like hanging lend them an amusing whimsy. (At Chelsea’s Anton Kern Gallery through Oct 20th.)
As Sally Mann recovered from an accident in which she was thrown from and pummeled by her dying horse in ’06, she turned to self-portraiture to create haunting ambrotypes like this one. Streaking, blurring, over and underexposures mar the images, speaking movingly to the damage inflicted on their subject. (At Edwynn Houk Gallery on Fifth Ave & 57th Street through Nov 3rd.)
Gordon Parks’ iconic photographs spanned the worlds of fashion, celebrity and social documentary from this 1949 photo of Ingrid Bergman on location for the filming of Roberto Rossellini’s ‘Stromboli’ to a photo from the ’56 Segregation Series that demonstrates the respectable normality of Mr & Mrs Albert Thornton in their living room in Mobile Alabama. Both are on view at Howard Greenberg Gallery on 57th Street through Oct 27th.
Smashed gallery windows and a wall plowed down by a shiny cart set a restive mood for Andra Ursuta’s latest solo show at Ramiken Crucible on the Lower East Side. Totemic female torsos crafted from a mix of concrete and manure and marble statues of a Romanian gypsy woman awaiting deportation from France are weighed down and beautified by jewelry made from coins. Partly informed by a story of Romanian witches casting a curse on their government, the show’s female characters stubbornly resist tidy concepts of national identity. (Through October 21st.)
You don’t even have to be a dog lover to appreciate William Wegman’s videos with his Weimaraners May Ray and Fay Ray. Here, the duo watches an off-screen ball with rapt attention, creating a mesmerizing, slow-motion dance performed with the utmost concentration. See this video and more early Wegman videos at Salon 94 Freemans on the Lower East Side. (Through Oct 27th).