Jeff Wall at Marian Goodman
The fact that one can’t pinpoint why a Jeff Wall photograph so strongly imprints itself on the mind is just one reason that they’re effective.  Domestic scenes made somehow iconic and portraits that effectively channel August Sander are the latest images in the Wall canon.
This exhibition, quiet by his past standards, includes a striking black and white portrait of a contemporary youth, Young Man Wet With Rain (2011), and a large color image of a guitar band and its sparse group of admirers, Band & Crowd (2011) as well as half a dozen other works. For me, Boy Falls From Tree (2010), a verdant depiction of a childhood mishap, is the most powerful work on display, troubling and simultaneously sentimental. Landing mysteriously between the staged and the captured, Wall’s images make us think about photography itself, which is pretty much always a good thing.
Through January 21^st
www.mariangoodman.com

“December” at Mitchell Innes & Nash
This group exhibition, called simply “December” and organized by Howie Chen, contains some quiet masterpieces. Two artists whose work is still underappreciated are Jessica Stockholder and Tom Burr. Stockholder contributes a small painted sculpture looks like a pedestal piece but is attached to the wall by a metal hasp around eye level. Burr gives us the standout work in the show, a black on black wallwork made from wool blankets tacked to painted wood. The work exudes qualities of sex and death, and is as perfectly realized as most Rothkos. Ignore the ephemeral work by ephemeral artist Joe Bradley and some other yawns in the show, and make your way to Margaret Lee’s plaster and acrylic Potato, Tony Matelli’s acrylic on mirror works, and Cheryl Donegan’s pair of black and silver paintings made from varying materials including gingham patterned cloth.
www.miandn.com
Through January 21^st.

Ai Wei Wei-Sunflower Seeds at Mary Boone
Not quite as many as the hundred million porcelain “seeds”that were on display at the Tate last year, but the re-installation at Mary Boone promises a large dose of the same awe. Weiwei paid 1600 artisans to paint the tiny stone-like sunflower seeds, which reportedly took them over two years to complete. The effect of being inside the installation is inexplicably powerful and absolutely unforgettable.  It’s an experience unlike any other sculpture you’ve ever walked across. Not to be missed.
Through February 4^th
www.maryboonegallery.com

UNDEREMPLOYED at Zürcher Studio
A group exhibition inspired by Oscar Wilde’s 1889 essay “The Decay of Living: An Observation.” It includes works by Brian Belott, Rochelle Feinstein, Viktor Kopp, Miranda Lichtenstein, Mary Lum, Keiko Narahashi, Lizzie Scott, B. Wurtz and Josh Blackwell, who also curated the show.  Blackwell argues against the tendency to assign a moral function to contemporary art, and has chosen works that celebrate art making over individual manifestos. His own contributions, woven plastic bags that make us rethink what constitutes a discard, are wonderfully displayed on the walls to look as if they just blew in and stuck. Miranda Lichtenstein’s black and white triptych and a tapestry by B. Wurtz are also highlights.  And it would be difficult not to be charmed by Keiko Narahasi’s table and vases, sliced like a set piece and painted in ghostly black, white and gray, it seems to stand on tiptoe, striving to make its impact.
Through January 20^th
www.galeriezurcher.com

Rashid Johnson at Hauser and Wirth
Johnson is the latest is a long list of artists who have left their galleries to join the Hauser & Wirth stable of superstars. I’ve seen just a few pieces from the upcoming show and am very much looking forward to the whole installation.  “Rumble” will include painting, sculpture as well as film, and is a tribute of sorts to Don King, the boxing promoter who at one time owned the townhouse where the gallery itself now resides. Johnson’s uses black wax and black spray paint for his paintings, as well as soap and mirrors. We’re told that among the works on view, visitors will find what the artist describes as a “creole puddle” of disparate influences drawn from high and low culture. These range from the art of such Post-Wart abstractionists as Norman Lewis, Carl Andre and Joseph Beuys, to low-budget Blaxploitation films and the secret traditions of black college fraternities.  Well travelled territory, perhaps, but Johnson’s take on things is sure to be a memorable one.
www.hauserwirth.com
Through February 25^th.

The Displaced Person at Invisible-Exports
Quickly becoming on the coolest galleries in New York, Invisible Exports under the passionate direction of Risa Needleman and Benjamin Tischer, presents another winning group exhibition. Black and white drawings by Sue Williams, Queen of the Droopy Body Part, hang near Walt Cassidy’s handsome and haunting photo based works. Cassidy’s elegant touch coupled with his mystical reverence for romanticized locations—a transsexual beach, gay cruising locales—send us off in search of lost time.  Works by Jesse Aron Green and Geof Oppenheimer are every bit as compelling. At the crowded opening, guests rubbed up against performance pioneer Ron Athey’s human hair towels, which were hung low to the ground, teased and tantalizing. Hopefully, this show marks Athey’s (overdue) return to New York’s gallery scene.
Through February 12^th
www.invisible-exports.com

“Corporations Are People Too” at Ed Winkleman
A witty and topical exhibition that takes as its inspiration the offensively clueless quote from Republicunt candidate for President Mitt Romney, a millionaire 200 times over.  The exhibition features a clever grouping of work by Ian Davis, Chris Dorland, Kota Ezawa, Louis Faurer, Yevgeniy Fiks, Jacqueline Hassink, Lewis Hine, Dorothea Lange, Phillip Toledano and Berenice Abbott.  Davis’s paintings of corporate businessmen/sheep in meetings make their point handsomely, and Jacqueline Hassink’ s photos of the meeting rooms of major companies included a black field to represent the corporation that wouldn’t allow the artist access.  Of course, it’s always a treat to see Berenice Abbott’s vintage portraits of American workers, and I was taken with the installation by Yevgeniy Fiks, which consisted of puzzling corporate snail mail responses to his offer of the donation of a volume of writing by Vladimir Lenin.
www.winkelman.com
Through February 4th

Thomas Woodruff at P.P.O.W.
This painter knows how to gild a lily. In the exhibition entitled, “The Four Temperament Variations,” Woodruff proves that his supernatural painterly chops have only strengthened with age.  These are among his densest paintings, each painted crammed with color and creepy details. Animals are everywhere, from turtles to tigers to dolphins, all adorned crowns or flowers of jewelry and the occasional genetic mutation. His “Batterfly” acrylic works, which hybridize a butterfly’s enticing beauty with a bat’s menace, are especially memorable. The artist’s lush works make Walton Ford’s animal antic illustrations seems quaint by comparison.
Through February 4^th
www.ppowgallery.com

Unlikely Friends: James Brooks & Dan Flavin at Greenberg Van Doren
A welcome mini-retrospective of Brooks’ underappreciated works from the late 40s to the mid 70s.  Whether using oils, inks or acrylics, the painter made one bold statement after another. Two fluorescent works by the masterful Flavin, dedicated in their titles to Brooks and his wife, round out the show. (The only unfortunate detail being that one of the Flavins is from the collection of Jill and Peter Kraus. They’re the couple that purchased their Park Avenue apartment for $37 million, arguably with taxpayer money, after a Merrill Lynch executive payout. But this has nothing to do with the beauty of the show and loaning art is the right thing to do.) Make it a point to see this exhibition.
Through February 18^th
www.gvdgallery.com

Maurizio Cattelan at the Guggenheim
Last chance to witness this overhyped and much-maligned retrospective and to see for yourself how good it actually is. “All” presents the majority of the artist’s jokey sculptures hung from the ceiling in the rotunda. The feat of engineering alone is a marvel, but seeing some old favorites again—the Pope hit by a meteor, the KKK elephant, prone Pinocchio—is a treat. Sure, Cattelan is a prankster, Benny Hill type art world character, but sometimes one-liners can be good jokes.  This exhibition will be talked about for decades. I happen to know that Cattelan is coming out of “retirement” for another special project this month—but I’m sworn to secrecy for the moment.
www.guggenheim.org
Through January 22^nd.