Simone Leigh at Matthew Marks Gallery

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Simone Leigh’s handsome show of new work at Matthew Marks Gallery in Chelsea features several sculptures of female figures in skirts that, with their substantial size, convey power and solidity.  Larger than life, the torso and head of this generalized individual is nevertheless small in comparison to her skirt.  Composed of giant ceramic cowry shells, the material nods to past forms of currency and to esoteric spiritual knowledge.  Resembling the domed shapes of traditional Musgum architecture, West African spiritual objects, and face jugs from the American South, and alluding to many other aspects of African and diasporic culture, Leigh’s beautiful figures manifest complex cultural heritage and histories.  (On view in Chelsea through Dec 14th).

Simone Leigh, Untitled, earthenware, stoneware, and steel armature, 90 x 73 x 75 inches, 2023-24.

Denzil Forrester at Andrew Kreps Gallery and Stephen Friedman Gallery

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Grenada-born British artist Denzil Forrester’s current gallery exhibitions at Andrew Kreps Gallery and Stephen Friedman Gallery in Tribeca showcase vibrantly colored moments from London’s dub reggae scene in past decades.  A regular club visitor from the 1980s, Forrester sketched by night and painted by day, documenting legendary DJs like Jah Shaka, who he honors here in ‘Tribute to Shaka.’  Figures in the periphery of the painting seem to dissolve, as if the reverb was literally breaking apart form and altering the material realm.  (On view through Dec 18th).

Denzil Forrester, Tribute to Shaka, oil on canvas, 79 7/8 x 107 7/8 inches, 2024.

Jade Fadojutimi at Gagosian Gallery

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Titled ‘The Generosity of Trauma,’ this painting by British artist Jade Fadojutimi is one of only two works (along with ‘Sulking is a virtue’) in her show at Gagosian Gallery with a title. Typically colorful and energetic with areas that appear to either be plants or zones of pure abstraction, the artist’s new work explores identity through color.  She has said, “When I feel emotion, I see a color and that’s how my paintings come to life.’  In tune with global challenges like climate change and displacement and the artist’s personal experience with depression, Fadojutimi’s two works with oxymoronic titles suggest that pushing her practice forward through difficulty gives it its vibrant character. (On view in Chelsea through Dec 21st).

The Generosity of Trauma, acrylic, oil, oil pastel and oil bar on canvas, 98 7/16 x 68 7/8 inches, 2024.

Alexandre da Cunha at James Cohan Gallery

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James Cohan Gallery’s austere, white cube front room hosts two equally minimal sculptural forms by Brazilian artist Alexandre da Cunha that allude poetically to labor and the human body.  Two precast concrete manholes nestle together, aligning their openings to provide a passage through both forms and pointing to their function as portals for workers.  On the wall nearby, a circular form made of shovel handles and backed with colorful fabrics from t-shirts, a cleaning cloth, a bed sheet, a tea towel, a hand towel, a sarong and more again points to the bodies and domestic routines of the individuals wielding shovels in their work life.  Industrial or personal in scale, heavy or light, each set of found materials finds beauty in the built environment and its making. (On view through Dec 21st).

Alexandre da Cunha, (right) Public Sculpture (Touch I), precast concrete, 86 x 86 x 30 in, 2024 and (left) Vitral (Rosetta), shovel handles, t-shirts, cleaning cloth, bed sheet, tea towel, hand towel, sarong, fabric cut outs, 80 ¾ x 80 ¾ x 2 3/8 inches, 2024.

 

Cecily Brown at Paula Cooper Gallery

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Long inspired by Old Master painters, Cecily Brown’s latest solo show at Paula Cooper Gallery engages with the fruitful collaboration between 17th century painters Jan Brueghel the Elder’s and Peter Paul Rubens.  Brown’s work on paper – etchings, drawings with watercolor and monotypes – reworks aspects of the duo’s collaborative series of paintings ‘The Five Senses’ from 1617-18, abstracting and condensing the space of interior scenes.  This lush and engaging painting in the gallery’s main space takes that impulse further, proffering a recognizable plate of oysters with lobster at the center of the canvas while turning the room’s other forms into a fluid, fluctuating space from which faces and forms emerge.  (On view through Dec 7th).

Cecily Brown, The Five Senses, 89 x 83 inches, oil on linen, 2023.