Dennis Kardon's unsettling paintings on view at Valentine gallery through April 3

Dennis Kardon's exhibition at Valentine gallery in Ridgewood, Queens, presents paintings that channel transgressive traditions in modern art. His work "Anticipating Disaster" from 2015 features an ambiguous orb with vaginal wings emerging from melting icecaps, creating what critic David Cohen describes as an "anxious object." The composition includes shapes wrapped in crinkly silver foil suggesting undesirable meat joints, all set within a still life that could be interpreted as either a tabletop or an eerie architectural space. Kardon's practice draws from what Cohen identifies as renegade painting lineages, including late de Chirico's bastardized pittura metafisica, Picabia's most transgressive periods, and the "Bad" painters of the 1980s. The artist transforms whatever his brush touches into what the critic calls "ickiness," mastering what Cohen terms "ill ease." The exhibition continues through Sunday, April 3 at 581 Woodward Avenue in Ridgewood, Queens. Contact information for the gallery is (718) 600-9417.