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“Painting, Photography, Painting”
Where: Olney Gleason
When: Through February 14
Why It’s Worth a Look: Whether we want to admit it or not, all paintings these days are, at least a little bit, influenced by the infinite scroll of 16:9-cropped photos living inside our phones. The latest show at Olney Gleason brings together a group of painters whose work explicitly engages that tension.
Know Before You Go: Pulling from found film footage, Nana Wolke mixes sand with gesso when priming her canvas, giving her paintings a grainy, low-res quality. Thomas Blair and Leon Xu remove the artist’s hand and the paintbrush from their work entirely, employing an inkjet printer and an airbrush, respectively. Meanwhile Liza Jo Eilers merges scenes of pop culture debauchery with lurid, censorious boxes, rendered in thermally sensitive black paint.
“Snake, Turtle, Alligator”
Where: David Peter Francis
When: Through February 7
Why It’s Worth a Look: In the wake of the horrors at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Harry Truman convened a committee of scientists, military personnel, and civilians to come up with guidelines to manage America’s atomic weapons and nuclear power. The meetings were highly classified—strictly no notetaking allowed. What committee members were allowed to do, however, was doodle. That marginalia, carefully collected along with a seating chart by the room’s security guard, forms the backbone of the latest group show at David Peter Francis.
Know Before You Go: Co-organized by Sunset Park house gallery Interrobang, the show presents this archive of daydreams alongside the work of six contemporary artists: Gregg Bordowitz, Nina Katchadourian, Lucy Raven, Elaine Reichek, Turquoise, and Bruno Zhu.
“Nightswimming”
Where: Broadway
When: Through February 21
Why It’s Worth a Look: Curated by Hamptons art advisor Erica Samuels, the latest show at Broadway captures the contemplative hum and the illicit thrall of swimming at night. Find works on paper, paintings, and sculpture from esteemed artists like Rashid Johnson, 2016 CULTURED Young Artist alum Sam Moyer, Joel Mesler, Woody De Othello, Mary Heilmann, Sheree Hovsepian, Sally Mann, and Eddie Martinez.
Know Before You Go: The show takes its name from a 1993 REM ballad, capturing the recklessness of youth skinny dipping under cover of darkness.
“Influencers”
Where: Cristin Tierney
When: Through February 14
Why It’s Worth a Look: Words like “influence,” “engagement,” and “impact” have taken on new life in the 21st century, calling to mind temporary barometers of attention rather than the active cultivation of legacy. To answer this question, Tierney and co-organizer Adam Sheffer sourced artwork from contemporary artists who have cultivated lasting careers through mentorship and exchange including Diane Burko, Yayoi Kusama, Wangechi Mutu, and Amy Sillman.
Know Before You Go: The show arrives just a few months after the gallery celebrated its 15-year anniversary with a relocation from the Bowery to Tribeca.
“Felt, Velvet, Soot, Gypsum, and Engine Oil”
Where: Bortolami
When: Through February 28
Why It’s Worth a Look: The title of the new group show at Bortolami is not, in fact, the scent notes of an alluring new perfume but, rather, a nod to the unconventional materials wielded by the show’s five participants. The works of Diana Al-Hadid, Leonardo Meoni, Jonathan Okoronkwo, Claudio Parmiggiani, and Yunyao Zhang create a sense of haziness and thick residue.
Know Before You Go: In a practice he’s developed for decades, Parmiggiani creates impressions using only smoke and soot. Al-Hadid constructs abstracted cityscapes using gypsum, steel, and fiberglass. Okoronkwo repurposes material sourced from the largest junkyard in Kumasi, Ghana, while Zhang draws in graphite on felt. And Meoni? He paints impressionistic scenes on velvet (a fine art version of the kitschy artwork found in weed dealers’ garage apartments across the country.)
“Dot”
Where: Klaus von Nichtssagend
When: Through February 14
Why It’s Worth a Look: From Kusama to Kandinsky, the dot is a primal, formal building block that artists have obsessed over for centuries. In Morse code, it becomes a language. In Pointillism, it becomes thousands of tiny relationships. It’s the essential unit of graphic design, that pesky little pixel.
Know Before You Go: This show features sculpture, collages, prints, and paintings from artists like the late polka dot-forward Neo-Expressionist Jennifer Bartlett (as well as her mentees Nancy Brooks Brody and Tony Feher), Liz Deschenes, Erika Ranee, Yoko Ono, and Xylor Jane.
“Change Yer Sheets”
Where: New Discretions
When: Through February 14
Why It’s Worth a Look: What better way to kick off the new year (and every other day of the year too) than with total visceral bodily transformation? Paying homage to the transgressive performances of Fakir Musafar, Vito Acconci, and Genesis P-Orridge, who paved the way, the organizers and artists of “Change Yer Sheets” delight in slick, slippery states of identity.
Know Before You Go: There’s new collages from noted bloodletter Ron Athey, Pandrogyne portraits by Michael Fox of Genesis P-Orridge and their partner Lady Jaye Breyer, and Pee-wee Herman drag from Aaron Michael Skolnick. Linus Borgo’s paintings explore the queer art of building the body anew. And in Angel Lartigue’s MASS BODY, decomposition becomes art quite literally.
“Talisman”
Where: YveYANG
When: Through March 7
Why It’s Worth a Look: In such a demystified world, is there still room for wonder, myth, and reverence? The latest group show at YveYANG Gallery, curated by Hindley Wang, explores the concept of enchantment in all its lusty, symbolic weirdness. Heidi Lau’s ossified ceramics imply an alien anatomy while Kiki Smith’s bronze snails and cats evoke a world of fables. Creatures and hybrid forms appear again and again from E’wao Kagoshima’s aquatic fantasies or Alastair MacKinven’s pastel dreams.
Know Before You Go: The show’s title comes from an 1831 Honoré de Balzac novel in which a man finds a magical charm that grants him any wish but shrinks down with each successive use. It later inspired the decaying painting from The Picture of Dorian Gray (which, let’s face it, would look far better in a gallery than the original talisman—a piece of skin from a wild ass.)
“soul breaker”
Where: Company
When: January 15 – February 28
Why It’s Worth a Look: If the title of Company’s new show makes you wonder if they’re opening an art show or releasing a ’90s arcade game, fear not. Their latest group presentation is all about the ways in which artists try (and inevitably fail) to represent the intangible qualities of human identity. More than that, these artists are interested in locating a person’s breaking point: shock, heartache, betrayal, and death.
Know Before You Go: Using pinhole cameras and cibachrome prints, Christopher Bucklow creates radiant pictures that recall attempts at spectral and aural photography. Sculptor Ivana Bašić’s figures of wax, glass, and stainless steel may look otherworldly but they feel claustrophobic, hunched and drooping. Meanwhile Giulia Cenci, whose spindly creations can be spotted along the Highline, chains together two aluminum masks with chains and a cow’s collar.
“Looking Back: The 16th White Columns Annual”
Where: White Columns
When: January 16 – February 28
Why It’s Worth a Look: In an art scene as big as New York’s, how does a gallery go about capturing it all? White Columns says, don’t bother! Instead, the space’s delightfully subjective annual, founded in 2006, has only one rule: The curator must have seen each included artist shown in New York within the last year. Advisor, curator, and artist Augusto Arbizo organized this year’s edition.
Know Before You Go: Expect to see venerated New York art figures like Willem de Kooning, Joe Brainard, Jack Whitten, and Mira Schendel, alongside beloved new artists like beloved new stars like Salman Toor, Laura Owens, and 2023 CULTURED Young Artist Hardy Hill.
“Feet Pics”
Where: Ruby/Dakota
When: Through February 14
Why It’s Worth a Look: No feet for free at Ruby/Dakota this January. Both degraded and fetishized, the humble foot is the jumping off point for 26 artists—including Kembra Pfahler, Sam Keller & Trashman739, Marina Inoue, and more—working across painting, pastel, ceramics, and sculpture.
Know Before You Go: Artists like Mack Brim explore the erotically charged tension between the foot’s constraint and decoration while paintings from Brandon Aguiar and James Chuang explore the mundane mercilessness of stubbed toes and stepping on stray Lego bricks. Diana Rojas presents ceramic tabis on smoke break while Lily Hyon and Matthew Zaccari celebrate the slightly damp fabric of a smelly used sock.
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