You’re crashing from your holiday sugar high and the warm days of spring feel light years away: January sure can feel like the gloomiest month of the year. But it doesn’t have to be! Not if we make it our resolution to see more art. It’s also a perfect time to catch up on exhibitions that opened amid the fall madness, some of which are still on view. Bundle up and venture out to see Inuit artist Pitsiulaq Qimirpik’s delightful stone sculptures, Kelly Sinnaph Mary’s first New York City solo show, or a fascinating meditation on money and ethics in Medieval times at the Morgan Library. There’s much more to enjoy, and remember that while it may not feel that way, the days are indeed getting longer. —Valentina Di Liscia, News Editor
Kelly Sinnaph Mary
New Yorkers may remember Mary’s work from Spring Break a few years ago, but this is the Guadalupe-based artist’s first New York solo show. Her visually dense artworks mine the history of textiles, the Caribbean, and art history’s own obsessiveness over images of women and nature. Her figures live in a forest of patterns that convey their interiority in surprising ways. Her small sculptures extend her imagination into the world, and some of those portrayed are based on real people, including Tituba, an enslaved Native American woman believed to be a member of the Arawak-Guiana tribe hailing from Barbados — she was among the first to be accused of witchcraft in Salem in the 17th century. Highly recommended. —Hrag Vartanian
Aicon Gallery (aicon.art)
35 Great Jones Street, Noho, Manhattan
Through January 13
Cynthia Lahti: Little Storms
This gallery of ceramic figures is most interesting when the imagery starts to bleed and morph into something less recognizable. Some images feel like snapshots of moments, while others seem to wander through an art museum and its familiar poses. There’s a quick, almost sketchy quality to these small pieces, and that spontaneity gives the figures the whiff of life. Something interesting is going on with Lahti’s sense of color in these objects and I hope she continues to push that in whatever direction she feels compelled to pursue. —HV
James Fuentes Gallery (jamesfuentes.com)
55 Delancey Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan
Through January 13
Restraint
This trio of artists exhibit a refreshing degree of vulnerability in work that navigates a fine line between restraint and what at times feels like anxiety. There is a palpable tension in the images of objects. Rachel Youn encapsulates this tension in their sculpture, as shiatsu machines massage artificial flowers, their stems seemingly on the verge of being mangled. The same discomfort is clear in Sarah Slappey’s layered images of closely cropped bodies that seem to struggle in the shallow space they’re allotted. Wynnie Mynerva’s gestural work renders all these ideas abstractly, freeing us to abandon clearly recognizable subjects and amplifying the feelings in the process. A nice combination of artists who are all walking a similar path but in very different ways. —HV
Sargent’s Daughters (sargentsdaughters.com)
179 East Broadway, Lower East Side, Manhattan
Through January 27
Pitsiulaq Qimirpik
The village of Kinngait (previously known as Cape Dorset) in Canada’s Nunavut region self-styles as the “Capital of Inuit Art,” with an estimated one out of five residents employed in creative pursuits. Local artist Pitsiulaq Qimirpik learned the art of carving as an apprentice for his father in childhood. While his works are rooted in the rich lineage of Inuit sculpture, they also transcend and revitalize the tradition. Selected carved figures as well as graphite and colored pencil drawings are now on view in the bedroom-sized Java Project in Brooklyn, a fittingly intimate space to experience each of these singular works. —VD
The Java Project (thejavaproj.com)
252 Java Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn
Through January 31
Joanna Woś: True to Life
These wispy images consciously riff off of art history (Courbet’s “Young Ladies on the Banks of the Seine,” 1857, is one of many references you can spot). While the gallery’s space doesn’t do the paintings any favors, they still draw you in for careful looking. The artist claims that the works mediate charged emotions, but I didn’t see mediation as much as play with frustration and control, expressed through erasing part of the canvas to obscure and illuminate. Their early Renaissance qualities give the works a monumental and timeless feel and they retain a ghostly quality that will stay with you after you leave. —HV
Wschód New York (galeriawschod.com)
136 Orchard Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan
Through February 2
Africa & Byzantium
With pieces that range from conventional Roman mosaics to Coptic iconography and Tunisian coins, the sacred and the secular are effortlessly blended in this exhibition. Stunning in both beauty and diversity, the works stand on their own as a display of African art across centuries. The inclusion of two impressive contemporary artists from the Ethiopian diaspora, Theo Eshetu and Tsedaye Makonnen, is particularly effective in this regard. The decision to try to strain a connection with the so-called “Byzantium” weakens what is otherwise a strong testimony to the often ignored cultural heritage of Africa and demonstrates how efforts to decolonize the museum have so much further to go. —Katherine Kelaidis
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (metmuseum.org)
1000 Fifth Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan
Through March 3
Medieval Money, Merchants, and Morality
The birth and problematic rise of the money economy in Europe, as charted by this smart, focused, and sharply relevant exhibition, is steeped in guilt, superstition, and eternal-life-or-death bargaining with God and the Devil. Religious teachings unrelentingly fulminated against money and its attendant vices, fueling antisemitism through the example of Judas while condemning the rich to a near-certain hereafter in the fires of Hell. Those same societies, through often mind-boggling theological gymnastics, also developed systems for banking, loans, interest, and money transfers that differ little from our own.
The visual evidence on display from these paradoxical times is rich and varied: paper-thin coins and the scales to weigh them; illuminated manuscripts brimming with tales of saints embracing impoverishment and sinners dragged by their bulging purses into hell; a papal indulgence to underwrite the construction of St. Peter’s Basilica (and spark the Protestant Reformation); and a nearly 800-pound German steel strongbox that’s alone worth the price of admission. —Thomas Micchelli
The Morgan Library and Museum (themorgan.org)
225 Madison Avenue, Murray Hill, Manhattan
Through March 10
Emilie L. Gossiaux: Other-Worlding
Using sundry materials, Emile L. Gossiaux has crafted a marvelous indoor version of an outdoor Maypole dance, the springtime rite of regeneration and renewal. Her site-specific installation also effectively challenges a world that favors sighted over nonsighted people, human over nonhuman animals. The majestic 15-foot-tall maypole is based on the artist’s own white cane. Three sculpted dogs, human-scaled and upright on hind legs — each a rendition of Gossiaux’s white guide dog, London — are the dancing celebrants. Eight gorgeous trees feature hundreds of green leaves meticulously fashioned by the artist during the months when she was an artist-in-residence at the museum. Gossiaux’s enchanting, yet quietly fierce, exhibition is not to be missed. —Gregory Volk
Queens Museum (queensmuseum.org)
Grand Central Parkway and Van Wyck Expressway, Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, Queens
Through April 7
George Inness: Visionary Landscapes
The Montclair Art Museum may constantly be overshadowed by the artistic riches of New York City next door, but this small American-art-focused museum has a strong collection of historical work that often surprises visitors. Currently, the museum is exhibiting its world renowned collection of work by 19th-century painter George Inness, who settled in the New Jersey town at the end of his life. This reinstall comes down later this year so here is your reminder to check it out. It is a solid survey of an artist who was a formative influence on the history of American painting. Curator Gail Stavitsky also highlights the artist’s interest in the Christian sect of Swedenborgianism, which believed that natural forms were manifestations of the divine. You can see how his faith played out very clearly in the paintings he created, particularly at the end of his life. —HV
Editor’s note: The museum will be closed the month of January for a reinstallation but the Inness show will be back on display starting Friday, February 9, 2024. Sorry for any inconvenience.
Montclair Art Museum (montclairartmuseum.org)
3 South Mountain Avenue, Montclair, New Jersey
Through June 30
Look Again: European Paintings 1300–1800
The Met Museum has reinstalled their historical European galleries, and any opportunity to see the museum’s extensive collection of Dutch, Flemish, French, and Italian art is an reason to celebrate. But this time there’s something even better: The Met decided to bring modern art into the mix. Seeing two early Picassos flank a work by fellow Spaniard El Greco from centuries earlier is a treat, or Salvador Dalí next to Diego Velázquez showing the religiosity of both, while a giant Tiepolo is flanked by an Ancient Roman bust and another bust from the Gandhara kingdom, making them all seem more alike than dissimilar. At several points, modern and historical art are paired in a way that augments both. It’s a welcome initiative by the museum that you will want to check out. —HV
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (metmuseum.org)
1000 Fifth Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan
Ongoing
