Spanning both gallery locations, London-born Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s recent work portrays imaginary, elegant and enigmatic fictional characters. The dancers could be in a 1950s studio, the moody portraits could be of black beatniks, all subtly seductive, with the occasional dazzling smile. “Amaaranthine” (2018) is a bare-chested quartet of men whose obvious camaraderie is eloquently captured. While Chelsea knocks the viewer out with perfect paintings, the Tribeca show features many charcoal on paper drawings, a group of relaxed dancers, a trio of male Odalisques, domestic scenes, a profiled woman, “Sprung Habits”, as well as some spectacular paintings. Two bird drawings are also included. As a poet, I loved the inclusion of the artist’s avian-inspired poem, which gives the show its title. I quote the concluding stanza: Installation view (Top Photo): Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: Many A Moonlit Caveat, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, 2026. Courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery.
“So from the safety of the thicket and clean out of sight
The Nightingale’s song drifts from dusk to daylight,
To Mesmerize Jinns with high notes and hums,
As nightly they contemplate whence it comes.”
Let the Music Play Walter Robinson Jeffery Deitch until 6 June
Beloved artist, writer, editor, and curator Walter Robinson’s posthumous show is a perfect homage to his seductive, brushy, and boldly painted Pop-influenced work. Hamburgers, pill containers, liquor bottles, norm core clothes and lots of gorgeous girls and chisel-jawed men.
Great friend and critic Carlo McCormack calls Robinson’s “visual confections’ “wickedly smart.” Bodies of work are divided into Romance, Still Life, Painter Paintings, and Nurses. Also included are his final AI-prompted images, as well as kitschy kittens,
For decades, Walter was at the epicentre of the NYC art world. I had the great pleasure of working with him at Artnet in the mid-nineties, and his editing was always superb. His lifelong engagement with art ran the gamut from the 70s seminal publication ArtRite to CoLab to the famous Real Estate show, always engaged and curious, someone you were sure to see tirelessly prowling galleries and museums. Truly an
American painter, Walter’s light and lovely touch permeated his voice and vision.
Women Across America 1945-1979 Eric Firestone Gallery until July 11
Over two dozen stellar and multigenerational American female artists are featured in one of the season’s great group shows. Women involved in surrealism, abstract expressionism, Studio Craft and the early Women’s Art Movement run the gamut from Sari Dienes (1898-1992) to contemporaries Martha Edelheit and Nina Yankowitz, whose 1975 piece,” Scanning Punctuations”, reads like cool contemporary calligraphy. Elaine de Kooning, Miriam Schapiro. Lee Krasner, Grace Hartigan, Jane Freilicher and Helen Frankenthaler beautifully represent the New York school. Having just finished the 2021 memoir of Edith Schloss, “The Loft Generation”, I loved seeing her 1969 evocative still life “Pink.
Zinnias and Wavy Sea.”
Piercing the Veil Marina Kappos Shrine until June 27
Inspired by the Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, the artist was drawn to the many sculptures of mourning women. The acrylic-on-wood-panel paintings emerge as enigmatic spectral forms, evoking a mystical symmetry. Layered forms suggest an altered perception and subtle movement.
Twinned profiles,” Veiled Study (Eclipse)” and botanical specimens like “Pink Pansy”, “Veil Study(Orb)” are rendered with a bleached and soft palette. Horizons, ghostly faces and nature studies are rendered with thin acrylic layers. Applied with sure dexterity, the works featured in “Piercing the Veil” create a visual and transcendental poetry.
Bloom’s Disrupted Fred Tomaselli James Cohan until June 27
The latest maximalist works of Fred Tomaselli focus on gardens. The artist’s signature meticulous cosmic vision is well-suited to capturing tamed and imagined nature, fusing layered ornamentation, collage, and geometry. Familiar spirals radiate from “Plum Stump” (2025) and “Sunflowers” (2026).
The large showstopper “Sunflowers and Pollinators” (2026) hides a fanciful creature within a veil of undulating vines, otherworldly blooms and modern mandalas.
Using acrylic, photo collage, leaves, and resin on wood panels, Tomaselli is the master of kaledoscopic detail. He has drawn inspiration from Frederic Church’s Hudson Valley estate, Olana, Robert Irwin’s gardens at the Getty in Los Angeles, and his own gardening experience.
For two decades, the artist has used the front pages of the New York Times to alter headlines, employing collage and gouache to reimagine them. A new group of these collages addresses climate change, political strife, and present-day chaos.