Susanna Heller in Toronto

NEW YORK—Since the mid-1980s, the subject of Susanna Heller’s paintings has most often been her native city of New York. Based on drawings that she makes on her habitual walks in the city, particularly between Manhattan and Brooklyn, her works have the painterly feel of traditional landscapes, though to this she adds a more contemporary, self-referential twist. Heller combines elements from different drawings, and just as often from different views of the same vista, so that each piece is an amalgam that, whether its ostensible subject is Grand Central Station or the bridges over the East River, is also about her perceptions and the process of translating those perceptions in paint.

Heller is currently showing at Toronto’s Olga Korper Gallery, her dealer since 1992. To coincide with this weekend’s Toronto International Art Fair, ARTINFO asked her to recommend shows that she feels visitors to the city will particularly enjoy.

Here are her picks:

1. Howard Podeswa at Peak Gallery, through October 27
“In the back of the gallery there’s a compelling group of tiny 4-inch by 4-inch paintings: they are like snapshots and glimpses out the window that capture the love of urban change as felt by an artist who calls himself a ‘walker of the city.’ In the main gallery, comical, Guston-like groups of geometric characters caper on painted grids. These pointy-headed folk riff on Rembrandt’s Nightwatch, and oil-sketched copies of the famous work are included in the exhibition. But one hardly needs that reference to see these characters as bumbling bourgeois hunters, assembling for some ill-fated escapade!”

2. Mark Ruwedel at Stephen Bulger Gallery, through November 10
“Again, the walking theme. These hauntingly beautiful photographs record the melancholic-yet-stately slow death of abandoned dwellings in the desert. The works are an inescapable metaphor for contemporary life in America.”

3. Sandra Meigs at Susan Hobbs Gallery, through December 15
“These combination paintings are seemingly straightforward narrative illustrations derived from historical, (often Victorian) domestic sources. But the glass balls that are affixed to the paintings’ surfaces act like ‘anti-magnifying’ lenses. Unlike Sherlock Holmes’s eyeglass, these balls distort the subject they cover, and make it more difficult to see the image. They subvert the whole idea of  ‘looking carefully!’”

4. James Lahey at Nicholas Metivier Gallery, through October 27
“Of late New York has been inundated with skulls and skeletons in group shows and museum shows, with Damien Hirst’s infamous diamond-encrusted skull hanging over every reference. So it was a relief to come on these heartfelt and lovingly painted skull-themed works. The terrific narrative that accompanies this exhibition explains the bold, dramatic impact of these confrontational works: Lahey is facing down some pretty evil spirits!!”

5. Kazuo Nakamura at Christopher Cutts Gallery, through November 13
“This show is exquisite. You walk into a totally serene environment, which is intellectually rigorous, yet entirely poetic. The works speak of places, cities, gardens, and mathematics with equal intensity. Nakamura’s surprisingly current version of a geometric/numerical abstraction is a revelation for those unfamiliar with his work. And his command of line is unsurpassed: he generates a strong, but delicate script. Here are masterful sculptures, drawings, and paintings. In my opinion the mesmerizing black-and-white line works like Inner View, City's Suburbs, and Into Space are not to be missed!”