Installation view, "Iván Argote: Breathings," Perrotin, New York.
Photo: Guillaume Ziccarelli. ©Iván Argote / ADAGP, Paris & ARS, New York, 2025. Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin.
8 Must-See Solo Gallery Shows in May
From Takako Yamaguchi’s hybrid canvases that skillfully combine transnational artistic traditions to Katherine Bernhardt’s vibrant paintings layering pop culture figures, food, and consumer goods
Rounding up the best gallery exhibitions across the United States each month, Galerie traveled from New York to Miami and Los Angeles to discover the top solo shows for May. From Japanese-American painter Takako Yamaguchi’s hybrid canvases that skillfully combine transnational artistic traditions at Ortuzar in New York to Katherine Bernhardt’s vibrant paintings layering pop culture figures, food, and consumer goods at David Zwirner in Los Angeles, these are the not-to-be-missed shows this month.
Takako Yamaguchi, Innocent Bystander #7, (1988). Photo: Courtesy of Ortuzar
1. Takako Yamaguchi at Ortuzar | New York
Born in Japan and based in Los Angeles since 1978, Takako Yamaguchi blends artistic movements discovered through research and travel to create hybrid works inspired by Mexican Socialist Muralism, American Transcendentalism, Art Nouveau, and Japanese decorative arts. Following her 2023 debut solo exhibition at the gallery, which featured a selection of new oil-and-bronze leaf paintings influenced by various visual traditions and parallel art histories, and with her works showcased in the 2024 Whitney Biennial, Yamaguchi is now presenting five remarkable earlier paintings created between 1984 and 1989. Highlighting paintings on paper from her seminal “Innocent Bystander” series, in which she appropriated allegorical female figures from works by Lucas Cranach the Elder and visually integrated them into fantasy landscapes, the artist combined elements of the past to create a surreal vision of a floating world, cleverly infused with painterly flourishes.
On view through May 31
Enzo Cucchi, Untitled, (2024). Photo: Argenis Apolinario; Courtesy of the artist and Vito Schnabel Gallery. © Enzo Cucchi
2. Enzo Cucchi at Vito Schnabel Gallery | New York
A key figure in the Transavanguardia movement, Italy’s take on Neo-expressionism, Enzo Cucchi had a celebrated solo exhibition that occupied the entire rotunda of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York when he was just 36 years old, in 1986. Back in New York for his first one-person exhibition in 25 years, Cucchi brings his distinctive brand of poetic paintings and sculptures for the viewers’ contemplation. Presenting numerous small canvases with ceramic attachments wrapping around the spacious gallery walls, and featuring a few larger paintings and marble sculptures on plinths, the Rome-based artist constructs an open-ended narrative comprised of dreamlike visuals. From paintings of flowers, houses, fragmented figures, and skulls on wood and burlap to marble and ceramic sculptures of reclining forms, Cucchi combines diverse elements into symbolic—almost mythological—arrangements.
On view through May 22
Iván Argote, Breathings: A Space of New Hopes, (2025). Photo: Guillaume Ziccarelli. ©Iván Argote / ADAGP, Paris & ARS, New York, 2024. Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin
3. Iván Argote at Perrotin | New York
A Colombian conceptual artist, Iván Argote, studied graphic design, photography, and new media before relocating to Paris, where he earned an MFA from Beaux-Arts de Paris in 2008. Having worked in public spaces across various media for the past 15 years, his third solo show at Perrotin New York revisits some of the works and themes he has explored. This includes his current monumental pigeon sculpture on New York’s High Line, his fallen statue of Christopher Columbus overtaken by plants and weeds at the 2024 Venice Biennale, and his sculpture and video installation mixing references to monuments and modernism for the Prix Marcel Duchamp at the Centre Pompidou in 2022. Early photographic works that capture statues of Spanish kings draped in indigenous ponchos from the country’s colonies highlight the irony of his interventions, while his “Breathings“ text paintings on silk are public love poems conveying caring thoughts at a time when the world needs a little tenderness.
On view through May 31
Kang Seung Lee, Untitled (Laura Aguilar's eyes), (2024). Photo: Courtesy of Alexander Gray Associates
4. Kang Seung Lee at Alexander Gray Associates | New York
A multidisciplinary Korean artist exploring transnational queer histories through his interrelated drawing, embroidery, assemblage, photography, and video works, Kang Seung Lee honors the contributions of LGBTQIA+ individuals while highlighting frequently ignored counter-narratives. A master of traditional Korean art materials and contemporary Western art processes, the Los Angeles-based artist, who received his MFA from Cal Arts in 2015, analyzes and reinterprets images, texts, artifacts, and objects sourced from public and private archives, art collections, and libraries to produce his transformative artworks. Collaged assemblages of imagery and objects presented on skin-like veneers reference cruising-for-sex parks in Seoul and Los Angeles, while drawings based on photographs allude to artists who died of AIDS-related illnesses, such as Darrell Ellis, and AIDS activists like Laura Anguilar. And not to be missed is the video Skin in the backroom, which transforms Meg Harper’s 80-year-old dancer body into a vessel connecting the lives of other LGBTQIA+ individuals.
On view through May 31
Rafael Plaisant, Repositório XVI (The Voice of Space), (2024). Photo: Courtesy of High Noon
5. Rafael Plaisant at High Noon | New York
With a degree in architecture and fine art, Rafael Plaisant initially pursued a career as a tattoo artist, traveling around the world to transform bodies, until the COVID-19 pandemic brought that pursuit to an end. Returning to his earlier interests, the Brazilian artist began blending his love of architecture with contemporary art, popular culture, and mythological studies. In his second solo show at the gallery, titled Repositórios (Repositories), the Rio de Janeiro-based artist uses cabinets of curiosity as a starting point for paintings on paper that illustrate imaginary collections of rare, exotic, and enigmatic objects. Illusionistically displayed on shelves, in boxes, archways, and organically shaped portals, iconic works by artists like René Magritte, Salvador Dali, Lygia Clark, and Ed Ruscha create a dialogue with repeating objects such as eggs, suns, geodes, and gemstones—creating a way to imaginatively organize his thoughts and chart his interests while structuring a dreamlike narrative for his viewers.
On view through May 10
Nancy Lorenz, Honey (After Ruche d’Abeille by Sheila Hicks), (2022). Photo: Courtesy of GAVLAK, West Palm Beach
6. Nancy Lorenz at GAVLAK | West Palm Beach
Blurring the boundaries between fine and decorative arts, Nancy Lorenz creates paintings, sculptures, and installations that feature mother-of-pearl inlay, lacquer, and water gilding. Her clients, collectors, and exhibitors include Tiffany, Peter Marino, and Powerhouse Arts, as well as galleries and museums worldwide. Her abstract art, which possesses a luminous East-meets-West quality, references nature and science while showcasing old-world craftsmanship. Exhibiting her celebrated Elements series in the gallery’s Spotlight series, which focuses on key moments or themes within an artist’s practice, the displayed works explore the transient beauty of nature through opulent and abstract compositions, providing a reflective examination of texture, light, and form.
On view through May 31
George Rouy, Before this Moment, (2025). Photo: Damian Griffiths. © George Rouy. Courtesy of the artist, Hannah Barry Gallery and Hauser & Wirth
7. George Rouy at Hauser & Wirth | Los Angeles
A British painter living and working in London and Kent, George Rouy investigates contradictions, harmony, and continuous evolution in his relationship with the body and painting. He navigates the realms of gender, form, and disposition, creating feverish portraits that represent the fluid nature of 21st-century desire. His work delves into themes of physical dissonance, mystery, secrecy, ecstasy, turmoil, closeness, and distance. Freed from traditional constraints, his art explores the psychological implications of encounters—how they are perceived and experienced. This exploration draws from contemporary digital culture and industrial advancements while referencing primal expression and classical principles of color and form. In his debut US solo exhibition with the gallery, Rouy unveils the second chapter of his inquiry into human mass, multiplicity, and movement. This chapter expands on his idea of “the bleed,” which explores how figures and voids appear and interact on the canvas, leading to a physical seepage, bleeding, and merging.
On view through June 1
Katherine Bernhardt, Chew, (2024). Photo: © Katherine Bernhardt. Courtesy of the artist, David Zwirner, and Canada
8. Katherine Bernhardt at David Zwirner | Los Angeles
Building her recognizable brand with colorful canvases full of shapes, symbols, and graphics, Katherine Bernhardt is widely known for her vibrant portrayals of pop culture figures, food, and consumer goods. Earning an MFA degree from the School of Visual Arts in 2000, she has been continuously adding to the vocabulary of images that she has whimsically employed from the start. Mining the obsessions of her childhood—and the more recent interests of her son—the Saint Louis-based artist makes artistic magic with some of the most mundane iconography of our times. Her exhibition at the gallery showcases new paintings featuring Lucky Charms cereal marshmallows and sticks of butter motifs, along with other large-scale canvases that highlight signature characters like Cookie Monster, Pink Panther, E.T., and Garfield, all captured with lively brushwork and a vibrant palette. In the 2024 painting Chew, Bernhardt packs the gaping mouth of Cookie Monster with her iconic rolls of toilet paper, loose cigarettes, a prepared toothbrush, and tubs of Vaseline. Two tubes of Crest toothpaste emerge from the upper right corners, as if ready to dispense their contents into the creature’s eager mouth—the kind of humor that draws audiences into her painterly pleasures.
On view through June 14
Cover: Installation view, "Iván Argote: Breathings," Perrotin, New York.
Photo: Guillaume Ziccarelli. ©Iván Argote / ADAGP, Paris & ARS, New York, 2025. Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin.
More from Galerie
