8 Must-See Solo Gallery Shows in September

1. Robin Kid at Templon, New York

A self-taught multidisciplinary artist born in a small Dutch town and living and working in Paris, Robin Kid has been fascinated by American culture and consumerism since childhood. From Mickey Mouse and Happy Meals to Andy Warhol and Midnight Cowboy, Kid absorbed the good, the bad, and the ugly from Europe before diving headfirst into the experience of living in the States before returning to Paris to start making art exploring America’s influence on the world.

As much a political news junkie as he is a cultural purveyor, the talented Kid focuses his mind and eye on the American social landscape in his compelling “Searching For America” exhibition, his first solo show in the United States. His red, white, and blue (colors of the Dutch, American, and French flags) installation on two floors of the gallery offers a visual commentary on consumerism, religion, and politics through the lens of Norman Rockwell and Charles Manson, the sounds of Bruce Springsteen and Korn, and the algorithms of the internet. Presenting shaped paintings mounted on honeycomb aluminum and combined like puzzle pieces on stainless-steel panels along with stenciled protest placards demanding freedom and freshness, Kid warns that our future could, ironically, look old without change.

Through October 26

2. Francis Picabia at Michael Werner Gallery, New York

A highly influential Parisian modern artist of mixed Spanish and French descent, Francis Picabia got his start making paintings in the style of the most famous Impressionist artists of the day but later became better known for his iconic and enigmatic Cubist, Dadaist, and Surrealist works. A master of many aesthetic styles who was always a step ahead of other artists, Picabia captured dynamic women in his art throughout his career. It’s a pursuit that’s being celebrated in his exhibition “Femmes,” which presents paintings and drawings from the 1920s to the early ’50s of a marvelous assortment of women, including works from his harried “Monster” series, inspiring “Transparencies,” pre-Pop portraits of pin-up models and actresses, and radical post-war abstractions.

Through November 2

3. Robin F. Williams at P·P·O·W, New York

Celebrated for her visual analysis of the representation of women and the construction of gender in portraiture, advertising, folklore, social media, and film, Robin F. Williams injects humor and insight into her colorful portrayal of psychological subjects. Fresh off a seventeen-year survey of her work at the Columbus Museum of Art, the Ohio-born, Brooklyn-based artist returns to P·P·O·W for her fifth solo show. Her exhibition “Good Mourning” features a series of new large-scale paintings and gouaches on paper that mine horror films and psychological thrillers for subject matter. Continually experimenting with different ways of applying and manipulating paint, Williams presents graphically sophisticated scenes that speak to our dramatic and often terrifying times.

Through October 26

4. Lee ShinJa at Tina Kim Gallery, New York

A pioneering Korean fiber artist and educator, Lee ShinJa has worked against the conventions of traditional craft for the entirety of her 70-year career. Breaking new ground in the evolution of Korean craft, the 94-year-old artist is recognized for her modern techniques and experimental use of embroidery, dyeing, weaving, and tapestry, which have led to an expansion of the medium. Exhibiting primarily in group shows and sporadic solo shows since the mid-1950s, the Seoul-based artist was recently honored with a survey of her fiber artworks at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Gwacheon, Korea.

Her first one-person exhibition in New York, “Weaving the Dawn,” spotlights several experimental pieces from her critically acclaimed museum retrospective. Featuring preliminary sketches of her early compositional ideas and archival materials that highlight her role as an enthusiastic educator and researcher, along with her avant-garde embroidered appliqué work from the 1960s and more recent “Spirit of Mountain” series, which pays homage to her hometown, the exhibition offers an in-depth look of a master of the medium—one that’s becoming increasingly popular with contemporary artists and collectors.

Through September 28

5. Alice Neel at David Zwirner, Los Angeles

One of the greatest chroniclers of 2oth-century America, Alice Neel was born in a small town near Philadelphia in 1900 but made her mark as a “painter of people,” as she humbly called herself, in New York, where she lived and worked until she died in ’84. Curated by Hilton Als, “At Home: Alice Neel in the Queer World” highlights the artist’s long-term commitment to representing the human condition and her practice of realistically portraying people from different walks of life. Featuring paintings of politicians, philanthropists, writers, performers, and artists, as well as friends and neighbors, the show examines the meaning of queer in her time to include people who were not only homosexual but viewed as strange or odd because of their professions and points of view.

Through November 2

6. Brittney Leeanne Williams at Anat Ebgi, Los Angeles

Trained at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Brittney Leeanne Williams creates emotional landscapes and spiritual abstractions centered on the female form. Exploring feminine and Black identities, Williams composes the nude figures in bent, arched positions, creating abstract shapes and surreal scenarios when repeated or layered.

William’s exhibition “The Form in Which the Spirit Dresses,” her initial solo show with the gallery and first in Los Angeles, presents nine oil on canvas paintings in various sizes and a framed study of one of them on paper. Focused on figures and drapery folds composed as eyes and angels, as well as colliding figures and beautifully draped fabric forms, her enigmatic scenes express a heavenly realm. Creating celestial stories that evoke memorable Renaissance masterpieces, the L.A.–based artist makes color and form work to highly sensual and symbolic ends.

Through October 5

7. Sarah Cain at Anthony Meier, Mill Valley

Born in Upstate New York in 1979, Sarah Cain moved to California in ’97 to study art. She earned a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2001 and an MFA from the University of California, Berkeley, five years later. Best known for transforming galleries and institutional spaces with lively experiments in color and composition and modifying canvases by cutting, sewing, and attaching found objects, the Los Angeles artist also has a colorful history of turning furniture, floors, and walls into canvases for her work.

Her exhibition “Quiet Riot” features ten new abstract canvases in a variety of sizes, a site-specific gallery floor, a painting on a decorative bookplate, and more than a dozen mixed-media compositions on dollar bills, with the eye of George Washington or the eye atop the pyramid amusingly left exposed. Mixing geometric abstraction with curvilinear and freeform compositions, her vibrant paintings and mixed-media works express the energy of a quiet riot taking over the gallery’s sublime white box.

Through October 11

8. Tom McKinley at Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco

A Michigan-born, San Francisco–based artist, Tom McKinley conjures sublime, sophisticated paintings of luxury architecture, alluring interiors, and idyllic landscapes. Returning to the gallery for his ninth solo show, McKinley presents a dozen hyper-realistic paintings of refined ways of living made between 2017 and ’24. From serene scenes of stylish boats on lakes and in harbors and beautifully designed country houses in tranquil settings to elegant penthouse apartments filled with eye-catching contemporary art, the exceptionally cultured artist has a knack for making the lifestyles of the rich and famous look utterly desirable.

Through September 19