“Charles Ray”
Where: Matthew Marks
When: May 2 - June 29
Why It’s Worth a Look: This latest exhibition of Charles Ray’s work features three new sculptures made over the past five years. The first, a paper construction, stands at nine feet tall, and depicts a woman in the midst of dressing. The second features two nude men, carved from solid Italian marble. The third is only 24 inches long and crafted from paper, bringing a car crash to a standstill.
Know Before You Go: Of his paper sculptures, meticulously put together from hundreds of clippings, Ray once wrote, “The work’s fragility and close to zero weight is emergent from drawings. This sculpture is a drawing but drawn with space and time.”
“making a presence” by Marta Minujín
Where: Kurimanzutto
When: April 27 - June 8
Why It’s Worth a Look: For the first time since 1963, when they were still living in Minujín’s studio, two seminal bodies of work by the artist are sharing the same space. These are Minujín’s “Los eróticos en Technicolor,” a series of soft sculptures, and a selection of her chthonic paintings and assemblages. The bridge between the two distinct mediums is a fascination with the body, present throughout the Argentinian artist’s oeuvre.
Know Before You Go: Minujín once proclaimed in 1966, “Easel painting is dead. Today man can no longer be satisfied with a static painting hanging on a wall. Life is too dynamic.”
“...And 108 Prayers of Evil” by Sedrick Chisom
Where: Clearing
When: May 1 - June 8
Why It’s Worth a Look: In each of Sedrick Chisom’s monumental paintings—all gifted titles far too long to fit on a single line—history blurs into the present. Stories are plucked from books on the Civil War or from mythological tales that have been repeated again and again. The show follows in a career-spanning tradition of pulling from the past to contextualize the present, whether to dreary or hopeful effect.
Know Before You Go: In one painting, much-discussed Confederate general Robert E. Lee, whose Charlottesville monument was removed following the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, is given a shave by the artist himself, a forlorn look upon the general’s face.
“Technical Difficulties” by Tiffany Sia
Where: Maxwell Graham
When: May 1 - June 29
Why It’s Worth a Look: The namesake piece in this exhibition is an unmade film. Some scenes were too expensive to realize, and the result is a hodgepodge of influences that evoke low-fidelity media. Other works on view include a short film detailing a child’s escape from Shanghai, a three-channel on-the-road flick, and a projection detailing the dawn of live broadcasting.
Know Before You Go: Tiffany Sia’s shorts have been screened at the likes of the New York Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, and MoMA.
“Elizabeth Murray: Drawings (1974 – 2006)”
Where: Gladstone Gallery
When: April 30 - June 12
Why It’s Worth a Look: Sixty rarely-exhibited drawings from Elizabeth Murray are here on display, from an artist most well-known for her three-dimensional structures and layered wall-hanging works. The show delves into the ways in which drawing served as a foundation for Murray’s practice and its influence on her contemporaries.
Know Before You Go: Of the artist’s drawing practice, curator Kathy Halbreich shared, “The freedom Elizabeth managed to fight her way towards is especially vivid in her drawings … Those who appreciate her most understand the honesty of her endeavor: how she never shied away from displaying the life force found in her daily life, in the studio and at the kitchen table. This has nothing to do with style and everything to do with being human.”
“Sunday” by Maurizio Cattelan
Where: Gagosian
When: April 30 - June 15
Why It’s Worth a Look: This will be the artist’s first solo gallery show in over two decades, and his first with Gagosian. So far, the only information released on the artwork included in the show points to it being reminiscent of the artist’s famous golden toilet at the Guggenheim, in that it follows in Cattelan’s tradition of skewering contemporary American culture.
Know Before You Go: The exhibition’s curator, Francesco Bonami, has remarked that Cattelan is “the most famous Italian artist since Caravaggio.”
“Center” by Lydia Ericsson Wärn
Where: Meredith Rosen Gallery
When: April 27 - May 26
Why It’s Worth a Look: In her first American exhibition, Wärn both reveals and conceals the body, allowing a hand or other fragment to slip through her layered canvases. Each piece is created simultaneously alongside one another in the studio. The gallery compares her process to that of throwing clay on a wheel.
Know Before You Go: The artist most frequently uses her own body for a model when making her figurative works.
“Phygitalia” by Florencia Escudero
Where: Rachel Uffner Gallery and Kristen Lorello
When: April 26 - June 29
Why It’s Worth a Look: Rachel Uffner Gallery and Kristen Lorello are both currently housing new sculptures by Florencia Escudero in this joint exhibition. It’s the Brooklyn-based artist’s third ever solo exhibition, and presents her exploration of feminist theory and digital media. As such, Escudero combines digital technology with her tangible sculpting materials for work that is one part digitally native, and one part physically accessible.
Know Before You Go: The show’s title is Escudero’s own creation, a combination of the marketing term “phygital” and “talia.”
“Yves Klein and the Tangible World”
Where: Lévy Gorvy Dayan
When: April 11 - May 25
Why It’s Worth a Look: This exploration of the seminal late French artist’s oeuvre is the first to focus on the relationship between his series “Anthropométries”, 1960–62, “Peintures de feu,” 1961–62, and “Sculpture tactile,” and is curated in collaboration with the Yves Klein Foundation.
Know Before You Go: To mark the show, Lévy Gorvy Dayan will be presenting a performance of Klein’s Monotone-Silence Symphony at St. James’ Church on May 1. The composition, conceived of in the 1940s and first presented in the 1960s, consists of a sustained D major chord held for 20 minutes by 20 singers and a collection of musicians, followed by 20 minutes of pure silence.
“A Study in Form (Chapter Two)” curated by Arden Wohl
Where: James Fuentes Gallery
When: April 26 - May 25
Why It’s Worth a Look: Wohl has collected work from over 70 contributors that touches upon the relationship between visual artists and poets. Those on view include Cindy Sherman, Didier William, Hannah Black, Jenna Gribbon, Jim Jarmusch, Oscar yi Hou, Pat Steir, Raúl de Nieves, and Sheree Hovsepian, as well as poets hannah baer, Matvei Yankelevich, Anselm Berrigan, Anne Waldman, and Zêdan Xelef.
Know Before You Go: This will be the gallery’s final exhibition at its 55 Delancey Street location, where it has resided since 2010.
