It is a week of massive statements by artists and expanded potentialities by curators and gallerists, previous and current. When you haven’t already made the journey to Pioneer Works in Brooklyn’s Pink Hook neighborhood to see American Artist’s exploration of creator Octavia E. Butler, we extremely advocate it. Multimedia artist Nick Cave’s new work makes some fairly grand statements as effectively, whereas a survey of the Nineteen Sixties Black-owned and centered gallery Acts of Artwork and a Hilton Als-curated present on the bounds of language and silence present loads of meals for thought. And filmmaker Ericka Beckman’s solo presentation on the Drawing Middle will be the most surreal “Pictures Generation” present you’ll ever see. —Natalie Haddad, Critiques Editor
Acts of Artwork in Greenwich Village
Bertha and Karl Leubsdorf Gallery at Hunter School, 132 East 68th Avenue, Higher East Aspect, ManhattanThrough March 29
Set up view of Acts of Artwork in Greenwich Village on the Bertha and Karl Leubsdorf Gallery at Hunter School (photograph by Argenis Apolinario)
“[Acts of Art] operated for only six years but exemplified the spirit of a subversive and consequential period in Black art history.” —Jasmine Weber
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Nick Cave: Amalgams and Graphts
Jack Shainman Gallery, 46 Lafayette Avenue, Civic Middle, ManhattanThrough March 29
Nick Cave, “Amalgam (Plot)” (2024), bronze, tole flowers, and forged iron door stops, on view at Jack Shainman Gallery (photograph Hrag Vartanian/Hyperallergic)
“Cave visualizes himself not as safe and separate from the powerful, as his earlier work appeared to, but as perpetually open to interpretation from his audience.” —Hrag Vartanian
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The Writing’s on the Wall: Language and Silence within the Visible Arts
Hill Artwork Basis, 239 Tenth Avenue, third Ground, Chelsea, ManhattanThrough March 29
Andy Warhol, “Close Cover Before Striking” (1962), acrylic and collage on linen (photograph Lisa Yin Zhang/Hyperallergic)
“The exhibition is relatively straightforward — though no less rich and evocative for it — asking and suggesting answers to the question: What is the relationship of language and silence to visual art?” —Lisa Yin Zhang
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American Artist: Shaper of God
Pioneer Works, 159 Pioneer Avenue, Pink Hook, BrooklynThrough April 13
Set up view of American Artist: Shaper of God at Pioneer Works, Brooklyn. Left: “Estella Butler’s Apple Valley Autonomy” (2024); proper: “To Acorn (1984)” (2023) (courtesy Pioneer Works)
“What would it mean for the survival of the planet if we were to take seriously Black feminist visions of climate justice in which coexistence with nature is prioritized over environmental plunder?” —Alexandra M. Thomas
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Ericka Beckman: Energy of the Spin
Drawing Middle, 35 Wooster Avenue, Soho, ManhattanThrough Might 11
Ericka Beckman, “Tension Building Concept Drawing” (2015), charcoal, graphite, felt-tip pen, and pastel on paper (photograph Natalie Haddad/Hyperallergic)
“Visually, [Beckman’s] schematic images are closer to Russian Constructivism and even some of Giorgio de Chirico’s metaphysical paintings than to anything from 1980s New York.” —NH
Learn the complete assessment right here.
