8 Must-See Solo Gallery Shows in January

1. Annie Leibovitz at Hauser & Wirth, New York

An award-winning and widely exhibited photographer, Annie Leibovitz initially studied painting at the San Francisco Art Institute before switching her major to photography. Inspired by the documentary work of Robert Frank and Henri Cartier-Bresson, she famously began her career as a staff photographer at Rolling Stone magazine in 1970. She later became a contributing photographer for Vanity Fair and Vogue. Presenting a curated selection of landscape, still life, and portrait photographs created over the past two decades, the “Stream of Consciousness” exhibition reveals the artist’s associative thought process while contemplating the lives of writers, performers, and visual artists. Featuring outdoor views of Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty and James Turrell’s Roden Crater, intimate images of Brice Marden’s and Ellsworth Kelly’s studios, and thoughtful portraits of Billie Eilish, Amy Sherald, and Cindy Sherman, the show captures the essence of creativity through the artist’s poetic eye.

Through January 11

2. Romare Bearden at DC Moore Gallery, New York

Born in North Carolina and primarily raised in New York, Romare Bearden developed an interest in art while earning a science degree from New York University in 1935. After serving in the Army in Europe during WWII, he returned to Paris in 1950 to study art and philosophy at the Sorbonne. Once back in New York, he became an Abstract Expressionist painter, exhibiting with notable galleries before shifting to collage in 1963 to more effectively express his thoughts on humanity and the rising civil rights movement. Awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1970 and the National Medal of Arts in 1987, Bearden was dubbed “the nation’s foremost collage artist” in his New York Times obituary the following year.

The gallery’s exhibition “Paris Blues/Jazz and Other Works” showcases a series of collages from 1981 that reflect the artist’s love for Paris, New Orleans, and Harlem, intertwined with the joy that jazz brought to his life and work. Complementing the collages is a selection of other works from the prolific artist’s career, which range from abstract pieces on paper and studies for public murals to mixed-media collages depicting interior scenes with female nudes and black-and-white figurative photostats, creating an excellent overview of Bearden’s extensive body of work.

Through January 18

3. Hilliary Gabryel at Mrs., New York

A sculptor born in Virginia and based in New York, Hilliary Gabryel is a founding member of Material Girls, a collective of artists focused on building community, fostering collaboration, and facilitating exhibitions and educational initiatives. By addressing the transcendence of social class through the enhancement of found objects, Gabryel crafts vibrant, tactile sculptures and installations suggesting facets of the surreal and the baroque. In her first solo exhibition with the gallery, titled “Bedroom Eyes,” the talented sculptor presents new wall pieces crafted from repurposed headboards and vanities. Upholstering the found furniture that she sources from Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, and other resale platforms, Gabryel employs thousands of hand-placed steel tacks, sheets of luminous latex, and etched glass and mirrors to transform classical imitations into striking contemporary artworks, whimsically named after women.

Through January 11

4. Esther Mahlangu at Ross + Kramer Gallery, New York

A legendary South African artist, Esther Mahlangu is a member of the Ndebele tribe, known for its large geometric murals painted by women on the facades of their homes. A tool for storytelling, symbolizing identity and values, and heralding events like birth, deaths, and weddings, this sacred geometric painting style is passed down from generation to generation. Mahlangu first gained recognition in the 1980s when she was commissioned to paint a replica of her muraled home for the “Magiciens de la terre” exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Since then, the 89-year-old’s patterned paintings, which feature white bounded lines set diagonally or shaped like chevrons, have been shown worldwide. Her exhibition “Time in Color” at the gallery offers over 30 large-scale paintings created between 2011 and 2017, along with a hand-painted car (she originally painted a car in 1991 for the BMW Art Car series), using these designs to tell a contemporary story.

Through January 25

5. Eva Jospin at Mariane Ibrahim, Chicago

Fresh from solo exhibitions at the Château de Versailles near Paris and the Museo Fortuny during the 60th Venice Biennale, French artist Eva Jospin is showcasing her signature cardboard sculptures and embroideries in the exhibition “Vanishing Points,” her first solo show in the United States. For the past 15 years, the award-winning Beaux-Arts de Paris grad has sculpted works from new sheets of cardboard, cutting and carving the material and assembling the shaped parts to create impressive reliefs of forests and three-dimensional architectural follies. By offering these engaging pieces in the exhibition, alongside embroidered landscape images of baroque gardens, groves, and trellises, Jospin creates a fantasy realm that beautifully blurs the lines between reality and dreams.

Through January 25

6. Paul McCarthy at Jeffrey Deitch, Los Angeles

Mixing high and low culture, Paul McCarthy is internationally recognized for his provocative performances, sculptures, installations, and films. He received a BFA in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1969 and an MFA in film, video, and art from the University of Southern California in 1973. The Salt Lake City-born, Los Angeles-based artist taught for 18 years in UCLA’s New Genres Department, where he became an influential figure in contemporary art. By developing a working method akin to that of the Viennese Actionists, his genre of “painting as action” involved substituting paint with bodily fluids and food in his performances, videos, and installations, which brings us to Tomato Head (Green).

Described as “a lifesize comic figure exploring the relationship between modern culture, consumerism, and innocence,” Tomato Head pays homage to Mr. Potato Head, the first toy ever advertised on television, which symbolizes the new consumer-driven era in America to the artist. Unlike Mr. Potato Head, which featured plastic body parts, a hat, and objects to insert into limb and facial holes, McCarthy’s tomato character also has holes in its private areas. The items that can be plugged into these holes are also more diverse, including rakes, shovels, hoes, penises, and vaginas—making it both more sinister and gender-fluid. Accompanied by a series of studies and a related sculptural edition, this work was shocking when first exhibited but seems to resonate more with today’s times.

Through February 8

7. Sarah Lee at Anat Ebgi, Los Angeles

Creating imaginary landscape paintings that transport viewers to surreal sights, Sarah Lee earned her BFA and MFA degrees from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, leaving college in 2017. Ranging from medium to large-scale, the nine mystical paintings in her exhibition “Quiet Days” present a new moon shining over dunes,  a north star charting a path through vibrant mountain peaks, a path through the snow leading to a forest lit by sparkling stars, and other calming, transcendental scenes. Uninhabited by people or animals, the Korean-born, New York-based artist’s sublime scenes invite solitude, where quiet days transform into quiet nights and the problems of the outside world gradually fade away.

Through January 11

8. Brian DeGraw at James Fuentes, Los Angeles

A New York-based visual artist, DJ, and musician who is the keyboardist in the avant-garde American band Gang Gang Dance, Brian DeGraw makes art in a way related to how he makes music. As a musician, he uses a Roland SP555 Sampler, a device for DJs, producers, and musicians to sample and remix various sounds. As a visual artist working across diverse media, DeGraw sources imagery from various styles and realms before transforming it through sketches, sequencing, and innovative combinations to create something new. For his exhibition SP555, appropriately titled after his sound composition tool, he made all 14 paintings on view in the same 24 by 30-inch format, yet each one is entirely different from the others. From autobiographical elements to references in art history and popular culture, what the mind samples, the hand creates.

Through January 18