nyc art scene

thru June 8:

Judith Simonian: Recent Work

Edward Thorp Gallery, 210 Eleventh Ave., NYC (6th Floor)

Simonian’s ruminative landscapes and interiors fluidly combine gestural painting, stenciling and collage to create unsettling perspectives. The surfaces are composed of juxtaposed images garnered from direct observation, mental snapshots the artist takes during travels, as well as sourced imagery culled from old travel brochures, vacation pictures and film stills. Her combinations achieve an uncanny play between flatness and three dimensionality.

Opens Tonight, Aug 23, 6-10p:

”Made in Iran”
 ICY & SOT

Openhouse Gallery, 379 Broome St., NYC

site-specific installation and new stencil work. “Hailing from the city of Tabriz in North West Iran, brothers ICY AND SOT continue on their creative crusade to traverse pre-conceived perceptions of traditional Iranian art’s brevity through their highly intricate yet striking stencil artworks. Despite Iran’s cultural flourishing since the 2009 uprisings in Tehran, the challenges faced by creative free expression in the country are a constant struggle for its artists and society today. It is an oppressive force that provokes the Iranian art scene to fluctuate between an inhibited elegance and raw underground energy. This ambiguity is reflected in the vulnerable yet hopeful deep-set imagery of ICY AND SOT’s street art. Using western street art approaches, the artists’ polarized themes of love and hate, war and peace, and hope and despair are manifested into the spectral faces of the innocent.”

Opens May 5, 6-8p:

Kenji Nakayama

Woodward Gallery, 133 Eldridge St., NYC (bt Broome & Delancey)

the most extensive presentation of Nakayama’s art to date, featuring photorealistic, hand-cut stencil, spray enamel, acrylic and mixed media paintings. - thru July 7