Like Fernando Botero’s swelling human figures, Jordan Kasey’s monumental painted bodies transport viewers out of the everyday. Kasey’s figures, however, have the ponderous heaviness of stone enlivened by a sometimes-electric color palette, a dynamic that gives her massive paintings unique energy. (On view at Nicelle Beauchene Gallery on the Lower East Side through March 17th).
Iconic 20th century German painter Georg Baselitz pays homage to artists who’ve inspired him in a new series of portrait paintings at Gagosian Gallery. Presented in Baselitz’s characteristic upside-down format, figures from Tracey Emin to Willem de Kooning (pictured here) hover against black backgrounds in an ethereal glow that suggests a ghostly background presence in the mind of the artist. (On view through March 16th).
Kathy Ruttenberg’s signature human/animal hybrids debuted on New York City streets this winter as large-scale sculptures in the Broadway malls project, a public art project located between 64th and 157th Streets on Broadway. This macquette for a sculpture on 157th Street, currently on view at Francis M. Naumann Fine Art, brings her storytelling back to an intimate scale as a human-bodied stag pursues a quixotic romance with a confined mermaid. (On view on 57th Street at Francis M. Naumann Fine Art through March 8th).
British ceramic artist Richard Slee’s ongoing installation of ceramic hammers and tools with wooden handles is a thought-provoking jumble of tongue-in-cheek contradictions, starting with the impossibility of using any of these tools for actual labor. Like Pete Seeger’s famous intention to ‘hammer out love,’ the concept is more convincing than the reality, as suggested by this abandoned pile. (On view at Hales Gallery in Chelsea through Feb 23rd).
Ellen Berkenblit’s snarling big cat dominates Eva Presenhuber Gallery’s basement, where the group show ‘Samaritans’ assembles painting, sculpture and photography that spin strange tales. Above the animal, pipes spew blue clouds while below (or in the distance?) a truck dumps a load of materials. Trapped in the middle of human endeavors, this powerful creature bares its teeth. (On view in the East Village through March 2nd).
