Lorna Simpson’s understated, monochrome images employ collaged fragments from magazines like Ebony and Jet in a powerful, poetic mediation on race in America. (At Salon94 Bowery on the Lower East Side through Oct 22nd).
Sally Gall’s gorgeous, boldly colored photos bring to mind flowers, sea creatures and fungi; in fact, the billowing organic shapes are laundry items, photographed from under a drying line. The show wonderfully affirms the beauty in the everyday. (At Julie Saul Gallery through Oct 22nd)
From obsolete reference books, New York artist Brian Dettmer creates found poetry, collages and sculpture that literally manipulate knowledge into fascinating new forms. (At Chelsea’s PPOW Gallery through Oct 15th).
Meleko Mokgosi’s provocative pairing of three regal African women with a massive bull implies that we’re looking at two powerful forces. The diptych’s subtitle is ‘Lerato: Philia I’ the Setwana word for love (used as a noun in reference to a woman) followed by a suffix that brings to mind excessive devotion. (At Jack Shainman Gallery on 20th and 24th Streets through Oct 22nd).
Kyle Staver’s large paintings at Kent Fine Art update legends and classical mythology with panache and humor, but her small terracotta studies stand out for their immediacy. Here, Venus tries unsuccessfully to persuade Adonis not to venture out on his ill-fated hunt in a compressed action scene that casts Venus as a solid earth-mother and Adonis as an ungainly and heedless youth. (In Chelsea through Oct 22nd).
