Paolo Ventura at Edwynn Houk Gallery

Three isolated bathers search for shells in a nature scene that melds sky and water, melancholy and peace by Paolo Ventura at Edwynn Houk Gallery. Ventura’s new hand painted, collaged photos evoke stage sets that question time and place. (On view in the 57th Street area through Nov 11th).

Paolo Ventura, La Cercatrice di Conchiglie, hand-painted photographs with collage, 30 panels, 8 x 11 1/8 inches each, 2017.

Alice Aycock at Marlborough Gallery

Even the base of Alice Aycock’s dynamic aluminum sculpture appears to lift off the ground in the artist’s dramatic debut at Marlborough Gallery which now represents the artist. The sculpture alludes to the forces of nature, fairground rides and more in works that combine chaotic and ordered forms in one eye-popping piece. (On view on 57th Street through Nov 18th).

Alice Aycock, Untitled Cyclone, aluminum, ed. 1/3 + 1AP, 100 x 165 x 112 inches, 2017.

Josephine Halvorson at Sikkema Jenkins & Co

The title of Josephine Halvorson’s exhibition of new painting, ‘As I Went Walking,’ refers to a verse in Woody Guthrie’s ‘This Land is Your Land’ about trespassing; Halvorson’s weathered signs and tattered boundary markers suggest that ownership of the land is not so easily claimed. (At Sikkema Jenkins & Co in Chelsea through Nov 22nd).

Josephine Halvorson, Jagged, oil on linen, 23 x 20 inches, 2017.

 

Sarah Bereza in ‘Sitting Still’ at Bravin Lee Programs

Sarah Bereza’s paintings question what a frame is and what it should hold. Alive with natural forms, the borders of her images are sculpture holding melting forms or, like here, conventional images that surprisingly appear to resist completion, morphing before our eyes. (On view at Bravin Lee Programs in Chelsea through Nov 29th).

Sarah Bereza, Growth Piece, oil on linen, cast resin, 23 x 18 x 3 inches, 2017.

Douglas Huebler at Paula Cooper Gallery

Before documentation and text became Conceptual Art founder Douglas Huebler’s primary media, his formica sculptures considered how place was experienced as art. Here, the yellow-hued interior of an S shaped sculpture glows mysteriously as it evokes superpower, the alphabet and Truro, MA the place for which it was named. (At Paula Cooper Gallery in Chelsea through Nov 18th).

Douglas Huebler, Truro Series #1, formica on plywood, 35 x 54 x 21 inches, 1966.