Alfred Leslie's Paintings, Drawings, and Collages at George Adams.
First image, Self Portrait with Hoboken Oval, 84 x 60 inches, 1983. Above, In the Studio of Gretchen McLaine, 84 x 72 inches, 1979.
Detail.
The unflinching Bread and Coffee, 1983, 84 x 60 inches. Age spots carefully placed. The meager meal a metaphor? But she is magnificent.
Upstairs at Derek Eller, a wonderful Karl Wirsum drawing from 1965.
Yun Fei Ji at James Cohan.
The color is low but diverse, the marks soft and distinct in the Gathering of Animal Fiends and other works comprising Ji's Riding the Tiger.
Here is the Tea Drinker from 2025. The press release states, "Ji’s compositions unfold as intricate vignettes—flattened, vertically stacked scenes that draw from the lineage of classical Chinese painting while transforming it through contemporary sensibilities."
"May you live in interesting times," is an English quote circa 1930s often attributed to ancient China. Ji's take is biting and subtle.
Nicole Eisenman's tour de force in STY at 52 Walker. This brutal show exposes art world machinations and their inherent hypocrisy. It has several sound- and interactive sculptures, which is initially off-putting--until one realizes this show is not about admiring painting, deft though they are.
Eisenman's puzzle at the exit.
An example of Kiki Smith's gorgeous bird drawings on gampi paper at 125 Newbury, and a quote that stirs me to the core.
The resonance comes from having painted dolls, and the dissonance in imagery altogether.
Phoebe Helander at PPOW's second floor space, presenting Pantings from the Orange Room. This show has received a lot of attention, yet a great surprise to see flower paintings!
She works in single sessions, so the paint is fresh and lively. They are painted on thick pieces of wood, primed to a satin finish to receive the dancing brush.
There are areas of ground left exposed, soft licks of hair softening edges, a satisfying play on soft and hard textures, and a sense of glowing light in many of them.
The flowers have a range and that's what I love best about this show, the breadth of attention.
I laughed aloud at this because the impulse to invent is so understandable.
And yet the skill set is focused, swipes of a sideways brush to build the sharp lit edges of a bloom.
Process! Lovely to see this.
The flower paintings are up front, there are a variety of paintings in the middle room, and in the back the flaming candle paintings.
Hard to capture the depth of color and feeling of the paint.
Gorgeous, museum-quality Marin show at Schoelkopf:
Two brilliant masterpieces up front, frame painted by Marin, so visually considered.
Knockout color on this mountain. The form seems to mutate but from close to, read clearly.
Spectacular etching back room: Woolworth Building: The Dance, 1913, image size 12 x 10 inches approximately.
Kyle Staver at Nino Mier presenting The Greatest Show on Earth.
Lion Drama 2, 2025, brings Staver's visual wit to new levels, introducing a curling line to her stylized beasts and heroines. The painting is 54 x 72 inches.
Details
The show reveals shifts in the spatial relationships, I felt--figure and ground as distinct but interlocking shapes, more abstract considerations, and engagement with tradition. Her work has always carried these concerns, but the compositions feel rigorous and taut.
Particularly in Annie Oakley, 54 x 70, 2025. A diagonal splits the painting in two, and dense layering on left unspools in waves to the right. Except we're running, not swimming: neck to neck with horse and dog. The slice of ground between them, halter, and lasso create a surface design akin to the unfurling ropes of color in other work, introducing a schematic flatness to push against the forms.
The wondrous relief studies continue.
Swan Lake, 70 x 54 inches, carries the tension of Annie Oakley. Staver's humor remains intact, but the complex rhythms feels new in this work.
Clintel Steed at Shrine in an ambitious, jaw-dropping show. If only I could show you the glossy licks of paint above the figures, themselves seamed in lustrous color.
Welcome to Different Time Zones, Different Dimensions, Steed's second show with Shrine. The Golden Orb Inside the Space Station, 72 x 71 inches, explores the continuum of time through the metaphor of space stations and planar fragmentation.
Step up, New York museums.
Celestial Beings from another Time, 2025, 89 x 79 inches. Detail. In person, the upper left hand corner disintegrated into a medley of diamonds, but on camera the tiger comes to the fore. No part of Steed's paintings go flat or lose focus. The time of painting a painting like this is reflected in his philosophy.
Julia Kunin's Laughing Castles at Klaus Von Nichtssagend. The press release states, "The exhibition’s title, Laughing Castles, refers to a recurring form in Kunin’s work: a tower-like fortress topped with smiling lips. Kunin underscores the need for laughter, joy, and the erotic within activism in politically fraught times."
This work is gorgeous, the surfaces emitting and absorbing light. They reconstruct ruins, nightclubs, and body parts in new configurations that feel both ancient and contemporary.
Kunin's surfaces carry their own deep time and history.
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