Say what you will about February, but it’s the one month of the year that knows how to keep it short and sweet. Nonetheless, there’s much to see in New York during these compact few weeks, including works by Ed Ruscha, Nina Katchadourian, Luis Camnitzer, Martha Edelheit, and a special group show about our relationship with mushrooms. Starting this month, we’re changing the format of this list, bringing you personal recommendations from editors and regular contributors on our team. Each will explain in their individual style why the shows they recommend are truly worth your time. — Hakim Bishara
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Ed Ruscha: Parking Lots
Ed Ruscha, “Federal, County and Police Building Lots, Van Nuys” from the series Parking Lots (1967/1999), gelatin silver print, 15 inches x 15 inches (© Ed Ruscha)
Ed Ruscha needs no introduction to serious art lovers, and his parking lot series is a good example of why. Taken from a helicopter, the artist was able to transform the monotony of parking lots into some wondrous forms that resemble the abstract artwork of the era. — Hrag Vartanian
Yancey Richardson Gallery (yanceyrichardson.com)
525 West 22nd Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
Through February 18
Bruno Dunley: Clouds
Bruno Dunley, “Liéban” (2022) (photo by Charles Roussel, courtesy Galeria Nara Roesler)
In 2020, as supply chain troubles intensified and imported oil paints became harder and harder to come by in Brazil, Bruno Dunley took matters into his own hands. Along with Rafael Carneiro, he co-founded Joules & Joules with the aim of providing affordable, professional-quality pigments created locally. What began as a pandemic project became a love affair with color, the passions of which are on display in Clouds, a solo exhibition of paintings and drawings made over the last two years. The titular forms serve as a vehicle for Dunley to play with repetition, weight, transparency, and pattern, but hue and saturation take center stage in these dreamlike abstractions that evoke cityscapes, poppy fields, lily ponds, and other spaces of tranquil contemplation. — Valentina Di Liscia
Galeria Nara Roesler (nararoesler.art)
511 West 21st Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
Through February 25
Luis Camnitzer: Arbitrary Order
Detail of Luis Camnitzer, A to Cosmopolite series (2020–2022), Lambda c-type prints in 678 parts, 11 inches x 8 1/2 inches each (© 2023 Luis Camnitzer / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; courtesy Alexander Gray Associates, New York)
Luis Camnitzer’s latest Alexander Gray exhibition breaks with algorithmic authority. A longtime critic of big tech, Camnitzer now traces the development of his reasoning from works made in the 1960s to the present. Arbitrary Order centers his new A to Cosmopolite series, in which a vast annotated dictionary comes to life through Google Maps coordinates. Words like “arrest” and “addict” do not correlate to the government agencies enforcing criminalization, but rather to innocuous Long Island businesses around his home, such as “Hair Addict.” In this way, Arbitrary Order condemns artificial intelligence’s inability to grasp political nuance or replicate meaning. — Billie Anania
Alexander Gray Associates (alexandergray.com)
510 West 26 Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
Through February 25
Gabriel Lee: Corpus
Gabriel …….