The art world typically starts to slow down in July, but this year it is cautiously starting to open back up with galleries in Europe, Asia, and some in New York beginning to return to in-person viewings, often by appointment.

This month, we’ve picked five artists with new work on view at galleries around the world that you can visit in person or online.

Ryan Martin
“Thirsty Tide” at Elizabeth Houston Gallery, New York

Ryan Martin, Trill Tyrian (2020). Courtesy of Elizabeth Houston Gallery.

In his solo exhibition at New York’s Elizabeth Houston Gallery, Ryan Martin is showcasing a new series of paintings that explore our relationship to the environment to a nearly psychedelic effect. In each painting, a young face is surrounded by engulfing flora and fauna that seem to be drawn from kitsch vintage paintings, sci-fi illustrations, and the floral decadence of Art Deco master Alphonse Mucha.

Su Yu
“We Are Sojourners!” at Galerie Bruno Massa, Tbilisi

Su Yu, Surviving (2017). Courtesy of Galerie Bruno Massa.

Su Yu’s large-scale paintings are like snapshots of intimate moments of daily life. Men and women reclining in bed, friends laughing, men sitting outside on a stoop. There’s a photographic quality to the compositions, with figures cut-off at unexpected angles. Together, the works give the impression of a first-person perspective. Among her most recurrent images are those of mothers with small children clinging to them, or sprawled casually across their laps.

Kojo Marfo
“Isolation Mastered” at JD Malat Gallery, London

Kojo Marfo, Redemption (2020). Courtesy of JD Malat.

Right now, JD Malat is hosting “Isolation Mastered,” a show of 25 lesser-known artists of all ages and backgrounds, as an opportunity to showcase and sell their artwork in one of London’s leading galleries. Ghanaian-born British artist Kojo Marfo’s works are a stand-out. His collage-like paintings meld imagery taken from traditional African artworks and symbols in brilliant, pattern-like passages of color. There are hints of Basquiat’s graffiti-like work, Picasso’s Cubist forms, and the mysticism of Wilfredo Lam.

Jenny Boot
Oliver Cole Gallery, Miami

Jenny Boot, DaVinci’s Cat (2019). Courtesy of Oliver Cole Gallery.

Dutch photographer Jenny Boot creates exquisitely lit portraits that draw from Old Master portraits and vanitas scenes. Boot first trained as a painter but switched to photography, feeling that the latter medium gave her more control. Her photographs are evidence of that sense of perfection, and hover on the divide between art and editorial photography, with beauty as her primary concern. The effect is both disconcerting and beguiling.

Tim Freiwald
Walter Storms Galerie, Munich

Tim Freiwald, Single Gate 7 (2019). Courtesy of Walter Storms Galerie.

Emerging German artist Tim Freiwald creates multimedia wall sculptures that combine all manner of materials: glass, plaster, wood, paint. The artist starts his works by deconstructing the traditional canvas and slowly rebuilding it into geometric abstractions that can, at times, bring to mind Rothko’s color field paintings and Diebenkorn’s planar landscapes.