Spring is creeping in, and with the crocuses comes a whole new batch of New York gallery shows. Here is our guide to 23 shows opening you won’t want to miss this season. 

“Katy Moran: I want to live in the afternoon of that day” at Sperone Westwater
Through April 13

Katy Moran, DC 2 (2018). Courtesy of the artist and Sperone Westwater.

For this first show of Moran’s paintings at Sperone Westwater, the artist has turned to a colorful palette after years of working primarily in shades of white monochrome. Her sharp turn towards earth and sky tones—which she enlivens with gestural brushstrokes and surrounds with found frames—could well be related to her recent move to the countryside outside London.

Sperone Westwater Gallery, 257 Bowery

“Ann Christopher: Edge and Line” at Rosenberg & Co. 
Through May 18

Ann Christopher, The Edge of Light (2002). Courtesy the artist and Rosenberg & Co.

For the inauguration of its newly expanded gallery space, Rosenberg & Co. has sculptures and works on paper by the British artist Ann Christopher, whose work explores the natural world through bronze, steel, and wood. The show includes a selection of these works, plus architectural drawings that give greater insight to her working process.

Rosenberg & Co., 19 East 66th Street

“Kiki Smith: Murmur“ at Pace Gallery
Through March 30

Kiki Smith, Eagle in the Pines (2017). © Kiki Smith, courtesy Pace Gallery.

One of our favorite left-handed artists, Kiki Smith, is returning to Pace with a new body of work created over the past three years. As before, these works span printmaking, sculpture, and drawing, all reflecting Smith’s experience with the natural and spiritual realms.

Pace Gallery, 537 West 24th Street

“Lesley Vance” at Bortolami Gallery
Through April 20

Lesley Vance, Untitled (2019). Courtesy of the artist and Bortolami Gallery.

Nine new paintings by painter Lesley Vance adorn the white walls of Bortolami for her debut show at the gallery. The canvases are relatively small, but they are filled with outsize gestures and dynamic curving lines, with bands of color that seem to dance across the pictures.

Bortolami Gallery, 39 Walker Street

“William Kentridge: LET US TRY FOR ONCE” at Marian Goodman Gallery
Through April 20

William Kentridge, Drawing for The Head and the Load (2018). Courtesy of the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery.

Over the past two years, William Kentridge has transformed his drawings, prints, and sculptures into operas and musical performances that have been presented around the world. This show brings these preparatory works—which touch on themes of displacement, war, and memory—together. In his words, they present “a revelation of the instability of knowledge in the world, its provisionality.”

Marian Goodman Gallery, 24 West 57th Street

“Christina Forrer” at Luhring Augustine
Through April 13 

Christina Forrer, Three Awake (2019). Courtesy of the artist and Luhring Augustine.

The colorful figures in Christina Forrer’s tapestries look like innocuous cartoons at first, but then, up close, you see that the candy-colored figures are engaged in some sort of violent interaction. Their faces are contorted and serpentine shapes float in one orifice and out of another. The woven pictures are like Hieronymus Bosch’s grotesque tableaux come to life.

Luhring Augustine Chelsea, 531 West 24th Street

“Sculptures: A Project by Erik Lindman with Photographs by David Schoerner” at Emmanuel Barbault
Through April 21

Installation view of “Sculptures: Erik Lindman with David Schoerner.” Courtesy of Emmanuel Barbault.

Sculptures by artist Erik Lindman and photographs by David Schoerner are on view side-by-side at Emmanuel Barbault Gallery, presented in collaboration with Almine Rech. Though Lindman is best known for his paintings, here he has ventured into three dimensions with textured and intriguing objects. Taken a step further, the objects are “activated” by David Schoerner, who photographed each one individually and also in varying arrangements.

Emmanuel Barbault, 325 Broome Street

“Sarah Entwistle: It may prove an accident that we met or it may prove a necessity” at signs and symbols
Through April 14

Sarah Entwistle, Endless little carrots and frail sticks (detail) (2019). Courtesy of the artist.

Architect and artist Sarah Entwistle’s first US show is based on a photograph she discovered in her late grandfather’s possessions, in which he (an architect) had staged an interior showing for a trade booth in 1969. The photograph features a cat, drawings, tapestries, and furniture, all of which Entwistle has re-imagined and re constructed according to her own design sensibilities.

signs & symbols, 102 Forsyth Street

“Strategic Vandalism: The Legacy of Asger Jorn’s Modifications Paintings” at Petzel
Through April 13

Asger Jorn, Fraternité Avant Tout (Brotherhood Above All) (1962). © Donation Jorn, Silkeborg.

One of the first appropriation artists, Asger Jorn’s early thrift store paintings are the starting point for a long line of contemporary artists who’ve since picked up the mantle. The “modifications” that Jorn applied to the found works was an extension of his interest in the Situationist movement that flourished in the 1960s in France. Petzel’s show investigates the legacy of Jorn’s initial act of irreverence and how the term “appropriation” has morphed over the years.

Petzel Gallery, 456 W 18th Street

“PERILOUS BODIES” at the Ford Foundation Gallery 
Through May 11

Otobong Nkanga, The Weight of Scars detail (2015). Courtesy of the artist.

The first in a three-part cycle of exhibitions to inaugurate the Ford Foundation Gallery brings together artists from around the world who each respond to activism through video, sculpture, installation, painting, and more. The trilogy of shows fall under the umbrella theme, “Utopian Imagination,” so there is an underlying sense of an imagined future—and perhaps some possible ways to make it a reality.

Ford Foundation Gallery, 320 East 43rd Street

“Luis Flores: Another Thing You Did to Me” at Salon 94 Bowery
Through April 20

A sculpture by Luis Flores. Image courtesy of Salon 94.

Los Angeles artist Luis Flores and his hand-crocheted, life-sized sculptures, which he considers doppelgangers, join Salon 94. Locked in athletic embraces drawn from images of WWE wrestling, these aggressive works, imbued with machismo, are at odds with Flores’s chosen medium, traditionally considered a form of “women’s work.”

Salon 94 Bowery, 243 Bowery

“Jia Aili: Combustion” at Gagosian
March 7–April 13

Jia Aili, Hermit from the Planet (2015–16). © Jia Aili Studio. Photo: Chao Yang, courtesy Gagosian.

This is the first US solo exhibition for contemporary Chinese artist Jia Aili, who just joined the stable at Gagosian. The dark, turbulent paintings range from hyper-realistic renderings of objects and people to abstracted landscapes that recall the data visualizations of Julie Mehretu.

Gagosian, 522 West 21 Street

“Microcosm & Macrocosm: Shinji Turner-Yamamoto” at Sapar Contemporary
March 7–April 13

Shinji Turner-Yamamoto, Pentimenti: Strata #14 (2018)

Japanese American artist Shinji Turner-Yamamoto mines the natural world for his materials, crafting sculptures, paintings, and installations from trees, minerals, and even fossils. His “Pentimenti” series maintains these natural formations as underlying layers beneath gold leaf and other additions by the artist.

Sapar Contemporary, 9 North Moore Street

“Sopheap Pich: The World Outside” at Tyler Rollins Fine Art
March 7–April 19

Sopheap Pich, Trenches 2 (2019). Photo courtesy of Tyler Rollins Fine Art.

Cambodian artist Sopheap Pich’s latest set of seven bamboo and rattan sculptures incorporate other natural materials such a goat hide, stone, and antlers. The exhibition’s title is inspired by “Snow,” a Louis MacNeice poem about a vase of roses on a windowsill on a snowy day, the delicate flowers separated from the extreme elements by only a thin pane of glass.

Tyler Rollins Fine Art, 529 West 20th Street

“Patrick Martinez: That Which We Do Not See” at Fort Gansevoort
March 7–April 20

Patrick Martinez, Chocolate Cake for the Black Panther Party (2018). Photo courtesy of Fort Gansevoort.

Los Angeles-based artist Patrick Martinez gets his first New York solo show, featuring three bodies of work. Don’t miss his birthday cake portraits, richly frosted celebrations of Civil Rights leaders and groups, as well as other freedom fighters, decked out with “sugar” roses.

Fort Gansevoort, 5 Ninth Avenue

“Harry Bertschmann: the 1950s” at Hollis Taggart
March 7–30

Harry Bertschmann, Untitled (1956). Courtesy of Hollis Taggart.

In 1958, Harry Bertschmann was the youngest artist in the Carnegie International, showing alongside Mark Rothko, Franz Kline, Barnett Newman, Philip Guston, and Robert Motherwell. Although he’s continued painting ever since, a successful career as a graphic designer has overshadowed his work in the fine arts. Now 87, Bertschmann is eager for rediscovery, with a show at Hollis Tagart of his early Abstract Expressionist works, which have not been on public view in more than 60 years.

Hollis Taggart, 507 West 27th Street

“Devan Shimoyama: Shh…” at De Buck Gallery
March 7–April 20

Devan Shimoyama, Shh… (detail). Courtesy of De Buck Gallery.

In his second show with De Buck, Devan Shimoyama presents boldly colored paintings of black figures reading books from a wide variety of genres that might more commonly be associated with white authors, such as philosophy, science fiction, and fantasy. He’s also made a rhinestone-encrusted hoodie sculpture, February, dedicated to Trayvon Martin.

De Buck Gallery, 505 West 27th Street

“Christian Voigt: Evolution” at Unix Gallery
March 7–April 6

Christian Voigt, Tyrannosaurus Rex (2018). Photo courtesy of UNIX Gallery.

Using large-format cameras, Christian Voigt photographs his subjects over and over again from the same vantage point, layering and combining the resulting exposures to create a single image, every detail perfectly in focus. His pictures take jarring and unnerving photo realism to the extreme. In this show, Voigt applies techniques previously used to shoot landscapes, libraries, and other architectural examples, to dinosaur skeletons.

UNIX Gallery, 513 West 26th Street

“Isaac Julien: Lessons of the Hour—Frederick Douglass” at Metro Pictures
March 8–April 13

Isaac Julien, Lessons of the Hour (still) (2019). Courtesy the Artist, Metro Pictures New York, and Victoria Miro London/Venice.

Isaac Julien pays homage to Abolitionist hero Frederick Douglass in this ten-screen film installation, which explores his relationship with a number other major figures—mostly women—including suffragist Susan B. Anthony. Shot using 4K technology in Washington, DC, Scotland, and England, the piece includes reenactments of speeches Douglass gave at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, filmed in the institution’s period rooms.

Metro Pictures, 519 West 24th Street

“Sarah Zapata: Of This World Rather” at Deli Gallery
March 8–April 14

Sarah Zapata, What Great Conflict I have for you II (2019). Photo courtesy of Deli Gallery.

Sarah Zapata’s textile-based work is currently on view at New York’s Elizabeth Foundation of the Arts in “Curriculum: Spaces of Learning and Unlearning” (through March 16), and will appear in a three-person show with Victoria Manganiello and Simon Sepulveda at the Knockdown Center in Queens in May. As if that weren’t already enough, she’s also opening a solo show of her Pre-Columbian-style carpets at Deli Gallery.

Deli Gallery, 110 Waterbury Street, Brooklyn

“Ashley Teamer: Talk of the Town” at Larrie 
March 9–April 21

Ashley Teamer, Moon. Courtesy of Larrie.

As sports lovers prepare for March Madness, Ashley Teamer presents her superhero-tinged collages and paintings paying homage to the athleticism of WNBA stars and the Bleu Devils, the women’s basketball team her grandmother founded and coached for 30 years at New Orleans’s historically black college Dillard University.

Larrie, 27 Orchard Street

“Merrill Wagner: Works From the ’80s” at Zürcher Gallery
March 13–April 26

Merrill Wagner, Revisions (1982). Courtesy of Zürcher Gallery.

Now age 83, Merrill Wagner is enjoying something of a renaissance with an upcoming retrospective at Germany’s Worpswede Museen. Zürcher Gallery is highlighting her work from the 1980s, including pieces painted on reclaimed slate, sourced from MoMA PS1 while it was being converted from a school to a museum.

Zürcher Gallery, 33 Bleecker Street

“Looking for America” Galerie St. Etienne
March 19–July

Henry Darger, Keep Quiet!. Courtesy of Galerie St. Etienne.

Galerie St. Etienne is marking its 80th anniversary with a trio of special group shows, starting with this one featuring Henry Darger, Edward Hicks, Morris Hirshfield, John Kane, Grandma Moses, and Joseph Pickett. Although perhaps best known for specializing in Austrian and German Expressionism, the gallery also has a long history of showing self-taught artists: after being forced into exile to the US by the Nazis, founder Otto Kallir was interested in learning more about the folk art of his adopted country.

Galerie St. Etienne, 24 West 57th Street