Lauren Halsey at David Kordansky Gallery

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The architecture and people of South-Central Los Angeles inspire LA artist Lauren Halsey’s sculptures at David Kordansky Gallery’s new Chelsea location, from low relief carvings of barbershop advertising to this sprawling mixed media installation titled ‘My Hope.’  Featuring a version of Kindle’s Do-nuts colossal signage, a doll-sized version of a church service, mini-pyramids and much more, the assemblage speaks to the vibrancy of life in Halsey’s neighborhood.  A collector of images since youth, Halsey expands her archives in daily early morning walks through the streets of South-Central; here, her findings from all over combine to create an architecture of pride and promise.  (On view through June 11th).

Lauren Halsey, My Hope, mixed media, installation dimensions variable approximate installation dimensions: 152 x 214 x 125 inches, 2022.

Glenn Kaino at Pace Gallery

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Just as this fifty-foot-long sculpture by Glenn Kaino at Pace Gallery multiplies and extends Olympic gold winner Tommie Smith’s raised fist on the podium at the 1968 Olympics, the athlete’s gesture for social justice continues to impact protest in and beyond the sports world. The installation – Kaino’s first at Pace Gallery – comes on the heels of his ‘Pass the Baton’ NFT project, through which digital renderings of a baton used by Smith in record-breaking races have been sold to raise funds for activist organizations.  The piece is on view through Saturday, but if you don’t catch it at Pace Gallery, an earlier, larger sculpture from the Bridge series will go on view next year in the Smithsonian’s permanent collection in Washington DC.  (On view through June 11th in Chelsea).

Glenn Kaino, installation view of Bridge (Raise Your Voice in Silence) at Pace Gallery, June 2022.

Celeste Rapone at Marianne Boesky Gallery

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Celeste Rapone’s dynamic paintings at Marianne Boesky Gallery create interest through the distortions of their mostly female central figures.  Viewers must first make sense of twisting limbs, then take in story-suggesting details which here include cough drop wrappers, a weed and a parking ticket at the bottom on the canvas.  Dressed in a pink track suit, the woman here appears to be an over-enthusiastic volunteer, digging a cavernous hole for a tiny oak sapling, all while somehow simultaneously standing in the hole and balancing on tippy-toe on a skinny wrought iron fence.  Interested in how women can ‘occupy impossible positions’ both literally and metaphorically, Rapone manifests complicated mental states in physical form.  (On view through June 11th).

Celeste Rapone, Muscle for Hire, oil on canvas, 67 x 67 inches, 2022.

Scooter LaForge at Theodore Art

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Dozens of brightly colored creatures, cobbled-together from everyday objects and other found materials by Scooter LaForge form a fun menagerie at Theodore Art in Tribeca.  Those featuring LaForge’s expressive faces, familiar from his expressionist painting practice, are immediately engaging with their lively aura and quirky expressions.  LaForge tells AM New York that making them brought him joy, a feeling that he extends to his audience.  (On view through June 18th).

Scooter LaForge, Red Dog, mixed media, 14 x 8 x 6 inches.

Robyn O’Neil at Susan Inglett Gallery

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‘American Animals,’ an uncannily orderly yet apocalyptic vision of the heads of white men subsumed by waves of water or hair, dominates Robyn O’Neil’s current solo show at Susan Inglett Gallery.  Known for drawings that feature multitudes of middle-aged men wreaking various kinds of havoc, O’Neil suggests with this enormous drawing that the men are receiving their comeuppance, perhaps from a feminine force engulfing them with hair or from nature, overcoming them with waves of water.  Who are the men?  Why is their response to calamity so strangely passive?  O’Neil keeps us guessing with provocative questions. (On view in Chelsea through June 4th).

Robyn O’Neil, American Animals, graphite on canvas, 103 x 140 inches, 2020 – 2022.