Using unconventional painting materials like the jewelry chains crisscrossing this canvas, LA-based artist Sarah Cain aims to prompt memories and evoke emotions in her viewers. Actually titled ‘Emotions,’ this painting simultaneously suggests a spill of paint, hanging fabric and fairground flags, blurring abstraction and representation and taking the mind several places at once. (On view in Lehmann Maupin Gallery’s summer group show ‘cart, horse, cart’ in Chelsea through August 16th).
Three children forge ahead into the unknown on a boat made of braiding hair packaging in this oil-based relief collage on canvas by Yale MFA candidate Kathia St Hilaire. A standout in Derek Eller Gallery’s current group show, St Hilaire’s image features kids venturing forth under a blazing sun to navigate their own identities and paths in life. (On view on the Lower East Side through July 3rd).
Washington-based glass artist Dylan Martinez fools the eye with solid glass sculptures that appear to be plastic bags filled with water. “Our desires often override our true perception of reality,” the artist explains, anticipating the strong urge to believe that there’s water inside each ‘bag’ when, in fact, it’s the reflections on the exterior that create an illusion of movement. A standout in Lyons Wier Gallery’s ‘Fire & Water’ group exhibition, Martinez also amazes with glass sculptures resembling cross sections of a vase, undulating in space. (On view in Chelsea through July 6th).
It’s risky to take too long a look at Sikkema Jenkins & Co’s gallery wall – British abstract artist Terry Haggerty’s mural can literally upend your balance as his painted lines appear to twist and bend in space. The optical surprises continue in painted wooden panels that invite us to try to make out the multiple viewpoints depicted in each piece. Whether you walk away with a headache or invigorated by the effort of wrestling with your perceptions, the show is worth engaging. (On view in Chelsea through June 30th).
As Pop art burst onto the US art scene in the early 60s, Austrian artist Kiki Kogelnik moved to New York and forged her own related path, imagining humans as robots, bombs as sculpture and later, models as aliens. In this painting from 1979, Kogelnik morphed the fashion-forward woman of the day into a creature with glowing eyes and stylish garments, hair and skin in reptilian green tones. Set against floating triangles, the women are as abstract as their backgrounds and ready to defy convention. (On view at Mitchell-Innes & Nash in Chelsea through June 29th).
