Lucas Arruda at David Zwirner Gallery

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Though the skies directly ahead are dark in this small painting by Brazilian painter Lucas Arruda at David Zwirner Gallery, light shines out from behind the clouds, ready to transform the scene.  Light conditions and colors vary greatly in Arruda’s signature seascapes and jungle-scenes in response to time of day and atmospheric conditions yet each painting draws viewers in to appreciate the particular, fleeting circumstances presented.  Titled ‘Assum Preto’ after a Brazilian bird whose song alters in response to light, this show’s sensitivity to time and place is so subtle and calming as to be therapeutic.  (On view through June 15th in Chelsea).

Lucas Arruda, Untitled (from the Deserto-Modelo series), oil on canvas, 9 5/8 x 11 ¾ inches, 2022.

Sahara Longe at Timothy Taylor Gallery

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Disaffected nudes, a lurking skeletal figure and an embracing couple titled after Symbolist painter Ferdinand Hodler’s macabre painting ‘The Night’ channel the expressive qualities of late 19th century painting in Sahara Longe’s show of new paintings at Timothy Taylor Gallery in Tribeca.  Here, ‘Liar,’ features a painted frame of cloudy red, white and green colored areas that recall the wispiness of Edvard Munch’s skies in ‘The Scream.’ A white-clad individual on his knees with hands in a prayerful position in the foreground contrasts with a shadowy figure behind…possibly a second self or the ‘liar’ referred to in the title?  (On view through June 15th).

Sahara Longe, Liar, oil on linen, 74 ¾ x88 5/8 inches, 2024.

The Haas Brothers at Marianne Boesky Gallery

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Inspired by tree fungus, coral and other structures in the natural world that build up over time, The Haas Brothers’ bronzes at Chelsea’s Marianne Boesky Gallery are typically quirky in form and attractive in their shiny and patinaed bronze surfaces.  Inspired by psychedelic aspects of Stevie Wonder’s 1973 album ‘Innervisions,’ after which the artists titled the show, the works trend towards the hallucinatory. In this piece, tentacle-like forms seem to reach out towards visitors like living extensions of the seed-like form below.  On the wall, patterned paintings formed by squeezing bottles of acrylic paint echo the accretion process used to make the bronzes while adding lush color to the exhibition.  (On view through June 15th).

The Haas Bros, Holden Ball-field, patinated cast bronze, marble base, bronze: 34 x 28 x 13 inches, 2024.

Lubaina Himid at Greene Naftali Gallery

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Water, chickens, talismans and chairs are some of the goods on sale in vibrant and lively paintings of tradesmen and women in Lubaina Himid’s show of new paintings and prints at Greene Naftali Gallery in Chelsea. Accompanying each merchant is a signboard touting the seller’s wares in phenetic spellings that encouraging visitors to sound out each sales slogan.  Here, a woman selling baskets leans into a breeze while the world behind her manifests as a sturdy woven framework.  Her signboard touts the tight weave of her baskets; on the verso appear the seller’s private thoughts – in this case, an invitation, ‘feel them with your fingertips.’ (On view through June 15th).

Lubaina Himid, Basket Seller, acrylic on canvas, 96 x 72 inches, 2023.
Lubaina Himid and Magda Stawarska, Baskets Tightly Woven, unique screenprint acrylic paint, and Charbonnel etching ink on Somerset Tub Sized 600 gsm paper (double-sided), 36 5/8 x 29 7/8 inches, 2024.
Lubaina Himid and Magda Stawarska, Baskets Tightly Woven (verso), 2024.

Maurizio Cattelan at Gagosian Gallery

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“I had become addicted to shooting, like one becomes addicted to a drug,” said artist Niki de Saint Phalle of her ‘Shooting Pictures’ from the ‘60s, for which she fired a shotgun at surfaces prepared with bags of paint.  Maurizio Cattelan’s ‘Sunday,’ a 71’ wall of gold-plated steel panels marked with holes and bullets on view at Gagosian Gallery, argues something similar, but with the U.S. as the speaker.  Telling the New York Times in a recent interview that “we are completely immersed in violence every day, and we’ve gotten used to it,” Cattelan hired locals at a New York shooting range to create a bullet-riddled gold and steel wall that towers over gallery visitors, confronting us with our own reflections amid the damage. (On view in Chelsea through June 15th).

Maurizio Cattelan, (detail of) Sunday, 24-karat gold plated steel panel shot with different caliber weapons, 854 x 213.5 x 1.5 inches, 2024.