Jen Liu at Simone Subal Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest ShowPosted on Comments are Disabled

Female legs become soft beakers in Jen Liu’s painting of a luxuriously gold-toned world populated by detached body parts, currently on view at Simone Subal Gallery on the Lower East Side.  A floating head connects by thin gold wire to the legs, while giant fingers reach in from the side to manipulate events.  A nearby video featuring a hot dog factory manned by cadres of female workers aims at “resolving the inequities of wealth and resource distribution through the factory-produced hot dog.”  (On view through March 24th).

Jen Liu, PSCS Gold Loop: Shoe Tubes, acrylic ink, acrylic gouache, and gold acrylic on paper, 70 x 51 inches, 2017.

Wilmer Wilson IV at Susan Inglett Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest ShowPosted on Comments are Disabled

Thousands of staples obscure and decorate the surface of a photo mounted on wood by Philadelphia-based artist Wilmer Wilson IV at Susan Inglett Gallery.  Hiding the besuited figures barely visible below, the staples create an antsy rhythm, reflect light and deflecting viewers’ gaze. (On view in Chelsea through March 16th).

Wilmer Wilson IV, Host, staples and pigment print on wood, 48 x 192 x 2 ¼ inches (diptych), 2018.

Judy Pfaff at Miles McEnery Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest ShowPosted on Comments are Disabled

From melted plastics to acrylic paint on paper from old Indian ledgers, Judy Pfaff’s use of traditional and non-traditional art materials continues to set her exuberantly colored new assemblages apart.  Now on view at Miles McEnery Gallery, her new riotous new creations are dominated by circular and organic forms. Part of a series of pieces title ‘Quartet,’ they find harmony in difference.  (On view through March 9th in Chelsea).

Judy Pfaff, detail of ‘Quartet + 1, photographic inspired digital image, aluminum disks, acrylic, melted plastic, 102 x 120 x 26 inches, 2018.

Jordan Kasey at Nicelle Beauchene Gallery

by Merrily KerrDon't Miss, Features & Commissions, Hottest ShowPosted on Comments are Disabled

Like Fernando Botero’s swelling human figures, Jordan Kasey’s monumental painted bodies transport viewers out of the everyday.  Kasey’s figures, however, have the ponderous heaviness of stone enlivened by a sometimes-electric color palette, a dynamic that gives her massive paintings unique energy.  (On view at Nicelle Beauchene Gallery on the Lower East Side through March 17th).

Jordan Kasey, The Play, oil on canvas, 66 x 72 inches, 2018.

Georg Baselitz at Gagosian Gallery

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Iconic 20th century German painter Georg Baselitz pays homage to artists who’ve inspired him in a new series of portrait paintings at Gagosian Gallery.  Presented in Baselitz’s characteristic upside-down format, figures from Tracey Emin to Willem de Kooning (pictured here) hover against black backgrounds in an ethereal glow that suggests a ghostly background presence in the mind of the artist.  (On view through March 16th).

Georg Baselitz, Willem de K, oil on canvas, 64 15/16 x 39 3/8 inches, 2018.