The painting furthest from the door is the first to attract attention at Paula Cooper Gallery’s show of recent work by New York abstract artist Dan Walsh. Glowing like a tower-top beacon, a stylized ziggurat resembling the pinnacle of the Empire State Building lures visitors into minimalist painting by a self-styled ‘maximalist.’ (On view in Chelsea on 26th Street through Feb 15th).
It’s hard to look away from New York artist Christina Nicodema’s vividly colored paintings, packed with brightly plumed birds, a dramatic mandrill baring its teeth and piles of edibles designed to entice. Like a contemporary interpretation of traditional Dutch genre painting, the images bring together plants and creatures from different environments in a celebration of excess, but Nicodema’s addition of porcelain, a painted egg and a cake dangerously ablaze with candles hints at the costs of luxury and human desires. (On view at Hollis Taggart Contemporary through Feb 22nd).
After encountering a box of photos of the Berlin Wall taken by East German border guards in the mid-60s shortly after the wall was erected, photographer Arwed Messmer and writer Annett Groschner turned their research toward the topography of the 140km long structure, resulting in the sobering images now on view at Chelsea’s Walther Collection. Thirty years after the fall of the Wall, the photos speak to a failed effort at social control. This grid of ladders left behind in successful escape attempts, are an uplifting element in a show that otherwise expresses the grim realities of the wall. (On view through April 25th).
Late California-based sculptor Viola Frey’s huge standing man is a highpoint of the Whitney’s current exhibition rethinking the presence of craft in fine art; three tondos by the iconic artist at Nancy Hoffman Gallery are a more human-scaled exploration of humanity. This strikingly colorful, theatrical character whose face resembles a tragedy mask, holds a circular form that appears to be a plate or similar artwork, suggesting a tongue-in-cheek portrait of an artist. (On view in ‘The Circle’ through Jan 30th).
If you can’t get to politically-oriented artist Hans Haacke’s New Museum retrospective before it closes on Jan 26th, check out his huge pack of Marlboros in Paula Cooper Gallery’s tiny 21st St vitrine-like space, a sculpture about the relationships between art, politics and commerce. Made in 1990, the piece highlights cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris Company’s contradictory support both for the arts and for North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms, who was famously critical of government support for the arts. Each five-foot long cigarette features a copy of the constitution (the company offered to supply a copy to anyone who asked), while the packaging bears the statement that the company’s ‘fundamental interest in the arts is self-interest.’ (On view through Jan 25th).
By revisiting historical events through one individual’s point of view, Crystal Z. Campbell reconsiders the 1921 race massacre that devastated Tulsa, Oklahoma’s burgeoning African American Greenwood District. The artist personalizes this archival photo of a Tulsa woman, adding color and patterning and thereby making it impossible to overlook this peaceful scenario as ordinary or every day. (On view in ‘A Field of Meaning’ at Callicoon Fine Arts on the Lower East Side).
Visitors to Nicolas Party’s optically lush installation at FLAG Art Foundation encounter this intriguing pairing of a 18th century woman by French painter Jean-Baptiste Perronneau with a background still life mural painted by the celebrated young Swiss artist. Both artworks were created with pastel, Party’s favored medium and Perronneau’s specialty. Here, Party places ‘decadent’ court style in proximity to plump, slouching fruits with wan little stems that enact a kind of excess and pampering akin to the lady in her finery. (On view in Chelsea through Feb 15th).
Joanne Greenbaum’s paintings do what words can’t, conveying relationships that don’t translate easily into verbal language. Watching the artist find a balance between lines and shapes, of color spread across the canvas, and of lighter vs bolder marks is the attraction in paintings that pleasurably upend expectations. (On view at Rachel Uffner Gallery on the Lower East Side through Jan 12th).
A charred tree trunk overtaken by a crystalline-looking mass or spreading fungal growth dominates Pierogi Gallery’s Lower East Side space. At close range, the lightly colored substance materializes into thousands of tiny 3-D printed human figures locked in what could be combat or an interconnected embrace, acting out love-hate relationships en masse. With the piece, New York State artist Jonathan Schipper contemplates the consequences of human drives, specifically consumption, that come at the cost of our habitat. (On view on the Lower East Side through Jan 12th).
This quilt by an unknown South Carolina maker is a standout among innovative textiles from the 1930s to the 1970s from the Arnett Collection now on view at Marlborough Gallery in Chelsea. Working in a variety of styles and creatively adapting traditional techniques, the quilters produced vibrantly colored and patterned textiles in designs that jump off the wall. (On view through January 18th).
In his photographic images featuring cotton plants now on view at Chelsea’s Laurence Miller Gallery, John Dowell aims to ‘evoke the remembering, feeling and sense of wonder in African American ancestral strategies of survival.’ Dowell inserts cotton fields in photos of Central Park, Wall Street, Trinity Church and other famous New York sites, creating haunting images and recalling injustices inflicted on African American communities at these places and elsewhere. The show’s centerpiece, ‘Lost in Cotton,’ invites visitors to enter an enclosure of hanging panels that recall the artist’s grandmother’s frightening childhood experience of getting lost among tall cotton plants. (On view through Jan 25th).
Though her lined-based, labor-intensive drawings have been described as resisting language in favor of the emotional potential of color, Zipora Fried’s own words best describe the inspiration for her latest work. She explains that the ‘sky and mud colored lizards, soft-toned cicada shells, sunsets echoing exploding worlds…,” the tides and sands of Lamu Island, Kenya prompted her vivid color choices. Short repeated pencil strokes and tonal variety make each image appear to shimmer in an unfixed meditation on her experience of the island. (On view in Chelsea at Sikkema Jenkins & Co. through Jan 18th).
A host of fractured figures, relatives to the artist’s signature box-headed, grimacing characters, greet visitors to Rashid Johnson’s latest show at Chelsea’s Hauser & Wirth Gallery. Described by their past titles as ‘anxious men,’ Johnson’s new people bear titles relating to their brokenness, as if the damage to their psyche’s or bodies has become more profound. The show climaxes in Johnson’s new film ‘The Hikers,’ in which two men meet while ascending or descending a mountain in Colorado, enacting a dance that expresses their anxiety and extends the theme into the three-dimensional world. (On view through Jan 25th).
As machines take over tasks formerly performed by people, Addie Wagenknecht’s programmed Roomba has complicated the role of the artist. In her past work using Yves Klein blue, the Roomba replaced the female bodies Klein used as paintbrushes. Here, the machine paints using a mix of art media (linseed oil and turpentine), grooming products (cosmetics, botox and perfume) and stimulants (wine, tequila and CBD oil) suggesting the symbolic expressive potential of non-traditional art media. (On view in ‘Embedded Parables’ at Bitforms on the Lower East Side through Jan 19th).
When German painter Daniel Richter radically switched painting styles c. 2015, moving from newspaper or history book-inspired representational scenes to more expressionistic scenarios, he explained that he wanted to get away from the ‘theater stage,’ and from ‘…knowing what I’m about to do.’ His recent paintings at GRIMM Gallery feature powerful, abstracted encounters between unknown actors, creating dramas that go beyond a particular moment in time. Here, two figures emerge from a dark background locked in combat against a dramatically lit sky, their large scale suggesting an apocalyptic encounter between the toga-clad character on the left and the alien-like combatant with elongated, insectoid leg on the left. (On view on the Lower East Side through Jan 4th).
LA based painter Rosson Crow’s recreation of the Garden of Eden, seen here in detail and part of her current show ‘Trust Fall’ at The Hole, was inspired by a creationism theme park that looked more like a cheap film set than an idyllic landscape. Splashed and dripped paint on the canvas surface makes it clear this is a painted representation, alluding to notions of ‘fake’ and ‘real’ that define political discourse today. Meanwhile, a Greek-inspired urn abandoned in the foliage reading ‘how does it feel to want?’ speaks to contemporary concerns about extremes of wealth and poverty. (On view on the Lower East Side through Dec 29th).
‘No one had really made a painting of’ the character in The Pundit before, Hernan Bas explains of his image of a young news anchor lost in thought. Though the news cycle pervades the day-to-day, journalists rarely appear as subject matter in the Chelsea galleries, never mind at the center of a newsroom turned geometric abstraction, making this painting feel like a discovery. (On view at Lehmann Maupin Gallery through Jan 4th).
Award-winning photographer Namsa Leuba points to her Swiss Guinean heritage as inspiration for a practice that takes her around the globe making images that she calls ‘documentary fictions.’ A standout in Aperture’s eye-poppingly vibrant show of fashion-related photography, ‘The New Black Vanguard,’ curated by Antwaun Sargent, Leuba’s work illustrates the show’s desire to show off ‘new perspectives…on race and beauty, gender and power.’ (On view in Chelsea through Jan 18th).
Beijing-based artist Chen Fei channels Dutch still life in his painting of tempting foodstuffs but substitutes dumplings for bread and banana leaf wraps for grapes. He cites Renaissance historian Vasari to question whether still life can be as engaging as portraiture, forcing the issue by presenting figurative painting in the downstairs gallery and still life upstairs. While the large-scale nude characters downstairs steal the show with their unconventional personalities, the still lifes still wow with their sheer abundance. (On view at Perrotin on the Lower East Side through Dec 21st).
A broken column constructed of foam core and covered by custom handmade silk Kashmiri rugs in Baseera Khan’s current show at Simone Subal Gallery suggests an empire toppled, its segments like gears in a massive, defunct machine. Instead of dominating visitors with its huge size though, the pillar entices thanks to its decorative patterns and appears mysteriously futuristic due to its liquid-looking resin core. Fascinating remnants entice us to consider the historical past as complicated and unknown, suggesting new legacies for the future. (On view on the Lower East Side through Dec 22nd).
Shortly after his grandfather died, Beijing-based artist Li Songsong began painting this portrait of him absorbed in a personal moment. Using a thick oil painting technique that obscures detail, the artist explains that he nevertheless captured the essence of the man. The takeaway for the artist was to observe how painting can embody truths that the artist himself may not even want to acknowledge. (On view at Pace Gallery in Chelsea through Dec 21st).
The line to enter Yayoi Kusama’s latest mirror-lined infinity room at David Zwirner Gallery stretches around the block, but you can walk right up to her infinity mirror, ‘Ladder to Heaven.’ Look up and visitors are presented with an endless (theoretical) climb or, conversely, a bottomless descent, suggesting that our fate is in our own hands. (On view in Chelsea through Dec 14th).
Inspired by the city grid, jail cell windows, high-rise buildings and other structures designed to regulate and control human activity, Peter Halley’s Neo-Geo abstraction has exceeded into own regulatory bounds in a dramatic, maze-like installation at Chelsea’s Greene Naftali Gallery. Up and down stairs, around blind bends and through an eye-popping assault of day-glo color, visitors find their way through an environment that feels as if we’d stepped into one of Halley’s paintings. Here, a painting composed of stacked forms has an altar-like presence at the top of a vividly green staircase. (On view through Dec 20th).
Known since the 90s for exploring the myriad possibilities of geometric abstraction, Tomma Abts continues to innovate while adopting slightly larger, shaped canvases that showcase more boldly shape-shifting patterning. Here, the bottom quarter of the painting appears to sheer away from the bent, folded and upward tilting bands above. With a curving wave breaking the entire composition into new color sequences, Abts appears to embrace visual complexity for its own sake, offering viewers a pleasurably engaging visual experience. (On view at David Zwirner Gallery in Chelsea through Dec 14th).
Korean-Parisian artist Lee Bae’s medium is more than a means to an end. Since buying a cheap bag of charcoal as a cash-strapped new arrival to the French art scene in 1990, Lee’s interest in the medium has expanded to drawings, sculpture and 2-D mosaics of polished charcoal. He points to the role of charcoal in Korean culture (from art medium to building material) to connect to age-old tradition to his production today. At Perrotin Gallery’s spacious upstairs space, the artist has installed sculptures of Korean pine turned to charcoal in his own kiln, a month-long process which results in a piece of material with endless possibilities. (On view through Dec 21st.)
Gardens are sites of beauty and loss in Ebony G. Patterson’s rich, cut-paper collages currently on view at Hales Gallery in Chelsea. Draped forms mimic hanging roots and abundant flora that obscure personal items (a doll, a purse) belonging to individuals who are not present. Cut and ripped holes in the assemblage speak to violence that has turned a lush environment into a funerary display. (On view through Dec 20th).
After a devastating car accident left her with acute memory loss, Howardena Pindell reconstructed her life and memories from postcards and photos she’d gathered over the previous decades. This mixed media collage (seen in detail) from 1980-81 marked the beginning of her Autobiography series, for which she combined printed images, paint and a compliment of her signature circular chads of material to regain her life. (On view at Garth Greenan Gallery in Chelsea through Dec 14th).
Many artists work with fascinating methods on which they, unfortunately, don’t elaborate. Walead Beshty’s latest installation at Petzel Gallery swings to an almost opposite extreme, detailing the contents of his studio in over five thousand images picturing tools and objects that have contributed in some way to his production as an artist. Each cyanotype is the product of a simple photographic process that renders objects in white against a treated blue background of newspapers, boxes, personal correspondence and more. Originally commissioned by London’s Barbican Art Center in 2013, the installation (seen only in part at Petzel Gallery) still speaks powerfully to the incredible amount of unseen labor behind today’s art production. (On view in Chelsea through Dec 14th).
Philip Taaffe’s latest body of work serves up an almost overpowering optical experience, even seen in detail, as in this segment of a painting at Chelsea’s Luhring Augustine Gallery. Inspired by natural history and Japanese paper-working technique that involves dipping folded paper in strong dyes, this mixed media artwork favors a grid format that suggests orderly structuring of knowledge even while unleashing wild coloring. (On view through Dec 21st).
Belgian photographer Maroesjka Lavigne has traveled from Namibia to China to the American West photographing animals and landscapes featuring unusual and unexpected color relationships. ‘Rainbow mountains’ in Xinjiang China and sharp pops of color from yellow plants in Argentina are standouts in her solo show at Robert Mann Gallery, but it’s the unexpectedly beautiful soft pastel blooms of rust on the car in this photo that steal the show. (On view in Chelsea through Dec 21st).
Simen Johan’s dramatic photographs of animals are convincing at first glance, then give viewers pause to consider. Johan’s skillful digital manipulations allow a panda to appear ready to nurse furry little black and white creatures which turn out to be skunks, while in another image, a longhorn bull poses comfortably in an Alpine scene, though the animal may be more at home in Texas. In its original setting, this wolf was having its belly rubbed; in the gallery, its blank look and menacing teeth capitalize on preconceived ideas about the animal’s ferocity. (On view in Chelsea at Yossi Milo Gallery through Dec 7th).
Holly Coulis electrifies the traditional genre of still life, painting arrangements of glasses, pitchers and fruit that sometimes appear to defy gravity while popping dramatically off of the canvas in brilliant color. In her latest show at Lower East Side gallery Klaus Von Nichtssagend, a bowl of lemons and one lime materialize in three dimensions to perform a wonderfully dynamic juggling act. (On view through Dec 15th).
What color is the moon? Astronauts disagreed on the answer, and their conversations sparked artist and son of the founders of the Italian fashion company Missoni to reorient his long-term photographic study of the moon to portray the celestial body in brilliant color. In an installation in Benrubi Gallery’s dark side gallery, Missoni presents an installation of back-lit transparencies that give the orb a stunning presence. (On view in Chelsea through Dec 21st).
Known for portraits of her friends and circle that recall the color and lighting of early 20th century European avant-garde painting, Hope Gangloff has refocused her recent paintings on images of plants in nature and indoors. Her still vibrant palette and energetic compositions are as enticing as ever as she turns a screen into a glittering backdrop for a still life showcasing hardy succulents and the artist’s essential tools. (On view at Susan Inglett Gallery in Chelsea through Nov 30th).
After confronting viewers with visceral, blood-red sculpture in his last New York show, Anish Kapoor is back with a two-venue exhibition bound to seduce his audience. Front and center in Lisson Gallery’s 24th Street space is Tsunami, a towering stainless steel sculpture that lures visitors in to marvel at the spatial distortions created by the curved metal. (On view in Chelsea through Dec 20th).
The vanishing point has disappeared in Claire Kerr’s small oil on linen seascape, literally gone missing somewhere between sea and sky. Bringing to mind both the foundational role of the horizon in Western linear perspective and the limits of vision, this small-scale image also contrasts the vastness of the body of water depicted, adding further complication to and pleasure in contemplating landscape. (On view at BravinLee Programs in Chelsea through Nov 27th).
Frank Gehry’s undulating ‘Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health’ in Las Vegas is the subject of this sculpture by young Philadelphia-based artist Kambel Smith, a highlight of his current show at Marlborough Gallery. Diagnosed with autism at a young age, Smith discovered painting and then sculpture in his teens, pouring his energies into sculptural models of Philadelphia buildings. At Marlborough, Smith expands his purview to recreate a bridge in Tbilisi, Georgia and invent a sci-fi city, recalling the creative abundance of Bodys Isek Kingelez’ invented cityscapes but with a sleeker vision. (On view in Chelsea through Nov 16th).
Hannah Wilke’s two drawings of herself as an angel after Renaissance artist Albrecht Durer, now on view at Ronald Feldman Gallery in SoHo, stand out among photo, video and sculpture from the 70s to the early 90s by the feminist art icon. Although known for having defied feminist conventions by displaying her own body in provocative ways; here, Wilke’s audience gazes on her profile not her figure as she manifests as a celestial being. Recalling Durer’s engraving ‘Melancholia,’ in which a female angel represents the artist’s melancholy, Wilke expressionist version offers a more freeing vision. (On view in SoHo through Nov 30th).
Chicago Imagist Karl Wirsum’s gender ambiguous, robotic characters are an odd mix of human and alien, bionic and freighted by imperfect human bodies. This character – a standout in Derek Eller Gallery’s showcase of 50 years of Wirsum’s drawing – has proportions calculated to puzzle and amaze, from tiny eyes and little apple core mouth that contrast a complex and angular nose to broad shoulders that set off a pair of small feet. (On view on the Lower East Side through Nov 10th).
Young Chicago-based artist Alex Bradley Cohen channels the vibrant color and inventive perspectives of David Hockney’s 80s paintings in expressively distorted portraits of friends and family now on view at Nicelle Beauchene Gallery. Against a fiery orange carpet and cool blue background beyond the terrace, this subject comes across as both guarded and open, inviting viewers to engage further. (On the Lower East Side through Nov 10th).
Drawing on the 11th century Persian epic poem ‘The Book of Kings,’ Arghavan Khosravi abuts the fantastical and mundane in absorbing and beautiful paintings that contrast Iran’s storied past and post-Revolution political realities. Here, a pensive young woman in a glass-walled enclosure holds Simurg, a mythical creature that sustained one of the poem’s heroes by providing him sustenance in difficult times. (On view at Lyles and King on the Lower East Side through Nov 10th).
The experience of curling up with a good book in a comfy chair isn’t what you might expect in Meredith James’ ‘Library,’ a standout in her show of delightfully strange sculpture at Jack Hanley Gallery. Stocked with blandly-colored, identical volumes, the miniature library set in a chair, feels more ominous than wonderful. A gallery handout suggests that James’ new work explores ‘things in various stages of disappearance or obsolescence,’ offering an uncertain future for the written word. (On view on the Lower East Side through Nov 10th).
Can you guess who is the housekeeper in each of these photos and who is the employer? Columbian artist Ruby Rumie and French-American photographer Justine Graham teamed up to question the perceived and real differences between one hundred women in photographs and accompanying interviews at Nohra Haime Gallery. As the uniform white shirts worn by the women suggest, Rumie and Graham emphasize the women’s shared hopes, fears and more in questionnaires and videos that foreground their similarities. (On view in Chelsea through Nov 16th).
After the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro was ravaged by fire in Sept 2018, renowned Rio and NY based artist Vik Muniz reached out to offer help. The resulting series ‘Museum of Ashes,’ now on view at Sikkema Jenkins & Co in Chelsea, mourns the loss of artifacts that range from dinosaur fossils to Egyptian artifacts by recreating images of the objects created from their own ashes. (On view through Nov 16th).
It took a good part of the summer for Uruguayan artist Marco Maggi to install his immersive installation at Josee Bienvenu Gallery in Chelsea, yet it’s possible to visit the gallery and not even notice the artwork. Maggi employed his signature technique of cutting tiny geometric shapes and strips from adhesive paper and adhering them to the wall in his latest show, but he keeps the gallery lights off, forcing viewers to employ flashlights to hunt for the work. As the show’s subtitle, ‘From Obscurantism to Enlightenment’ suggests, Maggi wants viewers to enjoy the process of looking, slowing down and letting enlightenment unfold. (On view through Nov 11th).
Mexican born, Harlem-based activist and artist Aliza Nisenbaum’s new paintings at Anton Kern Gallery’s midtown gallery celebrate group activities in kaleidoscopic form and brilliant color. From teaching English to immigrants in Queens in 2012 to various residences and projects, Nisenbaum has engaged individuals who become subjects for paintings that celebrate togetherness and diversity. (On view through Nov 2nd).
Despite their tiny size, monitors on twin coin-operated chairs from 1988 by Nam June Paik in the entryway of James Cohan Gallery’s Lower East Side location blast a stream of media content at visitors who can simultaneously watch the world go by on the busy street outside. Resembling test patterns, the chairs’ upholstery invites viewers to submit themselves to media overload. (On view through Oct 20th).
Inspired by her pregnancy and experience as a mother, Loie Hollowell’s new paintings make rich connections to art history while helping to launch Pace Gallery’s stunning new eight story building on West 25th Street. Here, swelling curves (achieved in part by mounting foam on panel) reference an abundant female form in motion across the lower half of the canvas. Recalling Picasso’s doubled Girl Before a Mirror and Duchamps’ blurred Nude Descending a Staircase, the painting’s cool colors and flashes of fierce red convey powerful fecundity and tranquil poise. (On view through Oct 19th in Chelsea).
After famously taking his mobile photo studio to Times Square for his ‘Inside Out’ portrait project in 2013, French street artist JR hit New York’s streets again in Spring ’18 to make detailed photo collages championing the everyday New Yorker, now on view at Galerie Perrotin. Titled ‘Chronicles of New York City,’ the project follows ‘Chronicles’ in Paris and San Francisco and is also currently featured in Brooklyn Museum’s Great Hall. JR invited over a thousand New Yorkers to step into his truck turned studio to ‘present themselves as they’d like to be seen and remembered.’ The resulting collages bring the city’s citizens together in harmony and common purpose. (On view on the Lower East Side through Oct 26th.)
Inspired by Surrealist Meret Oppenheim’s performance ‘Cannibal’s Feast,’ Japanese photographer Michiko Kon’s food-based sculptural creations from the 90s fascinate and disturb in equal measure. This photo, currently on view at Robert Mann Gallery, showcases a boot crafted from ark clam shells and a real fish head. By evoking luxury goods popular in pre-crash 90s Japan and creating them in perishable materials, Kon updates the vanitas genre for more recent times. (On view through Oct 19th).
David Benjamin Sherry’s photos depict familiar-seeming western landscapes but in colors that force viewers to ask what they’re seeing. Man’s impact on the environment comes to mind, as does the emotional value of portraying these spaces in vibrant pink or purple or yellow tones. In his latest series, ‘American Monuments,’ Sherry shot locations newly threatened by having their protected status removed to allow resource extraction. (On view at Salon94 on the Lower East Side through Oct 26th).
Egyptian artist Wael Shawky talks of crafting history as a medium, referencing existing texts, historical paintings, poems and more to conjure a new creative product. His latest show at Lisson Gallery takes inspiration from histories of the Arabian peninsula from the 17th century to the present, particularly considering the rapid development of the region’s cities. Here, a glass structure and a giant palm tree act like beacons atop two hills, situated on a larger blue/green structure alluding to traditional thick-walled Najd architecture in a striking installation alive with opaque allusions. (On view in Chelsea through Oct 19th).
Inspired by women’s lives in her parent’s native Nigeria, US born artist Wuru-Natasha Ogunji’s considers the daily task of carrying water in her video, ‘Will I still carry water when I am a dead woman?’ Featuring several masked women walking the residential streets of Lagos dragging gold-colored water containers, viewers witness the toll exacted on the bodies of the exhausted and drenched participants. (On view at Fridman Gallery through Oct 12th).
The Haas Brother’s zany show of comical, beaded sculpture at Chelsea’s Marianne Boesky Gallery announces the duo’s foray into the fine art world. Having made a hit in the design community for the past decade with otherworldly furnishings, the twins collaborated on the new work with collaborators, Monkeybiz, to present an assortment of odd creatures and eccentric plant-life in a brilliantly painted, eye-popping setting. (On view through Oct 26th).
Vija Celmins’ once described her relationship to the ocean, which she has rendered again and again in paint, graphite and prints, as akin to wrestling something huge into a tiny 2-D space. This woodcut from 2000, created with one of printmaking’s oldest techniques, captures a particular view of the water’s surface that looks as if it could have been made yesterday or hundreds of years ago. (On view in Chelsea at Matthew Marks Gallery through Oct 26th).
Though Berlin-based Danish artist Jeppe Hein has installed his trademark polished stainless steel panels in large outdoor spaces (notably at Brooklyn Bridge Park in 2015), 303 Gallery’s tiny back space seems uniquely suited to host an intense experience of reality for visitors who see themselves and Hein’s striped paintings cut together in thin strips. Hein has explained that his stripe paintings represent breathing in and out which sounds meditative, but in this installation is geared to quicken the senses. (On view in Chelsea through Oct 19th).
Commissioned for the art-filled Camino Real Hotel in Palanco, Mexico, this vibrant felt hanging by Anni Albers epitomizes the energy expressed by her repeated use of triangles in asymmetrical compositions. Recently rediscovered, it’s a standout in a collaborative exhibition with the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation and David Zwirner Gallery, a show that asserts Albers’ importance not just to 20th century weaving and textile-based work but to experimentation within the modernist idiom. (On view in Chelsea through Oct 19th).
Japanese-Italian artist Ritsue Mishima describes glass as ‘a form of light.’ In her stunning show of twenty-five glass sculptures at Luhring Augustine Gallery – her first in New York – Mishima creates dynamic and still forms that bring to mind sea life and other natural wonders. (On view through Oct 26th in Chelsea).
A mother’s body becomes a playground for her baby, whose sense of curiosity and play ignores boundaries in Madeline Donahue’s humorous paintings at Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects. Shifts in scale turn a mom into a giant as baby uses her hair like climbing rope; in other pieces, Donahue creates curving or angular geometric compositions from the antics of her exploring offspring. Through it all, the paintings charm with their sense of humor, patience and stoicism. (On view on the Lower East Side through Oct 5th).
‘Emotional and empathetic’ painting has been New York painter Doron Langberg’s goal since he saw a show of Lucian Freud’s paintings as a kid. His first solo show at Yossi Milo Gallery is a tour de force of sensitively conceived, often monumentally-scaled portraits of friends and family at ease, enjoying leisure time or intimacy. (On view in Chelsea through Oct 19th).
Inspired in part by Charles C. Ebbet’s iconic staged photograph of Rockefeller Center ironworkers eating lunch on a suspended girder, Amy Sherald’s portrait of an anonymous young man pictures him at home in the air, his mind on other things. Poised as if about to speak, Sherald’s subject points to the possibility and promise of communication. (On view in Chelsea at Hauser & Wirth Gallery).
Would New York be better without the people? An empty subway entrance at West 4th Street, Rockefeller Center buried by snow and a deserted Coney Island beach – all scenes included in Brooklyn-based painter Brian Alfred’s latest show at Miles McEnery Gallery – suggest that if the city’s human inhabits would step aside, the views would improve. Here, two city bridges silhouetted by a gorgeous sunrise or sunset may or may not be busy with traffic, but they appear as tranquil as the country-side. (On view in Chelsea through Oct 5th).
‘Property Rights,’ Mitch Epstein’s latest photography series focuses on contested land in the U.S., from protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock to the conflict between immigration activists and self-organized patrols along the southern border. Though each location is defined by its tensions, Epstein’s photos are marked by their calmness and sensitivity to the experience of everyday people navigating the impact of larger forces on their lives. (On view at Sikkema Jenkins & Co. in Chelsea through Oct 5th).
“Driving through Los Angeles, you see all kinds of things out your window, and they go by so quickly,” Alex Prager told the New Yorker as she explained the bizarre scenarios and eccentric characters in her latest photos and video at Lehmann Maupin Gallery. This towering, nine-foot-tall sculpture dominates the gallery and appears in an even larger version in Prager’s short film ‘Play the Wind,’ an homage to the unexpected and strange on the streets of Prager’s hometown. (On view in Chelsea through Oct 26th).
Ever aware of the evolving role of images as stand-ins for real objects in the digital era, Sarah Sze creates a wave in the form of photos, video and rotating projections at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery. Titled ‘Crescent (Timekeeper),’ the installation displays fragmentary glimpses of the natural world on a rickety but orderly wooden frame. Visitors who step close to explore a coyote crossing a road, a raging flame or a bird in flight experience a dynamic and evolving sculpture that offers an immersive experience in real time. (On view in Chelsea through Oct 19th).
Roy DeCarava’s velvety toned black and white photographs aimed for expression, not documentation, seeking to capture scenes of African-American life in Harlem and beyond with ‘penetrating insight and understanding’. Over one hundred silver gelatin photos now on view at David Zwirner Gallery in Chelsea celebrate the centennial of DeCarava’s birth while showcasing the artist’s ability to sensitively portray a variety of subjects, from the everyday life of families to thrilling portraits of jazz musicians like Jimmy Scott. (On view through Oct 26th).
Peter Voulkos’ influence is a constant presence in New York’s galleries if his actual rule-destroying ceramic sculptures are infrequently seen; Burning In Water’s current show of work from Voulkos’ ‘Stacks’ series manifests the artist’s deliberately imperfect forms. Patched, split and tilting to the side, ‘Big Ed’ exemplifies the energy and expression Voulkos brought to his art. Translation from the original ceramic to bronze adds durability to the dynamic. (On view in Chelsea through Sept 21st).
‘Camp: Notes on Fashion’ at the Metropolitan Museum of Art ends with a bang in a two-tiered gallery showcasing outrageous garments, from a wrapper resembling the contents of a TV dinner to a tiered ball gown of ruffled pink fabric that juts out from the shoulders and continues expanding as it descends to the ground. Here, alongside earrings shaped like old-fashioned faucet handles, Karl Lagerfeld’s shower head necklace makes a clean break from tradition. (On view on the Upper East Side through Sept 8th).
Carmen Herrera’s longevity as an artist continues to amaze; the informational texts for her installation of boldly colored abstract sculptures at City Hall Park declare her age (104) in the first line before going on to comment on the artwork. In the 50s and beyond, Herrera was in the center of New York’s art world and at its margins, making artwork in conversation with the developing language of abstraction but underappreciated because of her gender and lacking funding to realize her plans for boldly colored sculpture. Installed in the park, her architectural forms are in the company of landmarks including City Hall and the Woolworth Building. Here, they speak to Herrera’s personal and political concerns, from a piece memorializing her late brother to a sculpture constructed of two interlocking forms that nod to Cuban/American relations. (On view downtown at City Hall Park via the Public Art Fund through Nov 8th).
Berlin-based Polish artist Alicja Kwade explains that the invitation to install a piece on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art was like being asked to crown the summarized history of humanity in the galleries below. In response, she created a steel framed structure that symbolizes human systems and which incorporates stones sourced from India, Finland, Italy, China and beyond. From the roof, viewing the New York’s rising skyline is unavoidable; Kwade draws in the surroundings as part of her artwork, inviting visitors to consider neighboring buildings as symbols of capitalism, a structure that can be examined as readily as the ones she erects. (On view through Oct 27th).
For over a decade, item by item, Beijing-based artist Hong Hao scanned his belongings for ‘My Things,’ a series of digitally constructed collages detailing his possessions, from the orderly spines of hundreds of books to more chaotic-seeming arrangements like this one that combine elements from different aspects of life. The abundant objects in each image of the series speak to consumption, but Hong Hao explains that the act of scanning is meaningful as well as it ‘embodies a calm observation without any pre-judgement, a plain testimony, a relevant context for aesthetic exploration.’ (On view in ‘Turn of the Century: Photography in China’ at Chambers Fine Art in Chelsea through August 31st.)
Zanele Muholi’s ‘Somnyama Ngonyama’ (Hail the Dark Lioness) photo series features the South African activist and artist modeling dramatic outfits that on closer inspection turn out to be composed of everyday household items. Muholi’s source image for this beaded panel created with fellow South African artist Morgan Mahape involved a headdress crafted from donut-shaped scouring pads, an important detail that’s less apparent here. Muholi’s softer look and averted gaze are less confrontational than the series’ other powerful images but the piece reads as a tribute to an artist who uses her own body to challenge perceptions and prompt reflection. (On view in ‘African Spirits’ at Yossi Milo Gallery through August 23rd).
Intimacy between people, whether between figures seen in quiet moments in public or this energetic engagement between a toddler and adult in a domestic setting, drives Sara Abbaspour’s probing, black and white photos. A standout in Yancey Richardson Gallery’s show of 2019 Yale MFA Photography grads, curated by James Welling, Abbaspour explains that her aim is to treat physical locations as ‘mental space.’ (On view in Chelsea through August 23rd).
Unlike her mid-20th century counterparts who also employed minimalist forms, repetition, and awareness of the immediate environment in their sculpture, Meg Webster’s interest in the natural world connects her installation of five glass spheres from 1987 at Paula Cooper Gallery to the wonder of naturally occurring phenomena. The imperfectly formed shapes are scaled up to the size of those made by huge bubble wands at a kids’ science museums yet they evoke the briefly lived magic of a floating pocket of air. (On view in Chelsea through August 16th).
Marti Cormand’s last solo show at Chelsea’s Josee Bienvenu Gallery involved meticulously painting replicas of rediscovered artworks that had been considered ‘degenerate’ in the Nazi era. His current series of oil on Polaroid paintings at the gallery involves painterly additions to photos found in his childhood house in Spain, continuing an engagement with recovered imagery from the past. A hazy view inside a refrigerator, and a parrot in an arctic landscape suggest that Cormand is focusing on the strange or magical in the everyday; his swimmer similarly transports us, triggering memories of nature at its most inviting. (On view through August 15th).
Brooklyn-based artist Jenna Krypell’s abstract shapes suggest three dimensions in two, effecting momentary disruptions in our perception. Resembling mazes, stylized calligraphy, or here, sections of a sunset-colored sky cut into strips and hung out, each arrangement of form offers engaging spatial complexity. (On view in Chelsea at Davidson Gallery through August 16th.)
ektor garcia’s ‘portal (guadalajara)’ connects not only to his upbringing by female relatives who supported the family in Mexico and the U.S. with their skill at crochet but also to the earth in its warm, terracotta color. In another piece, a long slim panel of oxidized copper lined with crochet artificial sinew speaks to the building value of minerals derived from the land and its feminized embellishment while his ‘chainmale’ glazed ceramics resemble metal links but are crafted from a more fragile material. (On view in ‘garcia, Raina, Shore, Tossin’ at Luhring Augustine Gallery in Chelsea through August 16th).
The peachy tones of the rock formation in this painting by Canadian artist Joani Tremblay resemble spray-tanned flesh as much as sedimentary stone, questioning Mother Nature’s ‘natural’ qualities. Included in Asya Geisberg Gallery’s ‘Plastic Garden’ summer group show, this painting’s houseplants further signal that the view is seen through an ‘arranged’ human lens. (On view in Chelsea through August 16th).
Fifteen years of collected memorabilia from Mt Rushmore yielded the material for artist Mel Ziegler’s one thousand digitally printed portraits of the monument’s four presidents, currently filling the ground floor of Galerie Perrotin on the Lower East Side. Though repetition and systemization are key, the degradation of each image – suggesting they were lifted from cheaply made or tiny reproductions – leaves the most lasting impression. Despite the scale of the effort in the original Rushmore or Ziegler’s redo, there’s no guarantee that a burnished image will be handed down to posterity. (On view through Aug 16th).
Critic John Yau hits the nail on head when he describes Gladys Nilsson’s ability to ‘keep the viewer looking in ways that are both pleasurable and challenging.’ In her 1984 watercolor ‘Lightly There,’ Nilsson sets up a seemingly flirtatious engagement between two masculine and feminine characters against a backdrop of folks high-mindedly going about their business, noses to the air. Extra-long limbs – oddly allowing the man on the left to reach between his legs to pick up a tiny passenger – are just the beginning of the eccentric proportions and asymmetries of bodies, hair and facial features that lend Nilsson’s characters their intrigue and bait us to question what’s going on. (On view in ’36 Works on Paper’ at Garth Greenan Gallery in Chelsea through August 9th).
Late Indian artist Y. G. Srimati’s traditional Bharatanatyam dancer captivatingly demonstrates control and dynamism in this large-scale watercolor from 1963. Trained in dance and other arts, Srimati once led devotional singing for Mahatma Gandhi and participated in India’s struggle for independence. Adapting British-led art instruction to Indian painting tradition, Srimati pictured rural life and spiritual figures, developing her own uniquely Indian idiom. (On view through August 9th at Jack Shainman Gallery in Chelsea).
Late Italian photographer Ugo Mulas made his name documenting the Venice Biennials from 1954 – 1972 and establishing relationships with Italy’s major post-war artists. In the ‘60s, his purview expanded to New York where he met and photographed now iconic avant-garde artists from Barnett Newman to Marcel Duchamp. These photos and more at Matthew Marks Gallery in Chelsea offer a peek at yesteryear’s art scene, from the police closing a Warhol loft party to intimate shots of Jasper Johns at work. Here, Roy Lichtenstein inhabits one of his cartoon scenarios with good humor. (On view through August 16th).
Dona Nelson’s walk around frames turn painting into sculpture, insisting that viewers have access to (and equally value) both front and back. In ‘Bells,’ blues and greens with a horizontal section of yellow suggest a sunset seen through a window while sections of white canvas deceptively imply transparency. (On view in Lisson Gallery’s ‘Painters Reply: Experimental Painting in the 1970s and now through Aug 9th.)
Amy Bennett’s meticulously rendered oil on panel paintings catalogue disfunction in the suburbs, from a distant couple in ‘Anniversary’ sitting on two different sides of a wrap-around porch to the deeply sad images of kids in ‘Drills’ who practice hiding in school. Privy to moments that are both tense and personal for each painting’s isolated characters, our remove from them (sometimes aided by a bird’s eye perspective) adds alienation and intrigue. Here, ‘Floating Lessons’ parallels and seem to prefigure another of the show’s best and most alarming images in which a body (alive?) floats in an above-ground pool. Bennett’s disturbing but fascinating vision stops viewers from conflating comfortable surroundings with happiness or family life with security. (On view through August 16th at Miles McEnery Gallery in Chelsea.)
Photographer Dana Hoey describes former world champion boxer Alicia Ashley’s shadowboxing as ‘sublimely beautiful.’ Here, in a 44-foot-long wall mural at Chelsea’s Petzel Gallery, Ashley engages with Hoey’s humanoid, diamond-patterned assemblages in a series of movements that showcases the boxer’s art and her agency. (On view in Chelsea through August 2nd).
New York Studio School dean Graham Nickson’s beach paintings have been described as “extreme, impenetrable, and haunting” for their isolated figures inhabiting landscapes pared down to horizontal bands of color. Here, a lone figure’s ambiguous activity (Is she shielding her face from the sun? Reading a giant book?) lends mystery and import to a leisure activity that might otherwise be overlooked. (On view in ‘Summer!’ at Betty Cuningham Gallery on the Lower East Side through August 2nd).
Gina Beavers’ acrylic and foam constructions feel delightfully excessive, their high relief suggesting an eagerness to be noticed. Inspired by glossy social media images of food, makeup and more, the work both revels in and critiques consumption, a point Beavers emphasizes by packing five paintings onto one cube, currently on view at Marianne Boesky Gallery in Chelsea. Here, thick brushes and lush lips conflate on-line makeup tutorials with the painter’s art, humorously questioning art’s role in selling product. (On view in ‘Painting/Sculpture’ through August 9th).
Dramatically colored abstract forms rise off the canvases in Tony Cox’s engaging new show of textured panels at Marlborough Gallery in Chelsea. Inspired by psychotherapy and Jungian psychology, Cox emerged from a recent health crisis to create labor intensive works that reward contemplative viewing. (On view through August 2nd).
Robin Kang morphs circuit board imagery into patterns resembling peacock feathers in a textile created with a digitally operated Jacquard hand loom. An abundance of gold from metallic yarns suggests a link to the divine, the receding space a throne-like seat or corridor leading to the beyond. (On view in ‘Pool Party’ organized by Field Projects at C24 Gallery in Chelsea through Sept 21st).
Mary Heilmann’s red and black ceramic sculpture ‘Curl’ seems to defy its title with its angular panels, yet each segment dynamically spins around a central core like a step on a spiral staircase seen from above. Each tile evokes a riser with three treads or a chunky version of the Egyptian deity Isis’ throne in Constructivist colors that make a bold statement. (On view at Gladstone Gallery’s 24th Street Chelsea location through July 26th).
Music, 20th century design and the dingy tiles of New York’s Holland Tunnel have inspired New York-based painter Kevin Umana’s abstract canvases. Here, the artist nods to the award-winning film ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’ in the color scheme of this small, energetic, and fractured painting. (On view in Chelsea at DC Moore Gallery through August 8th).
In Fredericks & Freiser Gallery’s group show homage to painter John Wesley’s erotically charged Pop aesthetic, Math Bass presents a painting from her ‘Newz!’ series in which pared down, ambiguous signs connect her paintings to Wesley’s. When a similar painting was installed as a mural in the lobby of the Hammer Museum last fall, the black shape could be read as a one-sleeved shirt. Here, a dog emerges to play with the pink ball and extended foot. (On view in Chelsea through July 26th).
Why paint? In 1975, Artforum magazine posited the question to artists at a moment when enthusiasm for more contemporary approaches – from conceptual art to video – seemed to have pushed painting out of the vanguard. Lisson Gallery’s summer group show visits responses then and now as painters pushed the boundaries of what could be considered painting. Here, Polly Apfelbaum’s synthetic velvet and dye piece ‘Blue Joni’ takes painting off the stretcher and even off of the wall. (On view in Chelsea through August 9th).
Tajh Rust’s portrait of a mom and her daughter embracing on the kitchen floor has a counterpart in a second family picture in which the mother meets our gaze while cradling her child’s head. The comparison reveals how easy it is to make eye contact with the child vs her assured mother as they occupy private space in a tender moment. Nevertheless, the girl’s eye becomes the focal point of the painting, highlighting the power of her keen observation. (On view in ‘Vernacular Interior’ at Hales Gallery in Chelsea through July 20th).
Young Peruvian artist Claudia Martinez Garay’s paintings on plaster in the form of squash associate identity with the products of the land, personality with nourishment. Though gourds go through quick cycles of growth and decay relative to humans, this shape appears ancient, taking the mind back through distant human histories tied closely to the land. (On view at Timothy Taylor Gallery in Chelsea through July 26th).
From a pastry case featuring a banana split crafted from burlap, plaster and paint to a monumental canvas hamburger, Claes Oldenburg’s sculpted foodstuffs are familiar favorite foods made alarming through their size and materials. Photographer Sharon Core explores the attraction and repulsion of Oldenburg’s ‘60s classics (including the burger and ice cream) to great effect in her show at Chelsea’s Yancey Richardson Gallery by hand-crafting and photographing a selection of Oldenburg dishes using real food. In contrast to perfectly-presented delectables commonly featured on social media, Core’s edible recreations of Oldenburg’s artworks initially attract, then repulse, questioning just what we want from food these days. (On view through July 3rd).
The pre-fireworks have already begun in anticipation of July 4th’s big celebrations, not just in NYC neighborhoods but in Chelsea at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, where Dana Powell’s ‘TBT’ recalls the thrills of unsanctioned pyrotechnics. (On view in Chelsea through July 26th).
‘Holiday,’ Josh Smith’s painting of the Grim Reaper, may represent a vacation in Edvard Munch’s world, but otherwise has more to do with livening up a typically drab comic convention. A super-abundance of cute bats, Death’s multi-colored robe and a huge moon that’s more pretty-in-pink than bloody liven up a scene that should be darker than it is. While this representation might not exactly make death look good, the makeover is worth thinking about. (On view at David Zwirner Gallery in Chelsea through July 19th).
Scott Olson’s new biomorphic abstractions at James Cohan Gallery’s Lower East Side location continue to tap into the language of early 20th century non-objective art, engaging the imagination with a pleasing play of color and form. A rectangle of dark space at the bottom of the composition sets off what’s above – an array of shapes that tempt interpretation, guiding the eye along diagonally sloping paths toward imagery that resembles the stalks of plants or, above, a segmented area that suggests an arachnid or segmented fruit. (On view through July 26th).
Using unconventional painting materials like the jewelry chains crisscrossing this canvas, LA-based artist Sarah Cain aims to prompt memories and evoke emotions in her viewers. Actually titled ‘Emotions,’ this painting simultaneously suggests a spill of paint, hanging fabric and fairground flags, blurring abstraction and representation and taking the mind several places at once. (On view in Lehmann Maupin Gallery’s summer group show ‘cart, horse, cart’ in Chelsea through August 16th).
