If art both reflects and critique the world around us, there’s more than enough to say at the moment — and plenty of art that can provide some insight. While artists like Aaron Gilbert and Weegee take on capitalism and celebrity culture decades apart, two shows featuring women artists are reminders that women are still vying for equal visibility and opportunities in and out of the art world. But perhaps the most surreal, exciting, and excessive art experience you can have this week is visiting the renovated Frick Collection. It reopens on April 17 so get ready to wallow in the world of old money and reacquaint yourself with Fragonard. —Natalie Haddad, Reviews Editor
Aaron Gilbert: World Without End
Gladstone Gallery, 515 West 24th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
Through April 19
“[Gilbert] creates composite images of city life in the domestic spaces of familiarity, and the scenes themselves act as doorways or portals that focus cosmic or divine energy into the object in front of us.” —Hrag Vartanian
Read the full review here.
Giant Women on New York
James Fuentes, 52 White Street, Tribeca, Manhattan
Through April 19
“[The artists’] renderings of women — here, nude, in moments of intimacy and discomfort — serve as rejoinders to the artists’ invisibility in a male-dominated art world.” —NH
Read the full review here.
Judith Linhares: The river is moving, The blackbird must be flying
PPOW Gallery, 392 Broadway, Tribeca, Manhattan
Through April 19
“A tight compression of flowers at the center of the still lifes gives way to a riot of patterning that opens the compositions, propelling them forward, landing directly on the nervous system.” —Faye Hirsch
Read the full review here.
Weegee: Society of the Spectacle
International Center of Photography, 84 Ludlow Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan
Through May 5
“There are “self-made men,” and then there are self-made legends: artists who mythologize themselves so thoroughly that they seem to escape the confines of normal personhood. Weegee was one such artist.” —Julia Curl
Read the full review here.
The Reopened Frick Collection
The Frick Collection, 1 East 70th Street, Upper East Side, Manhattan
Opens to the public April 17
“We simply don’t talk enough about why the wealthy build institutions like this, ones clearly designed to distort the realities of their lives.” —HV
Read the full article here.