Reflecting the complexity of women’s lives, Ethiopian painter Hana Yilma Godine literally makes her characters multi-dimensional, fashioning their images from oil and acrylic, magazines, newsprint, fabric and more. This standout piece from her first New York solo show at Fridman Gallery features overlapping female figures who may represent the same figure at different points in life. (On view on the Lower East Side through Nov 1st. Masks and social distancing are required).
Emily Mae Smith’s subversive broom-bodied character appears in close-up with a view of mice, wheat and a polluted environment reflected in her eyes in this highlight of the artist’s current show at Simone Subal Gallery. Derived from Disney’s Fantasia, the broom appears poised to clean up the landscape she surveys, perhaps in aid of the mice and wheat, species who’ve been on the planet a long time. Her crown of hair, composed of gingko leaves, points to the trees’ role in removing huge amounts of CO2 from urban environments. (On view on the Lower East Side. Masks and social distancing are required and appointments recommended.)
It’s not hard to slip from male to female in Cindy Sherman’s reckoning. A bit of makeup and a change of clothing, and the iconic photographer became both halves of jet-set couples who are the subjects of her latest body of work at Metro Pictures Gallery in Chelsea. With exceptions, Sherman has shied away from portraying male figures in the past; her current characters embrace gender fluidity in colorful or opulent clothing from Stella McCartney’s archive. Placing them against backgrounds that Sherman shot in Bavaria, Shanghai and, here, Sissinghurst Castle Garden in England, the artist tempts viewers to read the identities of these eccentric characters. (On view through Oct 31st. Masks and social distancing are required.)
Amid vibrantly colored décor from an earlier time period, two sisters hold children who have disappeared in Titus Kaphar’s ‘Not My Burden’ at Gagosian Gallery’s 21st Street space in Chelsea. A much-anticipated follow-up to select paintings shown online when TIME commissioned a cover from Kaphar after George Floyd’s murder, the exhibition features work in which children have literally been cut out of the canvas, representing the anxiety and fear experienced by Black mothers. (On view through Dec 19th. Appointments, masks, social distancing, contact info and a health questionnaire are required).
‘Don’t think too much about it,’ advises the title of this colored pencil drawing by young Yale MFA candidate Brianna Rose Brooks, but the awkward closeness and intimate immediacy of woman and butterfly is arresting. Brooks’ two portraits are standouts in Gladstone Gallery’s blockbuster ‘Drawing 2020’ exhibition, which includes recent work by over 100 artists. (On view in Chelsea. Masks and social distancing are required and appointments are recommended.)
