Alison Elizabeth Taylor creates new natural wonders at James Cohan Gallery with her latest solo show of 2-D artworks crafted in a blend of marquetry, paint and photographic media. Here, an affectionate couple in the Covid era have beautifully rendered hair – composed of various types of wood veneer – and a bandana that amazingly manages to be believable as both cloth and wood grain. (On view in Tribeca through Oct 23rd. Masks and social distancing required.)
When Philip Guston stopped painting in an abstract expressionist style and adopted a new, faux-naïve look in 1970, art world response was so negative that the artist relocated to Rome for the better part of the following year. ‘Pittore,’ part of a major show of Guston’s late work at Hauser & Wirth Gallery, expresses some of the anxiety that Guston must have felt as a painter, as well as his need to change to a representational style to engage in a more overt way with the politics of the day. Here, the artist lies awake in bed at night, his paint and brush beside him. Smoking, his eyes bloodshot, and with a clock rising behind him like a moon dominating a landscape, the pressure is palpable. (On view in Chelsea. Proof of vaccination, photo ID and masks are required).
Alice Neel’s desire to ‘bear witness’ to the humanity she encountered resulted in a range of portraits, from bohemian downtown artists to her Harlem neighbors to colorful characters seen on the street. ‘Conversation on a Bus’ from 1944 exaggerates the features of two chattering friends but at the same time lures us into their animated conversation and, in the eyes of the woman in the brown hat, hints at the pleasure of intimacy with a friend. Despite the Met’s recent extensive survey of Neel’s work, this selection of paintings from Neel’s early decades at David Zwirner Gallery feels fresh and full of revelation. (On view on 20th Street in Chelsea through Oct 16th.)
“Do not fit into the glass slipper like Cinderella did, shatter the glass ceiling,” reads the text (quoting Indian actor Priyanka Chopra?) covering Ghada Amer’s portrait of her friend, Elizabeth. Though Amer has changed her subjects from women in erotic magazines to friends, family and collaborators, she has not altered her habit of citing truisms from a feminist perspective. Her latest Chelsea show – her first at Marianne Boesky Gallery – features texts intended to build up women and their capabilities. (On view through Oct 23rd).
Often painted from memory and incisively capturing aspects of a sitter’s emotional life, Beauford Delaney’s portraits at Michael Rosenfeld Gallery feel strikingly immediate. Showcasing 25 portraits and 7 abstractions from the artist’s Greenwich Village days to his decades in Paris, the exhibition’s highlights demonstrate how (as the gallery puts it in a handout), “the physical description of the sitter is secondary to their psychological essence.” Here, in a portrait titled ‘Untitled (Young English Lieutenant),’ the tones of Delaney’s multi-colored background direct our eyes towards a vivid encounter with a young Englishman. (On view in Chelsea through Nov 13th. Masks and proof of vaccination are required.)
Whether they crown an ice cream Sunday or nestle between burger buns, late sculptor David Gilhooly’s recurring ceramic frogs humorously disrupt classic dishes. A member of the California-based Funk Ceramic Movement, Gilhooly embraced the grotesque while picturing foods that should be tempting. Here, a tower of bagels and donuts along with an about-to-topple coffee cup are delivered by a frog with skin resembling bread covered with poppy seeds. (On view in ‘Craft Front and Center’ at the Museum of Art and Design through Feb 13th.)
Martine Syms fans expect a stream-of-conscious outpouring of text and image (as in her recent diaristic book, ‘Shame Space’) and her latest solo at Bridget Donahue will not disappoint. Videos housed in custom, laser-cut cardboard boxes covered in fragments of commercial imagery or even inserted into a corner of a hanging dry cleaning bag run counter to typical sleek gallery video presentations. Positioned in front of one video wall, this chair titled ‘Bonnet Core’ sports frilly lace at the edges, abundant text and a high heeled pink boot next to one chair leg. Accompanied by a press release written by Alissa Bennett detailing enthusiastic engagement with an auction of Janet Jackson’s belongings earlier this year, the show speaks to our deeply personal yet shared experience of pop culture. (On view through Sept 25th on the Lower East Side).
Dogwood flowers are known for their ‘delicate yet tough appearance’ the Brooklyn Museum explains; Sugiura Yasuyoshi’s sculptural version of a dogwood bloom adds another contrast by presenting transient beauty in solid stoneware. Known for his ceramic sculptures of flowers, Yasuyoshi’s blooms may seem an unusual choice for ‘The Slipstream,’ the museum’s current show of work from the permanent collection that reflects on the turbulence of 2020. But the flower is often associated with rebirth, making it a symbol of hope. (On view through March 20, ’22. Masks and vaccination proof required.)
Prior to the pandemic, artists Alice Hope, Bastienne Schmidt and Toni Ross decided to make artwork in response to one object at the Met; improbably, they each focused on a navigational chart from the Marshall Islands. Known for creating abstract sculpture and installation composed of repeated objects, Hope’s contribution to the three artists’ current joint exhibition at Ricco/Maresca Gallery includes this accumulation of ball chains. A kind of counterpoint to navigating social space through distancing, theses crowded forms resemble natural fibers but are made from mass produced keychains. (On view in Chelsea through Sept 11th).
Known for semi-abstract and often small-scale sculpture including the ‘Lynch Fragments’ series recently on view at the New Museum, Melvin Edwards takes over the south entrance to City Hall Park via Public Art Fund with this large-scale sculpture depicting broken chains. Titled ‘Brighter Days’ the exhibition’s curving minimal forms enhances the attractiveness of the message displayed – freedom from bondage. (On view through Nov 28th).
Exiled to Spain, then Brazil in the late 70s during Argentina’s military junta, Argentinian artist Marcia Schvartz returned to Buenos Aires in 1983, settling in the working class and bohemian neighborhood of San Telmo. Frank portraits of her friends and neighbors followed, along with this depiction of a mystical encounter at one of the city’s major train stations now on view in an exhibition of Schvartz’s work at Tribeca gallery 55 Walker. Downplaying the opulent and busy surroundings of the station, Schvartz concentrates on a tender encounter between a mom and an ethereal visage. (On view through Sept 7th).
Experimental Finnish photographer Niko Luoma recreates a scene from an iconic 19th century woodblock print by Hokusai in this photographic image made from multiple exposures at Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery. Whereas Hokusai pictures travelers battling the wind – holding on to their hats or losing a stack of paper to a strong gust – Luoma’s version abstracts the scene, creating mood with strong color and foregrounding the escaping pieces of paper as they take flight. (On view in Chelsea through Aug 27th.
Alice Aycock’s sizeable ‘Wavy Enneper’ sculpture in Marlborough Gallery’s summer group show is tantalizingly familiar, resembling an underwater organism or a fungus. However, its enticingly curving, dynamic form was actually inspired by a diagram of a self-intersecting surface introduced by 19th century German mathematician Alfred Enneper. (On view in Chelsea through Sept 11th).
Arcmanoro Niles’ first solo show at Lehmann Maupin Gallery opens with this oil, acrylic and glitter image of a contemplative man, raising his eyebrows at the viewer or maybe at life itself. Titled ‘Hey Tomorrow, Do You Have Some Room For Me: Failure Is A Part Of Being Alive,’ the show looks hopefully to the future while acknowledging the challenges and temptations of life now. With this image, Niles takes a scene from everyday life and turns it electric with red and pink tones and glitter accents; at the bottom and right, he adds sketchily drawn figures that represent the pleasuring seeking id, begging the question of how these interlopers will effect the tranquil domestic life pictured. (On view in Chelsea through Aug 27th.)
Is abstraction less political than representational art? ‘Hiding in Plain Sight,’ Pace Gallery’s summer group exhibition, argues for abstract art’s capacity to embody resistance. Yto Barrada’s ‘Geological Time Scale,’ a selection of monochrome Moroccan rugs arranged around a custom-built table, recalls how an early 20th century French general’s catalogue of traditional rugs excluded single-color pieces, his bias impacting his audience’s understanding of Moroccan textile production. (On view in Chelsea through Aug 20th).
Brazilian artist Marepe’s socially conscious practice thrives on contrasts between city and country, rich and poor, etc.; each of these five assemblages in Anton Kern Gallery’s 25-year anniversary show is collectively titled ‘caipira’ or ‘bumpkins’ and features a prominent heart drawn in pastel. Set up like pins waiting to be bowled down, these unsuspecting folk appear to be especially vulnerable. (On view at 16 East 55th Street through Aug 20th).
Photography came of age in the 19th century western landscape and, more recently, the western U.S. has been transformed by the effects of climate change says artist Brea Souders, whose new series ‘Vistas’ at Bruce Silverstein Gallery explores representations of the region created using Google Photo Sphere. Each found photo features a distorted shadow, Google’s algorithm having removed images of people. As individual agency meets global dissemination of images taken in remote locations, the scale and experience of nature shifts dramatically. (On view in Chelsea through Aug 20th).
Queer community in natural settings inspired Diedrick Brackens latest show of vibrant weavings at Jack Shainman Gallery’s 20th Street location. Here, two figures connect to each other via the closeness of their echoing silhouettes as they create organic shapes in harmony with the landscape around them. (On view through August 20th).
JoAnn Verburg’s recent photos at Pace Gallery of olive groves were taken in California, Israel and Italy, but it’s not always easy to guess which location is which. Calling the images a ‘contemplative respite’ from the demands of everyday city life, Verburg steps outside of the specifics of place and time to present a meditation on time and beauty in nature. (On view in Chelsea through Aug 20th).
‘Great Divide,’ the title of this watercolor by Tim Gardner at 303 Gallery, could refer to U.S. politics or the Rockies; chiefly, it taps into mythologies of the lone wanderer. German Romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich’s iconic solitary figure on a cliff’s edge comes to mind, now behind the wheel of a gas guzzler and protected by guardrails. The restorative qualities of nature, experienced particularly during the pandemic, no doubt inspired Gardner. At the same time, the complexities of contemporary relationships to nature make the image enticing and uncomfortable. (On view in Chelsea through Aug 13th).
The unlikely combination of a snake and carrots and the media of painting and ceramics in Stephanie Temma Hier’s sculpture/painting at Kasmin Gallery both attracts and puzzles. Hier’s diverse combinations of imagery have included ceramic greyhounds with painted blueberries and sculptural lips enclosing a 2-D image of tulips; generally her juxtapositions prompt consideration of how the natural world has been mediated by human consumption. Titled ‘At the Root of the Curve,’ this painting links root vegetables to sinuous forms via algebra terminology. (On view in Chelsea through Aug 13th).
Jingze Du’s distorted figures recall staticky interference on an old black and white tv monitor, prompting viewers to consider what mediates the images we consume. Though painting in oil on canvas, Du’s animals, famous actors and sports stars reference digital manipulation. Du cites Kayne West’s vocal distortions and the shifting skull in Hans Holbein’s famous 16th century painting ‘The Ambassadors’ as further sources of inspiration. In this painting at The Hole’s new Tribeca location, Du does strange and captivating things with Brad Pitt’s classic squint. (On view through Aug 8th).
Though young Brooklyn-based painter and printmaker Jade Alexis Thacker’s watchful characters look too aware to be courting oblivion, they’re standouts in Fredericks & Freiser Gallery’s summer group show ‘Towards a More Beautiful Oblivion.’ Thacker’s paintings often include black and yellow color contrasts that convey danger and anxiety, but here, cool colors, an intimate embrace and the angelic, wing-like arm of the figure on the right also speak to comfort and strength in friendship. (On view in Chelsea through August 6th).
While recovering from the Spanish flu in 1920, iconic American modernist painter Stuart Davis made a short trip to Cuba, recording its people and places in a series of alluring watercolors now on view at Chelsea’s Kasmin Gallery. Often pictured in silhouette, Davis’ figures appear to be glimpsed in passing. Suffused with light-infused, warm tones, the paintings evidence the intrigue of an unfamiliar environment. (On view through Aug 13th.)
Two fabulously colored fighting cockerels by London-based painter Allison Katz dominate Luhring Augustine’s summer group show. Titled ‘Noli Me Tangere!’ or ‘don’t touch me’ after Christ’s post-resurrection instruction to Mary Magdalene, the birds seem less about divine mystery than hysterical escalation of conflict. Flowing feathers create dynamic patterns, echoing the clouds in the sky and lending beauty and urgency to a scene both captivating and absurd. (On view in Chelsea through August 6th.)
David Hammons’ untitled bottles from the mid-80s are a standout in Alexander Gray Associates’ summer group show, which features artists of color who have a relationship to the Hudson River Valley. Evoking messages cast adrift in bottles or carefully constructed ships in bottles, each curious form invites and eludes easy interpretation. A white lightning bolt suggests magically captured electricity, a fish somehow survives in a glass enclosure and the zippers from the flies of pants become living insects, a series of transformations that invite wonder. (On view through Aug 14th).
Shirt sleeves, pant legs, scarves and other clothing fragments peek out intriguingly from between layers of red brick at the entrance to Karyn Olivier’s current solo show at Chelsea’s Tanya Bonakdar Gallery. On the reverse side of this floor to ceiling wall, the rest of each garment hangs in a mass collage of color and pattern Titled ‘Fortified,’ the piece suggests a barrier erected and made strong by the people. (On view in Chelsea through July 30th).
Inspired by unschooled art and experimentation, artist and School of the Art Institute of Chicago ceramics professor William J. O’Brien presents a cluster of 42 ceramic spheres celebrating nonconformity and variety in Marianne Boesky Gallery’s summer group show. Titled ‘Earth, Water, Fire, Wind & Space, Pt. 1,’ the installation is literally grounded yet aims to take the mind beyond the everyday. (On view in Chelsea through Aug 6th).
In Albertz Benda’s summer group exhibition, ‘Fragmented Bodies II: Fluidity in Form,’ fluidity defines identity. Chloe Chiasson’s Target Practice, a shaped painting that is part of the wall and leaps off of it, features a group of young men who defy stereotypes of masculine rural behavior. Perched on a wooden fence with beer cans used for target practice, one man’s ‘Daddy’ tattoo, another’s earring and scattered daisies upend expectations. (On view in Chelsea through July 31st).
Susan Inglett Gallery’s excellent summer group exhibition, co-curated by David Platzker of Specific Object and Alex Ostroy of the cycling apparel brand Ostroy, celebrates the bike as revolutionary object. From a late 19th century French poster depicting a woman in long dress enjoying the freedom of the road to Rodney Graham’s bike-powered, rotating psychedelic collage, the exhibition extols the power of the bike to take people in new directions. Here, Ricardo Brey’s standout mixed media sculpture ‘Joy,’ connects bikes to heavenly paths and celestial orbits. (On view through July 23rd).
Inspired by Florentine salt cellars depicting religious imagery, Ann Agee’s contemporary Madonna and child sculptures rethink traditional devotional objects. After an online taster exhibition featuring mother and child sculpture in summer ‘20, Agee rewards an in-person visit to PPOW Gallery with dozens of sculptures in wonderfully bold patterns and styles that range from detailed to abstract. Occupying one huge pedestal at the center of the gallery, Agee’s homage to mothers and – in this case female – children is a celebration of variety and invention. (On view in Tribeca through July 23rd.)
The delicacy of hand-crafted materials crashes together with the fast-paced, action-packed nature of basketball in new sculpture by Hugh Hayden at Chelsea’s Lisson Gallery. Fee-fi-fo-fum (pictured here) and other basketball hoops and backboards fashioned from thorny vines, rattan or synthetic hair are titled after fairy tales, alluding to the tantalizing dream of success via sports. (On view through August 13th).
Rue is a herb that can be used as a contraceptive and in high doses can kill; it’s one of the plants in Marlene McCarty’s installation ‘Into the Weeds: Sex and Death’ at Sikkema Jenkins & Co which presents plants with medicinal and/or lethal properties in a dumpster outside the gallery and a pile of dirt lit by grow lights inside. Rue also features in one of the McCarty’s large drawings, positioned in front of The Vessel at Hudson Yards (a symbol of developer’s power and more recently, death by suicide), two Roman sandals and more. Explained in detail through histories of each plant posted to the gallery website, McCarty’s point is to highlight flora’s power to undermine established order. (On view through July 30th. Masks and social distancing required).
Using a restricted palette dominated by primary colors, champion of non-academic art Jean Dubuffet expressed the whirl of urban life in this 1982 work on paper now on view at Timothy Taylor Gallery. Six anonymous figures are wide-eyed and grinning but their abstract context resists interpretation, conveying only that they’re navigating their immediate surroundings in the moment. (On view in Chelsea through July 30th. Masks and social distancing required.)
Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ piles of candy, Oscar Murillo’s pallets of freshly made chocolate and Betty Woodman’s ceramic fragments are some of the most meaningful and memorable free gifts artists have offered to New York art audiences in recent years. Now, Linda Goode Bryant’s floating farm at Gagosian Gallery joins in with daily offerings of freshly grown and harvested produce. Tiny bags of basil, cilantro and green beans await someone’s dinner plate but also testify to Bryant’s efforts to supply healthy food to communities with restricted access to produce via Project EATS, the urban farming organization she founded in 2009. (On view in Chelsea through Aug 13th. Masks and social distancing required.)
Nick Cave’s original Soundsuit, a costume made from hundreds of small twigs that rustled when the suit was worn, was a protective gesture prompted by Rodney King’s violent treatment at the hands of LA police in 1991. His latest series of suits, now on view in Jack Shainman Gallery’s group exhibition ‘Anti/Body,’ are collectively titled 8:46, referring to the amount of time (recently understood to be longer) that Derek Chauvin took to kill George Floyd. Larger than life and composed of bright floral and patterned textiles as well as synthetic flowers, each suit celebrates and mourns a lost life. (On view in Chelsea through July 2nd. Masks and social distancing required).
Canadian artist Brendan Lee Satish Tang’s blend of traditional-looking ceramics and robot-like forms at C24 are unlike anything in the Chelsea galleries now. Inspired by both ormolu, a technique popular in 18th century France that involved adding decorative elements to existing art objects, as well as manga/anime culture, Tang grafts ceramic elements onto bases that look like engines, rockets or robots. His curious hybrids crash together different times and histories to humorous and intriguing effect. (On view through July 17th. Masks and social distancing required).
Mirrors, lights and long lines of visitors usually accompany Yayoi Kusama’s Chelsea exhibitions; Michael Rosenfeld Gallery’s selection of the artist’s smaller scale 2-D and 3-D work from the 50s and 80s is a quieter affair but a gem for Kusama fans. Here, two box-shaped sculptures feature the artist’s signature nets, polka dots and phallic forms, bringing together pattern and texture in abundance. Despite this work’s title, ‘Ruins (Haikyo),’ clustered protrusions resembling eggs in a nest appear to embody life and movement. (On view through July 30th. Masks and social distancing required.)
Ophelia, who lost her life by drowning in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, is transported to a North American landscape in recent work by Stephen Hannock at Marlborough Gallery. An homage to the artist’s late wife whose ill health took away her freedom, Hannock’s Ophelia series draws on John Everett Millais’ famous painting of Ophelia and Thomas Cole’s renowned 1836 depiction of the Connecticut River’s oxbow. Together, tragic individual experience merges with the sublime and healing possibility of nature. (On view through July 2nd. Masks and social distancing required).
Leslie Wayne’s paintings give pleasure through deception; her signature technique is to use paint as a sculptural medium, fooling the eye with dried paint crafted in three dimensions. Wayne’s latest solo show at Jack Shainman Gallery presents paintings that appear to be objects in her studio or windows that do or do not offer a view. On closer inspection, each is carefully crafted to resemble a well-used tool, now worse for wear. Constructed over the past year, each artwork speaks to brokenness close to home. (On view in Chelsea through July 2nd.)
Peruvian artist Jose-Carlos Martinat transplants bold graphics from the streets of Lima into Marc Straus Gallery’s Lower East Side space in an impactful show that coincides with his country’s contentious election. Working in his signature technique, Martinat applies resin and fiberglass to outdoor walls that have been painted with political symbols and slogans, peeling away the paint in sheets that hang from the gallery ceiling or on the walls. Here, a giant pencil originated as a message of support for former school teacher Pedro Castillo, the apparent winner of this month’s runoff. (On view through June 30th. Masks and social distancing required.)
Freestanding and stretching energetically out into the gallery, Lynda Benglis’ new cast-bronze sculptures at Pace Gallery pulse with life. Inspired by knotted forms that connect to time spent crocheting with her grandmother, but with evocative titles like ‘Black Widow’ or ‘Striking Cobra,’ the sculptures invite viewers close while impressing with their power. (On view in Chelsea through July 2nd. Masks and social distancing required).
Celebrated Pattern and Decoration artist Robert Kushner wears his heart on his sleeve in his latest solo show titled ‘I Heart Matisse’ at DC Moore Gallery in Chelsea. Strong pattern and bright color dominate still lives that include ceramics and textiles in his collection. By mentally inhabiting Henri Matisse’s light-drenched South of France style, Kushner not only pays homage but celebrates optimism and pleasure in nature and creativity. (On view through June 19th).
Social distancing is over in Zoey Frank’s 2021 painting ‘Pool Party,’ a standout in her current show at Chelsea’s Sugarlift Gallery. More than nine feet tall, the canvas crowds in fifteen mostly female figures in a celebration of human interaction, from a gossipy interlude at bottom left to seniors enjoying a child at center. (On view through June 26th. Masks and social distancing required.)
Known for his surreal canvases, Columbian artist Miguel Cardenas adds a mysterious element to Jack Hanley Gallery’s current dog-themed group exhibition. At just under 1’ x 1,’ this small panel painting has a strong presence with its bold blue background and a hybrid man/dog creature’s penetrating eyes. The title, ‘Heart of a Dog,’ suggests a human following animal passions. (On view through June 12th Masks and social distancing required.)
Closeups of a yellow cable knit sweater, acne scars, popcorn and other objects with textured surfaces draw viewers into Jennifer J Lee’s tiny representational paintings at Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery. Colorful and complex, they engage the senses on multiple levels; painted on rough panels of jute, Lee accentuates the tactility of her subjects. Here, cacti crowd the frame of this 13 x 12 inch piece offering a lively dynamic of sharp thorns and strong light. (On view on the Lower East Side through June 26th. Masks and social distancing required).
Iranian-born New Yorker Kamrooz Aram’s abstract paintings are a standout in Peter Blum Gallery’s handsome summer group show ‘Field of Vision,’ enticing with their heavy texture and abundant organic forms. Known for riffing on arabesque decoration, Aram sends our eyes fluttering around this verdant canvas, briefly settling on forms that resemble insect wings or clouds. Two panels suggest shutters opening on an intimate garden or the dark of night. (On view on Grand Street through July 30th. Masks and social distancing required.)
Based in Beijing but frequently traveling to exhibit her artwork, Yin Xiuzhen was inspired to turn suitcases into ceiling-mounted mini-cities now on view at Pace Gallery in Chelsea. Working with second-hand clothing from the city she’s depicting, she has constructed small-scale versions of urban landscapes and architecture from around the world. Both deeply personal – made from a material that expresses many individuals’ personal tastes and circumstances – and representing architecture ‘owned’ by an entire city of citizens, Yin Xiuzhen connects individual and collective experience in a global framework. (On view through June 26th. Masks and social distancing required.)
Paused in mid-action and wearing tattered clothing, this cowboy may look worse for wear, but he appears to have come out on top. What he’s literally on top of – a platform hiding three individuals with huge eyes – suggests the drama isn’t quite over. Alexander Harrison’s cowboy – backlit by a fiery red sky and composed of dynamic, bending limbs – is a highlight of Kasmin Gallery’s group show ‘New Old Histories;’ in one action-packed moment, Harrison frustrates the typical Western good guy vs bad guy dichotomy (is he the law or is the law after him?) and leaves us wanting more. (On view in Chelsea through June 26th. Masks and social distancing required.)
Can painting be a tapestry? Can it be sculpture? Analia Saban continues to explore painting’s possibilities in her current show at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, in which she presents woven paintings, pigments derived from Tesla paint, and dried paint as a printing surface. Here, one of a series of paintings created by weaving dried paint strips through linen features a gradient inspired by image-editing software. Appearing in various colors of the spectrum, each gradient painting juxtaposes the digital and handmade, painting and fabric production, offering a fascinating hybrid medium. (On view in Chelsea through June 19th. Masks and social distancing required).
Inspired by moments of tenderness, Flag Art Foundation’s 35 artist summer group show explores a variety of expressions of affection, from a child asleep in a parent’s arms to a beautifully hand-stitched scene of self-care. British artist Gareth Cadwallader’s Orange Juice, a small oil painting with a lot of detail, suggests we pause to appreciate the pleasures of the natural world, from the orange that produces juice to the jumble of plant life to the left, topped by two bird-of-paradise. (On view in Chelsea through Aug 13th. Masks and social distancing required).
Tiles influenced by Moorish design and imported from Portugal to Brazil have long inspired Brazilian artist Adriana Varejao’s meditations on cultural and ethnic hybridity. Now focusing on Mexican Talavera tiles, Varejao’s new work at Chelsea’s Gagosian Gallery considers how the tiles relate to indigenous, Hispanic, Italian and Chinese ceramic production. At the center of the gallery, columns covered in tile are revealed to have meat-like cores that recall the white veined, red marble columns of Baroque architecture. For Varejao, Baroque culture – and the ‘chaotic pulsing matter’ of the columns – is predicated on accepting difference and embracing multiple identities. (On view in Chelsea through June 26th. Masks and social distancing required.)
Striking in her streamlined beauty, ‘Tlali’ greets visitors to Chelsea’s Lisson Gallery, where Mexico City based artist Pedro Reyes’ latest solo show draws inspiration from pre-Columbian aesthetics. Translated as ‘earth,’ Tlali has been created in volcanic stone, a material that Reyes links not just to the land but to sustenance (as it is used to create mortar and pestles). In this photo, behind Tlali, a scribe represents the preservation of knowledge while an abstract tower of reddish tezontle stone was inspired by temple supports resembling Toltec warriors. (On view through June 18th. Masks and social distancing required.)
Tiny at just 8 x 8 inches, this underpainted and glazed ceramic sculpture has a powerful presence in Natalie Frank’s solo exhibition at Salon94’s Lower East Side location. ‘Woman, Bride,’ is one of many female figures depicted in paper pulp paintings or ceramic sculpture who appears to know her own mind and is prepared to use it. Whether Frank is partnering with Ballet Austin on a performance, illustrating books with her expressive paintings, or crafting sculpture, the dynamism and daring of her imagined characters stands out. (On view on the Lower East Side through May 22nd.)
Like his colossal humanoids made of rough-hewn blocks of stone at Rockefeller Center in 2013 or his colorful rock stacks located outside of Las Vegas, Ugo Rondinone’s towering sculptures at Gladstone Gallery offer a transformative experience. Titled ‘nuns + monks,’ the three figures are scaled up bronze versions of stones broken in ways that resemble figures in voluminous ecclesiastical garments. Rondinone explains that nuns and monks exist as ‘vessel and beacon, human body and mystical source,’ and therefore represent the possibility of new metaphorical interpretation. (On view in Chelsea through June 18th. Masks and social distancing are required.)
Twelve feet in diameter and commanding Gladstone Gallery’s entire front room, Wangechi Mutu’s bronze ‘Mama Ray’ is a force to be reckoned with. Rising up on her wing-like fins to meet visitors, this regal aquatic creature is only head-high but radiates power. Mutu’s bronze sculptures, which include four created for the Met Museum’s prestigious façade commission in 2019, introduce new mythologies devised, the artist explains, to picture new heroes, courage, beauty and love. (On view through June 19th. Masks and social distancing are required.)
Josiah McElheny’s current show of blown glass sculpture at James Cohan Gallery’s Lower East Side location was inspired by a set of references as complex as his mirrored environments but dazzles even without the background info. Prompted by a library imagined by Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges, McElheny creates vessels intended to house various forms of knowledge. In this sculpture, McElheny explains that oblong shapes embody the idea of atoms in motion and the planet on its elliptical orbit. Though we don’t literally see a library of knowledge relating to elliptical motion, each sculpture inspires wonder at the possibilities of what we may have not yet considered. (On view on the Lower East Side through June 12th. Masks and social distancing are required).
Painting from a self-described ‘birds eye view,’ London-based artist Shirazeh Houshiary applies layers of water and pigment along with colored pencil lines to her canvas in a labor-intensive process that lends a sublime effect to her monumental abstractions. In this detail image from the over 17 feet long ‘Feel,’ now on view at Lehmann Maupin Gallery, vivid contrasts of red and black are a portent for unknown events of obvious consequence. (On view through May 28th. Masks and social distancing are required).
Luxury, power, and technology provocatively merge in Jonathan Monaghan’s mesmerizing digital images and new animation ‘Den of Wolves’ at Bitforms Gallery. Traditional symbols of monarchal authority – an ermine robe, a scepter – show up in the aisles of an otherwise empty big box outlet or a pristine, unpopulated Apple store, conflating old and new symbols of cultural clout. Still images titled ‘Sentry’ or ‘Soft Power’ picture the places and beings – composed of luxurious upholstery and architectural details – populating Monaghan’s eerie, too-perfect dystopia. (On view on the Lower East Side through June 12th. Masks and social distancing are required).
Crushed tubular steel in an electric orange color provocatively juxtaposes and compliments salvaged sheets of rolled steel in Carol Bove’s dramatic sculptural installation at David Zwirner Gallery. Titled ‘Chimes at Midnight’ after a 1965 Orson Wells film in which two characters speak of mortality, the sculptures’ industrial materials summons the past while soft, malleable-looking orange segments speak to a future in formation. In its reckoning between past and present, the sculptures continue Bove’s engagement with history in her current sculptural commission on the façade of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. (On view at David Zwirner Gallery).
Six towering oil on canvas abstractions by Gerhard Richter, currently on view at Gagosian Gallery, are a second chance to take in a highlight of the Met’s short-lived Richter retrospective last spring. Collectively titled ‘Cage Paintings,’ they pay homage to composer John Cage, whose chance-based music Richter listened to as he created the series in 2006. Made by pulling a squeegee across painted canvas, the paintings juxtapose the artist’s carefully developed technique with the inevitable unforeseen results of his painting method. (On view in Chelsea through June 26th).
Beautiful women and lush gardens contrast oppressive symbols like balls and chains or large metal keys in Arghavan Khosravi’s latest paintings at Rachel Uffner Gallery. Here, ‘Patiently Waiting,’ features an explosive device with ambiguous consequences if used – will freedom or destruction result? Similarly, Khosravi’s gardens can be read in contradictory terms as commentary on life in her home country, Iran. The gallery explains, they “…represent the possibilities for respite afforded by private life or the image of utopian paradise promised by religious fundamentalism.” (On view on the Lower East Side through June 5th).
The US flag is shelter and garment for the individual depicted in this 1969 body print/screenprint by David Hammons, now on view in a powerful show of Hammons’ meticulous body prints at the Drawing Center. Made by applying oil to his skin, pressing his body to paper and applying powdered pigments, the print is one of many that incorporate the US flag to question its meaning for Black communities. (On view in SoHo through May 23rd. Appointments, masks and social distancing required. Admission charges waived).
Katherine Bradford’s new ‘Mother Paintings’ at Canada New York depict women caring for sick family members, offering the comfort of a lap and waiting for a school bus, but her signature abstract style upends traditional representations of moms. By avoiding identifying details, she creates symbolic characters and instead directs our focus to the vivid fields of color that make up what might otherwise be mundane scenes. Here, in ‘Mother Joins the Circus – Second Version,’ a mom is taken away, inducted into a new aspect of life by mysterious characters who literally turn things upside down. (On view at Canada Gallery through May 15th).
Even in moments of tenderness and connection, Aaron Gilbert’s dead-eyed characters are shaped by the difficulty of their circumstances. In this painting titled ‘Conspirators,’ currently on view at PPOW Gallery, these men’s tired expressions suggest they’re not just sharing a story or chatting but hatching a desperate plan. The scene recalls Charles White’s 1942 painting of two working men in close conversation that was recently on view in the Whitney’s Mexican muralist show. But while White’s men engage with feeling about the news or activism; Gilbert’s operate with little conviction and less hope. (On view through May 1st with work by Martin Wong in Tribeca. Masks and social distancing required.)
Growing up in Kabul and in Central Asia, recent Yale grad Hangama Amiri was drawn to bazaars and their abundance of textiles, as well as her uncle’s tailor shop. Now in the US, Amiri has sourced similar materials from Afghan-owned businesses to create cloth collages picturing products and places in South Asian diasporic communities now on view at Albertz Benda Gallery. “Fabric as a medium really is associated with memory,” she explains in a statement released by the gallery, “…fabric captures smell, and time, lot of bodily attachments – we are all wearing fabrics. It is also a fragile medium, so it really touches and resembles all those notions of memory I am talking about and it really reconnects with what I am trying to convey in my art”.
Colors pop and merge into the background while shapes seem to hover on the surface of Carrie Moyer’s latest paintings at DC Moore. These tensions – which define Moyer’s practice – are made more provocative in her most recent work by the addition of more representative elements, like the tassel-like floral bells dotting the surface of this painting, ‘Hell’s Bells and Buckets.’ Moyer notes that in some recent work, her palette has ‘downshifted,’ or adopted a chromal sobriety found to either side of the central flow of form in this painting. Far from creating a subdued painting, however, the effect is to heighten excitement at the shifting forms at center. (On view in Chelsea through May 1st. Masks and social distancing required.)
Are vintage game boards art? Ricco/Maresca’s current exhibition of American game boards from the late 19th century to 1940 aims to show that the boards are more than functional objects and are in fact ‘cousins of modern art.’ Having dealt in the boards for years but never dedicated a show to them, the gallery is now exhibiting parcheesi, backgammon, halma, checkers, Chinese checkers, mills, and solitaire boards that resemble mystical diagrams or architectural renderings. This well-used checkers board comes alive with a combination of color and geometry that will keep the eyes moving along with the game pieces. (On view through May 1st. Masks and social distancing required).
Right after the giant fork holding spaghetti and a meatball, the monumental sculpture ‘Dropped Bouquet’ is an immediate draw in Pace Gallery’s new show of collaborative work by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen from the 80s onward. Surrounded by lighthearted works evoking music (including canvas violas, lutes and a trumpet) and flying neckties and pieces of pie, the flowers elicit delight with their cheery color and disorienting scale. (On view in Chelsea through May 1st. Masks, social distancing and appointments are required.)
Outstanding for its color and energy, Hassan Hajjaj’s ‘My Rockstars’ installation at Yossi Milo Gallery features photos of performers, musicians and friends that have inspired the London & Marrakech-based photographer/designer. Shot in pop-up studios around the world with patterned textiles and mats for background, Hajjaj creates or styles each outfit. Borders composed of small-scale commercial products, like the canned tomatoes surrounding Canadian artist MissMe, blend creativity and commerce. (On view through May 29th. Masks and social distancing are required).
‘This is the American dream gone wrong’ declared a review of past work by Matt Bollinger whose paintings were inspired by the people and places of the artist’s home state, Kansas. Bollinger is back with new work at Zurcher Gallery featuring electric colors that run counter to his usual muted tones, but which make the the weariness of his characters all the more noticeable. Even when they’re in public, Bollinger’s characters are alone, caught in a moment of reflection and looking devastated. (On view on the Lower East Side through April 29th. Masks and social distancing are required.)
Pretty in pink but commanding her space, the subject of this portrait by Sydney Vernon at Canada Gallery is full of life. Along with an accompanying video the mixed media portrait is actually a memorial to a family matriarch, ‘a tender reflection on familial love and loss.’ A pelvic x-ray to the left, a photo of two children on the right along with living spaces and artwork suggest episodes from a life while writing on the column to the left offers sage advice including ‘beauty is only skin deep.’ (On view in Tribeca through April 10th. Masks and social distancing is required and occupancy is limited).
Megaphones accent the surfaces of Ethiopian artist Elias Sime’s latest sculptures at James Cohan Gallery, prompting viewers to question what voices are amplified in public discourse. In the context of politics and the pandemic, Sime explains that he’s thinking about “…how humans are easily manipulated by individuals and rush to conclusions that they often regret when the truth begins to surface.” Having recently created domed sculpture for a show at the Saint Louis Art Museum inspired by Native American Cahokia Mounds and the St Louis Gateway Arch, this huge, bowl-like sculpture is a highlight of Sime’s current show. (On view in Tribeca through April 24th. Masks, social distancing and appointments are required).
In her impressive New York solo show debut, Karon Davis transforms Deitch Projects’ cavernous SoHo space into the 1969 Chicago courtroom in which Bobby Seale stood trial bound and gagged. Before a plaster cast of the Black Panther leader, a towering bench houses a replica of Judge Julius Hoffman, who Davis describes in the trial as ‘brutal and monstrous.’ Here, on the gallery’s elevated platform, a row of jurors looks on impassively, isolated in red and blue cases that disengage them with the scene unfolding before them. (On view in SoHo through April 24th).
Is Red Grooms a ‘zany genius’ or ‘so much kitsch?’ The New York Times pondered the question in a 2018 profile of the New York-based creator of ‘sculpto-picto-ramas’ – sculptures of New Yorkers and their habitats. Now, visitors to Marlborough Gallery’s exhibition of Grooms’ work from ’74 to the present have the opportunity to consider anew Grooms’ affectionately eccentric characters, such as this dog-walker from 1981. (On view in Chelsea through May 8th).
Titled ‘Joy Revolution,’ Salon94’s exhibition of late French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle’s painting, sculpture and work on paper celebrates color, pleasure and play. Just inside Salon94’s stunning new 89th Street location, a 17,500 square foot former mansion built by philanthropist Archer Huntington, two lions originally intended as garden decoration greet visitors. Intended to entice kids to climb them, they serve here as guardians and greeters. (On view through April 24th).
It’s not unusual to consider where and how our everyday consumer goods were manufactured, but Amsterdam-based design team Studio Drift goes deeper. Via their ‘Materialism’ project – samples of which are now on view in Pace Gallery’s current tech-friendly group show – Drift practices a kind of reverse engineering by breaking down light bulbs, cell phones and water bottles, as well as historic weapons and this bicycle, into component parts which are then displayed as pleasingly tidy arrangements of colorful cubes. Guessing what each piece represents is an engaging game that ultimately prompts viewers to question how much we know about the goods we consume. (On view on 25th Street in Chelsea through April 24th).
Titled ‘Tradewinds,’ Paul Anthony Smith’s latest show of hand-worked photos at Jack Shainman Gallery celebrates home, memory and the act of celebration itself. More contemplative than some of the artist’s images of parties and get-togethers, this image suggests thoughts as a kind of cloud-cover or camouflage around this young man. Here, Smith’s signature picotage technique – involving a series of tiny rips on the surface of the image – becomes a kind of simultaneous damage and decoration. (On view in Chelsea through April 3rd).
Late South African photographer David Goldblatt didn’t leave it to chance that his photos would be read without context, titling them with notes on their circumstances. Currently on view at Pace Gallery in an exhibition curated by South African photographer Zanele Muholi, who worked and trained in Goldblatt’s studio, the photos consider visibility of women, segregation, privilege, labor conditions and more. Here, Goldblatt records the forced removal of Black families from land designated by the government as ‘white.’ (On view in Chelsea through March 27th).
“The hierarchy of the word ‘front’ is so strong…” explained painter Dona Nelson in a recent interview, concisely conveying how rule-breaking it still feels to exhibit paintings in an upright freestanding frame vs wall mounting them. Her current show at Chelsea’s Thomas Erben Gallery includes two-sided paintings like ‘Early September,’ a canvas that combines a grid system and patterns of dripped lines to play order and chaos against each other. (On view through April 3rd).
In their first New York solo show in 40 years, the Boyle Family (father Robert Boyle, mother Joan Hills and their adult children Sebastian and Georgia Boyle) considers relationships between humans and the environment with wall mounted mini-landscapes. Meticulous recreations of sites chosen at random, each ‘earthprobe’ is a recreation of a segment of the earth’s surface in an urban or rural area. How to interpret these slices of mediated reality? The Boyles explain that they want to consider whether it’s possible to look at the earth and not think of ‘myths and legends, art of the past or present, art and myths of other cultures.’ Thankfully, it seems it is not, as each will prompt historical connections and personal memories. (On view at Luhring Augustine in Chelsea through April 24th).
Glass balls in a rainbow of color and a beautifully ephemeral light projection greet visitors to Olafur Eliasson’s gorgeous new solo show at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, an exhibition designed to give visitors ‘a moment to exhale.’ ‘We need a moment of relief, of beauty, of letting go,’ explains Eliasson, an ambition fulfilled by every piece in the exhibition, including this spherical light installation. Created from green tinted glass and pink iridescent color-effect-filter glass, the piece reflects light of a single color while allowing its complementary color to pass through. (On view through April 24th. Appointments, masks and social distancing required.)
Tilted upwards to better show off a wealth of books, foods and household objects, young LA artist Kate Pincus-Whitney’s tablescapes at Fredericks & Freiser Gallery are a way of processing the world and even portraying people in it. Both personal (Pincus Whitney cites her upbringing in the kitchen by her mother and grandmother as influential) and linked to wider cultural histories (this painting’s soup can nods to Warhol), the artist’s energetic canvases revel in the color and abundance of food and ideas. (On view in Chelsea through March 20th).
Created during quarantine but using faces and feet crafted 20 years ago, Sharif Bey’s small but forceful Boilermaker sculptures layer references to the artist’s personal history as a maker and art history. Formed from a vessel fired with nails and shards to resemble a nkisi nkondi power figure, ‘Boilermaker: Fidel’ references a working-class beer cocktail and Bey’s father’s job as a Pittsburgh boilermaker. The artist identifies the central focus of his work as an investigation of how power manifests; his hybrid sculptures encourage complex understandings of power and influence. (On view at Albertz Benda Gallery in Chelsea through March 27th. Masks and social distancing required).
After debuting its new Chelsea gallery space with a tantalizing series of two-week long exhibitions, Brazilian gallery Nara Roesler continues to impress with a career-survey exhibition of gorgeous work by the late Amelia Toledo. Inspired by the participatory nature of Neo-Concrete art and a devotion to nature and the possibilities of color, Toledo’s multifarious career included installations consisting of hanging jute panels like this ‘Path of color.’ (On view through April 17th. Masks and social distancing required).
Drawing on inspiration from his Spanish, Mexican, Apache and Zuni ancestry and the landscape of the American Southwest, Esteban Cabeza de Baca manifests spiritual and political concepts in paintings and sculpture now on view at Garth Greenan Gallery. The clay outline of a human form set before a mountainous landscape in this painting ‘Vessels’ also exists as a sculpture in gallery. Painted or in three dimensions, it signals an in-between state of existence, for Cabeza de Baca, a freedom in pursuing decolonized thought. (On view through March 13th. Masks and social distancing required).
Malia Jensen explores the idea of getting closer to nature in a literal way by placing sculpture resembling body parts into remote Oregon landscapes. In 2019, the artist carved a hand, foot, head, breast and a stack of donuts (representing the stomach) from livestock salt licks and positioned them and several motion-triggered cameras in places where they’d be altered over time by animals and weather. A year later, she collected the sculptures and cast them in glass, creating artworks now on view at Cristin Tierney Gallery that demonstrate ‘beauty in our vulnerability.’ (On view on the Lower East Side through April 3rd. Masks and social distancing are required.)
Inspired by the palm fronds in his Florida garden and other plant life, James Rosenquist juxtaposed lips and flesh (visible in glimpses as abstract, cut out forms) with blossoming pink peonies in this ‘Flower’ series painting at Ross and Kramer. The connection between women and nature is age-old, but the discomfort conveyed by fragmentary views of female faces is fresh and stops viewers from an easy consumption of beauty. (On view in Chelsea through March 27th. Masks and social distancing are required).
Geometric forms offered endless opportunity for experimentation in late artist Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian’s painted glass and mirror sculptures, meticulously created with craftspeople in Iran. Now on view at James Cohan Gallery’s Tribeca location, pieces such as ‘Hexagon Maze’ were inspired by geometric principles in Islamic art and design, the ways in which a maze can alter everyday reality, and the possibilities of creating artwork within a framework of rules. (On view through March 6th. Masks and social distancing are required).
A glowing globe of hand-stitched prayer caps headlines ‘Nurun ‘ala Nur (Light Upon Light)’, Australian artist Abdullah M. I. Syed’s current show at Aicon Gallery. Positioned over a water-like, reflective blue surface, the light sculpture imitates a full moon, associating the sublime beauty of a celestial body with personal and group devotion. (On view through March 6th).
Brilliant yellow flowers dematerialize in the hazy afternoon light in Jane Freilicher’s vibrant still life from 1967, now on view at Kasmin Gallery in Chelsea. Fifteen paintings from the ‘50s to the ‘00s, demonstrate an “…air of just coming into being, of tentativeness that is the lifeblood of art,” as John Ashberry, Freilicher’s long-time friend, put it. (On view through March 13th).
Made over months if not years, Peter Sacks’ multilayered works at Sperone Westwater are composed of layers of typewritten text, cardboard, paint, textiles from around the world and more. Describing the mind as sedimentary in a 2019 New Yorker profile, Sacks layers meaning below the surface of each artwork, burying layers of imagery to convey the concept that more lies below, unseen. Here, a piece from his ‘Above Our Cities’ series turns the skies into a colorful riot over the relatively small skyline below. Is this a celebration? An apocalypse? Both? (On view on the Lower East Side through March 20th).
Color pools and flows in Oslo-based artist Ragna Bley’s acrylic on sailcloth paintings at Downs and Ross, offering a lushly colored alternative to drab, late-winter New York. Inspired by marine biology and the endlessly fascinating shallows and depths of the sea, each painting complicates the reference to water with its dynamism and color. (On view on the Lower East Side through March 6th).
Areas of darker and lighter blue in jazz pianist and composer Jason Moran’s bold new abstractions at Luhring Augustine suggest intervals of energy and calm, control and freedom. Moran made the works by placing pigment on Gampi paper, laid atop a keyboard, then enacting private performances – ‘surrogates to the concerts I was unable to perform in 2020,’ he explains. Paired with tracks from his new album, the works suggest both transcendence and engagement with the challenges of life over the past year. (On view at Luhring Augustine’s Tribeca space through Feb 27th).
Born in Mumbai, raised in Singapore and living in Brooklyn, Sahana Ramakrishnan draws on a multitude of sources, including Hindu, Buddhist and Greek mythology to create intriguingly enigmatic stories. Referring to ‘the innate mystery of the other,’ the group exhibition ‘A Stranger’s Soul is a Deep Well’ at Fridman Gallery showcases complex and unexplained imagery, including Ramakrishnan’s characterful animals, gathering around a vessel to ask for retribution. (On view on the Lower East Side through Feb 20th).
Gerald Lovell’s grandmother’s photo albums were a key inspiration in the young Atlanta painter’s motivation to create portraits of family and friends. Calling such source photos of family and person history ‘saving moments,’ Lovell sets out to make depoliticized, ‘honest depictions of the people I’m around.’ (On view at PPOW Gallery’s new Tribeca location through Feb 20th. Masks and social distancing are required).
A giant yellow emoji pillow greets visitors to Misaki Kawai’s latest show at The Hole on the Bowery, signaling that the artist’s sense of humor is still lively. Her bright, fun, faux-naïve style comes across in text paintings and furry sculptures that invite touch (a sign on the wall and a dispenser of hand sanitizer confirm that this is allowed). Citing the notion of ‘heta-uma,’ or ‘bad but good,’ Kawai challenges notions of taste, but all in good fun. (On view through Feb 14th. Masks and social distancing are required.)
Twelve untitled light sculptures from 1995 by Dan Flavin transform the white cube into a bath of color at David Zwirner Gallery’s 19th Street Chelsea location. Spaced along two walls, the color configurations change with each sculpture, inviting visitors who walk from piece to piece to reconcile cool and soothing blues and greens with intense reds and yellows. (On view through Feb 20th. Masks and social distancing are required.)
A young Iranian art student captures and analyses the dreams of various American subjects in Shirin Neshat’s two channel film and photography exhibition ‘Land of Dreams,’ encouraging viewers to ponder the stories and psychology of her subjects. Here, an installation of over one hundred photographs pictures New Mexico residents along with personal info – names and birthdates – written in Farsi and drawings relating to their dreams. (On view at Gladstone Gallery through Feb 27th).
Joy arises from moments of hope in photos of Harlem rallies shot by Gordon Parks in 1963, now on view at Jack Shainman Gallery. Elsewhere, a protester’s sign reading ‘Policy brutality must go’ connects powerfully to today’s protests while iconic images from Parks’ series Segregation Story document the lives of Alabama families impacted by discrimination. (On view at Jack Shainman Gallery’s two Chelsea locations through Feb 20th).
