Scott Hug is best known as the publisher and ringmaster of the art publication K48and its attendant exhibitions, so perhaps it’s no surprise that his artexplores themes involving the media. For his December 2006 show at Locust Projectsin Miami he showed works in black paint on white canvas, meant toresemble the tabloid newspapers that are the source for many of hisimages. For his current show at John Connelly Presents in NewYork, “Too Much, Too Little, Too Late,” on view through November 21,he’s enlived this technique by adding bright solid backgrounds to the pieces, which combine silk-screened images of such celebrities as Lindsay Lohan, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Janet Jackson taken from the New York Posts gossip column “Page Six” with clichéd phrases like “Too much stress” and “Enough already.”

In an associated group of paintings—his largest works to date—Hug makesuse of the Posts covers. For these four Warholian creations, Misery, Death Plunge, Ravaged, and Smokin,Hug overlaps silk-screened newspaper covers and images—of disasterslike Hurricane Charley, for example—so many times that they dissolveinto an inky blotch.

At the entrance to the gallery, a life-size stand-up self-portrait ofHug, represented as a character on the Simpsons, greets visitors in afriendly manner. (Hug also uses this image on his MySpace profile.) Insharp contrast, the side gallery space is transformed into a smokydisco, complete with Rainbow Wheel of Death,a video projection that shows a much bigger version of the pesky“beachball” that takes over your Mac if it’s processing information,overworked, or about to crash—perhaps a hard drive having trouble is ametaphor for a society heading for a breakdown. Ultimately, Hug’s Poppywork leads one to think of the more pressing worldly issues that are oftenoverlooked in our constant craving for celebrity gossip.

Below are the artist's choices for this weekend in New York:

1. Richard Prince: Spiritual America at the Guggenheim, through January 8, 2008
“I’ve always been a big fan of Prince, from his early appropriations ofalien-looking fashion models and VO ads—and of course his brilliantkiddy-porn appropriation of the prepubescent Brook Shields, titledSpiritual Americato his more recent “Nurse” series. The installationat the Guggenheim, though sometimes a bit off, has a display-windowfeel that makes perfect sense for his work, but I wish they would havetaken it further. It would have been nice to see some large, digitalMarlboro-men wall murals wrapping around Wright’s rotunda. This showmade me laugh, especially the white-trash, resin, monster-truck tireplanters.”

2. Aleksandra Mir: Newsroom 1986-2000 at Mary Boone, through October 27
“This show totally rocks! Mir spent a few months at the New York PublicLibrary researching New York Post and Daily News covers spanning the 15years she lived in New York City pre-9/11: 1989 to 2000. She thenre-draws them huge—like giant cartoons—with a whimsical Sharpie designteam. Hot off the press! Mir turns the gallery into a comic version ofa newsroom. I love how she simplifies the headlines and sub-headers andmakes them even more poetic and to the point—Mir is an awesome editor.The Post should give her a job!”

3. Raymond Pettibon: Here’s Your Irony Back (The Big Picture) at David Zwirner, through October 20
“Pettibon’s new work addresses America’s foreign and shady policy inthe Middle East and the war in Iraq. I like his new, dirtier, punkapproach, letting the layers build up—some even have collaged elementsfrom other drawings and often get very painterly. I especially enjoyhis sense of humor, like: ‘Cancel My Subscription to the Times,’ ‘FrontPage Story: You Break It, It’s Yours.’ Catch this one before itcloses!”

4. I Am As You Will Be at Cheim & Read, through November 3
“This show is hauntingly beautiful and a must-see, spanning the longand rich history of art’s fascination with mortality: from JamesEnsor’s wicked etchings to contemporary works by Marcel Broodthaers,Matthew Barney, Jenny Holzer, Robert Morris, and Andy Warhol, to namebut a few. With wars, AIDS, natural disasters—you name it—death is asalive and well today as it was back in medieval times.”

5. Keith Tyson: Large Field Array at Pace Wildenstein, through October 20
“I highly recommend seeing this show (on mushrooms). Somehow all of the220 separate modular sculptural forms in this work are connected to eachother, you, and to the universe. It’s a trip.”