(image via Fridman Gallery / Facebook)

Channels
Opening Wednesday, January 3 at Fridman Gallery, 6 pm to 9 pm. On view through January 24.

Channels seem like they’re becoming a bit of a relic, at least when they’re referring to the ones found on television. Several technological relics of sorts play a major role in sound artist and audio engineer Daniel Neumann’s new solo exhibition, aptly titled Channels. In it, large auditory objects appear simultaneously as sculptures and music-makers, including a custom-built vintage speaker and a 56-channel mixing board suspended in midair. The third “sculptural” component of the show is a bit more abstract: a 3D sound field made up of 56 sounds and their subsequent feedback. Whether you see it as a concert of objects or a visual display, there will be something to take in.

(image via Addie Wagenknecht / Facebook)

Alone Together
Opening Friday, January 5 at bitforms gallery, 6 pm to 8 pm. On view through February 11.

The phrase “alone together” typically calls to mind a relationship that isn’t working, or perhaps a peacefully solitary duo. However, at this solo exhibition of work by Addie Wagenknecht, the duo in question involves not two humans, but a Roomba. This small cleaning machine (created by a military defense corporation, mind you) has been co-opted to serve as an artistic collaborator and painting partner, leaving colors and lines in its wake instead of an increased sense of hygiene. In a reference to / subversion of a live painting tactic (usually spearheaded by men) involving painted nude women pressing their bodies on canvas, Wagenknecht poses nude on the canvas during the painting process, so the robot at work inadvertently leaves areas of negative space where her body once was.

Ali Silverstein, Untitled, 2017, Acrylic on canvas and curtain rod, 80 x 77 in,
Courtesy of the artist and VICTORI + MO

Movers And Shapers
Opening Friday, January 12 (rescheduled from January 5 due to weather) at Victori + Mo, 6 pm to 9 pm. On view through February 18.

It is generally understood that to get paint into any sort of shape at all, you have to move it in some way. While yes, technically everyone who paints does that, Brooklyn-based artist Justine Hill and LA-based artist Ali Silverstein are particularly focused on the act of moving and shaping paint. The exhibition is simultaneously a bicoastal collaboration and the results of one artist inspiring the other, which are two things that can arguably be deemed one and the same. Hill encountered Silverstein’s work at an art fair, and began following her work, centered around bold brushstrokes and canvases that are cut into their own designs. Hill’s work is similar but different, more detailed and controlled than bold and free, but still valuing shape and cut-out imagery. Pay the gallery a visit, and see if you can track who influenced who, and how.

(image via PPOW / Facebook)

Mother Tongue
Opening Saturday, January 6 at P.P.O.W., 6 pm to 8 pm. On view through February 10.

Though Elizabeth Glaessner’s lush paintings have no writing on them, they speak volumes and volumes. In her latest exhibition, she’s creating on scrolls for the first time, which will be displayed alongside her more standard paintings and works created on silk. The central topic driving her creations is how “ancient societies immortalized their leaders through the repetition of stories,” including visual art showing these leaders doing great deeds. Taking a page from this tradition, Glaessner creates colorful and surreal worlds of characters in complicated (or even quasi-salacious) poses, seemingly blurring with their surroundings, overlooking scenic views, and generally appearing mighty and awe-inspiring, even though it may not be clear who these creatures are or why they were painted. Through bringing her own worlds to life, she also demonstrates the effectiveness of this ancient tradition.

Update, January 8: The original version of this post was revised to reflect a rescheduled opening date for Movers And Shapers.