Lawrence Weiner in front of the Whitney Museum

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The Whitney’s social distancing markers are more artful than most…or so it appears in front of the museum where conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner’s manhole cover aligns with the line to get in the museum.  Commissioned in 2000 by the Public Art Fund, the cover is one of many that were installed around Union Square, Washington Square Park and other downtown locations through early 2011.  Reading ‘In direct line with another and the next,’ the text relates to the city grid and its residents moving though urban spaces together, a theme never more relevant than now.

Elle Street Art at Hudson Yards

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Renowned and prolific international street artist Elle has transformed the 11th Ave approach to Hudson Yards with this 2,000 sq ft mural.  Hoping “to instill passion and hope and peace in the people who see it,” Elle pictures a mother and daughter looking forward into a brighter future.  (On view on 11th Ave in Hudson Yards through 2020).

Sarah Morris at 1285 Avenue of the Americas

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On your way to the newly reopened MoMA?  If it’s that or something else that takes you to mid-town Manhattan, be sure to check out Sarah Morris’ UBS Wall Painting in the UBS building on 6th Ave right around the corner from the museum.  Morris’ mural packs a punch from the sidewalk, towering over passersby and offering an abstracted image of the city grid (including this very building) that’s livelier and more colorful than the real version surrounding it.  (On view at 1285 Avenue of the Americas.)

Sarah Morris, UBS Wall Painting, household gloss paint on wall, 195.6 x 536 inches, 2001/2019.

Serena Stevens at Postmasters Gallery

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Now back in her native Iowa to complete an MFA, young painter Serena Stevens conveys contemplative quiet in new, large-scale paintings of domestic environments at Postmasters Gallery.  Cats abound, here, pictured in the panels of a cozy-looking quilt and as stuffed toys.  A pair of cast-off jeans on the bed suggest a quick change rather than an erotic interlude in a painting that explores the psychology of intimate spaces.  (On view in Tribeca through Sept 13th.  Appointments are not necessary, but masks and social distancing are required.)

Serena Stevens, Spare Bed, oil on canvas, 80 x 72 inches, 2020.

The Met reopens ‘Sahel: Art and Empires on the Shores of the Sahara’

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New York Art Tours celebrates the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s reopening to the public today with a look at this Seated Male Figure from the museum’s current ‘Sahel:  Art and Empires on the Shores of the Sahara’ exhibition.  Fueled by global trade and transformed by the arrival of Islam, the region’s empires produced masterpieces like this terracotta figure whose identity is unknown.  (On view through Oct 26th.  View the Met’s new guidelines before visiting.)

Seated Male Figure, Middle Niger civilization, terracotta, Mali, 12th – 14th century.

Neri Oxman at the Museum of Modern Art

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New York Art Tours celebrates the Museum of Modern Art’s reopening to the public today with a closer look at a panel by Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT’s Media Lab Neri Oxman from her reopened exhibition, ‘Material Ecology.’ This wax and resin panel is the first piece visitors encounter in an exhibition that showcases materials and processes that collaborate with nature. The panel’s attractively undulating structure is determined by the need to transmit light and accommodate heat change.  (On view through Oct 18th.  View MoMA’s new guidelines before visiting.)

Neri Oxman, detail of Cartesian Wax, rigid polyurethane casting resin composite and machinable wax, 2007. Collaborators and contributors: Mikey Siegel; MIT Center for Bits and Atoms.

Sipros Sipros at Bushwick Collective

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New York galleries may have reopened in July and part of August, but most have now closed for an end-of-summer break before regrouping in early September.  New York’s street art is ready to step in for our daily viewing pleasure, however, as proven by Brazilian street-art star Sipros Sipros’ delicious mural.  Part of Bushwick Collective’s sprawling program in Bushwick, Brooklyn, this big-eared character (the artist’s signature) enjoys a sticky moment in donut-paradise.  (On view on Troutman Street between Cypress Ave and St Nicholas Ave).

Warren Isensee at Miles McEnery Gallery

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In a recent review, New York Times critic Robera Smith praised Warren Isensee’s new abstract paintings at Miles McEnery Gallery for having ‘taken a sharp turn for the better’ citing a new energy that almost transcends paint on canvas.  Isensee’s ‘Skin and Bones,’ pictured here, leaps off the wall, turning color and shape into subject matter and sending the viewer’s eye bouncing around the picture’s lively geometry. (On view in Chelsea through Aug 28th.  Appointments are not necessary but masks and social distancing are required.)

Warren Isensee, Skin & Bones, oil on canvas, 50 x 50 inches, 2020.

Nicole Wermers in ‘The Return of the Real’ at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery

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London-based German artist Nicole Wermers juxtaposes an ashtray with four tiers of sorted sea-shells in this provocative piece from Tanya Bonakdar Gallery’s current summer group show.  Do the shells stand in for nature, dominated by human-produced toxins?  Or should the cigarettes signal rebellious freedom that might not be at odds with a shell-strewn shoreline?  Wermers leaves it up to us to sort through our associations in a piece that’s ripe for a variety of interpretation.  (On view Tues – Fri by appointment through August 28th.  Masks and social distancing required.)

Nicole Wermers, Untitled Ashtray (shells), powder coated steel, shells, sand, 40 1/8 x 23 5/8 x 23 5/8 inches, 2018.

Olafur Eliasson in ‘The Return of the Real’ at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery

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Changing light and the effect of light on architecture are two recurring themes in Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson’s work and in his new sculpture ‘Return of the Arctic light sphere,’ on view in its own gallery at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in Chelsea.  A strong LED light inside the sphere passes through blue glass and Fresnel glass, a material once used in lighthouses to increase the intensity of light.  Walk around the suspended sphere and the shadows change constantly, creating mesmerizing effects and giving viewers pause to consider the complexities of the sculpture’s geometry.  (On view Tues – Fri by appointment through August 28th.  Masks and social distancing required.)

Olafur Eliasson, Return of the Arctic light sphere, stainless steel, colored glass (shades of blue), Fresnel glass, mirror, aluminum, paint (black), LED system, wire, 55 1/8 x 55 1/8 x 55 1/8 inches, 2020.

Grace Weaver, Confrontation at James Cohan Gallery

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New York painter Grace Weaver describes the sidewalk as a stage in a new body of paintings at James Cohan Gallery that showcases young people in awkward situations.  Falling down stairs, exchanging glances or crashing into each other on the street, Weaver’s characters self-consciously deal with what life serves up.  Here, Weaver humorously recreates a romantic meeting scene as two individuals round a corner and crash into each other.  Their immediate intimacy suggests that we know where this story is headed.  (On view Tues – Fri at James Cohan Gallery’s locations on the Lower East Side and in Tribeca by appointment through Sept 12th.  Masks and social distancing required.)

Grace Weaver, Confrontation, oil on canvas, 71 x 69 inches, 2020.

Matt Johnson in ‘Alien Landscape’ at 303 Gallery

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Humor and wonder meet in Matt Johnson’s sculptures, which appear to fantastically adapt unlikely materials.  Whether it’s a t-shirt rising up of its own accord with no wearer or a garden hose twisting in the air, Johnson’s bronze and metal creations initially fool the eye, then entertain.  A standout in 303 Gallery’s summer group show ‘Alien Landscape,’ this cast bronze alien cactus is a new take on space invasion.  (On view by appointment, Tues – Fri, through August 20th.  Masks and social distancing required.)

Matt Johnson, Alien Cactus, Cast bronze with oil paint, 18 1/2 x 12 x 5 3/4 inches, 2015.

Han Qin in ‘Blue’ at the Nassau County Museum of Art

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Created in Hangzhou, China last summer and now on display just outside of New York City at the Nassau County Museum of Art’s ‘Blue’ exhibition, Han Qin’s ‘The Direction of Migration’ was inspired by the artist’s own journeys between China and Long Island.  Using a cyanotype process that involves exposing treated paper to sunlight, Han Qin – a professional dancer who choreographed a dance to accompany this work – arranged emigrant friends in dance poses on the paper.  Ethereal and suggesting natural upward movement, the piece pictures hopeful journeys.  (On view through Nov 1st.  Tickets must be purchased in advance).

Han Qin, The Direction of Migration (Diptych), cyanotype on paper, 3307 x 94.5 cm, 2019.

Felipe Pantone at albertz benda

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Audience interaction is key to activating Spanish/Argentinian artist Felipe Pantone’s optically sizzling sculpture, so how will viewers engage his latest work?  Though Pantone’s current exhibition at Chelsea’s albertz benda gallery won’t involve touching the work (and is even titled ‘Contactless’), Pantone has created an online exhibition that allows manipulation of this patterned, pixelated grid and other sculptures in the show.  If not quite as satisfying as interacting with the art in person, the digital component is still a huge boost and worth checking out.  Visitors who are hooked can download Pantone’s interactive app @configurableart for more optical play.  (On view through August 28th.  Appointments are not necessary, masks are required and guests must sign a Covid release and submit contact info.)

Felipe Pantone, Chromadynamica Manipulable #7, UV paint on aluminum composite panel, 39 3/8 x 31 1/2 inches, 2020.

Erin O’Keefe in Group Show at Paul Kasmin Gallery

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New York photographer Erin O’Keefe’s beguiling photographs in Paul Kasmin Gallery’s summer group show are an immediate knockout for their bold color contrasts and rich, saturated hues.  They get more complex on close viewing – when viewers look at the top portion of this image, it’s unclear if we’re looking at a painting or a photo.  Lower down, where the sculpted wooden block meets the surface on which it’s resting, the dimensions of this photographed space become clear.  That this is a photo and not a painting or sculpture allows a delayed legibility that creates a provocative open-endedness to this image. (On view by appointment, Tues – Fri, through August 21st.  Masks and social distancing required.)

Erin O’Keefe, Red Twist, archival pigment print, 25 x 20 inches, 2020.

Florencia Escudero in ‘A Love Letter to a Nightmare’ at Petzel Gallery

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Under the rubric of ‘vamped Surrealism and Symbolism,’ Petzel Gallery’s summer group show considers contemporary artwork that channels the power of the subconscious.  At the gallery entrance, Florencia Escudero’s disembodied eyes and face greet visitors like a digital mirage.  Hand sewn and printed on satin and spandex, the sculpture’s material qualities are as evocative as the impossibly odd character herself. (On view in Chelsea Tuesday – Friday, 10am – 6pm through Aug 14th. Masks and social distancing are required.)

Florencia Escudero, Frog Licker, Hand-sewn, digitally-printed satin and silkscreened spandex, 3D-printed plastic, metal purse clasp, with hand-sewn velvet, foam, and spacer mesh base, and hand-sewn, digitally-printed satin, silkscreened spandex, foam, and spacer mesh parts, 6.5 x 13.5 x 5 inches, 2019.

Tony Cragg in ‘Spectrum’ at Lisson Gallery

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Conflict is at the heart of Tony Cragg’s 1983 sculpture ‘Spectrum,’ from which Lisson Gallery’s new summer show takes its title.  Beautiful in its variety of color and inspired by the natural phenomenon of the color spectrum, it was assembled from sea plastic found on the shore, a decidedly ugly and unnatural phenomenon.  Part of a series, this iteration spreads objects out on the floor like a carefully presented anthropological display that implicates throw-away culture.  (On view in Chelsea Mon-Thurs, 11am – 4pm through August 27th. Masks and social distancing are required and visitor numbers are limited to 10 at a time.)

Tony Cragg, Spectrum, plastic, 255 7/9 x 137 ¾ inches, 1983

Jeffrey Gibson at Socrates Sculpture Park

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Jeffrey Gibson’s enormous structure at Socrates Sculpture Park initiates the park’s new ‘Monuments Now’ project, a series of sculptures focusing on the current hot-button topic of public monuments and their representation of US history.  Inspired by the pre-Columbian Mississippian earthen structures of Cahokia and wheat-pasted with eye-popping posters in bright colors that celebrate a queer sensibility, Gibson’s ziggurat dominates the park with joyous pulsing patterns.  Texts on each side read, ‘Powerful because we are different’ and ‘Respect indigenous land,’ strong messages to read against the backdrop of Mannahatta, as Manhattan was known prior to the arrival of Europeans. (On view in Queens through March 2021).

Jeffrey Gibson, ‘Because Once You Enter My House It Becomes Our House,’ Plywood, posters, steel, LEDs, and performances, 44 × 44 × 21 ft, 2020.

Guo Fengyi at Gladstone Gallery

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Inspired by visions that came to her during her qigong practice, late Chinese artist Guo Fengyi created towering scrolls now on view in Gladstone Gallery’s 21st Street location.  The Drawing Center’s concurrent show of Guo Fengyi’s work has not reopened, but visitors can take in Gladstone Gallery’s handsome presentation in Chelsea.  Described by a 4 Columns critic as ‘like anthropomorphic burls in trunks of enchanted trees,’ each drawing depicts a mythical or spiritual character (from Santa Claus to Yamantaka) that emerges from or merges into dense swirls of drawn line.   (On view through Fall ’20.  Masks and social distancing are required.  Appointments are encouraged.)

Guo Fengyi, (detail of) Tang Dynasty Princess Wencheng, colored ink on rice paper, 157 ¾ x 27 ½ inches, 2004.

Katsu, Dot at The Hole NYC

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Seven blank white canvases, spray paint and drone technology have turned The Hole NYC into one huge painting by New York street artist and tech pioneer Katsu.  Partnering with Tsuru robotics in Moscow, Katsu has developed ways to write by drone and recently, to enable drones to create abstract paintings with programmed randomness.  (On view through August 23rd).

Katsu, installation view of ‘Dot’ at The Hole NYC, July 2020

Cosima von Bonin in ‘The Secret History of Everything’ at Galerie Perrotin

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“First of all, I never explain my work,” Cosima von Bonin declared at the beginning of a 2018 interview with Brooklyn Rail, establishing that there are no pat explanations for pieces like this octopus currently on view at Galerie Perrotin.  Patchwork fabrics and stuffing give the animal an approachable and familiar feel, like a kid’s toy, while the blue glow of neon tubes below may represent mysterious ocean depths. Beached on this platform, however, with patches of white suggesting splashed water, the animal doesn’t appear to be on safe ground, creating an attractive but uncertain scenario.  (On view in the group exhibition ‘The Secret History of Everything’ on the Lower East Side through Aug 14th . Masks and social distancing are required.  Appointments can be made via the gallery’s app.)

Cosima von Bonin, Total Produce (Morality), 2010, Octopus: Various fabrics, polyfill, Base: Various fabrics, foam materials, rubber, wood, neon tubes, Octopus: 86.6 x 86.6 x 23.6 inches

Leo Amino at David Zwirner Gallery

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Underappreciated despite showing at the Met and MoMA, the career of late 20th century cast resin pioneer and direct carving innovator Leo Amino is attracting new attention thanks to a handsome show at David Zwirner Gallery.  Fascinating as translucent objects, alluring for their bold colors, Amino’s block-like resin sculptures are a draw, along with a bird-like form crafted in wood and encased in resin and totemic carved wood forms.   (On view on 20th Street in Chelsea by appointment).

Leo Amino, Refractional #85, polyester resin, 13 x 13 x 13 inches, 1972.

Kyle Staver at Zurcher Gallery

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Beyond a circle of big cats, claws extended and mouths open, a dazzle of wide-eyed zebras sprint across the grass in this dramatic nature scene by New York painter Kyle Staver.  Now on view at Zurcher Gallery, Staver’s paintings continue to upend traditional European art historical iconography (Susanna’s pet tigers keep her safe from molesting Elders, for example).  Edward Hick’s folk art, harmony-between-creatures ideal ‘Peaceable Kingdom’ comes to mind with ‘Zebra Pass,’ but differs from that arcadia thanks to the menace of waiting predators.  (On view on the Lower East Side through July 24th).

Kyle Staver, Zebra Pass, oil on canvas, 70 x 52 inches, 2019.

Benjamin Degen, Rise at Susan Inglett Gallery

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A body melts and a blanket rises into colorful foothills in this painting celebrating the pleasures of the senses and the outdoors by Benjamin Degen at Susan Inglett Gallery.  In other works, bathers visit the beach at night to watch the moon while nature creates fabulous patterns in the movement of stars, rain and ocean water.  (On view by appointment in Chelsea through through July 24th).

Benjamin Degen, Rise, oil and spray enamel on canvas, 30 x 24 inches, 2019.

Catherine Opie at Lehmann Maupin Gallery

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The Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge is the largest national wildlife refuge east of the Mississippi River, a draw for hundreds of thousands of visitors a year and an area of interest for mining companies.  The wetland recently drew iconic photographer Catherine Opie to shoot images now on view at Lehmann Maupin Gallery that expand her career-long exploration of US places and communities of people.  Threatened not just by limited environmental protections but also by climate change, the Swamp is counterpoint to the oft repeated notion of ‘draining the swamp’ from Opie’s perspective.  (On view in Chelsea through Sept 26th.  No appointment is necessary but social distancing and masks are required.)

Catherine Opie, detail of Untitled #1 (Swamps), pigment print, 40 x 60 inches, 2019.

Gary Simmons at Metro Pictures Gallery

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LA based artist Gary Simmons has returned to the subject of racist American pop culture imagery in a striking group of new paintings at the newly reopened Metro Pictures Gallery.  Here, in ‘Screaming into the Ether,’ 1920s & 30s Looney Tunes character Bosko loses his characteristic portly belly as he releases a full-bodied cry that dominates the gallery in this eight foot-tall canvas.  Partially erased by Simmons’ hand the figure nevertheless exerts a powerful presence.  (Open by appointment in Chelsea through Sept 19th).

Gary Simmons, Screaming Into The Ether, oil and cold wax on canvas, 96 ¼ x 72 ¼ inches, 2020.

Andrea Bowers in ‘Ecofeminism(s)’ at Thomas Erben Gallery

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‘Ecofeminism(s)’ at Thomas Erben Gallery, curated by Monika Fabijanska, is not only one of the first but one of the best shows recently opened to the public.  Featuring iconic projects like Helene Aylon’s ‘Earth Ambulance,’ for which she transformed a truck into an ambulance for earth picked up at military bases, mines and nuclear reactors, and Cecilia Vicuna’s delicate assemblages of natural objects that convey fragility and connectedness, the exhibition presents important projects from the 70s and 80s alongside more recent work.  Here, Andrea Bowers extends the continuum to the present and adds a note of urgency by flashing the word ‘real’ on and off in this neon sign. (On view in Chelsea through July.  No appointment is necessary but visitors numbers are limited and masks are required.

Andrea Bowers, Climate Change is Real (Multiple), neon, MDO, paint, 20 ¾ x 57 inches, ed of 3 with 2 Aps, 2017.

 

Loie Hollowell at pacegallery.com

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Loie Hollowell’s abstracted portraits made during and after her first pregnancy inspired the curving organic forms showcased in her Fall ’19 show at Pace Gallery and pictured here.  Recent drawings now on view in an on-line show at pacegallery.com “…convey the uneven roundness of my body,” explains the artist.  Created around the time of her recent second pregnancy during quarantine this spring, the new work follows the changes of her morphing body and the bond between infant and mother.  (On view through July 14th).

Loie Hollowell, Postpartum Plumb Line, oil paint, acrylic medium, sawdust and high density foam on linen mounted on panel, 72 x 54 x 3.5 inches, 2019.

Leidy Churchman at Matthew Marks Gallery

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The “…in-between between everything” is New York-based painter Leidy Churchman’s focus in paintings once again on view at Chelsea’s reopened Matthew Marks Gallery.  Developed from Churchman’s own spiritual study and their concept of trans experience as inbetweenness, the new work features images that invite multiple interpretation, as in ‘Karma Kagyu & Essex Street,’ a vibrantly colored temple scene made transcendent by a screen of dots resembling snow or flashing light.  (On view through July 31st).

Leidy Churchman, Karma Kagyu & Essex Street (Yellow Studio)(Devotion), oil on linen, 79 x 102 inches, 2020.

Omar Rodriguez-Graham at Marc Straus Gallery

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Shape and color appear to explode from Omar Rodriguez-Graham’s paintings, once again on view at newly reopened Marc Straus Gallery on the Lower East Side.  Based on Renaissance or Baroque paintings by artists from Tiepolo to Ricci which the artist turns into digital abstract compositions then paints on canvas attached to shaped supports, the artist marries historical work with a distinctly contemporary sense of energy and movement.  (On view through July 31st).

Omar Rodriguez-Graham, La Anciana de las 3 Navajas, oil and acrylic on linen mounted on panel, 78.7 x 72.8 inches, 2020.

Isa Genzken’s Rose III at Zuccotti Park

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Berlin-based sculptor Isa Genzken loves New York.  Years ago, she visited the city as a teen and has returned regularly, expanding her interest in the interrelation between buildings and other aspects of the urban fabric.  Versions of her 26-foot-tall rose, a token of love, debuted on the façade of the New Museum and dominates MoMA’s currently closed sculpture garden.  This iteration, installed permanently on the corner of Zuccotti Park and Trinity Place, winkingly adds ornament to the stripped-down modernist buildings in the area while continuing to express affection for the city on still-quiet downtown streets.

Isa Genzken, Rose III, aluminum, galvanized steel, lacquer, 2016.

Art 2 Heart mural project in SoHo

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Aiming to send messages of “optimism, healing and love” the Art 2 Heart’s SoHo mural project has transformed SoHo’s boarded up storefronts.  Here, on the corner of Spring and Greene Streets on panels over the John Varvatos store windows, artists remember those who’ve lost their lives to police violence and insist that Black lives matter. (On view until businesses reopen).

Jeppe Hein at LaGuardia Airport

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Last weekend’s biggest art opening didn’t take place in a gallery (they’re mostly still closed) but at LaGuardia Airport, where four artists including Danish artist Jeppe Hein have installed new work as shiny as Hein’s work at 303 Gallery last September (pictured here).  Featuring steel balloons affixed to the ceiling and curvy benches designed to encourage  conversation, Hein’s new installation strikes a celebratory mood that’s a little out of step with current concerns about flying during the pandemic but a worthy gesture of hopefulness for the future.

Jeppe Hein, Intersecting Circles, high polished stainless steel, 87 3/8 x 85 x 70 inches, 2019.

Ann Agee at ppowgallery.com

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Bathrooms and all their bodily associations inspired this unforgettable life-sized porcelain and stoneware sculpture by Ann Agee.  Another less private domestic object – folk art salt cellars from Florence, Italy – prompted the ceramic sculpture in the artist’s current online exhibition at ppowgallery.com.  Merging the functional with the devotional, each artwork features a Madonna and child-like pairing but with a twist – the youngsters are girls. (Online at PPOW Gallery through June 27th).

Ann Agee, Lake Michigan Bathroom (II), porcelain and stoneware, 98 ¾ x 121 ½ x 22 inches, 2014.

Felix Gonzalez-Torres at locations around the world

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This pile of foil-wrapped candy by late artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres pays homage to a sheet of gold – an artwork by Roni Horn that gave Gonzalez-Torres and his dying partner hope.  Intended to be taken by individual visitors, Gonzalez-Torres’ free sweets are a gesture of generosity and an expression both of pleasure and of loss as the pile of candies gradually dwindles.  Similarly, his ‘Untitled’ (Fortune Cookie Corner) from 1990 offers participants a positive message in the form of a fortune cookie, piles of which are currently installed from Buenos Aires to Beijing in hundreds of places, from parks to public kitchens, outside of museums and stores and in private homes.  Initiated by Andrea Rosen Gallery & David Zwirner Gallery, the New York Times suggests that the project “addresses the grief of today’s pandemic – just as it did the AIDS crisis.”  (On view through July 5th.)

Felix Gonzalez-Torres, installation view of “Untitled” (Placebo-Landscape – for Roni), candies individually wrapped in gold cellophane, endless supply, overall dimensions vary with installation, ideal weight: 1,200 lbs, Sammlung Hoffmann, Berlin, 1993.

Magdalena Suarez Frimkess at kaufmannrepetto.com

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Though Minnie Mouse and other comic icons are a recurring subject for Magdalena Suarez Frimkess, they’re new every time she makes them.  This is apparent in this sculpture of Minnie holding a Prada bag and cocking her head thoughtfully to the side from Suarez Frimkess’ 2017 show at Kaufmann Repetto.  The gallery’s current on-line show of Suarez Frimkess’ features insights from the artist, more Minnies and diverse work that draws on art historical sources from Egyptian sculpture to pre-Columbian art.

Magdalena Suarez Frimkess, Untitled, ceramic, glaze, 8.25 x 4 x 3 inches, 2016.

Ai Wei Wei’s ‘Heaven and Earth’ at lissongallery.com

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Arrested and held by the police for 81 days in Beijing in 2011, politically outspoken artist Ai Wei Wei was eventually accused of tax evasion, charges which he fought in court.  Lisson Gallery is currently showcasing one of the several artistic responses Ai Wei Wei has made since, a nearly 7-hour long Henan Opera that recreates the court proceedings in language, “…couched in complex, obfuscating legalese and riven with dead ends.” (Lisson Gallery).  Pictured here is an image from New York Art Tours’ archive of Ai Wei Wei’s first artwork in response to his detention, an installation recreating scenes from his prison life that was on view at the Brooklyn Museum in 2014. (‘Heaven and Earth’ is on view at lissongallery.com through June 15th).

S.A.C.R.E.D., six dioramas in oxidized metal, wood, fiberglass, polystyrene and sticky tape, 2013.

Charles White’s 1945 mural @michaelrosenfeldart.com

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Strong, capable and key to the nation’s economy, this female figure was a highlight of Charles White’s 2018-19 MoMA retrospective.  Now, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery is spotlighting a mural study by White, created for the International Workers Order interracial, co-ed kids summer camp in NJ where White oversaw the art program in the summer of 1945.  An accompanying text highlights this White’s politics and digs into the mural’s complex iconography, which melds west African and Buddhist references with influence from Mexican mural painting tradition.

Charles White, Our Land, egg tempera on panel, 1951.

Toyin Ojih Odutola at jackshainman.com

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Behind Toyin Ojih Odutola’s portrait-like drawings (including this 2017 artwork from New York Art Tours archives) are fictional narratives, hinted at through the images but not detailed in words.  Her latest body of work opens on-line this week at Jack Shainman Gallery as protesters around the world demand respect for black lives and justice for George Floyd and others killed by police.  Ojih Odutola’s new work continues to picture the complexity of black subjectivity in an uncharacteristic pairing of images and texts in which, as the artist puts it, “exactitude is elusive.”  Instead, meaning comes from the gap between pictures and words, a place that prompts viewers to consider how their expectations inform interpretation.

Toyin Ojih Odutola, Manifesto, charcoal, pastel and pencil on paper, 18 ¾ x 23 ¾ inches, 2017.

Rochelle Feinstein at Sperone Westwater

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Aimed at an artist, the phrase ‘Love Your Work’ can be sincere or suspect.  This unforgettable 1999 fresco by Rochelle Feinstein brilliantly isolates the phrase below an envy-green field of paint.  Color takes center stage in Feinstein’s latest body of work, now on view online in Sperone Westwater’s viewing room.  Inspired by a photo she took in Rome of a double rainbow, the recent work foregrounds the color spectrum and the mutability of art. (Online through June 25th).

Rochelle Feinstein, Love Your Work (detail), fresco, 1999.

Guido van der Werve at Luhring Augustine, Monitor & GRIMM Galleries

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One of Dutch artist Guido van der Werve’s best known performances involved walking just 16 yards in front of an ice breaking ship in the Baltic sea, an example of the physical punishment and risk he’s willing to endure for his art.  Now for a new on-line exhibition, Luhring Augustine Gallery, GRIMM Gallery and Monitor Gallery are teaming up to present still photographs from the artist’s mind-bending 2012 performance ‘Nummer Veertien, home,’ for which he swam, biked and ran 1,200 miles across Europe.  Van der Werve’s journey began at the location of Chopin’s interred heart (Warsaw) and ended at the Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris where the rest of the composer’s body is buried.  In Paris, the artist delivered a small container of soil from outside Chopin’s childhood home, connecting the two places and creating a profound link between his own history and that of his favorite composer.  (On view through June 19th).

Guido Van Der Werve, Nummer acht, Everything is going to be alright, 16mm to HD, 10 minutes, 10 seconds, 2007.

Ajay Kurian in ‘Inventory’

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The U.S. flag becomes a symbol not just of the nation, but of the country’s continuous transformation in Ajay Kurian’s abstracted, epoxy rendition.  Peeling, scale-like segments suggest old skin giving way to new in brilliant color.  A similar piece from Kurian’s 2018 exhibition at 47 Canal is now showcased on ‘Inventory,’ a new platform organized by artist Darren Bader to present artwork that might otherwise languish in gallery storage while galleries are closed.

Ajay Kurian, Flag (foot print), epoxy clay, spray paint, wood, plasti-dip spray, 34 ¼ x 65 inches, 2018.

Njideka Akunyili Crosby in ‘Side by Side’

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Known for portrait-like works created with a range of materials and techniques from paint to photo transfer (like the image pictured here from a ’19 exhibition at David Zwirner Gallery), Njideka Akunyili Crosby recently simplified her procedure in paintings presented at last summer’s Venice Biennial.  Two of these are highlights of ‘Side By Side,’ a new on-line collaboration between David Zwirner Gallery and Victoria Miro Gallery for which the two galleries are presenting works via 3-D renderings by VortecXR.  Specifically addressing how to see artwork without being present in front of it, Side By Side showcases technology as much as the art, both of which are worth a look.

Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Nyado: The Thing Around Her Neck, acrylic, photographic transfers, color pencil, charcoal and collage on paper, 81 ½ x 81 ¾ inches, 2011.

Liz Luisada in ‘Klaus on Paper’ at klausgallery.cloud

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‘Klaus on Paper,’ a concisely curated, attractively presented five-artist exhibition of paintings and drawings on paper by Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery stands out among the   many new on-line outlets for art.  Liz Luisada’s contributions continue to consider the importance of grids and webs; in this painting from her summer ’18 solo show at the gallery, Luisada suggests that human activity creates and causes movement in each system.

Liz Luisada, communing, watercolor on paper, 27 ¾ x 27 ¾ inches, 2018.

Olafur Eliasson with Acute Art

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Is your garden too dry or your day too sunny?  Olafur Eliasson offers a solution in ‘Wunderkammer,’ a selection of augmented reality artwork available for download that includes a placeable raincloud complete with the sound of pattering raindrops.  A puffin, a rainbow, a ladybug and more join the cloud as part a recent project launched by the newly high profile AR Art platform Acute Art to allow participants to create their own ‘cabinet of curiosities.’

Olafur Eliasson’s cloud in ‘Wunderkammer’ with Acute Art.

Nigel Cooke at pacegallery.com

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After presenting paintings of lone figures at Pace Gallery’s new 25th Street headquarters in February of this year (a highlight of which is pictured here), British painter Nigel Cooke is back at pacegallery.com with new characters made while working in isolation.  Working at night has created an even more solitary environment for the artist from which he’s tried to capture how ‘perceptions are always changing when things are uncertain.’  Collectively titled ‘Midnights,’ each new work carries titles like ‘Shore,’ ‘Waiting’ or ‘Islands,’ that speak to the idea of a figure looking out to sea. (On view at pacegallery.com through June 2nd).

Nigel Cooke, Actaeon, oil and acrylic on linen, 88 9/16 x 64 9/16 inches, 2019.

Sara Ludy with Bitforms at Future Fair

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Sara Ludy’s artwork connects to both virtual and physical worlds manifesting as actual objects inspired by a VR dream house; here, in pieces from 2018, the artist combined glass and copper to create sculptural environments for imagined birds.  Ludy’s ability to create compelling work in digital and physical media makes her an ideal artist for her gallery, Bitforms, to showcase in the inaugural Future Fair, currently operating on-line due to the pandemic.  Check out her latest images, attractive abstractions which appear simultaneously organic and highly manipulated, intimate yet without reference to scale. (On view in the Future Fair through June 6th).

Sara Ludy, Nest 1 and Nest 2, both Waken Glass; copper mesh and glass, 4 x 8 x 7 inches & 2.5 x 5 x 4.75 inches, both 2018.

Emily Mae Smith in ‘Second Smile’ at theholenyc.com

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Installed in late April though the show will likely never be seen in person by the public, The Hole NYC’s exhibition ‘Second Smile’ asks how Surrealism continues to surface in contemporary painting.  The show includes work by Emily Mae Smith, whose painting of two candles in a clandestine nighttime meeting was a memorable part of her show at Simone Subal Gallery in 2017.  (On view at The Hole NYC through May 24th).

Emily Mae Smith, The Caress, oil on linen, 48 x 38 inches, 2017.

Titus Kaphar at gagosian.com

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Titus Kaphar’s latest paintings, the subject of a special Artist Spotlight at Gagosian Gallery, take a dramatic turn for the colorful as they continue to explore historical representations of people of African descent.  This standout from Kaphar’s 2015 show at Jack Shainman Gallery takes art historical representation as its subject by exposing two figures whose relationship would remain hidden without a revealing cut.  Kaphar’s new subjects – women in charge of children who have been cut out of the canvas – exist in charged landscapes that are “…a reflection of an emotional and psychological space.”

Titus Kaphar, Falling from the Gaze, oil on canvas, 48 ¼ x 37 ¾ x 1 ½ in, 2014.

Sam Falls at 303gallery.com

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Sam Falls records a direct experience of nature by allowing the elements to interact with the plant material and pigment he places on canvas and leaves outdoors.   His beautifully presented on-line exhibition at 303gallery.com includes photos that elaborate on his process and his ceramic practice, which includes a series of intricate ceramic tile archways on the High Line featuring designs every bit as enticing as the lush foliage surrounding them.  (On view in 303 Gallery’s on-line viewing room through May 15th).

Sam Falls, detail of Untitled (Conception), pigment on canvas, 7ft, 6 in x 41ft, 2018.

Carol Bove at davidzwirner.com

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Fashion, art history and the relationship between works in an exhibition drive the color choices that make Carol Bove’s hybrid sculptures stand out.  Sharp contrasts between aged, found steel and the smooth geometries of urethane-covered forms give pause to consider the relationships between two familiar yet seemingly mismatched materials.  This piece (seen in detail) from the artist’s last major Chelsea solo show at David Zwirner Gallery in ‘16 juxtaposes found steel with urethane-covered steel to create a wonderfully misleading suggestion of pliability.  When a sculpture’s color can make it appear to have a digital effect, Bove’s at her happiest.  She explains this and more on davidzwirner.com where a new on-line exhibition showcases select new works.

Carol Bove, (detail of) Daphne and Apollo, found steel, stainless steel, and urethane paint, 98 x 72 x 61 inches, 2016.

Broomberg & Chanarin at signsandsymbols.art

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London and Berlin-based artists and photography professors Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin’s short film, ‘The Bureaucracy of Angels’ grabs the imagination immediately with an unlikely casting choice; the star of the show – a mechanical wrecking arm – makes a riveting appearance as a soulful ballad singer lamenting the pain of migration.  Currently available to watch via the Lower East Side gallery Signs & Symbols’ website, the piece’s premise is absurd but the effect is first mesmerizing, then moving.  Part destroyer, part guardian, the machine keeps watch over migrants being intercepted by rescue agencies before eventually wrecking boats abandoned by travelers who made it to Sicily.  (Available online at signsandsymbols.art through May 13th).

Broomberg & Chanarin, still from ‘The Bureaucracy of Angels,’ 2017.

Rebecca Morgan in ‘Amuse-Bouche’ at asyageisberg.com

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Rebecca Morgan’s skewering of elitist urban attitudes towards rural Americans has shifted towards the grotesque in recent years.  You wouldn’t guess this to judge by this highlight of Morgan’s 2014 show from New York Art Tours archive, a sensitive portrayal of the artist wrapped in her ‘depression blanket.’  Audacious and merciless as ever, Morgan’s latest work at Asya Geisberg Gallery is part of a group exhibition of work priced under $3k; her young woman in a face mask is a highlight of the presentation.

Rebecca Morgan, Depression Blanket, oil and graphite on panel, 28” x 22,” 2014.

Hilary Pecis in ‘Dwelling is the Light’ at timothytaylor.com

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West coast light and the pleasures of color define Hilary Pecis’ recent work at Rachel Uffner Gallery and Timothy Taylor Gallery’s current on-line show ‘Dwelling is the Light.’  Working from a photo archive that includes the homes of friends and family, Pecis creates vibrant portraits that leave out actual individuals but make you wish you could meet the characters who’ve created such sunny environments.  (On view at timothytaylor.com through May 15th).

Hilary Pecis, Morning, acrylic on canvas, 50 x 40 inches, 2019.

Meriem Bennani 2 Lizards and Siham & Hafida

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Two Moroccan women navigate the changing face of traditional Aita music in Meriem Bennani’s mesmerizing video ‘Siham & Hafida’ from ’17, seen here at The Kitchen in a photo from New York Art Tours’ archive.  Two quite different characters – a pair of lizards in Brooklyn – navigate a separate set of challenges in Bennani’s new video series, launched with filmmaker friend Orian Barki in mid-March as a break from COVID-19 mandated isolation.  Entertaining and short, the videos speak to the surreal quality of life during the pandemic. (Episode One.  Episode Two).

Meriem Bennani, still from the video installation Siham & Hafida, The Kitchen, 2017.

Tuan Andrew Nguyen at jamescohan.com

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The centerpiece of Tuan Andrew Nguyen’s current on-line show at James Cohan Gallery is  ‘The Boat People,’ a video about a heroic group of survivor children who’ve become the last humans alive.  They parade through their lonely world carrying wooden artifacts (sculpture hand crafted in Bataan, Philippines) that speak to war and migration pre-apocalypse.  The Bodhisattva Guanyin reappears throughout the exhibition (here making a benevolent gesture), repeatedly orienting the narrative toward compassion.  In a must-see video, Nguyen explains that the dark, burned areas on the wood point to fire as ‘a strong metaphor for freedom and liberation, both spiritual and political.’ (On view through May 3rd).

Tuan Andrew Nguyen, The Offering Of A Sentient Cry (detail – right hand only), hand-carved gmelina wood, 26.5 x 15.5 x 9 inches, 2019.

Rebecca Morris at bortolamigallery.com

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Exhibition walkthroughs and artist interviews have abounded since the pandemic cut off access to physical gallery spaces, but few videos have been as engaging and personal as Rebecca Morris’ recent Q & As with painter friends at bortolamigallery.com.  The untitled work here from New York Art Tours’ archive (May ’16) prefigures the silver and gold paint and the play between organic and inorganic shapes prominent in her show installed through June at Bortolami Gallery in Tribeca.

Rebecca Morris, Untitled (#02-16), oil and spray paint on canvas, 48 x 48 inches, 2016.

Curtis Talwst Santiago at The Drawing Center

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Canadian-Trinidadian artist Curtis Talwst Santiago’s invented ancestors are conduits to an inaccessible past, allowing him to imagine the lives of those who came before him.  The fabulously beaded Jab Jab Knight seen here breaks through a wall of netting and stone to dominate Santiago’s recent show at Rachel Uffner Gallery; at the Drawing Center where the artist’s drawings and installations are now on view on-line, Santiago walks visitors through the show, introducing his knights and inspiring consideration of ‘genetic imagination.’

Curtis Talwst Santiago, The Jab Jab Knight, wire and beads, 82 x 24 x 24 inches, 2020.

Liza Lou & makers at #apartogether_art

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Liza Lou is no stranger to communal art projects, having run studios in California and South Africa employing dozens of craftspeople to hand-make sheets of beads as seen in this textile piece at Lehmann Maupin Gallery from fall ‘18.  Now isolated in her studio by the pandemic, she’s launched #apartogether_art, an open invitation to the on-line community to take inspiration from childhood security blankets and make textiles using materials at hand.  With hundreds of postings, the project testifies to the ubiquity and diversity of the creative impulse.  (Also accessible via apartogether.com).

Pannus, oil paint on woven glass beads and thread, 89 x 95 x 6 inches (approximately overall), 2018.

Louise Bourgeois’ ‘Drawings ’47-’07’ at hauserwirth.com

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Louise Bourgeois’ spiders may be her best-known work (this image from New York Art Tours’ archives captured a bronze arachnid appearing to scale a wall at the American Museum of Natural History), but for 70-years of the late artist’s career, drawing played a key role in expressing states of mind.  Hauser & Wirth Gallery’s inaugural on-line exhibition features a selection of drawings from 1947-2007 that channel Bourgeois’ unconscious and personal history.

Louise Bourgeois, Spider I, bronze, 50 x 46 x 12 1/4 inches, 1995.

Erwin Wurm at Tang Contemporary Art

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Beijing gallery Tang Contemporary Art recently reopened (after closing in January to prevent the spread of COVID-19) with a showcase of work by artists represented by Konig Galerie in Berlin.  The exhibition includes Austrian artist Erwin Wurm’s deliberately absurd ‘abstract sculpture’ (formed from variously sized cast bronze frankfurters) which brings to mind recent work at New York’s Lehmann Maupin Gallery which involved food treated as an object rather than something to eat.  Made entirely of concrete, this sculpture is a permanent version of Wurm’s One Minute Sculptures, in which participants interact with everyday objects. (Photo from New York Art Tours’ archive, Jan ’20).

Erwin Wurm, One Minute forever (hands/fruits), concrete, 15.35 x 7.87 x 5.91 inches, 2019.

Tara Donovan in ‘Material Matters’ at pacegallery.com

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Whether she’s transforming plastic cups into glacial landscapes or Styrofoam into clouds, Tara Donovan has a knack for turning masses of everyday materials into wondrous installations.  In this June ’14 image from New York Art Tour’s archives, index cards become termite mounds or stalagmites at Pace Gallery.  The gallery’s current on-line group exhibition, ‘Material Matters,’ features a delightful artwork by Donovan crafted from Slinkys that appear to have massed together and come to life.  (On view through April 21st).

Tara Donovan, Untitled, styrene index cards, metal, wood, paint and glue, 12’ 5 1/2” x 22’ 4” x 22’ 11 1/2”, 2014.

James Welling in David Zwirner Gallery’s On-Line Viewing Room

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Titled ‘Pathological Color,’ James Welling’s on-line exhibition of photography at David Zwirner Gallery assaults the senses with intense color contrasts generated by the artist’s experimental practice in Photoshop.  This detail of a photo by Welling from New York Art Tours’ archives features images of dancers layered with modernist buildings and landscapes, each suggesting performance on a different kind of stage.   Aiming to explore our perception of color, Welling draws on ‘pathologies’ described by Goethe, who considered the impact of particular colors on the senses.  For more images, including early examples of his technique, visit David Zwirner Gallery’s on-line Viewing Room.

James Welling, detail of 7809, inkjet print, 42 x 63 inches, 2015.

New York Art Tours Goes Remote!

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Contemporary art inspires.  Take your on-line engagement with art to a deeper level on a remote gallery tour.  Join Merrily on an hour-long virtual walk through of some of the most beautiful and thought-provoking shows of the moment, seeing and discussing images and video.   Tours take place via Zoom. 50% of profits in April go to New York City’s COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund.

Keegan Monaghan with David Zwirner & James Fuentes Galleries

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Virtual exhibitions have replaced in-person shows at many New York galleries, but David Zwirner Gallery’s new ‘Platform’ offers something different by showcasing work by individual artists represented by twelve established, smaller New York galleries.   The initiative highlights painting and sculpture, conceptual and digital art by groundbreaking artists and includes Keegan Monaghan’s impasto oil paintings.  Monaghan’s ‘The Screen’ – pictured here from New York Art Tour’s photo archive from Jan ’18 at James Fuentes Gallery – perfectly illustrates how pictures can ‘serve alternatively as barriers and entry points’ as we look at someone looking at someone looking.

Keegan Monaghan, The Screen, oil on canvas, red oak frame, 50 x 56 ¾ inches framed, 2016-2017.

Bayne Peterson at Kristen Lorello Gallery

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Intimately scaled and vibrantly colored, Bayne Peterson’ abstract sculpture is both a pleasure and puzzle for the eye.  In this Sept ’15 photo from New York Art Tour’s archives, a series of interlocking triangular forms made from dyed plywood segments joined by dyed epoxy creates a jittery pattern belied by the sculpture’s soothing curves.  Peterson’s latest work – currently featured by Kristen Lorello Gallery – was inspired by the dynamism of classical sculpture and the unique optical abilities of the mantis shrimp.  To see his recent sculpture, visit Kristen Lorello Gallery or check out the gallery’s special Learning Opportunities.

Sept 2015 installation view of Bayne Peterson and Nadia Haji Omar at Kristen Lorello Gallery. Foreground: Bayne Peterson, Untitled (Greens, Wood and Stone), dyed plywood, dyed epoxy, powdered granite, resin, 10.5 x 6 x 8 inches.

Kathrin Sonntag in ‘First Responders’ at Thomas Erben Gallery

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Berlin-based artist Kathrin Sonntag is no stranger to quiet moments in the studio; past photos of seemingly banal environments allude to the paranormal or time travel.  As part of Thomas Erben Gallery’s ‘First Responders’ series – an ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic by gallery artists – Sonntag presents a series of images made in the solitude of her workspace in 2004.  The photos turn the everyday moment into magic; here, nail scissors come to life and mince across the floor.  To see more from Sonntag’s unique POV, visit the gallery’s Instagram or Facebook page.

Kathrin Sonntag, from Thomas Erben Gallery’s Instagram @thomaserbengallery, posted April 6th, 2020.

Tito Ferrara at Bushwick Collective

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While museums and galleries are closed, a walk through Bushwick’s outdoor art gallery is a great alternative way to get your art fix.  This huge painting of a Brazilian jaguar by Sao Paulo street artist Tito Ferrara dominates the intersection, standing out among the many superb murals commissioned by the Bushwick Collective.  If you can’t get to Bushwick, check out the latest murals @thebushwickcollective or watch a short video of Ferrara strolling through the neighborhood @titoferrara.

Tito Ferrara, installation view of A Brazilian Jaguar, at Jefferson Street and St Nicholas Ave, 2019.

Cecily Brown on The Brooklyn Rail and from New York Art Tours Archive

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Figures emerge and recede in Cecily Brown’s energetic gestural expressionism; this Nov ’17 photo from New York Art Tour’s archives features a face so subtle it seems to have emerged by chance from the drips and lines of paints surrounding it.  It’s a great moment to catch up with Brown’s latest work on Instagram @dellyrose – where she’s been posting paintings featuring far more direct characters – and via The Brooklyn Rail’s daily live lunchtime conversation tomorrow, April 1st with Jason Rosenfeld, Editor-at-large. (Access is free and by Zoom.  Visit Eventbrite to book).

Cecily Brown, detail from Sirens and Shipwrecks and Bathers and the Band, oil on linen, 97 x 151 x 1.5 inches, 2016.

Jennifer Guidi at Gagosian Gallery

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With galleries and museums shut down, what are artists doing these days?  Jennifer Guidi’s recent Instagram posts show her doing what she always does – logging hours in the studio.  This image from her now-shuttered show at Gagosian Gallery ponders the impact and attraction of color and form.  Originally inspired by a diagram illustrating Goethe’s color theory, Guidi was also influenced by Austrian naturalist Ignaz Schiffermuller’s color wheel, remaking here it as a painting that dominates one of Gagosian’s huge walls.  It’s her meticulous mark-making, however, that has generated such excitement over her work.  Here, two Instagram posts demonstrate the repetitive processes underlying Guidi’s work.

Jennifer Guidi, Your Colors Are Eternal (Schiffermuller), sand, acrylic and oil on linen, 144 x 2 ½ inches, 2019.

Bharti Kher at Perrotin Gallery

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New Delhi-based British artist Bharti Kher breaks and recombines clay figures she’s collected over the years, inventing hybrids that combine supposed opposites – male and female or divine figures from different faiths.  Her show at Perrotin Gallery on the Lower East Side is no longer open to the public, but Kher shared her process in an insightful video shot during a residency in the UK.  This piece, Ardhanarishvara, represents a manifestation of the Hindu divinities Shiva and Parvati.  Roughly joined from mass produced figurines, they’re far from divine perfection.  Instead, they represent the artist’s ability to remake the known world, in this case with mysterious materials packed into conjoined bodies.

Bharti Kher, (foreground) Ardhanarishvara, cement, clay, wax, bronze, 54 1/8” x 9 5/8”, unique, 2016.

Larry Bell at Hauser & Wirth Gallery

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Operating under the premise that, “Art makes a positive difference at all times and in all circumstances” Hauser & Wirth Gallery has reverted to on-line exhibitions and other Internet-accessible strategies to make art available.  The gallery’s recently released exhibition walk-through with Light and Space artist Larry Bell wonderfully conveys Bell’s exploration of how glass ‘reflects, absorbs and transmits light.’   We can’t visit the artist’s reflective glass panels right now (seen here in a smaller sculpture), but the next best thing is watching him activate his ‘Standing Wall’ installations to shift the space around him.

Larry Bell, Iceberg SS, French Blue, Capri Blue, Periwinkle, and Turquoise laminated glass, 4 parts, unique, dimensions variable, 2020.

Farah Al Qasimi with Public Art Fund

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Waiting for the bus (or just walking past the bus stop) isn’t quite so mundane if you’re fortunate enough to encounter one of 100 bus shelters in all five boroughs currently hosting Farah Al Qasimi’s photographs.  Brooklyn-based Al Qasimi cites her upbringing in the Emirates for her attraction to an abundance of color and pattern and explains that in her series ‘Back and Forth Disco,’ presented by the Public Art Fund, personal style choices combat anonymity in the city.  In this image, spotted on Graham Avenue in Brooklyn, a woman performs a beauty treatment, blocking the procedure but enlivening the salon’s subtle décor with her own vibrant outfit.  (On view through May 17th.)

Farah Al Qasimi, from the series Back and Forth Disco, presented by Public Art Fund, 2020.

Allison Schulnik at PPOW Gallery on and Vimeo

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‘Moth,’ a 3-minute stop motion animation by Allison Schulnik was a highlight of her PPOW Gallery show in Chelsea and is also available on Vimeo.  Over 14 months, Schulnik painted gouache on paper frames for the piece, following a moth’s unconventional metamorphosis into a variety of creatures.  Created after a move from LA to the desert landscapes of Sky Valley, CA, and while becoming a mother, Schulnik’s personal transformation inspired an engrossing mediation on change.  (Chelsea’s PPOW Gallery is closed to the public to help stop the spread of COVID-19, but Moth can be seen on Vimeo).

Allison Schulnik, still from ‘Moth,’ 2019.

Wangechi Mutu’s Metropolitan Museum of Art Facade Commission

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art may be closed to deter the spread of COVID-19 but one of its most exciting new commissions is still on view outside.  In never-filled niches designed to hold statuary, Wangechi Mutu has installed four bronze sculptures of powerful women wrapped in coiled garments that the artist describes as ‘living, tactile and fleshy’ but which also act protectively.  Polished disks (here, at the back of this figure’s head) echo traditional ornament worn by women of status in many African cultures.  Though inspired by caryatid sculptures in which women support a burden (from prestige stools to the Vanderbilt mantlepiece) these queenly and otherworldly figures are leaders, not servers.  (On view outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art through June 8th, 2020).

Wangechi Mutu, ‘The Seated’ (one of four sculptures in the series), bronze, 2019.

Vanessa German at Rockefeller Center

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Pittsburgh-based artist, poet and performer Vanessa German’s vibrant installations of photo and sculpture stand out around Rockefeller Center, luring viewers with their dramatic color and abundant detail.  Initially puzzling for their lack of commercial message in an environment designed to sell, photos of fabulously dressed women and sculptures of German’s signature power figures convey feminine power.  The Center’s shows and attractions have ground to a halt due to COVID-19, but German’s semi-divine, haloed figure remains.  (On view in Midtown through April 5th.  Organized by Art Production Fund).

Vanessa German, view of the installation ‘The Holiest Wilderness is Freedom,’ March 2020.

Guanyu Xu at Yancey Richardson Gallery

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Born and raised in Beijing, Chicago-based artist Guanyu Xu was unable as a youth to openly express his queer identity.  Returning from the US to Beijing to visit, he transformed his parent’s apartment with photo installations that tell the story of his identity in some of its complexity.  Captured in photos, the arrangements appear to be digitally collaged but are in fact staged in real time and space, temporarily occupying an environment in a fleeting moment of openness that took place while his parents were away from their home. (Originally planned to be on view to the public in Chelsea at Yancey Richardson Gallery through April 4th, Xu’s work can be see on the gallery’s website and his own website.)

Guanyu Xu, My Desktop, archival pigment print, 26 ½ x 32 1/2, 2019.

Rita Ackermann at Hauser & Wirth Gallery

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A haze of cool colors hovers over and obscures energetic line drawings featuring human figures in Rita Ackermann’s new paintings at Hauser & Wirth Gallery, creating a juxtaposition between painterly gesture and drawing.  Titled ‘Mama,’ each painting links in title to a feminine source while channeling an Ab Exp style better known for its male adherents.  Simple drawings of circles and an occasional animal add in a child’s touch, further complicating the family relationships alluded to in the paintings. (On view in Chelsea through April 11th).

Rita Ackermann, Mama, Midsummer Night’s Dream, oil, acrylic, and ink on linen, 77 x 65 inches, 2019.

Becky Suss at Jack Shainman Gallery

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The deep impact of children’s literature on young imaginations is the subject of Becky Suss’s marvelously detailed new paintings at Chelsea’s Jack Shainman Gallery, each of which focuses on a particular text.  Here, Suss calls on her own childhood experience of acting out Zilpha Keatley Snyder’s The Egypt Game with neighborhood friends, her memories of the book and the actual play mingled together in her recollection. (On view through March 28th).

Becky Suss, Behind the A-Z (Set vs Isis/Nefertiti), oil on canvas, 84 x 60 x 1 ½ inches, 2020.

Doug Wheeler, 49 Nord 6 Est 68 Ven 12 FL at David Zwirner

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Light and space artist Doug Wheeler’s installation at David Zwirner Gallery makes light a transformative medium, turning the white cube into a glowing and changeable environment to challenge the senses.  Light disperses before our eyes as it fades from the bright glow of neon tubes installed in a recessed space to the darker areas of the wall, floor and ceiling at the end of the long rectangular gallery.  (On view in Chelsea through March 21st).

Doug Wheeler, 49 Nord 6 Est 68 Ven 12 FL, installation view at David Zwirner Gallery, Jan 2020.

Jane South at Spencer Brownstone Gallery

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A metal panel bolted closed on a grimy subway wall, a garage door and barred windows of an industrial building and other snapshots of the built environment are among the inspirations for Jane South’s new wall-mounted assemblages at Spencer Brownstone Gallery.  Posted to her Instagram account as #streetsources and #subwaysources, the photos speak to the long and varied life of the structures surrounding us as translated into canvas, tarp, batting and other materials.  (On view on the Lower East Side through April 5th).

Jane South, Mark, acrylic, canvas, batting, fabric, thread and mixed media, 105 x 109 inches, 2019.

Gladys Nilsson at Matthew Marks Gallery

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Proto-surrealist James Ensor and the fantastical Netherlandish painter Hieronymous Bosch figure as influencers on Chicago Imagist Gladys Nilsson’s odd characters, no surprise, given their pervading oddness and ambiguous identities.  This symmetrically arranged meeting of two couples, elderly, possibly blind, and with facial features straight out of a folk tale challenges belief even before spotting the tiny horns tucked into their mouths.  Are they communicating in honks?  Are they tooting at each other to avoid colliding on the sidewalk?  The fun is in the guessing.  (A selection of work from 1963 to 1980 is now on view at Matthew Marks Gallery in Chelsea through April 18th).

Gladys Nilsson, Honk, acrylic on panel in artist’s frame, 13 1/8 x 15 ¾ inches, 1964.

Krzysztof Wodiczko at Galerie Lelong

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Abraham Lincoln morphs into a teenager, a senior, a woman in glasses and other characters in Krzysztof Wodiczko’s ‘A House Divided…’, as interviews shot with a variety of Staten Island citizens with varying political views are projected onto two replica of the Lincoln Memorial at Chelsea’s Galerie Lelong.  In some exchanges, friends acknowledge their differences while respecting each other; in other conversations, barriers remain high.  Wodiczko’s goal is to encourage the exchange regardless, making dialogue the goal of his art production.  (On view through March 7th).

Krzysztof Wodiczko, A House Divided…, 4K video projection on sculpture, figure height: 98.4 inches, 2019.

Fumika Koda at Sato Sakura Gallery

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Taking in stray cats changed young artist Fumika Koda’s painting career, focusing her practice on the feline subjects and driving her to find intimate ways to portray their habits and personalities, often in connection to the seasons.  Koda even aims to empower the cats, as she puts it, “…giving them their power back over the people who left them,” but it’s her evident respect for the cats’ beauty and intelligence that stands out.  (On view at Sato Sakura Gallery through March 28th).

Fumika Koda, Dreaming, mineral pigments, gelatin, silk, 10.7 x 10.7 inches, 2019.

Nigel Cooke, Gazing at Pace Gallery

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British artist Nigel Cooke has long blurred the line between abstraction and figuration, but recent monochromatic paintings on raw canvas at Pace Gallery convey new urgency and dynamism.  By contrasting surface areas of relative calm with intersecting webs of paint receding into the distance, Cooke suggests that focus can be achieved and released, instantly altering our perspective on the environments surrounding us.  (On view through Feb 29th).

Nigel Cooke, Gazing, oil and acrylic on linen, 88 9/16 x 64 9/16 inches, 2019.

Ja’Tovia Gary at Paula Cooper Gallery

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Ja’Tovia Gary pictures the variety in Black womanhood in her new three-channel video installation at Paula Cooper Gallery with footage shot of the artist in Monet’s garden at Giverny intercut with video of Nina Simone’s 1976 performance at the Montreux Festival and street corner interviews with women of African descent in Harlem.  Through direct animation on archival film, internet footage and her own images as well as montage, Gary employs a variety of techniques to present a complex view of Black interiority. (On view in Chelsea through March 21st).

Ja’ Tovia Gary, installation view from THE GIVERNY SUITE, three-channel film installation, 2019.

Josep Grau-Garriga Tapestry at Salon94

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At over twenty feet tall, late Catalan fiber artist Josep Grau-Garriga’s monumental tapestry ‘February Light’ dominates visitors to Salon94 Bowery.  Made in the 70s after Grau-Garriga had pioneered a move away from realist tapestries crafted with expensive materials into expressionist compositions fashioned from fibers including string, hemp and even old sacks, February Light’s wooden rods and ropes give the piece a remarkable boldness.  Created in the years just after the death of dictator Francisco Franco, the many openings in the blood-red areas of the artwork seem to continue Grau-Garriga’s frequent political allusions.  (On view on the Lower East Side through Feb 29th).

Josep Grau-Garriga, Llum de Febrer, tapestry, 255 7/8 x 118 1/8 inches, 1978-81.

Janet Sobel at Andrew Edlin Gallery

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On her way to developing an abstract, dripped-paint style that influenced Jackson Pollock in the 1940s, New York artist Janet Sobel painted scenes inspired by the shtetls of her native Ukraine.  Now on view at Andrew Edlin Gallery, a selection of Sobel’s work shows her flattening of space and merger of a flowery landscape, patterned skirt and floral headdress in a way that flirts with all-over abstraction.  (On view on the Lower East Side through Feb 22nd).

Janet Sobel, Untitled, gouache on board, 10.5 x 7.5 inches, c. 1943-48.

Michael Rakowitz at Jane Lombard Gallery

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Iraqi-American artist Michael Rakowitz brings the destruction and theft of ancient artworks to public attention at Jane Lombard Gallery with a beautiful but barren reconstruction of the banqueting hall of 9th century BC Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II at the Palace of Nimrud.  Though destroyed by the Islamic State in 2015, panels from the Palace of Nimrud are housed in many museums, a point Rakowitz highlights by crafting ‘empty’ walls as meticulously as the patterned ones.  (On view in Chelsea through Feb 22nd).

Michael Rakowitz, The invisible enemy should not exist (Room F, section 1, panel 15, Northwest Palace of Nimrud), Middle Eastern food packaging and newspapers, glue, cardboard on wooden structures, 2019.

Dana Lixenberg at Grimm Gallery

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Dutch photographer Dana Lixenberg’s iconic photos for Vibe magazine in the 90s of Tupac Shakur & Biggie appear at the center of schematic mural at Grimm Gallery that demonstrates the incredible currency that photos can have.  Radiating from the center, remakes of Lixenberg’s photos of the two music legends appear in the foam of a latte, on tattoos and via The Simpsons characters among other iterations.  (On view on the Lower East Side through Feb 29th).

Dana Lixenberg’s photos featured in a centerfold from Lixenberg’s Tupac Biggie, design by Linda van Dursen (Roma Publications, 2018).

Noah Davis at David Zwirner Gallery

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Young LA painter Noah Davis died from cancer in 2015, but the hundreds of artworks he left behind are currently impacting the New York art scene thanks to a double-gallery exhibition at David Zwirner Gallery.  Davis’ style can shift from washy to realistic in the same canvas, creating surprising effects as representation dissolves into uncertainty.  Here, two napping figures on a couch evoke a languorous afternoon, made intriguing by the almost melting space above the lap of a third figure.  (On view in Chelsea through Feb 22nd).

Noah Davis, Untitled, oil on canvas, 32 x 50 inches, 2015.

Orkedeh Torabi in ‘Auguries of Innocence’ at Fredericks Freiser Gallery

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Finding that her female figures were often misinterpreted, Iranian-born, Chicago-based artist Orkedeh Torabi decided to depict only men as she continued to make work commenting on patriarchal societies.  The title of this painting, ‘Where are all the houries?,’ a standout in a group show at Fredericks Freiser Gallery, imagines the arrival in heaven of a martyr who is looking for his virginal beauties.  (On view through Feb 22nd).

Orkideh Torabi, Where are all the houries?, fabric dye on stretched cotton, 37 h x 43 w, 2018.

Jan Tichy at Fridman Gallery

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Chicago-based artist and professor Jan Tichy found an outlet for his ‘socially conscious formalism’ in the context of the Lower East Side’s lighting district, where he made work in and in response to the neighborhood’s dwindling number of lighting fixture stores.  Layering images shot in the lighting stores, their bright wares hung enticingly from the ceiling, with exposures of actual fixtures on light sensitive paper in the darkroom, Tichy created this frenetic print which mirrors the pace of change in the city.  (On view at Fridman Gallery through Feb 23rd).

Jan Tichy, Bowery Print VI, single-edition silver gelatin print, 16 h x 16 w inches, unique, 2020.

Jeanne Silverthorne Sculpture at Marc Straus Gallery

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Butterflies are a reminder of the brevity of life, but the Xerces Blue perching on this crate is an extinct species, adding a note of finality even as the nearby Venus Flytrap demonstrates abundant health.  Jeanne Silverthorne’s new sculpture at Marc Straus Gallery also includes silicone rubber crates which symbolize unknown creative possibilities.  Acting as pedestal and art object, they range from sturdy to dilapidated, suggesting the coexistence of ideas that will someday manifest as artworks and those that will not.  (On view on the Lower East Side through Feb 16th).

Jeanne Silverthorne, Venus Flytrap with Xerces Blue (Extinct), Two Crates, platinum silicone rubber, 53 x 25.3 x 48 inches, 2012-19.

Jesper Just at Perrotin Gallery

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Emotion and vulnerability continue to be strong themes in Jesper Just’s latest body of work at Perrotin Gallery on the Lower East Side.   American Ballet Theater dancers lie and sit on the floor while receiving muscle therapy via patches applied to their skin. Though nearly motionless, this individual’s alert state and a single tear suggest powerful goings on beneath a calm exterior.  Panels separated from the main display join blocks of concrete on the gallery floor in order to engage viewers more personally by forcing us to consider our own bodies in the gallery space and our own efforts at constructing meaning.  (On view through Feb 15th).

Jesper Just, Corporealities – 1, LED panels, multi-channel video, sound, steel, and cement, 98 7/16 x 137 13/16 x 143 inches, 2020.

Melanie Baker at Cristin Tierney

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The man in the foreground of this huge charcoal, graphite and pastel drawing by Melanie Baker leans forward conspiratorially, his own identity concealed as he shields the figure before him from view.  Ironically framed on each side by lit sconces, the two shadowy figures seem to have paused in the halls of power to engage in an intense and private discussion that Baker invites us to question.  (On view on the Lower East Side at Cristin Tierney through Feb 22nd).

Melanie Baker, Pomp and Sycophants, charcoal, graphite, and pastel on paper mounted on Dibond, 72 x 120 inches, 2019.

Jon Pylypchuk at Petzel Gallery

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LA’s trash is Jon Pylypchuk’s treasure, transformed via glitter and wood glue into a series of humorous portraits of alien-like creatures now on view at Chelsea’s Petzel Gallery.  The family trio featured in this panel is quirky and cute with their big eyes (actually cue balls) on cartoonishly large heads but also grotesque with their sagging and twisting flesh (composed of pants).  The title, ‘I used to be your internet kids,’ jokingly suggests that the passage of time wears on everyone, human and alien alike as offspring grow up and move on.  (On view through Feb 29th).

Jon Pylypchuk, I used to be your internet kids, fabric, wood glue, watercolor, glitter, black cue balls, polyurethane, wood on linen on panel, 2019.

Issy Wood at JTT Gallery

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Stars swirl around a young woman in this painting by Issy Wood as if the Paramount logo or the European Union flag’s emblems had risen to encircle her.  Though she appears to be calmly shielding herself, the painting’s title ‘Study for me getting nostalgic’ suggests that the doughy, green stars are moving away from the London-based artist in an image that depicts a mental navigation of Brexit. (On view at JTT Gallery on the Lower East Side through Feb 9th).

Issy Wood, Study for me getting nostalgic, oil on linen, 60 x 81 inches, 2019.

Pieter Hugo Photographs at Yossi Milo Gallery

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Invited by curator Francisco Berzunza to make new work to show in Mexico on the themes of sex and death, South African photographer Pieter Hugo spent months meeting people from all walks of life including this community theater group formed by sanitation workers in Oaxaca de Juarez.  Here, they reenact a scene from a mural painted in the 50s by David Alfaro Siqueiros at Chapultepec Castle, bringing revolutionary attitudes into the present day.  (On view at Chelsea’s Yossi Milo Gallery through Feb 29th).

Pieter Hugo, After Siqueiros, Oaxaca de Juarez, archival pigment print, 47 1/8 x 63 inches, 2018.

Robin F. Williams Painting at Marianne Boesky Gallery

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Enormous, reptilian eyes and rough-hewn features give Robin F. Williams’ female characters – named Siri and Alexa – a memorable boldness that runs contrary to the perky helpfulness of their digital namesakes.  Titled ‘Siri Defends Her Honor,’ this painting casts Apple’s assistant into the role of a mob boss’s wife as played by Uma Thurman in an iconic scene from ‘Pulp Fiction,’ examining constructed AI personalities via female roles in cinema.  (In ‘Xenia:  Crossroads in Portrait Painting’ at Marianne Boesky Gallery in Chelsea, on view through Feb 15th).

Robin F. Williams, Siri Defends Her Honor, oil and acrylic on canvas, 40 x 60 inches, 2019.