Some of our favorite shows this week are all about giving new life to old things and looking at our environments from a different perspective: creative reuse, recycling and repurposing objects, and re-envisioning architecture as inviting and inclusive. While Kiah Celeste and Yuji Agematsu create art from utilitarian objects and refuse in vastly different ways, an exhibition on the legacy of feminist architect Phyllis Birkby offers alternatives to “hostile architecture.” As a complement to that show, make sure to check out Gordon Hall’s Hands and Knees at The Kitchen, closing this weekend. And Xingzi Gu’s intimate, tender paintings are always hard to resist. —Natalie Haddad, Reviews Editor
Kiah Celeste: To Be Held for a Long Time
Swivel Gallery, 555 Greenwich Street, Hudson Square, Manhattan
Through June 1
“Celeste focuses less on the concept of salvaging discarded things than on discovering alternative identities for industrial or utilitarian objects that would otherwise sit in garbage heaps.” —NH
Read the full review here.
Xingzi Gu: Fluffing the Foliage
Clearing, 260 Bowery, Nolita, Manhattan
Through June 21
“There is a sadness to these paintings, which might be their truest subject.” —John Yau
Read the full review here.
Yuji Agematsu: 2023–2024
Judd Foundation, 101 Spring Street, Soho; and 229 Lenox Avenue, Harlem, Manhattan
Through August 30
“With 366 objects in a room, I wondered if my attention would wane. But Agematsu’s compositions kept delivering distinctive jolts of unexpected convivence” —Debra Brehmer
Read the full review here.
Fantasizing Design: Phyllis Birkby Builds Lesbian Feminist Architecture
Center for Architecture, 536 LaGuardia Place, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
Through September 2
“I was struck by the emphasis on collectivity and support in these works by queer women and trans artists, on stripping away an architecture of isolation, singular use, and protectionism.” —Alexis Clements
Read the full review here.