Roxa Smith at C24 Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest ShowPosted on Comments are Disabled

Pattern and color are the last words in Roxa Smith’s lively paintings of imaginary interiors at C24 Gallery in Chelsea.  Smith, who grew up in Venezuela and moved to New York in the 90s, explains that as a child, family trips exposed her to colonial towns and indigenous and folk art that have influenced her current aesthetic.  Already drawn to interiors, she became devoted to the subject after visiting an exhibition of Matisse’s painting at the National Gallery in Washington DC.  Uplifting, lively and engaging, Smith’s paintings offer a moment of pure pleasure.  (On view in Chelsea through March 11th.)

Roxa Smith, Gated Sanctuary, oil on canvas, 30 x 36 inches, 2016.

‘Court, Epic, Spirit: Indian Art 15th – 19th Century’ presented by Francesca Galloway at Luhring Augustine Gallery

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After a long, action-packed adventure described in the Sanskrit epic the Ramayana, Rama returns home to the kingdom of Ayodhya and is crowned alongside his love, Sita.  Here, in a standout painting from the exhibition ‘Court, Epic, Spirit:  Indian Art 15th – 19th Century’ presented by London dealer Francesca Galloway at Luhring Augustine Gallery, the couple literally glow as they celebrate Rama’s restoration and his triumph over evil.  Populated by dignitaries and ascetics and set among opulent furnishings and fabrics, this relatively small painting overwhelms with its intricate detail.  (On view in Tribeca through March 24th).

The Coronation of Rama based on the description in the Yuddhakanda of the Ramayana, ch 130, Mandi, opaque pigments, painting: 17 ¾ x 14 5/8 inches, c. 1840.

Mary Lum at Yancey Richardson Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest ShowPosted on Comments are Disabled

Long walks through New York, Paris and London yield source material for Mary Lum’s complex photo and paint collages, now on view at Yancey Richardson Gallery in Chelsea.  Titled 11th Avenue, this piece features slices of urban architecture and facades that dynamically multiply the grid.  At center, Lum seamlessly turns a photo of metal piping into a flattened piece of paper that in turn guides our eye up and over a grey wall – all moves that keep our sense of space shifting in an engaging way.  (On view through Feb 26th).

Mary Lum, 11th Avenue, gouache, watercolor, acrylic, colored pencil, and photo collage on paper, 11 ¼ x 14 7/8 inches, 2021.

Keith Tyson at Hauser & Wirth Gallery

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To say that British artist Keith Tyson’s art practice is expansive is something of an understatement; for decades, his painting and sculpture have aimed to show the connectedness of all things.  Drawing from thousands of paintings created over more than twenty years, grids of images now on view at Hauser & Wirth Gallery in Chelsea suggest links between neural networks, the vastness and changeability of space, mathematical concepts and much more.  Here, meteorites embedded in stainless steel prompted Tyson’s mind-boggling question in a recent catalogue essay: “What were the odds at some point in the distant past, when these chunks of matter were on their particular trajectories through outer space, that they would all end up together here in this piece of work?”  (On view in Chelsea through April 2nd).

Field of Heaven, stainless steel, meteorites, 23 5/8 x 23 5/8 x 23 5/8 inches, 2016.

Celia Vasquez Yui at Salon94

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Artist and activist Celia Vasquez Yui’s ceramic sculptures of animals in the Peruvian Amazon are arranged at Salon94 in a mini amphitheater, forming a gathering she calls the ‘Council of the Mother Spirits of the Animals.’ Speakers in the gallery play invocations sung by healers whose intention is to heal the assembled deer, monkeys, jaguars and other animals, encouraging them to hold their own against endangerment.  Here, two playful deer are ornamented with kene, elaborate abstract designs that speak to harmony in nature.  (On view on the Upper East Side through March 5th).

Celia Vasquez Yui, (right) Venado Blanco, coil-built pre-fire slip-painted clay and vegetal resins, 24 ¼ x 26 x 10 inches, 2020 and (left) Venado, coil-built pre-fire slip-painted clay and vegetal resins, 14 x 13 x 21 inches, 2021.