Once again, our trusty ARTINFO staff set out around our New York offices, tasked with reviewing the art they saw in exactly one (often run-on) sentence. (To see our One-Line Reviews in illustrated slide show format, click here)
* “Backlash” at Soho20 Gallery, 547 West 27th Street, Suite 301, July 17-August 11
Containing enough coat hangers and crucifixions to assure it some sort of buzz, the work in this ultra-feminist group show at the artist-run SoHo20 Gallery varies in size, shape, and quality, but is uniformly shocking and raw, addressing many of the political setbacks endured by second-wave feminists, with the best works going beyond anger to achieve a thoughtful contemplation of a female’s place in today’s society. — Shane Ferro
* “Claxons,” curated by Walter Robinson, at Haunch of Venison, 550 West 21st Street, July 19-August 17
Via the juxtaposition of discordant bodies of work — Elisabeth Kley’s talavera-esque ceramics alongside Robert Goldman’s “cosmic explosions” and John Drury’s discordant series, which includes stick bundles, a colorful miniature fireplace, and a monster action figure in a hand-knit cardigan — each artist’s personal chaos plays off the next, emphasizing their uniqueness while adding to the colorful chaos of the whole. — Sara Roffino
* “Into the Woods,” at ClampArt, 521-531 West 25th Street, June 28-August 17
If you like photographs that bring out the foreboding mystery of dark forests, there will be a lot in ClampArt’s group show “Into the Woods” to please and unsettle you, with particularly striking moments being Adam Ekberg’s curious “A Disco Ball in the Mountain,” David Nadel’s stark after-the-fire imagery in “Burn #2,” and Sebastian Lemm’s “Subtraction” pieces, which eliminate the forest and leave the trees. — Allison Meier
* “It's Always Summer on the Inside” at Anton Kern, 532 West 20th Street, July 10-August 17
Taking his title from a nonsensical '70s wetsuit ad, artist-curator Dan McCarthy sought paintings and drawings that evoke what it might possibly mean to have “summer on the inside,” a standard by which works like Joyce Pensato's smiling Batman, Sean Landers's Ahab-like clown captain, and Dan Walsh's beachy horizontal abstraction are successful at evoking — even if Matthew Monahan's robotic figure and Miriam Cahn's icy sleeper seem decidedly too cool for summer school. — Benjamin Sutton
* “Stretching Painting,” at Galerie Lelong, 528 West 26th Street, June 21-August 3
Paintings on pipes, paintings on hangers, paintings shedding threads, missing spots, and mutating in geological growths off the wall are some of the variations on the traditional format to be seen at Galerie Lelong’s current exhibition, with highlights provided by Donald Moffett’s furry abstractions and Sarah Cain’s stripey “floor sex.” — Kyle Chayka