Installation view, photo courtesy of the Shirley Project Space
Walking into this show on a cold, blustery night, you are greeted by large windows illuminated out by gallery light. Inside, you are met with a collection of color, light, and energy. Each piece in the exhibition Spectral Evidence uses mainly acrylic to illuminate new spaces by dissolving edges, blending colors, and allowing gradients to calmly and smoothly envelope the space within the works. While each artist in the show has their own take on creating their own spaces, they use many conventions of painting and abstraction to create new forms and environments to experience, and each piece seems to flow well into the next. The gallery layout lends itself to a meandering space.
Colorful, mixed-media exhibitions bring vibrancy to the winter season with splashes of exhilaration and discovery.
Light Years Cristin Tierney 49 Walker St. New York, NY On view through: December 20, 2025 Featuring: Judy Pfaff
This presentation of works by Judy Pfaff is radiant, electrifying and magnetic. Light Years brings together large-scale mixed-media works. These architectural structures mirror the human figure in form, feeling a bit like abstracted mirrors revealing the haze of one’s psyche; indeed, these maximalist assemblage-paintings serve as ardent reminders of the objects we collect and hold onto with a cherishing grasp. Bright neon is juxtaposed against bits and bobs of packing materials, bits of plastic, paper, bubble wrap, and more. Slick resin coats flat acrylic panels on a wall, glistening under the lights with slickness and smoothness, their sheen spellbinding and grounding at the same time. Moving through the gallery, the various installations hold differing moods, alternating between the curious, the comforting, and the alien. The sensory plunge of light, color and form oscillates in a dance between warmth and coolness, all the while continuously engaging with new discoveries the longer one stays for the slow reveal.
In the Fold James Howe Gallery On View Through: December 19, 2025 Featuring Robin Feld, Kellie Lehr and Jamie Powell Curated by Shazzi Thomas Kean University Union, NJ @shazzileona @robin_feld @kellielehr @jamielinnpowell @galleriesatkean @keanuniversity @thepaintingcenter
In the Fold, a three-person exhibition in the James Howe Gallery at Kean University, is curated by Shazzi Thomas and features gorgeous works by Robin Field, Kellie Lehr, and Jamie Powell. This interplay between painting, textiles, and sculpture coalesces into a vibrant installation that feels like a thoughtful conversation among the artists. Melding the traditions of painting with various elements of assemblage and collage, each artist strives to make sense of a world that is rapidly changing with or without us. Feld’s acrylic and collage-printed acetate on canvas works evoke fast movement, while Lehr’s in contrast, embody a feeling of stillness and observation; and Powell’s painting-sculpture hybrids are a melding in-between. Poetic threads are enmeshed in this triangulation of poignancy. John Berger’s Ways of Seeing would make for an excellent text accompaniment to this exhibition, which draws out nuances and dialogues in abundance. Through gentle moments of intimacy, Feld, Lehr and Powell follow gestures and processes they’ve been articulating in their respective practices individually, while reflections are fleshed out in a shared language with Thomas’ curation, cultivating space to come together to reflect with thoughtfulness and intention.
My Barbarian Cat Suit Lubov 5 East Broadway #402 New York, NY Info@lubov.nyc On view through: January 17, 2026 @lubov_nyc @malik_juliang @jadelain @alexandro_segade
All photos courtesy of the writer.
My Barbarian is a collaboration among Malik Gaines, Jade Gordon, and Alejandro Segade. Through Cat Suit, we are brought into the profound world of all things feline, magical, and mystical. In an enthralling installation that features enlarged illustrative tarot cards in the main gallery and a potent video, a sculptural work brings them together in an exhibition honoring and worthy of our beloved companions. We traverse symbology and contemplate the feline presence in the wild, in ancient civilizations, throughout history across the globe, within our homes, and, of course, in the ubiquitous bodegas, our lifelines in the modern cityscape. Cats have replaced humans in this particular Arcana, which is a poignant reminder to anyone familiar with the feline/human relationship that we are subservient to their knowledge and power, and have been for millennia. The illustrations vary in style and theme, allowing an array of visceral moments to unfold for the viewer, like gazing into portals that expand across time and space. This dreamy, beautiful presentation draws visitors into the worlds built and narrated by these majestic beings, and like the love of cats, the experience is deeply meaningful.
Join us Dec 19 for the Art Spiel 2025 Brooklyn fundraiser featuring 200+ artists’ works RSVP here
About the writer: Yasmeen Abdallah is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, curator and educator examining history, contemporary culture, materiality, reuse, memory, and space. She has been a visiting and teaching artist at institutions including New Museum; Pratt Institute; Sarah Lawrence College; Residency Unlimited; BRIC; Kean University; Parsons; Columbia University; Children’s Museum of NYC; El Barrio Artspace; Fairleigh Dickinson; and University of Massachusetts. She holds Bachelor’s degrees in Anthropology (focus in Historical Archaeology) and in Studio Art with honors, with a Minor in Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies from University of Massachusetts; and received an MFA in Fine Arts, with distinction, from Pratt Institute. Exhibitions include Art in Odd Places; the Boiler; Bronx Art Space; Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center; Cornell University; Ed Varie; Elizabeth Foundation; NARS Foundation; Open Source; Pratt Institute; PS122 Gallery; Spring Break Art Show; University of Massachusetts; and Westbeth. Publications include Anthropology of Consciousness; Ante Art; Art Observed; Bust Magazine; Emergency Index; Hyperallergic; Papergirl Brooklyn; Free City Radio; Radio Alhara; Tussle Magazine; the Urban Activist; and Transborder Art. Her work is in public, private, and traveling collections in the U.S. and abroad. @86cherrycherry
Tom Nussbaum: But Wait, There’s More!, Montclair Art Museum, installation view, photo courtesy of Jason Wyche
During her more than thirty years at the Montclair Art Museum, Dr. Gail Stavitsky, Chief Curator, has shaped the institution’s vision through exhibitions that deepen public understanding of art history while highlighting under-recognized artists. Her work extends beyond the galleries to publications that introduce new scholarly perspectives — including the recent catalogue accompanying Tom Nussbaum: But Wait, There’s More! In this interview, Dr. Stavitsky discusses her curatorial approach and the ideas guiding the Museum’s current exhibitions by Tom Nussbaum and Christine Romanell.
Tom McGlynn, This Here, installation view, Rick Wester Fine Art, New York
Tom McGlynn continues to grow a decade-long train of thought with a new selection of paintings in This Here at Rick Wester Fine Art. Consistent with his oeuvre, he arrays a selection of color rectangles suspended within various fields of color. An acquaintanceship with the origin of this direction, accompanied by a fresh pair of eyes, will enable a viewer to put aside the parallels with Mondrian, Albers, or even Hans Hoffmann, and see these works anew.
Tod Gangler (b. 1953), Professor Maureen McCabe, 1975, Hand-altered photograph, 5″ × 4⅜”
I’ve never been to a séance; however, walking into Maureen McCabe’s exhibition Fate and Magic at the William Benton Museum of Art invokes strong séance vibes. Artworks on black slate whisper, engravings of shooting stars, goddesses, brew potions, and long-forgotten stage magicians appear at the Benton like reliquaries of the past. For over six decades, Maureen McCabe has been an overlooked alchemist of memory, transmuting her personal experiences and arcane cultural references into this intimate magical retrospective.
Installation view of Beamsplitter featuring Unnamed, Stable and True Penetrates Being with Sight in Hand. (Gavin Wilson) and Bleap (Lauren Anaïs Hussey)
The artwork in Beamsplitter, a six-person show at Field of Play, functions as a series of portals. Named for a scientific device that both transmits and reflects light, Beamsplitter opens up spectrums of material, concept, and time. Using a mix of large and small works from artists across generations, curator David Shaw expands the Gowanus gallery’s 9 x 15-foot footprint into a dynamic array of gateways. The recurrence of circular forms and apertures presents a menu of windows to the artist’s interiority or world-view. Field of Play’s signature astroturf floor provides an idiosyncratic arena to home these loci.
Yi Hsuan Lai, Rubber, Rubber. Installation view in SoMad, 2025. Imagery courtesy of SoMad and the artist
Yi Hsuan Lai exhibits her works in a solo show at SoMad, a femme- and queer-led art space that serves as a platform for emerging artists to experiment, collaborate, and challenge conventions. SoMad comprises a combined gallery and artist residency program, a production house, and an event space. The name “SoMad” reflects both the physical location — south of Madison Square Park — and the collective’s frustration with the current landscape of resources and support structures available for emerging artists, particularly artists from marginalized communities.
MLK, 2000, Seascapes and Studies, Oil on canvas. 60 x 50 in. Photo courtesy of Georges Berges Gallery
Getting to see the works of Frank Lind in person gives you an experience of a moment, the capture of a motion, and the building up of an atmosphere. Lind works “en plein air” within nature. Capturing immediate impressions and moments that captivate him, he then carries sketches to canvas. Stemming from the on-site sketches, the larger studio works take on a glow. Using traditional oil painting processes and many old master methods, both of Lind’s series displayed in this exhibition show the end result of a painter’s process.
Work in progress, Constellation, Nasturtium, egg tempera on panel. Photo, courtesy of Cecilia Andre
Painter Susan Cohen began her artistic journey by depicting the interiors of the places she lived, drawn to the emotional resonance of light and shadow. While that early intensity has softened over time, her fascination with light remains the core of her practice — animating her still lifes, landscapes, cityscapes, and close-up studies of foliage.
We do rely on art for healing purposes, but art that directly heals often requires a performative component. That is not to say that it delivers results, but there needs to be an interactive element in which the art appears to “give back” to the viewer. I visited the shrine of St. Anthony in Padua, for me, it was mostly to see the Donatello altarpiece and the Antonio and Tullio Lombardo friezes, but it was impossible to ignore the numerous worshippers at the shrine, their foreheads resting against the saint’s sarcophagus, inserting small pieces of paper with requests for St. Anthony. For nine years, Shervone Neckles has wheeled her healing cart — the Creative Wellness Gathering Station throughout the five boroughs and dispensed potions to fascinated and grateful onlookers.
