Jim Condron’s exhibition at the New York Studio School, curated by Karen Wilkin, continues his consistently thoughtful Collected Things series, inviting viewers to see everyday objects as vessels of personal and cultural memory. The sculptures, varying in size from around 20 to 96 inches, playfully transform seemingly ordinary items into layered narratives that bring unexpected elements together.
Lorna Simpson, did time elapse, 2024, acrylic and screenprint on gessoes fiberglass @Lorna Simpson
Cecilia Vicuña, Lorna Simpson and Nour Mobarak powerfully and eloquently broach heavy subject matter with diligent research in their attempts to preserve significant stories amidst the burdens of colonialism. Each artist speaks to various experiences as they contend with complicated histories of peoples, lands, and the dynamics between them in an array of circumstances. These exhibitions take on the task of engaging with past and present, depicting resourcefulness and perseverance amid the tangled threads of imperialism that wreak havoc across the globe. Viewers are offered context as they enter works that embody life through organic matter, curious objects, and ethereal modalities.
Artist Heather Cox at Guild Gallery II. Photo by Monika Graff
Heather Cox, a sculptor and photographer, discovered an unexpected medium in snapshots. Years ago, when she had her camera film developed, the 1-hour photo lab often provided double prints. Over time, these duplicates, along with countless other photos, accumulated in boxes. Unable to part with them, they lingered in storage—until the COVID pandemic brought a sudden shift.
As one enters My Pet Ram’s humble gallery space full of moderately-sized Gustonesque paintings, the viewer is transported into the surreal personal nooks and crannies of Michael Gac Levin’s reality. His paintings are heavily influenced by his family life. Familiar landscapes are juxtaposed with foreign characters and shapes. The artist tells a fantastical story in this new body of work through a day in the life of two characters embodied by an apple and a tree-like figure.
Polly Apfelbaum, Gregg Moore, Pot Shop installation view. Courtesy of 56 Henry
Currently on view at 56 Henry’s 105 Henry Street location is Pot Shop, the gallery’s second exhibition of multimedia artist Polly Apfelbaum and ceramicist Gregg Moore’s joint pottery project. The previous collaboration, Feed Your Head in 2023, presented 100 lavishly glazed mugs in a close grid on a plinth with a corresponding glaze color chart installed nearby. Pot Shop is a clear continuation of the fruitful creative relationship between the two artists, displaying 207 works that each experiment with new shapes and rich color exchanges.
Installation view, DWELVE: A Goosebump in Memory at Gagosian
Painting is infused with jagged jolts of adrenaline and endorphins this month, as evidenced by the markedly etched walls of white cubes sprinkled across Chelsea. Broad, gestural sweeps across canvases move into sculptural territory through the decisive claiming of space through prescient encounters. At Gagosian, Jadé Fadojutimi’s flourishing brushstrokes are illuminated by radiant pearlescent and neon hues that push and pull with hypnotic intensity. One is lifted off their feet and transported to an alternate world teeming with dance cards chock full of visual tangos with electric punctuations. At Seizan Gallery, Yashushi Ikejiri also embraces striking, colorful combinations through vibrant representations of the mundane, bringing an almost surrealist figuration of vignettes through a masterfully crafted language of paint. Pinaree Sanpitak’s presentation at Lelong & Co. takes a different approach through the limitations of color, where neutrals dominate with equal measures of intensity and fervor. Alteronce Gumby wonderfully bridges the two approaches of marrying bold colors with delicate textiles by showing two different bodies of work that tether these realms at Nicola Vassell. Light remained a constant inhabiting each gallery, moving across, through, or exuding from within each painting. As the brilliance of these colorscapes warms us from the inside out, each of these artists causes us to pause; the light they emit remains a constant with us as we move across our respective paths across the earth.
Installation view of Bradley Milligan’s Scrimmage, 2023, tinted joint compound, scrap wood, used drop cloth, oil on panel, cotton thread, hardware. 79 x 49 x 51 inches; Down the River, tinted joint compound, scrap wood, automotive polish, hardware. 85 x 71 x 5 inches
In the three person show Aggregate at Studio 9D, artists Sammy Bennett, Bradley Milligan, and James Bertucci channel New York streetscapes and detritus to relay an earnest and affecting impression of the city. Bertucci’s trompe l’oeil paintings, Bennett’s fabric installation, and Milligan’s rugged sculptures overlap in a reverence for craftsmanship. Labor and construction are this show’s subject and, in many ways, its medium. In its use of material and representation Aggregate is boldly literal in its translation of the city’s chaos and beauty.
Outcropping, Erica Stoller’s recent solo show at A.I.R. Gallery, which ran through November 10th, utilized cardboard cuttings, formerly boxes, and packaging, as its exclusive material. When walking through the gallery, one noticed the show has three sections– a corner piece that covers two walls, floor to ceiling, a grid of individual cardboard compositions hung on the wall and a third “sandwiches” station that allowed viewers to pick up layered cardboard batches. Proceeds from the sale of the “sandwiches” go to Feeding America. An interesting survey of installation art—a site-specific installation, painting-like works on a wall, and an interactive piece. Stoller often works with space in curious ways. In Item # 25-033, her 2022 solo show at A.I.R. Gallery, she created a single wall-to-wall installation using Manilla rope and elastic bands. The rope cut through the gallery space, creating framed planes between ceiling pipes, wall hooks, and the floor.
OBSESSED, the group exhibition Shelby Nelson Ward curated at Zepster in Bushwick, Brooklyn, is inspired by Mariah Carey’s hit song Obsessed and the developmental impact of social media on the millennial generation. This exhibition explores how contemporary culture influences our understanding of self-worth and authenticity. Devon Gordon, the gallery founder gives us an insight into the venue and the current show, which runs through November 17th, 2024.
JUST LOVE, (Mimi), 2024, Acrylic, pigments, ink, pastel on interfacing, Installation view
In the heart of Manhattan’s Flatiron district, Pen + Brush, a 130-year-old nonprofit dedicated to championing women in the arts, proudly presents JUST LOVE, an immersive, large-scale installation and exhibition by Italian-born Brooklynite Michela Martello. Drawing inspiration from the renowned Japanese writer Haruki Murakami, Martello’s 360-degree visual experience invites viewers to embark on an introspective and exhilarating journey, exploring the blurred boundaries between reality and the imagined. The narrative woven throughout the exhibition transports viewers into mythical domains, where the sacred and the fantastical coalesce seamlessly.