Stained swirls of muscled stone. Viviane Sassen in the Orlando group show at Aperture Gallery.

A voyeuristic view into a ballet studio surrounded by flattened city facades. Gail Albert Halaban at Edwynn Houk Gallery.

A tentative step into crinked uncertainty. Elise Peterson at Baxter Street at CCNY.

Adding textural dark flowers to a study of light smooth surfaces. Constantin Brancusi at Bruce Silverstein Gallery.

The descriptive exhortations of neon signage. Lisa Kereszi at Yancey Richardson Gallery.

Filtering black faces through textured tints and flares. Liz Johnson Artur at the Brooklyn Museum.

Layers of curves in various media. Sheree Hovsepian at Higher Pictures.

Overpainting the paired extremes of icebergs and volcanoes. John Baldessari at Marian Goodman Gallery.

The stylized tension of a pregnant woman and groceries. Erwin Olaf at Edwynn Houk Gallery.

The gestural sweeps of painted windows. Idris Khan in the basement at Sean Kelly Gallery.

Turning a child’s rest on the sidewalk into a resonant moment. Jeff Wall at Gagosian Gallery.

Collaging Mapplethorpe and Baltrop into encounters in nature. Wardell Milan at David Nolan Gallery.

A photographic aggregation of dramatic gestures rethought as Jacquard tapestry. Aziz + Cucher at ClampArt.

Tracking pedestrians on Christopher Street in 1976. Sunil Gupta at Hales Gallery.

The biting inversions of a burka-clad woman walking naked male dogs. Katarzyna Kozyra at Postmasters.

The risk taking improvisation of boys showing off for girls. Dmitry Markov at agnès b. Galerie.

Overlapped juxtapositions of European and African architecture/gardens, intermingling the contrasts of colonialism. Todd Gray at David Lewis Gallery.

Voyeuristic interruption and a turn of the shoulder. Jheyda McGarrell in the Scenes of the American Landscape group show at Team Gallery.

The textural passion of explosive destruction. Dash Snow at Participant Inc.

The impressionistic textural uncertainty of surveillance stills. Barbara Ess at Magenta Plains.