Charles Ray at Matthew Marks Gallery

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Just three sculptures, varying in scale and material, yet all in white-toned materials make up LA-based sculptor Charles Ray’s current show at Matthew Marks Gallery in Chelsea.  To the rear of the gallery, a nearly 9-foot-tall woman constructed of handmade paper steps out of her pants.  Towards the front of the space, two slightly larger than life-size supine nude male figures made from marble lie dead on a platform while on a nearby pedestal rests a small, crashed car, hand-crafted from hundreds of pieces of paper.  Though apparently unrelated, the three sculptures suggest that one could be doing something as ordinary as getting dressed one moment and encounter an accident or even death the next.  Titled 8FLU100 after Ray’s own license plate and referring to a crash suffered by the artist, the car is both testament to the fragility of life and statement about art’s role in processing reality.  (On view through June 29th).

Charles Ray, 8FLU100, paper, 7 7/8 x 11 ¾ x 23 ¾ inches, 2024.

Jennie Jieun Lee in ‘Channeling’ at Nicelle Beauchene Gallery

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Inspired by visitations from a spiritual entity, late self-taught British artist Madge Gill produced drawings of anonymous female figures surrounded by patterns; selections of her work from the ‘40s and ‘50s ground Nicelle Beauchene Gallery’s vibrant 3-person show in Tribeca.  Bright, patterned paintings by Chelsea Culprit and lushly glazed ceramics by Jennie Jieun Lee add color and, in the case of Lee’s sculpted heads, introduce decidedly otherworldly figures with appealingly ambiguous identities.  (On view through June 29th).

Jennie Jieun Lee, Red Face, slipcast porcelain, glaze, stoneware stand, 10 x 8 x 8 inches, stoneware stand 2 x 6 x 6 inches, 2024.

Zheng Lu at Sundaram Tagore Gallery

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Beijing-based artist Zheng Lu’s signature steel sculptures feature lassoing splashes of water that allude to a person’s changing inner states; Zheng’s new work at Chelsea’s Sundaram Tagore Gallery introduces more abstracted forms inspired by the natural world, including this piece titled ‘Colosseum,’ a stainless-steel whirlpool which visitors can enter.  Viewed from the outside, ‘Colosseum’ allows viewers to observe the scale and consequence of the swirling vortex on one who may be inside. In Chinese poetry, water has long pointed to a person’s inner state; here, Zheng suggests dramatic workings of the mind.  (On view through July 12th).

Zheng Lu, Colosseum, stainless steel, 46.46 x 46.46 x 188.92 inches, 2024.
Zheng Lu, Colosseum, stainless steel, 46.46 x 46.46 x 188.92 inches, 2024.

Isca Greenfield-Sanders at Miles McEnery Gallery

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It’s always a perfect day in Isca Greenfield-Sanders’ landscape paintings, now on view at Miles McEnery Gallery in Chelsea.  The sky is blue, the road is open and the wildflowers are abundant in scenes of the natural world rendered in soft and pleasing tones.  Based on found vintage photographs, each image was originally meant to epitomize the beauty of a landscape and remind the photographer of an ideal moment.  (On view through July 3rd).

Isca Greenfield-Sanders, Wildflower Hill, mixed media oil on canvas, 34 x 34 inches, 2023.

Ronny Quevedo at Alexander Gray Associates

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Born in Ecuador and raised in New York, Ronny Quevedo incorporates concepts of movement and migration into subtle yet dynamic abstractions at Alexander Gray Associates in Tribeca.  Incorporating McCall’s clothing patterns that act like maps of the body and referring to the checkerboard-like grid of the Aymara flag in pieces like ‘broadway wiphala,’ Quevedo posits the body as register of both cultural continuity and change in diasporic life.  Titled ‘quipu (and another one)’ after the Incan tool for record keeping and recording information, the long strips in this piece echo the arrangement of a quipu’s cords while the broken colors allude to the abstract but essential information represented by its knots. (On view through June 15th.)

Ronny Quevedo, quipu (and another one), pattern paper and screenprint on muslin, 50 x 70 x 2 inches, 2023.
Ronny Quevedo, (detail) quipu (and another one), pattern paper and screenprint on muslin, 50 x 70 x 2 inches, 2023.