Sarah Sense at Bruce Silverstein Gallery

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Descended from Chitimacha and Choctaw artisans, Sarah Sense employs family basket-making knowledge to dynamically woven photo collages on view at Silverstein Gallery in Chelsea.  Colonial documents, maps and her own contemporary landscape photographs are the material from which Sense weaves patterns inspired by specific baskets created by Chitimacha makers that were once part of the dispersed McIlhenny family’s collection, now housed in the Montclair Art Museum, Brooklyn Museum of Art and Worcester Art Museum.  The trauma represented by these baskets – produced for collectors as Chitimacha land was continually encroached upon and the community threatened – is not their end message, however.  Rather Sense explains that she intends her work as a healing gesture pointing to time’s cyclical nature. (On view through Nov 23rd.)

Sarah Sense, Montclair Rabbit Study, woven archival pigment prints on Hahnemuhle bamboo paper and Hahnemuhle rice paper, tape, 23 ¾ x 23 ¾ inches, 2024.

Olafur Eliasson at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery

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From his legendary 2003 installation of a sun in the Tate Modern (made with a semi-circle of lights and a mirror) to more intimate light environments and sculptures of colored glass, Olafur Eliasson creates transformative artworks using deceptively simple means. The centerpiece of the artist’s latest solo exhibition at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in Chelsea, ‘Your psychoacoustic light ensemble,’ challenges viewers to rethink how we perceive color, light and other natural phenomena while this time including sound.  In the gallery’s darkened central room, low frequency vibrations can be heard, felt and seen as projected lights respond to the sound waves.  Inviting us to sit and be immersed in the various stimuli, Eliasson describes our experience as ‘seeing ourselves hearing.’ (On view through Dec 19th).

Olafur Eliasson, Your psychoacoustic light ensemble, spotlight, glass lens, mirror foil, tripod, transducer, embedded computer system, dimensions variable, 2024.

Martha Jackson Jarvis at Susan Inglett Gallery

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With their lively, textured surfaces and bold striped patterns, Martha Jackson Jarvis’ large abstract paintings have a strong presence at Chelsea’s Inglett Gallery, but it’s their relationship to the artist’s family history that is most remarkable.  Inspired by research into her great-great-great-great grandfather’s service in the Revolutionary War as a free Black militiaman, Jackson Jarvis juxtaposes lines with abstraction to contrast straight paths of travel with the difficulties of navigating the landscape.  Circular forms point to abundant life, waving pieces of material suggest topography and lush colors juxtaposed with darker tones speak to the rich variety of the natural world.  (On view through Nov 30th).

Martha Jackson Jarvis, South of the North Star, black walnut ink, oil, acrylic, watercolor, arches cold press 300lb paper, and canvas, 99 x 44 x 3 inches, 2020.
Martha Jackson Jarvis, (detail) South of the North Star, black walnut ink, oil, acrylic, watercolor, arches cold press 300lb paper, and canvas, 99 x 44 x 3 inches, 2020.

Cameron Welch at Yossi Milo Gallery

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Cameron Welch’s mosaics at Yossi Milo Gallery pack a punch with their energetic collage-like mix of contemporary and historic imagery.  Here, Orpheus, the hero of Greek mythology who unsuccessfully descended into the underworld to bring back his wife Eurydice, holds the musical instrument with which he could charm both living and dead.  Crafted in ceramic, glass, marble and stone and enhanced with oil and acrylic paint, the artwork not only rethinks a mythological figure but melds ancient and contemporary material tradition. (On view in Chelsea through Nov 9th).

Cameron Welch, Orpheus in the Garden, marble, glass, ceramic, stone, spray enamel, oil and acrylic on panel, 96 ¾ x 80 5/8 inches, 2024.

Carrie Mae Weems at Gladstone Gallery

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In an interview accompanying her recent show at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, iconic photographer and artist Carrie Mae Weems said, “I know that I will be living with injustice for the rest of my life,” before going on to express her determination to advocate for change as it is currently needed.  Her 7-part video ‘Cyclorama: The Shape of Things,’ now on view at Gladstone Gallery after several museum appearances, combines vintage film of circus acts, footage from Amy Cooper’s notorious 2020 Central Park phone call, and scenes from the January 6th insurrection with shots of methodically moving contemporary dancers and more in a collage of imagery that ranges from beautiful to horrifying.  Projected on a circular screen like a 19th century narrative painting accompanied by changing lights and sound, Weems immerses us in the present moment, amplifying and clarifying the conversations and conflicts of the day.  (On view at Gladstone Gallery through Nov 9th).

Carrie Mae Weems, installation view of Cyclorama: The Shape of Things, A Video in 7 Parts, 2021, 7 parts, duration: 40 min, Barbara Gladstone Gallery, September 2024.