The Lookout: A Weekly Guide to Shows You Won't Want to Miss

View Slideshow Iona Rozeal Brown POD 777: Don't cry...it's only the rhythm, the Grace of the tsuru, 2013 Acrylic, ink, krink and graphite on wood panel, 60 by 48 inches Courtesy Iona Rozeal Brown.; Christopher Cozier That Tree, 2012 Ink on paper, 36 by 52 inches Courtesy David Krut;

With an ever-growing number of galleries scattered around New York, it's easy to feel overwhelmed. Where to begin? Here at A.i.A., we are always on the hunt for thought-provoking, clever and memorable shows that stand out in a crowded field. Below is a selection of current shows our team of editors can't stop talking about.

This week we check out Michael Riedel's graphic, text-based prints and wallpaper based on his own earlier exhibitions, at David Zwirner; Christopher Cozier's drawings inspired by his upbringing in post-Independence Trinidad at David Krut; and Tacita Dean's quietly dramatic chalkboard drawings of mountains at Marian Goodman.


Christopher Cozier at David Krut, through Mar. 16
Most of Christopher Cozier's work is firmly linked to Port of Spain, Trinidad, his hometown and current residence, and the new drawings in "In Development," his first New York solo show, are no different. A recurring motif is a cutout based on the circle-and-diamond pattern found in "breeze brick," the unexpectedly decorative concrete blocks used in homes, schools and commercial spaces that have become ubiquitous throughout cities and suburbs. Cozier's drawings feature some permutation of the bricks as well as a patchwork of objects (most noticeably an isolated tree), letters, numbers and washes of color.


Michael Riedel at David Zwirner, through Mar. 23
"PowerPoint" is the latest iteration of Frankfurt-based Michael Riedel's ongoing process of "recycling" previous exhibition materials into his next project. The Poster Paintings (based on text from websites about Riedel's work) from the artist's last show at Zwirner, in 2011, here find their data repurposed into "freeze frames" made by combining two slides in Photoshop and pausing the animation mid-merge. As in previous installations "PowerPoint" features the silkscreen-on-linen works hung on wallpaper printed with patterns drawn from the Poster Paintings.


Iona Rozeal Brown at Edward Tyler Nahem, through Mar. 29
Iona Rozeal Brown's figurative paintings reference Japanese Geishas and Samurai images as well as graffiti art, all in a colorful tangle of exotic and romantic imagery that spans centuries. The works are at once worldly and homespun street-smart, an aspect of her work Brown chose to emphasize at this show's club-like opening with a DJ and a pool table placed in the middle of the gallery.


Tacita Dean at Marian Goodman, through Mar. 9
The centerpiece of this show is "Fatigues," a 2012 series of mural-size chalk-on-blackboard pieces that fill the gallery's two largest spaces. The works depict the Hindu Kush mountain range and glaciers that feed the Kabul River, with the peaks and crags highlighted in white chalk. Aided by brief, cursive chalk inscriptions scattered across the surfaces, a narrative appears to unfold but is never quite realized. And while the renderings are convincing, the geopolitical implications and texts remove these scenes from any conventional landscape genre. Rounding out the show is the English-born artist's meditation on drawing and perception, The Friar's Doodle, a 16mm film from 2010. This mesmerizing projection demonstrates the rigorous conceptual core of Dean's work.


Walt Kuhn at DC Moore, through Mar. 16
Walt Kuhn is partly to thank (or blame) for the art-world pandemonium descending upon New York this week. In 1913 he was one of three organizers of the original Armory Show, a claim to fame that led to career as a successful modernist painter and art adviser. DC Moore's "American Modern" show, with paintings of showgirls and circus performers culled from museums and private collections throughout the U.S., is Kuhn's first in decades.


"Four Houses, Some Building and Other Spaces," 80WSE Gallery, NYU, through Mar. 16.
How is architecture linked to individual and collective memory? Encompassing drawing, prints, videos and documentation, this show features 10 individual artists and teams-including Lara Almarcegul, Terence Gower and Inés Lombard—who examine domestic environments, functioning public spaces, and ruins. Organized by Berta Sichel, former director of the Department of Film and Video at the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid, the exhibition is at once cerebral and engaging, as exemplified by the video of Bernhard Leitner discussing the Wittgenstein House in Vienna.