Amy Kao in New York

NEW YORK—Looking at Amy Kao’s show of drawings, currently on view at Venetia Kapernekas Gallery in Chelsea, is a lot like watching clouds pass overhead on a sunny day. Each work’s surface appears continuous, even homogenous, but close examination reveals forms that evoke a subtly evolving set of interpretations. In total, there are five ink-on-paper works in the show, which is aptly titled Dwellings of Immortals on a Cloudy River. The works look like maps, are identical in size and medium, and stand out from the gallery walls like fragments of delicate wallpaper. They convey a world absent of gravity in which bearers of sexually, socially, and environmentally suggestive motifs cluster in non-human communities. To spend time looking at any of the drawings is to enter gardens of exotic fungi, ocean invertebrates, single-celled organisms, and empty speech balloons.

Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Kao has shown her work at such international venues as the Chinese Biennial 2008 Beijing, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in New York, and South Korea’s Busan Biennale. The drawings at Venetia Kapernekas, on view through August 8, bear a quality of line similar to that in her previous works, intricate three-dimensional reliefs cut from sheets of enameled rubber that seem to grow like synthetic coral reefs as they wrap around corners and doorways.

A primary consideration throughout Kao’s work is negative space. Both the recent drawings and the earlier reliefs evoke the spare, ethereal atmosphere of 10th-century Chinese scroll paintings, and in both, the atmospheres she creates hold as much importance and intrigue as the forms themselves.

Here are Kao’s picks for shows to see in New York this weekend.

1. Ardeshir Mohassess: Art and Satire in Iran at the Asia Society, through August 3 

“The 70 rarely seen drawings in this exhibition, curated by artists Shirin Neshat and Nicky Nodjoumi, are nothing short of extraordinary. While Mohassess provides insights into Iranian life and politics during the reign of the Shah and the subsequent theocracy of Ayatollah Khomeini, his unrelenting questioning of all forms of injustice and authoritarianism is topical and essential to today’s discussions of the transgression of power and boundaries in all their manifestations. The often narrative-based drawings, vignettes of ordinary people in the face of oppression, are infused with sarcasm, humor, and satire.”

2. Philip Guston: Works on Paper at the Morgan Library, through August 31 

“This show of works on paper spanning the late ’40s to the late ’70s offers an intimate view of Guston’s artistic trajectory. It is immensely satisfying to trace the evolution of his work from the lyrical and airy drawings of the Abstract Expressionist period to the emergence of the hooded-man motif, to the renderings of daily detritus from his immediate surroundings. Throughout, his commitment to the fundamental quest of exploring the relationship between the line and the blank paper is invigorating. While Mohassess’s drawings provide a complex and riveting view of life in the public and political realm, Guston’s offer an interior world equally expansive and conflicted, and just as ridden with anxiety and uncertainty.”

3. Who’s Afraid of Jasper Johns? at Tony Shafrazi, through July 12 

“Conceived by artist Urs Fischer and dealer Gavin Brown, this show features Fischer’s all-encompassing installation of wallpaper reproductions of works superimposed against real works — e.g., Lili Van der Stokker's Pink Blubber juxtaposed against Francis Bacon's Untitled (Head), and Lawrence Weiner’s As Long as It Lasts overlapping a Jean-Michel Basquiat. The result is a playful and humorous postmodernist exercise of tautological double ciphers. Moreover, it is a visual feat that de-stabilizes today’s art-viewing experience in an all-too-familiar generic white box and the centrality of authorship.”

4. Mario Ybarra Jr.: The Black Squirrel Society at Lehmann Maupin Gallery, through August 8

“The imagined world of black squirrels in this multi-media exhibition reveals the absurdity of human behavior, whether engaged in warfare or holiday pastimes. In Ybarra’s show, what we do, particularly in American culture, suddenly appears hilarious and ridiculous. A video of cheerleaders donning squirrel tails and performing a routine to the song 'Paws Up, Tails Down' is particularly poignant.”

5. Warlord at Smith-Stewart, through July 26 

“This group exhibition featuring the works of nine contemporary artists is a timely consideration of current global affairs. It speaks to the role of authoritarianism in zones of conflict by way of moral observation and invokes the romance of power and the consequential threat of destruction. The diversity of the selected works and their presentation give much food for thought. Standouts include pieces by Matthew Day Jackson, Adam Helms, and Paolo Chiasera.”