What to see at the NYC Gallery in March

Newly reviewed this week, Andrew Lasses covers Leon Spiriat's brooding work, Betty Parsons's restless form, Adriana Lamic's beetle and Ho Tam's barber.

Chelsea

Leon Spiriato

Until April 12th. David Zwirner, 537 West 20th Street, Manhattan. 212-517-8677, Davidzwirner.com.

In this thrilling show's most memorable photo, Belgian artist Leon Spiriato stands in a dimly lit room, staring at you straight or through it. His eyes are covered in darkness and are hard to be sure, as they only wash the black. In a neat suit with hair, he is unsurprising. It was 1908, he was 27 years old, mostly self-taught and ambitious, and now creates works that are symbolically recharged on paper with ink, watercolors, pastels and more.

Spilliaert lives in the city of Ostend by the sea, and painter James Ensor (1860-1949) spent most of his life. If Ensor was a master of manic anxiety (the majestic clown, the mad skeleton), his younger companions were brooding experts. His shoreline bends and retresses until it disappears in the lonely Twilit beach scene. One is water dripping under the feet of two girls, actually a black silhouette, far from the faint hotel in the distance.

The exhibition curated by Noemi Goldman of the Agnews Gallery in Brussels illustrates the range of Spiriata, featuring around 20 works from the 1900s and 10s. The brightly lit scene of a woman doing needlework embraces an array of fantastic marks, but the large bottle has shadows, so I don't know. (Portrait of his fragrance father?)

The world of Spilliaert can quickly feel true to life, romantic, exaggerated, gothic, prototh rails. Doom has little attitude, sometimes not at all. Four bodies are strung inside a piece tree inspired by Françoivillon's 15th century “Ballad of the Hanged Man.” A decayed yellow sun shines, with tree roots spreading in all directions.

Tribecca

Betty Parsons

Until March 15th. Alexander Grey Associates, 384 Broadway, Manhattan. 212-399-2636, alexandergray.com.

As an artist, Betty Parsons (1900-82) has long been underrated. She is featured in history books, a New York artistic and art dealer and defends abstract expressionists. This fighting show of nine paintings from the 1960s reveals another obstacle Parsons faces. She was a restless talent and never settled in a major signature style like Barnett Newman, Jackson Pollock or other famous people. It makes her difficult to sell, but it's easy to identify and admire.

Some of the photos here are amazing. “Reberberation” (1968) is a vertical wonder of loose and hesitant organic shapes, a vertical wonder with strange repetition, asymmetry and hints of the body. The Palm Beach Christmas (1960), a jazzy, amoeba-like little gouache, is Elizabeth Murray's vibrantness, while the “No Greed” (1960) is a deep Burgundy field that retains its distinctive shape. The best work may be the rough high ode “Sand with Shapes” (1966), inhabited by the existence of spectral and architecture.

“I'm always changing,” Parsons said, referring to her art in the year she passed away. “I don't know what I'm going to say or do next.” Her work exudes a deep commitment to intuition. When many artists (and dealers) follow trends, it's great to see Parsons' research, including the fascinating painted driftwood work she created later in her life, ideally in a blown-up museum in her hometown.

Chinatown

Adriana Ramic

Until March 22nd. David Peter Francis, 35 East Broadway, 3rd floor, Manhattan. 646-669-7064, David PeterFrancis.com.

Most of the pieces hang a few inches above the floor, so watching Adriana Ramic's show while you're raw is not out of place. These are six long, thin wooden beams decorated with numbered stickers that come with the popular Croatian chocolate bar. (Tucan is 165, frog, 100.) A child has the sense that they want to build their collections and understand the world. The blank awaits new acquisitions.

The main event is on the floor, projected onto a dark glass slab: Close-up footage of a beetle with leaves on a white ginger lily. Sweet and mundane, the video becomes surprisingly dramatic. Do they hold? Do they eat the little insects around them?

They covered the gallery windows and proposed glass holding the beetle. Perhaps we're not that different from these bugs and trapped in the frame? Here there is a fruitful tension between the scientific, deadpan viewing mode and the accompanying emotional impact.

Lower East Side

Ho Tam

Until April 6th, the carrier, 277 Grand Street, 2nd floor, Manhattan. 718-483-0815, carriagetrade.org.

Is it time for a haircut? Hortum has you covered. Born in Hong Kong in 2015 and living in Vancouver, Tam published a photobook on barber shops and hair salons in Chinatown, Manhattan, entitled “100 Haircuts” (though he counted more). His clear, black and white images recall the desolate photographs of Augenne Aggette in Paris in the early 20th century, but his focus is on people to relax, work, socialize, and care for each other. The spread from the volume is displayed as a mural containing texts he wrote from his research.

One of the amazing establishments he visited also sells fishballs, but recently it's sadly gone from Henry Street, a gallery line. Tam's project is a homage to Chinatown, and in some areas it is so-called third place (social venue), except for its increasingly scarce and expensive homes and workplaces. I recently paid $12 for a slice of downtown cake. The price of reductions at some of these facilities.

Click here for the February gallery.