Alicja Kwade at 303 Gallery

Starting with a 3D scan of a boulder, Berlin-based artist Alicja Kwade gradually transforms the large rock into a sphere and a square, morphing through different materials along the way and separating each phase by a mirror.  At rear, a steel framework supports three more stones, identical in mass and weight but shaped and positioned to look otherwise.  Kwade’s intention – to challenge viewers to question what they perceive – results in a puzzling and provocative exhibition.  (On view at 303 Gallery in Chelsea through May 18th).

Alicja Kwade, installation view of ‘ParaParticular’ at 303 Gallery, April 2019.

Vivian Suter at Barbara Gladstone Gallery

From her studio on a former coffee plantation in rural Guatemala, Argentine-Brazilian artist Vivian Suter created the large-scale paintings currently hanging from the ceiling, covering walls and extending to the floor at Gladstone Gallery’s 21st Street location.  Inspired by nature and literally created outdoors, sometimes in conjunction with the elements, Suter aims to subordinate art to the power of nature.  (On view in Chelsea through June 8th).

Vivian Suter, installation view at Gladstone Gallery, April 2019.

Victoria Sambunaris at Yancey Richardson Gallery

Tankers arrayed like a minimalist piece of land art in this photograph by Victoria Sambunaris turn an otherwise drab landscape near Salt Lake City into study in form and function.  Ringed by a barely visible mountains and spread out under voluminous clouds, the trains in their tight formation dominate the natural world in this image.  (On view at Yancey Richardson Gallery through May 11th).

Victoria Sambunaris, Untitled (Tankers), Salt Lake City, chromogenic print, 40 x 56 inches, 2018.

Barthelemy Toguo at Galerie Lelong

Part installation, part performance, Cameroonian-French artist Barthelemy Toguo’s ‘Urban Requiem’ begins with a room of charcoal drawings of African Americans killed by police and culminates in a gallery of heavy, wooden, torso-shaped stamps marked with messages.  Against the back wall of the show, prints made using the stamps advocate for peace and respect for human life.  The stamp in the foreground incites hope for ‘All the world’s futures.’  (On view at Galerie Lelong in Chelsea through May 11th).

Barthelemy Toguo, Installation view of ‘Urban Requiem’ at Galerie Lelong, April 2019.

Arghavan Khosravi in ‘Four’ at Yossi Milo Gallery

A male authority figure crumbles as he leads three young women toward a shattered monolith in Arghavan Khosravi’s lushly painted ‘Mesmerized, Listen to the Big Brother’ at Yossi Milo Gallery in Chelsea.  Though eerily uniform and restrained by shackles connected to earbuds around their necks, the women are real and may free themselves as the illusion ahead of them breaks apart.  (On view through April 27th).

Arghavan Khosravi, Mesmerized, Listen to the Big Brother, acrylic, cement and colored pencil on found wood block printed fabric and mounted on wood panel, 52 ¼ x 39 ¼ inches, 2019.