Art Under $10K
CULTURE & LEISURE •
Summer weather brings summer shows to the galleries. Here, three notable shows downtown, with art available for purchase for less than $10K.
ANNA SAMARA (above): In her first show in the city, Samara’s painterly ability is on full display. Extreme washes of natural light, solar flares, and thermal vision dominate scenes within scenes in each painting. The works have varying degrees of legibility, with the more innocuous resembling vacation pamphlets or children’s stories, while others are more sinister in their ciphers. Landscapes with time-lapsed suns detach the paintings from time, and camera viewfinders seem to be on the hunt for something lurking. Throughout the show, Samara’s sense and skill with paint and brush are undeniable, and the show’s title, Orion, based on the Greek myth, is merely a rubric to direct her talents.
→ Hyacinth Gallery (Chinatown) • 56 Eldridge St • Wed-Sun 12-6p, thru 07/19.
ADRIAN KAY WONG: The mundane details of a life lived dominate Wong’s solo show, but the beauty in those small moments lend a calm slowness to the work that’s instantly appealing. Saturated pinks and greens pop under gloaming light, hazy setting suns, and far-off moonglow. The figures are never seen head-on, their faces obscured or turned away, their identities less important than the sights and sounds they’re likely experiencing. The clear lines and flatness of the images, along with their contemplative mien, create a languor reminiscent of summer evenings, not without concern, but with time enough to consider how to fix the worries of the day. Works range from $800-$6700; take your pick.
→ Hashimoto Contemporary (Lower East Side) • 54 Ludlow St • Tue-Sat 12-6p, thru 08/11.
TAEER M: Easily one of the strangest, most grotesque exhibitions I’ve seen recently, the work by Taeer M. at Company is as humorous as it is bizarre. It takes a page from R. Crumb in raunch, if not with the same anxiety-fueled introspection. Even for New Yorkers, the drawings of the “roach” will be too much, but the profanity will appeal to many, and the pencil work is objectively beautiful. The cartoon-ification of real-life events softens some of the more intense scenes, and the obscenity is self-aware, making both the content and the comedy explicit. Drawings are $800-$1000 and the nearly life-sized cutouts of the character from the show cost $1500.
→ Company (Chinatown) • 145 Elizabeth St • Tue-Sat 12-6p, thru 08/31.