The only safe way to invest in art? Buy what you love. To that end, If I had ten grand burning a hole in my pocket, here’s what I’d buy this week from three exhibitions I saw on the Lower East Side:
SHEREE HOVSEPIAN (above): Hovsepian, whose work is in the Guggenheim and Art Institute of Chicago collections, is best known for her sculptural photography: nearly abstracted black-and-white images of her sister, often partially obscured by fabric or string in exceptional walnut frames. Here, her photos, assemblages, and even paintings on photos are shown in conjunction with large-scale sculpture. The unique works run between $24,000 and $42,000 (the sculptures are $85,000 each), but editions of her engrossing photographs are price between $6,000 and $18,000.
→ Visit: Uffner & Liu (Lower East Side) • 170 Suffolk St • Tue-Sat 10a-6p, through 06/21.
MARIJA OLŠAUSKAITĖ: My first time in this tiny, clean space was a lesson in minimalism and objet trouvé. While the sparse exhibition includes some original handmade works by the artist, it’s the found objects that are the real find. Each work consists of two ovoid pieces of colored glass, mounted to the wall. It sounds simplistic, but the glass comes from the Red Sunrise Factory, a Lithuanian stained glass factory that closed over 30 years ago. And after sourcing unused shards from former employees of the factory, Olšauskaitė sanded, grinded, and shaped them into oneiric thought bubbles that change as the light does. $7,000 each.
→ Visit: Abri Mars (Lower East Side) • 53A Stanton St • Wed-Sat 12-6p, through 07/15.
ALEKSANDAR DUREVCEVIC: An intellectual artist, Duravcevic has created an exhibition that seems one-dimensional, then disparate, but in a moment’s walk around the gallery, it snaps together as impressively coherent. The artist works in a variety of media: painting on paper, panel, and linen, as well as chemically treated steel and cast bronze. The smallest paintings on panel — subtle iridescent meditations on light — are stunning. They’ve sold well, but some remain available. They’re $11,000 each, but in this climate, you can (and should) ask for a small discount and hit the mark. –Charlie Davidson
→ Visit: Totah (Lower East Side) • 183 Stanton St • Tue-Sat 11a-6p, through 06/28.