Francis Alys at David Zwirner Gallery

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Driven by the poetic idea of bridging the 7,7 nautical mile wide Straight of Gibraltar, Francis Alys’ solo show at David Zwirner Gallery pictures fanciful connections between Moroccan and Spanish territory in the form of installation, video, painting and more.  One painting anthropomorphizes sea cliffs into human forms, while elsewhere a giant child stands in the Straight with two people-packed boats under her arms.  In the back gallery, beyond a lightbox displaying news articles about migration across the Mediterranean, a video features a row of kids from Morrocco and a similar line of Spanish youth at the beach, heading into the water carrying toy boats made from shoes (seen here in sculptural form elsewhere in the show).  Resembling both personal items lost in migration and suggesting resourceful toymaking, the boats are somber and lighthearted at the same time, expressing continued hope despite harsh realities.  (On view through Dec 18th).

Francis Alys, installation view of ‘Francis Alys: The Gibraltar Projects,’ Nov 2024.

Annie Leibovitz at Hauser and Wirth

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A photograph of the top hat and gloves that Abraham Lincoln wore when he was assassinated and a shot of Elvis Presley’s TV pierced by a bullet hole are two images with intriguing backstories in iconic photographer Annie Leibovitz’s mini-survey at Hauser and Wirth Gallery in Chelsea.  Less dramatic but more insightful are the many portraits of artists that include Simone Leigh’s hands shaping a piece of clay near a landscape that inspired Georgia O’Keefe, or an Icelandic glacier that vaguely resembles a neighboring shot of Cindy Sherman’s head.  Here, Leibovitz’s image of David Hockney, from a period in which he’d returned to the north of England, allows us an enjoyably intimate view of the artist at work. (On view through Jan 11th).

Annie Leibovitz, David Hockney, Bridlington, East Yorkshire, England, archival pigment print, 2024.

Richard Serra at David Zwirner Gallery

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Installed at a diagonal in David Zwirner Gallery’s huge ground floor 20th Street space, late artist Richard Serra’s 2015 sculpture ‘Every Which Way’ forces a decision from entering visitors who must opt to turn right, left or wind their way between the 16 steel panels.  Regardless of how it is approached, the piece invites interaction and a physical comparison between a visitor’s body and the giant, weighty slabs of metal seven, nine or eleven feet tall that Serra likened to architecture.  Unlike Serra’s rolled steel sculptures with their curving walls and warm, brown patina, this piece’s abrupt flatness and grey steel surfaces convey austerity.  Their arrangement in shorter segments, however, gives visitors agency to explore this minimal but engaging arrangement of form.  (On view through Dec 14th).

Richard Serra, Every Which Way, steel, 2015.

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.