NEW YORK— Despite claiming, in a recent online chat with artist Matt Jones, that he’s “not really a spiritual guy,” Kadar Brock certainly conjures the primal spirit of painting in his new exhibition at Buia Gallery in Chelsea, through June 7. The new work marks a noticeable shift from Brock’s first exhibition at Buia in 2006, where a successful grouping of bright, garish works seemed to emerge from a single idea. In the current show, Brock treats each piece as a unique challenge, tackling every canvas with gusto and from a new perspective. He is even willing to make something defiantly ugly, such as Selbst Portrait Mit Gold (all works 2008), reminiscent of the forefathers of contemporary “bad” painting, Martin Kippenberger and Albert Oehlen.

Raised by hippie parents, Brock sometimes includes crystal forms and other images associated with a New Age lifestyle, such as "God’s eyes," in his work. Two predominantly white paintings, Soul Flight and Tres Tulips, create a sleepy Zen mood that finds its yin in the loud colors, busy brushstrokes, and repeated patterns of Thunderbird and Uptown Boogaloo. In November Rain, Brock channels Gerhard Richter with thickly applied acrylic, oil, flashe, and spray paint, creating an abstraction that is dense, tactile, and a little funky. Ultimately, Brock seems satisfied to make what he sees in his head or imagines in front of him, and he wants you to go along for the ride.

Here, Brock selects and critiques five noteworthy shows in New York to take in during the month of June.

1. Tomma Abts at the New Museum, through June 29

“Having seen her work only in reproduction, I went with low expectations (and even a little animosity). I was floored. These are really amazing paintings. They have a give-and-take in both space and touch, as well as a transparency in their construction. When they hit, and often they do, they're humble, mesmerizing, and transporting.”

2. David Altmejd at Andrea Rosen, through June 14

“It was like walking into a Miyazaki movie (think Night Walker from Princess Mononoke). The mix of psychedelic and nature/spiritual/New Age motifs, coupled with giant scale and glittery light, really put me in a state of revelry. The trippy-ness of it all, though, at times felt a little sophomoric.”

3. Jaya Howey at Taxter & Spengemann, through June 21

“These are good dirty paintings. Howey's taking a weirdo early modernist space and using some gutty contemporary painting vocab. He's also trying new things (see the black-and-white paintings upstairs, which are not my favorite) and just grinding along.”

4. Jonathan Meese at Bortolami, through June 18

“His sculptures are awesome; the monolithic figures with Beanie Baby sea creatures tossed on them are like the best parts of Ralph Bakshi's Wizards made real and canonized. The paintings keep me at a distance that is both frustrating and alluring. I see this mytho world supposedly going on, but I can't really get into it and feel my way around it.”

5. Christopher Wool at Luhring Augustine, through June 21

“These works might be a little too smooth, but I'm still enamored with how Wool paints and erases at the same time. The implications of that give-and-take echo on so many levels.”