Arghavan Khosravi at Rachel Uffner Gallery

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Beautiful women and lush gardens contrast oppressive symbols like balls and chains or large metal keys in Arghavan Khosravi’s latest paintings at Rachel Uffner Gallery.  Here, ‘Patiently Waiting,’ features an explosive device with ambiguous consequences if used – will freedom or destruction result?  Similarly, Khosravi’s gardens can be read in contradictory terms as commentary on life in her home country, Iran.  The gallery explains, they “…represent the possibilities for respite afforded by private life or the image of utopian paradise promised by religious fundamentalism.”  (On view on the Lower East Side through June 5th).

Arghavan Khosravi, Patiently Waiting, 2021, signed and dated verso, acrylic and cement on cotton canvas wrapped over shaped wood panel, wood cutout, polyester rope, 53 1/2 x 58 1/8 x 12 inches.

David Hammons at The Drawing Center

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The US flag is shelter and garment for the individual depicted in this 1969 body print/screenprint by David Hammons, now on view in a powerful show of Hammons’ meticulous body prints at the Drawing Center.  Made by applying oil to his skin, pressing his body to paper and applying powdered pigments, the print is one of many that incorporate the US flag to question its meaning for Black communities.  (On view in SoHo through May 23rd.  Appointments, masks and social distancing required.  Admission charges waived).

David Hammons, Pray for America, screenprint and pigment on paper, 1969.

Katharine Bradford at Canada New York

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Katherine Bradford’s new ‘Mother Paintings’ at Canada New York depict women caring for sick family members, offering the comfort of a lap and waiting for a school bus, but her signature abstract style upends traditional representations of moms.  By avoiding identifying details, she creates symbolic characters and instead directs our focus to the vivid fields of color that make up what might otherwise be mundane scenes.  Here, in ‘Mother Joins the Circus – Second Version,’ a mom is taken away, inducted into a new aspect of life by mysterious characters who literally turn things upside down.  (On view at Canada Gallery through May 15th).

Katherine Bradford, Mother Joins the Circus – Second Version, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 72 inches, 2021.

Aaron Gilbert at PPOW Gallery

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Even in moments of tenderness and connection, Aaron Gilbert’s dead-eyed characters are shaped by the difficulty of their circumstances.  In this painting titled ‘Conspirators,’ currently on view at PPOW Gallery, these men’s tired expressions suggest they’re not just sharing a story or chatting but hatching a desperate plan.  The scene recalls Charles White’s 1942 painting of two working men in close conversation that was recently on view in the Whitney’s Mexican muralist show. But while White’s men engage with feeling about the news or activism; Gilbert’s operate with little conviction and less hope. (On view through May 1st with work by Martin Wong in Tribeca.  Masks and social distancing required.)

Aaron Gilbert, Conspirators, oil on canvas, 38 x 40 inches, 2020.

Hangama Amiri at Albertz Benda

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Growing up in Kabul and in Central Asia, recent Yale grad Hangama Amiri was drawn to bazaars and their abundance of textiles, as well as her uncle’s tailor shop.  Now in the US, Amiri has sourced similar materials from Afghan-owned businesses to create cloth collages picturing products and places in South Asian diasporic communities now on view at Albertz Benda Gallery. “Fabric as a medium really is associated with memory,” she explains in a statement released by the gallery, “…fabric captures smell, and time, lot of bodily attachments – we are all wearing fabrics. It is also a fragile medium, so it really touches and resembles all those notions of memory I am talking about and it really reconnects with what I am trying to convey in my art”.

Hangama Amiri, A.K. Fabric Shop, chiffon, silk, satin, muslin, cotton, lace, polyester, suede, paper, iridescent paper, denim, ikat printed fabric, faux leather, color pencil on fabric, velvet, camouflage, and found fabric, 113 x 99 inches, 2021.

Carrie Moyer, Hell’s Bells and Buckets at DC Moore

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Colors pop and merge into the background while shapes seem to hover on the surface of Carrie Moyer’s latest paintings at DC Moore.  These tensions – which define Moyer’s practice – are made more provocative in her most recent work by the addition of more representative elements, like the tassel-like floral bells dotting the surface of this painting, ‘Hell’s Bells and Buckets.’   Moyer notes that in some recent work, her palette has ‘downshifted,’ or adopted a chromal sobriety found to either side of the central flow of form in this painting.  Far from creating a subdued painting, however, the effect is to heighten excitement at the shifting forms at center.  (On view in Chelsea through May 1st. Masks and social distancing required.)

Carrie Moyer, Hell’s Bells and Buckets, acrylic and sand on canvas, 66 x 60 inches, 2020.

Play: American Game Boards, 1880-1940 at Ricco/Maresca

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Are vintage game boards art?  Ricco/Maresca’s current exhibition of American game boards from the late 19th century to 1940 aims to show that the boards are more than functional objects and are in fact ‘cousins of modern art.’  Having dealt in the boards for years but never dedicated a show to them, the gallery is now exhibiting parcheesi, backgammon, halma, checkers, Chinese checkers, mills, and solitaire boards that resemble mystical diagrams or architectural renderings.  This well-used checkers board comes alive with a combination of color and geometry that will keep the eyes moving along with the game pieces.  (On view through May 1st.  Masks and social distancing required).

American Unidentified, 5-color Checkers Game Board, enamel paint on wood, 18 x 18 inches, late 19th century.

‘Claes & Coosje: A Duet’ at Pace Gallery

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Right after the giant fork holding spaghetti and a meatball, the monumental sculpture ‘Dropped Bouquet’ is an immediate draw in Pace Gallery’s new show of collaborative work by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen from the 80s onward.  Surrounded by lighthearted works evoking music (including canvas violas, lutes and a trumpet) and flying neckties and pieces of pie, the flowers elicit delight with their cheery color and disorienting scale.  (On view in Chelsea through May 1st.  Masks, social distancing and appointments are required.)

Oldenburg/van Bruggen, Dropped Bouquet, painted aluminum, 12’ 3” x 9’ 3” x 14’ 10”, 2021.

Hassan Hajjaj at Yossi Milo Gallery

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Outstanding for its color and energy, Hassan Hajjaj’s ‘My Rockstars’ installation at Yossi Milo Gallery features photos of performers, musicians and friends that have inspired the London & Marrakech-based photographer/designer.  Shot in pop-up studios around the world with patterned textiles and mats for background, Hajjaj creates or styles each outfit.  Borders composed of small-scale commercial products, like the canned tomatoes surrounding Canadian artist MissMe, blend creativity and commerce.  (On view through May 29th.  Masks and social distancing are required).

MissMe, Metallic Lambda on 3mm Dibond in a Wood Spray white Frame with Tomato Cans, 52 inches x 37 inches x 2 ¼ inches, 2018/1440.

Matt Bollinger, Countdown at Zurcher

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‘This is the American dream gone wrong’ declared a review of past work by Matt Bollinger whose paintings were inspired by the people and places of the artist’s home state, Kansas.  Bollinger is back with new work at Zurcher Gallery featuring electric colors that run counter to his usual muted tones, but which make the the weariness of his characters all the more noticeable.  Even when they’re in public, Bollinger’s characters are alone, caught in a moment of reflection and looking devastated.  (On view on the Lower East Side through April 29th.  Masks and social distancing are required.)

Matt Bollinger, Countdown, flashe and acrylic on canvas, 48 x 38 inches, 2021.

Sydney Vernon Portrait at Canada Gallery

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Pretty in pink but commanding her space, the subject of this portrait by Sydney Vernon at Canada Gallery is full of life.  Along with an accompanying video the mixed media portrait is actually a memorial to a family matriarch, ‘a tender reflection on familial love and loss.’  A pelvic x-ray to the left, a photo of two children on the right along with living spaces and artwork suggest episodes from a life while writing on the column to the left offers sage advice including ‘beauty is only skin deep.’ (On view in Tribeca through April 10th.  Masks and social distancing is required and occupancy is limited).

Sydney Vernon, Tying Loose Ends, pastel, charcoal, acrylic and collage on paper, 52 x 46 inches, 2020.

Elias Sime Sculptures at James Cohan Gallery

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Megaphones accent the surfaces of Ethiopian artist Elias Sime’s latest sculptures at James Cohan Gallery, prompting viewers to question what voices are amplified in public discourse.  In the context of politics and the pandemic, Sime explains that he’s thinking about “…how humans are easily manipulated by individuals and rush to conclusions that they often regret when the truth begins to surface.”  Having recently created domed sculpture for a show at the Saint Louis Art Museum inspired by Native American Cahokia Mounds and the St Louis Gateway Arch, this huge, bowl-like sculpture is a highlight of Sime’s current show. (On view in Tribeca through April 24th.  Masks, social distancing and appointments are required).

Elias Sime, Tightrope: Eyes and Ears of a Bat (1), reclaimed electrical wires on wood, 47 ¼ x 83 ½ inches, 2020.

Karon Davis at Deitch Projects

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In her impressive New York solo show debut, Karon Davis transforms Deitch Projects’ cavernous SoHo space into the 1969 Chicago courtroom in which Bobby Seale stood trial bound and gagged.  Before a plaster cast of the Black Panther leader, a towering bench houses a replica of Judge Julius Hoffman, who Davis describes in the trial as ‘brutal and monstrous.’  Here, on the gallery’s elevated platform, a row of jurors looks on impassively, isolated in red and blue cases that disengage them with the scene unfolding before them.  (On view in SoHo through April 24th).

Karon Davis, Jury Member #3, plaster bandages, plaster, glass-eyes, steel, acrylic, plywood, white paint, 70 x 22 x 22 inches.

Red Grooms, Walking the Dogs at Marlborough Gallery

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Is Red Grooms a ‘zany genius’ or ‘so much kitsch?’  The New York Times pondered the question in a 2018 profile of the New York-based creator of ‘sculpto-picto-ramas’ – sculptures of New Yorkers and their habitats.  Now, visitors to Marlborough Gallery’s exhibition of Grooms’ work from ’74 to the present have the opportunity to consider anew Grooms’ affectionately eccentric characters, such as this dog-walker from 1981.  (On view in Chelsea through May 8th).

Red Grooms, Walking the Dogs, painted canvas, papier-mache and metal chain on wood support, 36 ¾ x 20 x 22 ½ inches, 1981.

Niki de Saint Phalle at Salon94

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Titled ‘Joy Revolution,’ Salon94’s exhibition of late French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle’s painting, sculpture and work on paper celebrates color, pleasure and play.  Just inside Salon94’s stunning new 89th Street location, a 17,500 square foot former mansion built by philanthropist Archer Huntington, two lions originally intended as garden decoration greet visitors.  Intended to entice kids to climb them, they serve here as guardians and greeters.  (On view through April 24th).

Niki de Saint Phalle, Guardian Lions, polyurethane foam, resin, steel armature, ceramic tiles, glass, tumbled stone, and fused millefiori glass inserts, 88 x 132 x 112 inches, 2000.

.DRIFT in ‘Group Presentation’ at Pace Gallery

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It’s not unusual to consider where and how our everyday consumer goods were manufactured, but Amsterdam-based design team Studio Drift goes deeper.  Via their ‘Materialism’ project – samples of which are now on view in Pace Gallery’s current tech-friendly group show – Drift practices a kind of reverse engineering by breaking down light bulbs, cell phones and water bottles, as well as historic weapons and this bicycle, into component parts which are then displayed as pleasingly tidy arrangements of colorful cubes.  Guessing what each piece represents is an engaging game that ultimately prompts viewers to question how much we know about the goods we consume.  (On view on 25th Street in Chelsea through April 24th).

.DRIFT, Bicycle, rubber, polyurethane, steel, aluminum, lacquer paint, acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS), polyoxymethylene (POM), gel, stainless steel, polycarbonate, brass, magnet and glass fiber sculpture: 7 7/8 x 31 ¼ x 13 3/16 inches, 2019.

Paul Anthony Smith Photos at Jack Shainman

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Titled ‘Tradewinds,’ Paul Anthony Smith’s latest show of hand-worked photos at Jack Shainman Gallery celebrates home, memory and the act of celebration itself.  More contemplative than some of the artist’s images of parties and get-togethers, this image suggests thoughts as a kind of cloud-cover or camouflage around this young man.  Here, Smith’s signature picotage technique – involving a series of tiny rips on the surface of the image – becomes a kind of simultaneous damage and decoration.  (On view in Chelsea through April 3rd).

Paul Anthony Smith, detail of Islands #2, unique picotage with spray paint on inkjet print, mounted on museum board and sintra, 60 x 40 inches, 2020-21.

David Goldblatt at Pace Gallery

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Late South African photographer David Goldblatt didn’t leave it to chance that his photos would be read without context, titling them with notes on their circumstances.  Currently on view at Pace Gallery in an exhibition curated by South African photographer Zanele Muholi, who worked and trained in Goldblatt’s studio, the photos consider visibility of women, segregation, privilege, labor conditions and more.  Here, Goldblatt records the forced removal of Black families from land designated by the government as ‘white.’  (On view in Chelsea through March 27th).

David Goldblatt, Luke Kgatitsoe at his house, bulldozed in February 1984 by the government after the forced removal of the people of Mapoga, a black-owned farm, which had been declared a “black spot,” Ventersdorp district, Transvaal, 21 October 1986, gelatin silver hand print, 6 ¼ x 7 7/8 inches.

Dona Nelson at Thomas Erben Gallery

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“The hierarchy of the word ‘front’ is so strong…” explained painter Dona Nelson in a recent interview, concisely conveying how rule-breaking it still feels to exhibit paintings in an upright freestanding frame vs wall mounting them.  Her current show at Chelsea’s Thomas Erben Gallery includes two-sided paintings like ‘Early September,’ a canvas that combines a grid system and patterns of dripped lines to play order and chaos against each other.  (On view through April 3rd).

Dona Nelson, Early September, acrylic and acrylic mediums on canvas, 83 x 78 inches, 2020.

The Boyle Family at Luhring Augustine Gallery

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In their first New York solo show in 40 years, the Boyle Family (father Robert Boyle, mother Joan Hills and their adult children Sebastian and Georgia Boyle) considers relationships between humans and the environment with wall mounted mini-landscapes.  Meticulous recreations of sites chosen at random, each ‘earthprobe’ is a recreation of a segment of the earth’s surface in an urban or rural area.  How to interpret these slices of mediated reality?  The Boyles explain that they want to consider whether it’s possible to look at the earth and not think of ‘myths and legends, art of the past or present, art and myths of other cultures.’ Thankfully, it seems it is not, as each will prompt historical connections and personal memories. (On view at Luhring Augustine in Chelsea through April 24th).

The Boyle Family, Kerb Study with Filled in Basement Lights and Cobbles, Westminster Series, mixed media, resin, fiberglass, C 66 x 66 inches, 1987

Olafur Eliasson Solo Show at Tanya Bonakdar

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Glass balls in a rainbow of color and a beautifully ephemeral light projection greet visitors to Olafur Eliasson’s gorgeous new solo show at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, an exhibition designed to give visitors ‘a moment to exhale.’  ‘We need a moment of relief, of beauty, of letting go,’ explains Eliasson, an ambition fulfilled by every piece in the exhibition, including this spherical light installation.  Created from green tinted glass and pink iridescent color-effect-filter glass, the piece reflects light of a single color while allowing its complementary color to pass through.  (On view through April 24th. Appointments, masks and social distancing required.)

Edgy but perfect kinship sphere, color-effect filter glass (pink), color glass (green), stainless steel, LED system, diameter: 43 1/4 inches, 2020.

Kate Pincus-Whitney at Fredericks & Freiser Gallery

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Tilted upwards to better show off a wealth of books, foods and household objects, young LA artist Kate Pincus-Whitney’s tablescapes at Fredericks & Freiser Gallery are a way of processing the world and even portraying people in it.  Both personal (Pincus Whitney cites her upbringing in the kitchen by her mother and grandmother as influential) and linked to wider cultural histories (this painting’s soup can nods to Warhol), the artist’s energetic canvases revel in the color and abundance of food and ideas.  (On view in Chelsea through March 20th).

Kate Pincus-Whitney, Feast in the Neon Jungle: Rose of Jericho, Acrylic and Polycolor on Canvas, 24 x 30 inches, 2020

Sharif Bey at Albertz Benda

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Created during quarantine but using faces and feet crafted 20 years ago, Sharif Bey’s small but forceful Boilermaker sculptures layer references to the artist’s personal history as a maker and art history. Formed from a vessel fired with nails and shards to resemble a nkisi nkondi power figure, ‘Boilermaker: Fidel’ references a working-class beer cocktail and Bey’s father’s job as a Pittsburgh boilermaker.  The artist identifies the central focus of his work as an investigation of how power manifests; his hybrid sculptures encourage complex understandings of power and influence.  (On view at Albertz Benda Gallery in Chelsea through March 27th. Masks and social distancing required).

Sharif Bey, Boilermaker: Fidel, earthenware and mixed media, 15 x 10 x 9 inches, 2021.

Amelia Toledo at Nara Roesler Gallery

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After debuting its new Chelsea gallery space with a tantalizing series of two-week long exhibitions, Brazilian gallery Nara Roesler continues to impress with a career-survey exhibition of gorgeous work by the late Amelia Toledo.  Inspired by the participatory nature of Neo-Concrete art and a devotion to nature and the possibilities of color, Toledo’s multifarious career included installations consisting of hanging jute panels like this ‘Path of color.’ (On view through April 17th. Masks and social distancing required).

Amelia Toledo, Paths of color, 38 pieces of painted jute, c. 100 x 177 x 177 inches, 1999-2000.

Esteban Cabeza de Baca at Garth Greenan Gallery

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Drawing on inspiration from his Spanish, Mexican, Apache and Zuni ancestry and the landscape of the American Southwest, Esteban Cabeza de Baca manifests spiritual and political concepts in paintings and sculpture now on view at Garth Greenan Gallery.  The clay outline of a human form set before a mountainous landscape in this painting ‘Vessels’ also exists as a sculpture in gallery.  Painted or in three dimensions, it signals an in-between state of existence, for Cabeza de Baca, a freedom in pursuing decolonized thought.  (On view through March 13th. Masks and social distancing required).

Esteban Cabeza de Baca, Vessels, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 60 inches, 2020.

Malia Jensen at Cristin Tierney Gallery

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Malia Jensen explores the idea of getting closer to nature in a literal way by placing sculpture resembling body parts into remote Oregon landscapes.  In 2019, the artist carved a hand, foot, head, breast and a stack of donuts (representing the stomach) from livestock salt licks and positioned them and several motion-triggered cameras in places where they’d be altered over time by animals and weather.  A year later, she collected the sculptures and cast them in glass, creating artworks now on view at Cristin Tierney Gallery that demonstrate ‘beauty in our vulnerability.’ (On view on the Lower East Side through April 3rd. Masks and social distancing are required.)

Malia Jensen, Foot, kiln-cast glass, etching ink, white oak, reclaimed fir, 8 x 13 ½ x 11 ½ inches, 2020.

James Rosenquist at Ross and Kramer Gallery

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Inspired by the palm fronds in his Florida garden and other plant life, James Rosenquist juxtaposed lips and flesh (visible in glimpses as abstract, cut out forms) with blossoming pink peonies in this ‘Flower’ series painting at Ross and Kramer.  The connection between women and nature is age-old, but the discomfort conveyed by fragmentary views of female faces is fresh and stops viewers from an easy consumption of beauty.  (On view in Chelsea through March 27th. Masks and social distancing are required).

James Rosenquist, Incarnation Incantations, oil on canvas mounted on board, 81 x 62 inches, 1989.

Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian at James Cohan Gallery

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Geometric forms offered endless opportunity for experimentation in late artist Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian’s painted glass and mirror sculptures, meticulously created with craftspeople in Iran.  Now on view at James Cohan Gallery’s Tribeca location, pieces such as ‘Hexagon Maze’ were inspired by geometric principles in Islamic art and design, the ways in which a maze can alter everyday reality, and the possibilities of creating artwork within a framework of rules.  (On view through March 6th. Masks and social distancing are required).

Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Hexagon Maze, Mirror and reverse glass painting on plaster and wood, 47 1/4 x 47 1/4 in, 2014.

Abdullah M. I. Syed at Aicon Gallery

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A glowing globe of hand-stitched prayer caps headlines ‘Nurun ‘ala Nur (Light Upon Light)’, Australian artist Abdullah M. I. Syed’s current show at Aicon Gallery.  Positioned over a water-like, reflective blue surface, the light sculpture imitates a full moon, associating the sublime beauty of a celestial body with personal and group devotion.  (On view through March 6th).

Abdullah M. I. Syed, Nurun ‘ala Nur (Light Upon Light), Hand-stitched white crochet taqiyah (skullcaps), LED light, Perspex dome and mirror, Dimensions variable, 2015.

Jane Freilicher at Kasmin Gallery

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Brilliant yellow flowers dematerialize in the hazy afternoon light in Jane Freilicher’s vibrant still life from 1967, now on view at Kasmin Gallery in Chelsea.  Fifteen paintings from the ‘50s to the ‘00s, demonstrate an “…air of just coming into being, of tentativeness that is the lifeblood of art,” as John Ashberry, Freilicher’s long-time friend, put it.  (On view through March 13th).

Jane Freilcher, Goldenrod and Landscape, oil on canvas, 40 x 60 inches, 1967.

Peter Sacks at Sperone Westwater

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Made over months if not years, Peter Sacks’ multilayered works at Sperone Westwater are composed of layers of typewritten text, cardboard, paint, textiles from around the world and more.  Describing the mind as sedimentary in a 2019 New Yorker profile, Sacks layers meaning below the surface of each artwork, burying layers of imagery to convey the concept that more lies below, unseen.  Here, a piece from his ‘Above Our Cities’ series turns the skies into a colorful riot over the relatively small skyline below.  Is this a celebration? An apocalypse?  Both?  (On view on the Lower East Side through March 20th).

Peter Sacks, Above Our Cities 2, mixed media on canvas, 36 x 36 inches, 2020.

Ragna Bley at Downs and Ross Gallery

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Color pools and flows in Oslo-based artist Ragna Bley’s acrylic on sailcloth paintings at Downs and Ross, offering a lushly colored alternative to drab, late-winter New York.  Inspired by marine biology and the endlessly fascinating shallows and depths of the sea, each painting complicates the reference to water with its dynamism and color.  (On view on the Lower East Side through March 6th).

Ragna Bley, Undertow (Heat), 2020. Acrylic on sailcloth, 59 × 37 1/2 inches

Jason Moran at Luhring Augustine Gallery

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Areas of darker and lighter blue in jazz pianist and composer Jason Moran’s bold new abstractions at Luhring Augustine suggest intervals of energy and calm, control and freedom.  Moran made the works by placing pigment on Gampi paper, laid atop a keyboard, then enacting private performances – ‘surrogates to the concerts I was unable to perform in 2020,’ he explains.  Paired with tracks from his new album, the works suggest both transcendence and engagement with the challenges of life over the past year.  (On view at Luhring Augustine’s Tribeca space through Feb 27th).

Jason Moran, Went wild and left in Silence, pigment on Gampi paper, 25 1/8 x 37 ½ inches, 2020.

Sahana Ramakrishnan in Group Exhibition at Fridman Gallery

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Born in Mumbai, raised in Singapore and living in Brooklyn, Sahana Ramakrishnan draws on a multitude of sources, including Hindu, Buddhist and Greek mythology to create intriguingly enigmatic stories.  Referring to ‘the innate mystery of the other,’ the group exhibition ‘A Stranger’s Soul is a Deep Well’ at Fridman Gallery showcases complex and unexplained imagery, including Ramakrishnan’s characterful animals, gathering around a vessel to ask for retribution.  (On view on the Lower East Side through Feb 20th).

Sahana Ramakrishnan, All The Animals Asked For Blood, egg tempera, sumi ink, gold leaf and ferric chloride on stretched paper, 16 x 13 x 1”, 2020.

Gerald Lovell at PPOW Gallery

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Gerald Lovell’s grandmother’s photo albums were a key inspiration in the young Atlanta painter’s motivation to create portraits of family and friends.  Calling such source photos of family and person history ‘saving moments,’ Lovell sets out to make depoliticized, ‘honest depictions of the people I’m around.’ (On view at PPOW Gallery’s new Tribeca location through Feb 20th.  Masks and social distancing are required).

Gerald Lovell, Quil, oil on wood, 48 x 36 inches, 2020.

Misaki Kawai, Moko Moko (Pink) at The Hole

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A giant yellow emoji pillow greets visitors to Misaki Kawai’s latest show at The Hole on the Bowery, signaling that the artist’s sense of humor is still lively.  Her bright, fun, faux-naïve style comes across in text paintings and furry sculptures that invite touch (a sign on the wall and a dispenser of hand sanitizer confirm that this is allowed). Citing the notion of ‘heta-uma,’ or ‘bad but good,’ Kawai challenges notions of taste, but all in good fun.  (On view through Feb 14th. Masks and social distancing are required.)

Misaki Kawai, Moko Moko (Pink), faux fur, felt, wood, steel, 60 x 60 x 12 inches, 2020.

Dan Flavin in ‘Flavin, Judd, McCracken, Sandback’ at David Zwirner Gallery

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Twelve untitled light sculptures from 1995 by Dan Flavin transform the white cube into a bath of color at David Zwirner Gallery’s 19th Street Chelsea location.  Spaced along two walls, the color configurations change with each sculpture, inviting visitors who walk from piece to piece to reconcile cool and soothing blues and greens with intense reds and yellows.  (On view through Feb 20th. Masks and social distancing are required.)

Dan Flavin, untitled, blue, red and green fluorescent light, 4 ft wide, edition of 5, 1995.

Shirin Neshat at Gladstone Gallery

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A young Iranian art student captures and analyses the dreams of various American subjects in Shirin Neshat’s two channel film and photography exhibition ‘Land of Dreams,’ encouraging viewers to ponder the stories and psychology of her subjects.  Here, an installation of over one hundred photographs pictures New Mexico residents along with personal info – names and birthdates – written in Farsi and drawings relating to their dreams. (On view at Gladstone Gallery through Feb 27th).

Installation view of ‘Land of Dreams,’ Chelsea, Jan 2021.

Gordon Parks Photography at Jack Shainman

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Joy arises from moments of hope in photos of Harlem rallies shot by Gordon Parks in 1963, now on view at Jack Shainman Gallery.  Elsewhere, a protester’s sign reading ‘Policy brutality must go’ connects powerfully to today’s protests while iconic images from Parks’ series Segregation Story document the lives of Alabama families impacted by discrimination.  (On view at Jack Shainman Gallery’s two Chelsea locations through Feb 20th).

Gordon Parks, Untitled, Harlem, New York, archival pigment print, 20 x 24 inches, 1963.

Tara Donovan, Sphere at Pace Gallery

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Masses of everyday objects (pencils, cups, index cards) transform into wondrous landscapes, creatures and more in Tara Donovan’s labor-intensive sculptural practice, but her latest show at Pace Gallery elicits awe at purely abstract forms.  Black drinking straws by the thousands create subtle patterned surfaces in the main gallery while manipulated wire screens dipped in ink demonstrate the endless possibilities of transformation on a grid.  The show’s centerpiece is the most interactive, causing visitors to circle around a sphere composed of slim plastic cylinders in an attempt to reconcile how light can make hard plastic appear soft and fuzzy.  (On view at Pace Gallery through March 6th).

Tara Donovan, Sphere, PETG, 6’ x 6’ x 6’, 2020.

Irving Penn, Imperial Pink Bud at Pace

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Irving Penn coined the term ‘Photographism’ to describe his style, a synthesis of graphic design and fine art, but the impact of his images goes beyond words.  Isolated against a white background that emphasizes strong tonal contrast and boldly outlined form, this 1971 photograph at Pace Gallery lends these two buds a hyperreality and heightened beauty.  (On view in Chelsea through Feb 13th).


Irving Penn, Imperial Pink Bud (top), Imperial Gold Bud (bottom), New York, pigment print mounted to board, 16 7/8 x 21 ¾ inches (image, paper and mount), 1971.

Eleanor Swordy in ‘In Situ’ at Marianne Boesky Gallery

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Inspired by a late 19th century story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in which the narrator’s confinement drives her into another reality, Marianne Boesky Gallery’s group show ‘In Situ’ zeroes in on lone individuals in personally meaningful moments.  Here, Eleanor Swordy’s curvy character unzips an alarming torrent from an alternative universe (or maybe just a tent flap) from within the cocoon of a sleeping bag.  (On view in Chelsea through Feb 6th).

Eleanor Swordy, Hard Rain, oil on canvas, 60 x 60 inches, 2020.

Adrian Ghenie Paintings at Pace Gallery

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Ghosts of Van Gogh and Gauguin haunt Romanian artist Adrian Ghenie’s latest body of work, now on view at Pace Gallery.  Titled ‘Hooliganism,’ the show is inspired by the idea that beneath the attractive colors or forms of historic avant-garde painting is an explosive departure from painterly norms.  This painting recalls Van Gogh’s 1889 self-portrait made after cutting his ear but substitutes Van Gogh’s impassive stare with a face literally swirling with psychic force.  (On view through April 24th).

Adrian Ghenie, Untitled, oil on canvas, 39 3/8 x 27 9/16 inches, 2020.

Alice Aycock Sculpture at Marlborough Gallery

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‘Wind, waves, turbines and vortexes of energy’ take solid form in Alice Aycock’s undulating aluminum sculptures at Marlborough Gallery.  Intended to evoke the power of natural elements, Aycock’s cyclones – towering or tiny – are static but strongly suggestive, resembling game pieces, cut paper or dancing forms.  (On view in Chelsea through Feb 27th).

Alice Aycock, installation view Marlborough Gallery, Dec 2021.

Hannah Whitaker at Marinaro

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New York photographer Hannah Whitaker departs from her usual complex, multiple exposure images in recent straight photographs at Marinaro that employ grids and gradients to create what looks like a digital environment for a lone female character.  Here, a shaft of light illuminates a sliver of her model’s otherwise dark body, suggesting that we’re seeing a fragment of what’s before us.  Imagined as a sister to digital avatars like Siri or Alexa, Whitaker’s new figure questions who our AI characters are and why they’re designed as they are.  (On view in Manhattan’s Two Bridges neighborhood through Jan 24th.  Masks and social distancing are required.)

Hannah Whitaker, Orange Eye, Slit, UV printed onto MDF with hand painted edges, 21 x 15 inches, 2019.

Sally Saul, Troubled Waters at Rachel Uffner

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Sally Saul’s new ceramics at Rachel Uffner Gallery engage today’s difficult times with humor by bringing out the absurdity in some of our anxieties.  Here, waves defy nature to encircle one swimmer and finger-like peaks rise up in to threaten unwanted contact.  On the other hand, the small size and delicate nature of the waves make them look almost playful.  (On view on the Lower East Side through Jan 30th.  Masks and social distancing are required).

Sally Saul, Troubled Waters, clay and glaze, 12 ½ x 28 x 17 inches, 2020.

Otto Piene at Sperone Westwater

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Though Otto Piene’s involvement with Group Zero, a post-war avant-garde group dedicated to exploring light and motion in art, ended when the group dissolved in the ‘60s, his experimentation with light continued into late career.  This stunning ceramic sculpture resembling a rainbow at Sperone Westwater is characteristic of his ‘heavy images,’ made by pushing metallic glazes through a screen onto clay before firing.  (On view on the Lower East Side through Jan 16th. Masks and social distancing are required.)

Otto Piene, Grosse Regenbogen (Ohne Titel), glaze on clay in three parts, 37 3/8 x 56 1/8 x 2 3/8 inches, 2014.

Elisa Sighicelli at Kaufmann Repetto

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Ethereal forms appear to rise up in this photograph printed on satin by Turin-based artist Elisa Sighicelli, currently part of her two-artist show at Tribeca’s 55 Walker/Kaufmann Repetto.  Created by hanging sheets of plastic in front of her window and photographing them, Sighicelli’s images are clearly representational yet appear abstract as they invite shifting perceptions of space.  Printed on sheets of synthetic satin and hung in the gallery, they ripple slightly – just enough to create additional, 3D spatial depth.  (On view through Jan 23rd).

Elisa Sighicelli, untitled (3288), photograph printed on satin, 78.3 x 53.9 inches, 2020.

Alice Tippit at Nicelle Beauchene Gallery

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Judging by this standout painting from her current show at Nicelle Beauchene’s new Tribeca space, it comes as no surprise that painter Alice Tippit has cited Magritte as her ‘all-time favorite’ artist to come back to for his ‘sense of mystery.’  Though ‘Stall’ suggests a recognizable scenario – the mind wandering to happy places or at rest – its graphic, streamlined style embodies enigma.  (On view at 7 Franklin Place through Jan 16th. Masks and social distancing are required.)

Alice Tippit, Stall, 21 x 17 inches, oil on canvas, 2020.

Mernet Larsen Paintings at James Cohan Gallery

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Mernet Larsen continues to break with traditional Western linear perspective in new, irresistibly cheeky canvases at James Cohan Gallery that pay homage to Russian constructivist El Lissitzky.  Larsen explains that decades ago, she broke a taboo by imagining that the early 20th century avant-gardist’s abstractions could be read figuratively.  She takes things a step further here, turning El Lissitzky’s circles bisected by long rectangles into an astronaut floating in front of a planet or a restaurant table attending by a plank-like waiter bearing cocktails.  (On view in Tribeca through Jan 23rd .  Masks and social distancing are required).

Mernet Larsen, Astronaut: Sunrise (after El Lissitzky), acrylic and mixed media on canvas, 49 ½ x 49 inches, 2020.

John Edmonds at Brooklyn Museum of Art

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At first glance, one figure dominates John Edmonds’ photograph ‘Two Spirits,’ a standout in his gorgeous solo show at the Brooklyn Museum of Art.  However, a soft area on the model’s light-bathed right shoulder and the shifting finger and thumb of his left hand testify to the film’s double exposure, a technique that adds to the abundant doubling taking place in the image. While the title is a term referring to nonbinary people, and Dan masks traditionally can shift identity when worn in performance, Edmonds brings to mind a third doubling by citing Ibeji, the Yoruba deity associated with twins.  (On view through Aug 8th.  Masks, social distancing and advance tickets required).

John Edmonds, Two Spirits, archival pigment photograph, 2019.

Beth Lipman at Nohra Haime Gallery

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Enticing to the eye but lacking color, Beth Lipman’s glass sculptures at Nohra Haime Gallery replicate sumptuous still life arrangements but deny the satisfaction of seeing them clearly.   Created from black or clear glass, the details of the sculptures can be hard to discern.  The effect is deliberate, intended to provoke low-level frustration that might prompt viewers to question the desire to consume. (On view in Chelsea through Jan 16th).

Beth Lipman, detail of Scale and Gazing Ball, glass, wood, metal, paint, adhesive, 64 x 42 x 32 inches, 2020.

Ian Davenport at Kasmin Gallery

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A cascade of color greets visitors to Kasmin Gallery’s cavernous 27th Street gallery in the form of British artist Ian Davenport’s large-scale poured paintings.  Inspired by the gorgeous colors he once encountered in a field of bluebonnets, the artist planned sequences of poured lines of paint that would translate a natural vision into a powerful, mediated experience of color.  (On view in Chelsea through Jan 9th).

Ian Davenport, Spring (Bluebonnet), acrylic on aluminum (six panels with additional floor section), 129 7/8 x 236 ¼ x 39 3/8 inches, 2018.

Hung Liu in ‘Prayers to Urns’ at Nancy Hoffman Gallery

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As a new year approaches and many hope for better times ahead, west coast painter Hung Liu marks time in a personal and captivating way in two new paintings at Nancy Hoffman Gallery.  Every twelve years, at the start of the Chinese zodiac and in the Year of the Rat in which she was born, the artist creates a self-portrait paired with an important symbolic animal or object.  In 2020, the most recent year of the rat, the artist marks her 72nd year with an image of herself draped in and masked by the US flag, a contrast to the red scarf she wears in her 1972 portrait as she lived through China’s Cultural Revolution.  To the right, she repeats a five-stroke Chinese character to recall the prisoner’s act of marking time in strokes on the wall.  (On view through Jan 2nd in Chelsea.  Masks and social distancing are required.)

Hung Liu, Ray Year I: Counting Down, oil on linen, mixed media on wood, 64 x 100 inches, 2020.

Jack Whitten at Hauser & Wirth

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Pain and promise are embodied in one of the most beautiful and sobering artworks in Hauser & Wirth’s exhibition of late artist Jack Whitten’s paintings from the ‘90s.  A tribute to the children killed in the 1995 mass shooting, ‘Mask III:  For the Children of Dunblane, Scotland’ memorializes lost lives in a blaze of color created with chips of acrylic paint fashioned together in Whitten’s signature collage-like technique.  Honoring the dead and acting as witness, Whitten galvanizes his audience to resist what’s wrong and unify for higher purpose.  (On view through Jan 23rd).

Jack Whitten, Mask III: For the Children of Dunblane, Scotland, acrylic and recycled glass on canvas, 1996.

Barbara Takenaga at DCMoore Gallery

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Both chance paint pours and deliberate, meticulous mark-making comprise Barbara Takenaga’s otherworldly abstractions at DC Moore Gallery.  New, profuse forms suggest fireworks displays or the wonders of unseen life under a microscope.  This small detail of a larger canvas sets paint swirls against hanging strings of beaded forms, two elements that would seem incompatible but which instead offer unexpected depth and an apparent glimpse into a mysterious world.  (On view in Chelsea through Dec 23rd.  Masks and social distancing required).

Barbara Takenaga, (detail of) Pearly, acrylic on linen, 20 x 16 inches, 2020.

Alex Gardner at The Hole NYC

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With their black skin highlighted blue and featureless faces, Alex Gardner’s characters evade racial identification and offer no way to read their expressions.  In this painting at The Hole NYC, only hands supporting a foot are visible, but the title ‘Cheer Stunt’ brings to mind a group performance full of suspense and excitement.   Backlighting suggests a digital space or perhaps a stadium at night while alternatively, smooth, stylized hands and foot could be part of a new sculptural monument.  (On view on the Lower East Side through Dec 27th. Masks and social distancing required).

Alex Gardner, Cheer Stunt, acrylic on canvas, 36 x 36 inches, 2020.

Nina Chanel Abney at Jack Shainman Gallery

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Nina Chanel Abney describes her new paintings at Jack Shainman Gallery as picturing ‘Black autonomy’ in scenes of ‘care, cultivation and collective leisure.’  Individuals farm, fish, ride bikes and race boats, sometimes without clothing, in scenes that question what utopia is.  (On view in Chelsea through Dec 23rd).

Nina Chanel Abney, Plenty of Fish, acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 48 x 48 inches.

Julio Le Parc at Perrotin Gallery

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To Argentinian-French artist Julio Le Parc, the individual’s experience of his work is everything.  From inventing games that could be played on the street to constructing installations of moving lights, Le Parc has experimented with ways to draw in his audience and heighten their perceptions of the world around them.  Here, at Perrotin Gallery, hanging aluminum shapes reflect the gallery and visitors, bringing both into the experience of the sculpture.  (On view on the Lower East Side through Dec 23rd.  Masks and social distancing are required).

Julio Le Parc, Continuel mobile en diagonal, Inox steel, coated steel cable, aluminium, 118 1/8 × 118 1/8 × 118 1/8 inch, 2020.

Etel Adnan at Galerie Lelong

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Etel Adnan’s ‘Danse Nocturne’ is a standout in her current show of painting and tapestry at Chelsea’s Galerie Lelong, its bold lines and saturated color communicating a vibrant energy that reaches right across the gallery space.  Abstracted landscapes, starting with an image of an olive tree at the gallery’s entrance, suggest a joyful experience of nature rendered in a rich material – wool tapestry.  Adnan has explained that that an artist’s materials are like a co-author, conveying meaning in a unique way; here, tapestry mediates the work’s expressionistic immediacy and conveying a considered appreciation of natural beauty. (On view through Dec 19th.  Masks and social distancing are required).

Etel Adnan, Danse Nocturne, wool tapestry, 67.5 x 99.8 inches, 2019.

Martin Puryear, New Voortrekker at Matthew Marks Gallery

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History looms large in succinct and powerful sculptures by Martin Puryear at Matthew Marks Gallery that include a huge civil war cap with a cannon hidden inside and a classical fluted column supporting a stylized shackle – a monument to Sally Hemings.  Here, a precariously situated wagon reimagines the vehicles the Boers used to move into South Africa’s interior in the 19th century.  Titled ‘New Voortrekker,’ after the term the Boers used for themselves, the sculpture’s wagon features a spiral staircase with a mirror at its base, as if to offer ascending/descending settlers a different view of themselves.  (On view in Chelsea through Dec 19th. Masks, social distancing and appointments are required).

Martin Puryear, New Voortrekker, ash, American cypress, maple, mirror, 2018.

Melissa Brown at Derek Eller Gallery

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Real and virtual space combine in provocative ways in Melissa Brown’s new paintings at Derek Eller Gallery.  Inspired by routines that have been upended by the pandemic, Brown pictures include familiar New York haunts like the Met Museum but with digital distortions, and interior scenes that feature screens or mirrors to suggest portals into other worlds.  Here, a hand shifts two balls around in front of the window of an empty train overlooking the Brooklyn Bridge at sunset – a frenetic activity in a strangely quiet place.  (On view on the Lower East Side through Dec 19th.)

Melissa Brown, Commute, flashe, oil, acrylic on DiBond, 72 x 54 inches, 2020.

Derek Fordjour at Petzel Gallery

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Derek Fordjour’s tour de force exhibition at Petzel Gallery includes two dramatic sculptural installations, a puppet show performed twice daily and two distinct bodies of collaged 2-D work, each as powerful as the next.  Continuing to address themes of systemic racism in the US, Fordjour was prompted by George Floyd’s death to directly address Black grief, mourning and the specter of death in several powerful paintings.  He also returns to his signature themes of performance and games to consider the complex lives of Black performers in the spotlight.  The synchronized swimmers in this image join marching bands, dancers, jugglers who occupy ambiguous identities as they keep the show on the road.  (On view in Chelsea through Dec 19th.  Masks and social distancing are required.)

Derek Fordjour, Cadence, acrylic, charcoal, cardboard, oil paste, foil and glitter on newspaper mounted on canvas, 2020.

Anna Ostoya, Slap at Bortolami Gallery

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Anna Ostoya’s oil paintings of bodies in motion leap, surge forward, jump and float, each canvas presenting a different manner of group movement.  This activity and the presence of protesters in other works in her show at Tribeca’s Bortolami Gallery lends a Futurist-like energy and an urgency to her abstracted scenes.  “I’m trying to get Slap to look violent and fragile and to pull all of the contrasting colors together to slap the eyes,” explains Ostoya in a succinct explanation of this work’s dramatic impact.  (On view through Dec 19th.  Masks and social distancing are required).

Anna Ostoya, Slap, oil on canvas, 75 x 60 inches, 2020.

Sam Gilliam at Pace Gallery

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On a recent visit to Basel, Switzerland, iconic Color Field painter Sam Gilliam was struck by how a recent influx of African immigrants has changed the city’s demographics.  Gilliam began pondering architectural forms from the African continent; a variety of pyramidal forms and circular buildings (e.g. Great Zimbabwe) come to mind on entering his arrangement of beautifully toned wood and aluminum sculptures at Pace Gallery.  Resting on wheels, the pieces have the potential to be moved (though not by gallery visitors) – an improvisation like a musical composition. (On view in Chelsea through Dec 19th. Masks and social distancing are required).

Sam Gilliam, installation view of Existed Existing at Pace Gallery, Nov 2020.

Cindy Sherman’s Tapestries at Metro Pictures

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On the heels of iconic photographer Cindy Sherman’s latest solo show at Metro Pictures, the gallery recently hung three enormous tapestries by the artist in its back gallery.  Based on portraits created using filters and face-altering apps and posted to Instagram, the images don’t have the resolution to be printed large-scale but work wonderfully as tapestries, in which pixels translate to thread.  More profoundly distorted and infinitely creepier than Sherman’s printed photos, the tapestries dramatically move Sherman’s vision from screen to wall.  (On view at Chelsea’s Metro Pictures Gallery.  Masks and social distancing are required.)

Cindy Sherman, installation view of three tapestries at Metro Pictures Gallery, Nov 2020.

Shari Mendelson at Tibor de Nagy Gallery

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The centuries and cultural divides melt away like hot glue in Brooklyn sculptor Shari Mendelson’s replicas of ancient artifacts from China, Egypt, Mesopotamia and elsewhere at Tibor de Nagy Gallery.  Using plastic bottles gathered near her studio, Mendelson cuts and glues together forms, using acrylic resin to make patinas that transform trash into ancient artworks.  Here, she creates a Tang Dynasty court lady from recognizable consumer plastics, subtly nodding to the material’s long life.  (On view on the Lower East Side through Dec 5th).

Shari Mendelson, Praying Lotus Woman, repurposed plastic and mixed media, 17 x 10 x 11 inches, 2020.

Brian Calvin, Composite Sketch at Anton Kern

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As artists continue to present bodies of work created during the pandemic, Californian painter Brian Calvin’s best new paintings at Anton Kern Gallery stand out for concisely capturing a feeling of disorientation.  Here, a female figure’s parted lips convey cluelessness or surprise and a sense of vulnerability, yet at the same time, her other mouth – lips firmly pressed together – suggest composure.  Trying to separate the faces (and emotions) can literally hurt.  (On view in midtown through Dec 5th.  Masks and social distancing required).

Brian Calvin, Composite Sketch, acrylic on linen, 40 x 30 inches, 2020.

Pat Oleszko and Anthea Hamilton in ‘Living Things’ at JTT Gallery

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Whether it’s the wheezing, inflatable breast sculpture by Pat Oleszko or Anthea Hamilton’s sea-life encrusted boot near the entrance, the group exhibition ‘Living Things’ at JTT Gallery immediately feels set apart.  Though the artists hail from different generations and employ various media, performance and transformation is key.  Here, Pat Oleszko’s huge hammer costume appears in an accompanying film, ‘Tool Box,’ while Anthea Hamilton’s Papilio whip butterfly dominates the back wall with leather whips for antenna.  (On view on the Lower East Side through Nov 28th.  Masks and social distancing are required.)

Back wall: Anthea Hamilton, Papilio whip butterfly, printed fabric, Devore velvet, Ikat cotton, upholstery foam, leather whips, metal cable ties, 2018. Foreground: Pat Oleszko, Mike Hammer (from the Tool Jest), foam, fabric, paint, wire, 1984.

Sadie Laska at Canada New York

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Sadie Laska’s flags line the walls of Canada NYC’s Tribeca project room in a profusion of color and an abundance of possible messages. An evolving fish strides along with the message ‘go fund yourself,’ as if suggesting a fundraising campaign to finance future development.  Nearby, a quilted star hovers over the image of planet earth featured in the 1960s-designed Earth Flag, while a mysterious silhouette thoughtfully paces above it all.  With humor, Laska suggests more complex flag-flying.  (On view in Tribeca through Dec 5th).

Sadie Laska, Installation view of EREHWON at Canada Gallery, Nov 2020.

David Kennedy Cutler in ‘Masks’ at Klaus Gallery

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Why stop at masking your mouth and nose these days?  David Kennedy Cutler’s standout contribution to Klaus Gallery’s group exhibition, ‘Mask,’ shows the artist’s rack of cloned selves in the form of complete suits constructed by printing scanned images on cotton and plastic.  Designed to be worn in performances by multiple individuals, including the artist, each character manifests the digital self with ‘real’ self hidden beneath.  (On view on the Lower East Side through Nov 28th.  Masks and social distancing required.)

David Kennedy Cultler, Second Skins, inkjet on cotton and PETG, zipper, Velcro, deconstructed sneakers, performance detritus, wood rack, outfits: 79 x 22 x 12 inches, 2017-2020.

Stephanie Temma Hier at Arsenal Contemporary Art

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While most artists would choose between a ceramic sculpture or a painting for a given artwork, young Brooklyn-based Canadian artist Stephanie Temma Hier combines both in wall-mounted sculptures that frame representational paintings of fruit, vegetables, and flowers.  Surrounded by natural imagery, the artworks set up conversations between painting and crafted subjects that literally expand our thinking beyond the frame.  Here, fresh, clean and ready to cook greens meet both wild (hallucinogenic?) and chopped mushrooms offering a variety of pathways to consumption.  (On view at Arsenal Contemporary Art on the Lower East Side through Dec 20th.  Masks and social distancing required).

Stephanie Temma Hier, Beloved by the Caterpillar, oil on linen with glazed stoneware, 21.5 x 18 x 3 inches, 2020.

Jordan Nassar at James Cohan Gallery

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A rich array of colors make Jordan Nassar’s flame-worked glass bead sculptures at James Cohan Gallery an immediate and present pleasure, yet the experience of dislocation drives these abstracted landscapes.  Raised in the US, the young Palestinian-American artist grew up understanding aspects of his family’s culture at a geographical remove.  Here, he creates points of entry into imagined landscapes through transparent grids of glass beads.  (On view on the Lower East Side through Nov 21st.  Masks and social distancing required.)


Jordan Nassar, Bab Al-Amoud (Gate of The Pillar), hand-flamed glass beads, steel, wire, 12 x 29 x 10 inches, 2020.

Inka Essenhigh, Forever Young at Miles McEnery

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Inspired by a multitude of sources from Dali to Disney, Inka Essenhigh continues to craft fantastical scenarios as intriguing as they are bizarre.  Here, a curvy female figure (seemingly crafted from a single orange/green material from her hair to her off-kilter shoes) primps in front of a shattered mirror that reflects a monster-like apparition.  Are we seeing reality?  Will she continue to transform before our eyes?  Essenhigh’s rich stories leave us wanting more.  (On view at Miles McEnery Gallery on 22nd Street in Chelsea through Nov 14th).

Inka Essenhigh, Forever Young, enamel on canvas, 60 x 42 inches, 2020.

Emma Kohlmann at Jack Hanley Gallery

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The long-armed embrace offered by the central figure says it all in this acrylic on canvas painting by Emma Kohlmann at Jack Hanley Gallery on the Lower East Side.  Kohlmann explains that viewers who venture out to galleries during the pandemic should encounter an oasis, or a place to be distracted from turbulent times.  Caring couples, harmonious relationships between humans and nature, and references to Matisse’s colorful painting abound in a show that will take the mind to happy places.  (On view through Nov 14th).

Emma Kohlmann, When I Found My People, Acrylic on raw canvas, 60 x 60 inches, 2020.

Amy Sillman at Gladstone Gallery

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One ambiguous figure appears to break into multiple forms in Amy Sillman’s irresistible ‘Split 3,’ shifting to the side as if to walk off the canvas.  Dominant yellow, green and red colors draw the eye back into the painting’s depths but thick, dark horizontal lines of paint block the viewer’s journey.  Coming and going, inviting and refusing, in motion yet static, the contradictions in the canvas reward pondering.  (On view in Chelsea at Gladstone Gallery through Nov 14th.)

Amy Sillman, Split 3, acrylic and oil on linen, 72 x 60 inches, 2020.

Billie Zangewa at Lehmann Maupin Gallery

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Titled ‘Wings of Change’ rather than ‘winds,’ Billie Zangewa’s new body of work at Lehmann Maupin Gallery speaks to the importance of personal renewal and of hope in the face of difficult times.  Created by hand-stitching pieces of silk together on larger, fragmentary surfaces, perfection is not the goal.  Rather, each work acknowledges life’s messiness (all were made during the pandemic) and features Zangewa and her son continuing to build their life together at home.  (On view in Chelsea through Nov 3rd).

Billie Zangewa, Heart of the Home, hand-stitched silk collage, 53.5 x 43.25 inches, 2020.

Anders Oinonen at The Hole NYC

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It’s often hard to read a visage by Canadan artist Anders Oinonen, whose cast of odd characters is currently making faces on the walls of The Hole NYC on the Lower East Side.  This figure has turned his or her architectural face sideways, allowing cotton candy hair to float along the top of the canvas.  Though partially obscured in shadow, the face looks anxious, making this individual a perfect representative of the election anxiety faced by many Americans today.  (On view on the Lower East Side through Nov 15th).

Anders Oinonen, Untitled, oil on canvas, 30 x 24 inches, 2020.

Ariel Orozco at Spencer Brownstone Gallery

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No detail of urban life is too mundane for Mexico-City based conceptual artist Ariel Orozco, whose minimalist panels at Spencer Brownstone Gallery uncover a hidden choreography in the metropolis.  Finding himself trailing 18 wheelers through city traffic, Orozco recorded the patterns of blinking lights on the rear of the trucks, then recreated the same flashing sequences with lights embedded into canvas.  The effect is humorous and surprisingly engaging…and viewers don’t even have to deal with diesel exhaust.  (On view on the Lower East Side through Nov 8th).

Ariel Orozco, installation view of La cabeza el los pies (Head on feet), truck tail lights, electrical hardware, circuit box, canvas on panel, 90.5 x 78.5 inches, 2020.

Hana Yilma Godine at Fridman Gallery

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Reflecting the complexity of women’s lives, Ethiopian painter Hana Yilma Godine literally makes her characters multi-dimensional, fashioning their images from oil and acrylic, magazines, newsprint, fabric and more.  This standout piece from her first New York solo show at Fridman Gallery features overlapping female figures who may represent the same figure at different points in life.  (On view on the Lower East Side through Nov 1st.  Masks and social distancing are required).

Hana Yilma Godine, Spaces Within Space (9), oil acrylic, charcoal and collage on canvas, 51 x 48 inches, 2019.

Emily Mae Smith, Head, Horizon World at Simone Subal

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Emily Mae Smith’s subversive broom-bodied character appears in close-up with a view of mice, wheat and a polluted environment reflected in her eyes in this highlight of the artist’s current show at Simone Subal Gallery.  Derived from Disney’s Fantasia, the broom appears poised to clean up the landscape she surveys, perhaps in aid of the mice and wheat, species who’ve been on the planet a long time.  Her crown of hair, composed of gingko leaves, points to the trees’ role in removing huge amounts of CO2 from urban environments.  (On view on the Lower East Side.  Masks and social distancing are required and appointments recommended.)

Emily Mae Smith, Head, Horizon World, oil on linen, 67 x 90 inches, 2020.

Cindy Sherman Photos at Metro Pictures

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It’s not hard to slip from male to female in Cindy Sherman’s reckoning.  A bit of makeup and a change of clothing, and the iconic photographer became both halves of jet-set couples who are the subjects of her latest body of work at Metro Pictures Gallery in Chelsea.  With exceptions, Sherman has shied away from portraying male figures in the past; her current characters embrace gender fluidity in colorful or opulent clothing from Stella McCartney’s archive.  Placing them against backgrounds that Sherman shot in Bavaria, Shanghai and, here, Sissinghurst Castle Garden in England, the artist tempts viewers to read the identities of these eccentric characters.  (On view through Oct 31st.  Masks and social distancing are required.)

Cindy Sherman, Untitled, dye sublimation print, 62 ½ x 91 ¼ inches (image, no frame), ed of 6, 1 AP, 2019.

Titus Kaphar at Gagosian Gallery

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Amid vibrantly colored décor from an earlier time period, two sisters hold children who have disappeared in Titus Kaphar’s ‘Not My Burden’ at Gagosian Gallery’s 21st Street space in Chelsea.  A much-anticipated follow-up to select paintings shown online when TIME commissioned a cover from Kaphar after George Floyd’s murder, the exhibition features work in which children have literally been cut out of the canvas, representing the anxiety and fear experienced by Black mothers. (On view through Dec 19th.  Appointments, masks, social distancing, contact info and a health questionnaire are required).

Titus Kaphar, Not My Burden, oil on canvas, 66 x 60 ¼ inches, 2019.

Brianna Rose Brooks in ‘Drawing 2020’ at Gladstone Gallery

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‘Don’t think too much about it,’ advises the title of this colored pencil drawing by young Yale MFA candidate Brianna Rose Brooks, but the awkward closeness and intimate immediacy of woman and butterfly is arresting.  Brooks’ two portraits are standouts in Gladstone Gallery’s blockbuster ‘Drawing 2020’ exhibition, which includes recent work by over 100 artists.   (On view in Chelsea.  Masks and social distancing are required and appointments are recommended.)

Brianna Rose Brooks, Don’t think about it too much, colored pencil on paper, 11 ½ x 8 inches, 2020.

Jean Dubuffet at Pace Gallery

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Drawn to art made outside of the gallery system, the iconic late artist Jean Dubuffet pursued his own non-academic style in abstract installations meant to bring to mind scenes of busy urban life.  Chelsea’s Pace Gallery explains that ‘Le Cirque,’ a 13’ high sculpture from 1970 currently installed on 25th Street, recreated the ‘visual frenzy of an urban plaza.’ In an accompanying letter from the artist to his dealer, Pace founder Arne Glimcher, Dubuffet points to ancient sources of inspiration for this towering, encompassing sculpture, including stones placed at crossroads or assembled for commemoration.  (On view through Oct 24th.  Appointments, masks and social distancing are required.)

Jean Dubuffet, Le Cirque, polyurethane paint on epoxy, 13’ x 29’ x 31’, 1970-2020.

Luchita Hurtado at Hauser & Wirth Gallery

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In every roll of film Luchita Hurtado shot, there’d be an image in shadow, explains her son, the artist Matt Mullican.  Shadows dominate two walls of drawings featuring the artist’s own silhouette in a show now on view at Hauser & Wirth Gallery, conveying a rich, inner life that the artist didn’t care to display to the public.  Yet elements like a feather or these bands of vibrant color offer clues to emotions and mental states that belie Hurtado’s apparent withdrawal.  (On view in Chelsea through Oct 31st.  Visits can be arranged by timed reservation.)

Luchita Hurtado, charcoal and watercolor on paper, 17 x 13 ¾ inches, c. 1970s.

Jeffrey Gibson at the Brooklyn Museum

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Native people are seen as creative agents, rejecting the colonial gaze in a powerful presentation at the Brooklyn Museum organized by artist Jeffrey Gibson and curator and professor Christian Crouch.  Photos, text, ceramics and more from the institution’s Native American study collection and archives join Gibson’s own joyously colored paintings, sculpture and here, photography.  Dance emerges in the show as a healing act while Gibson’s costumes, inspired by 19th century Ghost Dance, offer protection.  (On view at the Brooklyn Museum of Art through Jan 10th).

Jeffrey Gibson, Roxy (Stand Your Ground), photographic prints, triptych, 2019.

 

Susumu Kamijo at Jack Hanley Gallery

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Known for his paintings of poodles, Brooklyn based artist Susumu Kamijo takes the dog’s form as a launchpad for explorations of color, pattern and form.  Here, the dog breaks up into floating organic shapes that come together to form a canine apparition.  Similarly real-but-not-quite, the dog’s mouth opens in an enthusiastic bark but its half closed eyes suggest restraint.  (On view at Jack Hanley Gallery on the Lower East Side and at Marvin Gardens in Ridgewood, NY through Oct 11th.  Masks and social distancing are required.)

Susumu Kamijo, Tell Me So, flasch vinyl paint on canvas, 48 x 36 inches, 2020.

Harold Ancart at David Zwirner Gallery

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Inspired by the sunlight flashing through the trees on a road trip in France, New York based Belgian painter Harold Ancart embarked on a series of paintings now attracting attention at David Zwirner Gallery in Chelsea.  This fiery abstracted mass brings to mind not just autumn foliage but a giant flaming match or burning bush.  Tranquil blue sky behind the tree sets off the intense energy of this living organism.  (On view through Oct 17th. Masks and social distancing required and appointments recommended).

Harold Ancart, Untitled, oil stick and graphite on canvas in artist’s frame, 80 1/8 x 96 1/8 inches, 2020.

Gina Beavers at Marianne Boesky Gallery

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Gina Beavers’ tongue in cheek (or burger in eye) self-portrait at Chelsea’s Marianne Boesky Gallery pictures the artist literally becoming what she consumes online.  Inspired by the similarity of the images we look at via social media, be it enticing food or makeup tutorials, Beavers creates sculptural paintings that MoMA called ‘visceral, vexing, often grotesque…’ when she showed at the museum last year.  (On view through Oct 17th.   Masks and social distancing required and appointments recommended).

Gina Beavers, Self-Portrait with Burger Eye 2015, acrylic and linen on panel, 36 x 24 x 3 ½ inches, 2020.

Cheyenne Julien at Chapter NY

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Young Bronx-based painter Cheyenne Julien’s portrait of her father speaks powerfully to his love of music and his comfort in his own space.  Surrounded and transported by music, he appears to both meet his viewer’s gaze and look beyond and upwards.  A huge pink-toned foot at the painting’s foreground is boldly positioned, the rest of his body relaxed suggesting confident comfort.  (On view at Chapter NY on the Lower East Side through Oct 10th.  Masks and social distancing required and appointments recommended.)

Cheyenne Julien, Master of House, oil on canvas, 60 x 52 inches, 2020.

Gahee Park at Perrotin Gallery

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Lone insects, sharpened fingernails and portraits of impassive, semi-clad or nude characters lend young New York painter Gahee Park’s new paintings at Perrotin Gallery a sense of eerie calm and pervasive danger.  Innuendo ranges from the obvious to subtle, here appearing in two speared olives and the fishs’ pretty lips not to mention the long red nails pulling down the blinds.  A mini-cascade of eyes peers in past the shrimp-shaped nails to give the painting a surreal, voyeuristic charge.  (On view on the Lower East Side through Oct 17th).

Gahee Park, Seafood Dream, 24 x 25 inches, oil on canvas, 2020.

Michele Abeles, 1/1/19, 2:20PM at 47 Canal

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Known for adding paint, tile or other materials to the surface of her photographs, Michele Abeles shifts gears in her current show at 47 Canal, offering a surprisingly unmanipulated selection of images reflecting on macabre Halloween traditions.  Most of the show’s pictures of ghoulish lawn decorations come across as straightforward documentation of bizarre but unsurprising phenomenon.  A few images break through to another level, however, making an inflatable demon or a casually placed, dismembered body part freshly strange.  Here, natural materials on the ground contrast sharply with the glowing white paper skeleton, creating a jarring contrast that illuminates the artificiality of the bones.  (On view on the Lower East Side through Oct 3rd.  Appointments are encouraged and masks and social distancing are required.)

Michele Abeles, 11/1/19, 2:20PM, dye sublimation on aluminum, 31 x 21 ½ inches, 2020.

Ward Shelley and Douglas Paulson at Pierogi Gallery

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Boxes are stacked floor to ceiling and charts dominate a claustrophobic space introduced as ‘The Truth Workshop,’ an installation by artists Ward Shelley and Douglas Paulson at Pierogi Gallery.  The artists conceived this drably colored, overwhelmingly crowded room as the place where the secretive powers-that-be concoct what the public will believe to be truth.  Stacked boxes labeled ‘Fake News Homeruns,’ or ‘Classic Inside Jobs’ house the juicy details of manufactured truths while rows of books with titles like ‘Trashing the Planet’ offer instruction on nefarious activities.  (On view on the Lower East Side through Oct 11th. Appointments are not necessary.  Masks and social distancing are required.)

Ward Shelley and Douglas Paulson, installation view of ‘The Room Where it Happened,’ at Pierogi Gallery, Sept 2020.

Beverly Fishman at Miles McEnery Gallery

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The simple geometry, reflective surfaces and day-glo colors of Beverly Fishman’s new paintings at Miles McEnery Gallery are an immediate draw.  Despite the allure, however, they were inspired by shiny marketing techniques used by pharmaceutical companies and colors that signal warning.  Fishman’s abstraction, rooted in real world references and resembling portals nods to the various mental and physical states we pass through in life.  (On view in Chelsea through Oct 10th.  Appointments are not necessary but masks and social distancing are required.)

Beverly Fishman, Untitled (Pain, Diabetes, Depression, Depression, Depression), urethane paint on wood, 52 ½ x 100 ¼ x 2 inches, 2019.

Pieter Schoolwerth at Petzel Gallery

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Pieter Schoolwerth’s new paintings at Petzel Gallery question human identity in a time when our on-screen personas are more prevalent than ever.  Basing his images on screenshots of the life-simulation game The Sims 4, each digital avatar’s form is mingled with flat layers of grey surface and some have faces rendered in expressionist swirls of paint.  Here, young women take a selfie while a horrified woman in a space suit (full protective gear?) looks on.  The disorienting effect of paint vs inkjet print, vivid color vs drab grey and layers that have come unmoored from their source create a fascinating world of provisional realities.  (On view in Chelsea through Oct 31st. Masks and social distancing are required and gallery capacity is limited.  Visitors must give contact info.)

Pieter Schoolwerth, Shifted Sims #1 (Get Together) oil, acrylic, inkjet on canvas, 54 x 93 inches, 2020.

Alyson Shotz Installation at Derek Eller Gallery

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Alyson Shotz’s fascination with gravity, light, and other natural phenomenon continues in her current show of sculpture at Derek Eller Gallery. Textile-like sheets of electroplated metal disks hang from the ceiling, enticing visitors with their shiny iridescence.  Curling inward, they create shapes that resemble chrysalises while at the same time suggesting shed skin, another natural phenomenon signaling growth.  (On view on the Lower East Side through Oct 10th. Masks and social distancing are required and gallery capacity is limited.)

Alyson Shotz, installation view of Intricate Metamorphosis #1-6, plated carbon steel, various dimensions, 2020 in ‘The Small Clocks Run Wild’ at Derek Eller Gallery.

Os Gemeos at Lehmann Maupin Gallery

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Os Gemeos, the Brazilian brothers who’ve painted giant outdoor murals around the world, are back in town with an exhibition of typically fabulous paintings at Lehman Maupin Gallery.  Harkening back to the artists’ initiation into the world of street art, music and dance in the 80s, this painting actually functions as a boombox, streaming music through Bluetooth speakers.   (On view in Chelsea through Oct 31st.  Masks and social distancing are required and gallery capacity is limited.  Visitors must give contact info.)

Os Gemeos, Boombox Walking, mixed media with sequins on MDF with sound system composed of two 6 inhc JBL/Harman Triaxial 60W speakers, DC 12V input bivolt amplifier and source 12V 3A, 74.61 x 110.04 x 4.53 inches (framed), 2020.

Sonya Kelliher-Combs in ‘Ecofeminism(s)’ at Thomas Erben Gallery

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Last summer’s popular group show ‘Ecofeminism(s)’ at Thomas Erben Gallery, curated by Monika Fabijanska, has reopened after the summer break for another brief run.  Audiences can take in artworks by iconic artists who probe human relationships to nature and get another chance to check out Alaska-based Sonya Kelliher-Combs’ delicately crafted ‘Mark, Polar Bear,’ which veils the U.S. flag with polar bear fur. (On view in Chelsea through Sept 26th.  No appointment is necessary but visitor numbers are limited and masks are required.)

Sonya Kelliher-Combs, Mark, Polar Bear, acrylic polymer, polar bear fur, fabric flag, metal brackets, 40 x 65 inches, 2019.

Raul de Lara at Ethan Cohan Fine Art

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A cactus featuring a grinning mask greets visitors to Raul de Lara’s New York solo show debut at Chelsea’s Ethan Cohan Fine Art, but beneath the apparent levity are the hard realities of the artist’s migrant experience.  Though he employs humor to lift his audiences’ spirits, de Lara reveals the frustration and anxiety of life as DACA recipient in his autobiographical sculptures.  Surprising juxtapositions of forms, like this school desk studded with dangerous cactus needles, energize the work and, in this case, recall how the artist was hit on the hand by nuns at school who punished him for being left-handed.  De Lara gets the last laugh here by lodging a piece of gum under the desk, a mini act of rebellion.  (On view in Chelsea through Oct 17th by appointment.  Masks and social distancing are required.)


Raul de Lara, For Being Left-Handed, 2020, Pine, Chiclets Gum, Acrylic, Brass, Steel, Particle Board, 27 x 12 x 13 in.