What to See in New York This March

With spring upon us, art in New York City is already in full bloom. And after the long-awaited return of summer time on March 12, gallery dancing will become much more enjoyable. So without further ado, here’s a list of the shows that moved us and we can’t wait to see this March, including Hew Locke, Saif Azzuz, Miyoko Ito, Asia Week New York and more.

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Asia Week New York “A Feast” (Qajar Period, Iran, c. 1810-1820), a painting by an unknown artist of an intimate party scene (image courtesy Asia Week New York)

Celebrating its 14th anniversary, this week-long event spans 26 galleries and six auction houses exhibiting art and objects from across Asia. The offerings range from the ancient and sacred to the contemporary. Highlights include 19th-century Japanese paintings and prints at Sebastian Izzard LLC, Asian Art, Qajar Persian paintings at Art Passages, Tang dynasty Chinese ceramics at Zetterquist Galleries, an online exhibition by Kolkata-based artist Ganesh Halo with Akar Prakar and much more. .- Hakim Bishara

Locations around town (asiaweekny.com)
March 14–16

Saif Azzuz: Says Who Saif Azzuz, “Full of Kwech” (2022), steel prison toilet filled with Eastern Gamagrass, Purple Love Grass, Seabeach Sedge, Foxglove Beardtongue, American Alumroot, Red Chokeberry, White Meadowsweet, Pointed Broom Sedge and , 34 inches x 32 inches x 19 inches (image courtesy of Nicelle Beauchene Gallery)

Saif Azzuz is a Libyan-Yurok artist based in the Bay Area who certainly deserves more attention. In his first solo exhibition in New York, he looks at the colonial history of Lower Manhattan’s Collect Pond Park, located just two blocks from the gallery. The brightly painted acrylics evoke a fresh water pond in the park that once supported the nearby Lenape village of Werpoes. Other works, including an arabesque made of police handcuffs and a prison toilet turned planter, address the carceral system that white colonialism built on indigenous land. – HB

Nicelle Beauchene Gallery (nicellebeauchene.com)
7 Franklin Place, Tribeca, Manhattan
Until March 25

Perspective Redefined Carla Aurich, “Back Twenty #02”, 12 inches x 12 inches (image courtesy of the artist)

Perspective is overused as a key word. Therefore, an exhibition devoted to perspective at the Painting Center may at first read as more of the same. But it isn’t. It’s actually one of those rare group shows with an actual thesis. It’s relevant because, as much as this point reeks of old-school formalism and raises the zombie of Clement Greenburg, the lived reality is that today’s painters still have to reckon with perspective. Don’t miss this opportunity to delve deeper into perspective at the Painting Center. – Daniel Larkin

The Painting Center (thepaintingcenter.org)
547 West 27th Street, Suite 500, 5th Floor, Chelsea, Manhattan
Until March 25

The Eyes of the City Richard Sandler, “CC Train, NYC” (1985) (© Richard Sandler)

For three decades beginning in the 1970s, Richard Sandler captured the tenderness of New York City—the pensive woman visible from the window of a speeding subway car; the quiet silhouettes of commuters like shadow puppets in Grand Central Station. The street photographer and Queens native is known for paying particular attention to the edges of his compositions, imbuing them with the kind of detail reserved for the focal point of a photograph. His first major retrospective includes never-before-seen prints and iconic works from Sandler’s 2016 monograph The Eyes of the City. It reads like a love letter to New York; bring any of your friends who are threatening to move to the West Coast. — Valentina Di Liscia

Bronx Documentary Center (bronxdoc.org)
614 Courtlandt Avenue, Melrose, Bronx
Until March 26

Elena Damiani: One Land, After Another Installation view of Elena Damiani, One Land, After Another, 2023 (photo courtesy Revolver Gallery)

Elena Damiani’s floor sculpture “Blind ll” (2022), the centerpiece of her exhibition, consists of 37 thin copper beams aligned on a marble plinth. Stone cylinders of various sizes catch the rods like beads on an abacus, placed at different heights, so they create a vaguely recognizable image – a mountain range, perhaps, or the visual representation of sound waves. The piece, like others in the show, has a strange presence: Damian’s use of stone evokes sedimentary layers, jagged edges, and other naturally occurring textural and visual phenomena, but the inclusion of inorganic materials reminds us of our own human footprint. – VD

Revolver Galeria (revolvergaleria.com)
88 Eldridge Street, 5th Floor, Lower East Side, Manhattan
Until April 1

Shona McAndrew: Rose-tinted glasses Shona McAndrew, “Bedtime” (2023), acrylic on canvas, 48 ​​in. x 72 in. (© Shona McAndrew; photo by Neighboring States, courtesy of the artist and GRATE)

Including ten new paintings—all earthy pink hues, as the exhibition title suggests—and a 74-inch-tall paper mache sculpture of a woman reclining calmly in a bathtub, Shona McAndrew’s latest exhibition celebrates the pleasure of simply to be. Some works portray the artist and her partner, adding another layer of intimacy to compositions such as “Bedtime” (2023), a closer look at art history lying nude, or “Hold You” (2023), which captures the unique pleasure of grabbing a handful of prey. Far from the commodified, mediagenic expressions of so-called “self-care,” McAndrew’s vision of rest is gentle and compassionate. – VD

Chart Gallery (chart-gallery.com)
74 Franklin Street, Tribeca, Manhattan
Until April 1

Hew Locke: Listening to the Land Installation view of Hew Locke’s Listening to the Land at PPOW Gallery, 2023 (photo courtesy Hew Locke and P·P·O·W, New York)

When you hear a new Hew Locke exhibit is coming, you know it’s going to be good. This one does not disappoint. As you enter the gallery, you will see two wooden ships hanging from the ceiling and wonder which oceans and rivers they had to sail. You will see a house of haunted plantations, destroyed houses, land certificates and relics of colonial power and destroyed nations. And as you look deeper into these wonderful works, truths begin to unfold. – HB

PPOW Gallery (ppowgallery.com)
392 Broadway,
Until April 1

Miyoko Ito Miyoko Ito, “Untitled” (1970), oil on canvas, 48 ​​inches x 46 inches (© Estate of Miyoko Ito; image courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery)

Building the abstract surfaces of her canvases in blocky lines and fluid color gradients, Miyoko Ito creates images reminiscent of sunsets, surrealist-style landscapes, and abstract places drawn from fragments of a dream. Ito and her husband were sent to a Japanese internment camp in 1942, and while most of the paintings featured in this show were created many years later, one wonders how the experience affected her, if she was inspired to create views to which he could escape. . To look at her work is to experience visual freedom: I have the sense that there is no single correct interpretation or reading, only an endless space of light and air that unfolds before me like an open road. – VD

Matthew Marks Gallery (matthewmarks.com)
522 West 22nd Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
Until April 15

Wangechi Mutu: Intertwined Wangechi Mutu, “Intertwined” (2003), watercolor with collage on paper, 16 1/8 in. x 12 1/8 in. (photo by Robert Wedemeyer, courtesy the artist and Vielmetter Los Angeles; Minneapolis Institute of Art , Mary’s Gift and Bob Mersky)

Intertwined is an invitation to get lost in the world of Wangechi Mutu. In her signature paintings and collages, androgynous creatures with outstretched arms, human figures with giant eyes and hyena ears and snake-patterned limbs, and nude women lounging dejectedly on tree trunks inhabit fantastical environments that evoke mystical disco with roller Its surfaces are constructed of magazine clippings, glitter, shells, paint and even dirt, but these are almost impossible to identify; Mutu’s magic lies in her masterful and seamless cohesion of disparate elements—and in her scathing critique of the ways in which images of black women are misrepresented and exploited. – VD

The New Museum (newmuseum.org)
235 Bowery, Lower East Side, Manhattan
Until June 4

Black Power to Black People Unknown designer, Power to the People (1969) (image courtesy Poster House; Poster House Permanent Collection)

The Poster House in Manhattan is a new and unique museum that is still struggling to gain recognition in the art world. But it has ambitious programming that will only get better if more people attend. This exhibition of Black Panther Party posters, exploring the visual language of the revolutionary movement, is a good place to start. – HB

Poster House (posterhouse.org)
119 West 23rd Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
Until September 10

More recommendations from our New York Art Guide Spring 2023 Craft and Conceptual Art: Reshaping the Legacy of Artists’ Books, Center for Book Arts, until March 25 Juan Francisco Elso: Por América, El Museo del Barrio, until 26 March Gordon Matta-Clark & ​​Pope.L: Impossible Failures, 52 Walker, through April 1 I’ll Have What She’s Got: Jewish Deli, New York Historical Society, through April 2 Abigail DeVille: Bronx Skies , Bronx Museum, through April 9