Thomas Woodruff at Vito Schnabel Gallery

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As the magnolia start to bloom in New York this week, Thomas Woodruff’s painting of dinosaurs as the Three Graces from Botticelli’s Primavera seems perfectly timed for the season.  One of several paintings in Woodruff’s solo show at Vito Schnabel Gallery that feature dinosaurs, the creatures enjoy their Edenic surroundings apparently unaware of their impending destruction.  Exploding volcanos and incoming meteorites appear in most of the show’s works, announcing an extinction event designed to excite fears about our own fate as the climate changes.  Coming a few years after Woodruff’s retirement from his long-term teaching career at the School of the Visual Arts, the artist explains that his subject matter also alludes to his own aging and suggests that he intends to go out with a bang.  (On view through March 30th).

Thomas Woodruff, The Three Graces, acrylic on canvas, 96 x 78 inches, 2022.

Sarah Ball at Stephen Friedman Gallery

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At over eight feet high, British artist Sarah Ball’s portrait of Elliot has stunning presence in Stephen Friedman Gallery’s Tribeca space. Drawn to young individuals whose self-fashioning demonstrates their creativity and defies gender norms, Ball meticulously renders details of face, hair and dress in an appreciation of each subject’s unique identity. (On view in Tribeca through March 23rd).

Sarah Ball, Elliot, oil on linen, 100 3/8 x 80 7/8 inches, 2023.

Silas Borsos at Nicelle Beauchene Gallery

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‘Green Orchestra’ positions an apple, pear, watermelon and limes like a chorus line, while a mountainous pile of blueberries rises up behind four plums and half an apple in Silas Borsos’ paintings at Nicelle Beauchene Gallery. Featuring delightfully idiosyncratic arrangements of fruit that suggest table-top performances, Borsos’ paintings depart from traditional histories of still life in fanciful ways.   Here, ‘Orange Peel Pyramid’ presents a sole segment of orange leftover from an orgy of peeling, alongside five blueberries nestled as delicately as robin eggs in discarded pulp. (On view in Tribeca through April 6th).

Silas Borsos, Orange Peel Pyramid, oil on linen, 11h x 14w inches, 2024.

Vija Celmins at Matthew Marks Gallery

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Titled ‘Winter,’ Viya Celmins first New York solo show in six years at Matthew Marks Gallery sees out the season with paintings featuring snow against dark backgrounds.  Those familiar with the artist’s signature subject matter may identify the work as a night sky painting for which she is renowned, but what look like stars are in fact flakes of snow.  Celmins has explained in an interview that she aims to wrestle something vast down into the space of the canvas, fixing it there.  The new snow-related paintings suggest she’s taken the universe and transposed it into something positioned right before our eyes.  In a further twist, the piece’s title, ‘Snowfall(coat)’ reveals that the snow is not actually seen in front of the darkness of night but has been pictured instead on a black coat. (On view in Chelsea through April 6th).

Vija Celmins, Snowfall (coat), oil on canvas, 19 5/8 x 13 1/8 inches, 2021 – 23.

Raymond Saunders at Andrew Kreps Gallery and David Zwirner Gallery

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Thought-provoking and pleasurable as it was, Andrew Kreps Gallery’s 2022 exhibition of iconic west coast painter Raymond Saunders’ work turns out to have been just a taster for the artist’s tour de force three-gallery show now on view at Kreps and David Zwirner Gallery, curated by Ebony L. Haynes.  Known for poetic compilations of text, signage, drawing, and materials from everyday life, Saunders’ paintings – mostly from the 80s and 90s – show him making layered allusions to the act of art making.  In this untitled piece from the mid ‘90s, faint drips, frost-like paint marks and a huge white brushstroke bring to mind an artist’s stylistic options.  A monumental fruit at center seems to nod to still life tradition while a page from a text on how to build a flat human figure drawing model, positioned near a text giving instruction on how to play a game, slyly suggests a calculation of artistic success.  (On view through April 5th/6th).

Raymond Saunders, Untitled, acrylic, spray paint, chalk, collage, and mixed media on canvas, 23 ¼ x 20 5/8 inches, 1995.