5 Standout Shows to See at Small Galleries This December

In this monthly roundup, we shine a spotlight on five stellar exhibitions taking place at small and rising galleries.

LAMB, London

Through Jan. 18, 2025

Brazilian artist Ayla Tavares fondly remembers her mother singing her a lullaby, about a grain of sand that falls in love with a distant star. Tavares was especially inspired by this theme of longing at a great distance following the 2022 discovery of Earendel—the furthest star observed by the Hubble Space Telescope. Now, Tavares channels this childhood memory into her solo show named after the star, “Earendel,” at LAMB in London. Presenting ceramic reliefs, graphite drawings, and sculptural installations, Tavares reflects on the vast distances and connections that define our universe.

“Earendal” brings together a mix of ceramic works that explore earthly and cosmic aesthetics. Intricately designed wall pieces, each roughly the size of a palm, mirror natural organic forms (sea shells or rolling mountains) and swirling galactic patterns. Meanwhile, ceramic totems stand on pedestals, featuring stacked bulbous shapes adorned with spiky protrusions and cascading coral-like textures that rise to crowning spires. Elsewhere, ceramic vessels are inspired by Spanish pottery traditions.

An MFA graduate in visual arts from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Tavares lives and works between Rio de Janeiro and Madrid. Her recent solo shows have been staged by Athena Gallery and Eva Klabin House Museum, among others.

Loyal, Stockholm

Through Jan. 18, 2025

Japanese American painter Jean Nagai often finishes his intricate acrylic Pointillist paintings with unconventional materials such as pumice, psychedelic mushroom spores, or slaked lime powder. His swirling abstract works are composed of dense patterns that come together as bright, textured surfaces. August in the Water (2024), for instance, is a luminous impastoed piece formed from hundreds of meticulously applied dots of paint, as well as textural mineral materials.

Nagai’s latest exhibition, “Meet Us at the Wave Function,” at Loyal in Stockholm, features four of these kaleidoscopic paintings. Meanwhile, the five other works on view are sapphire canvases that depict disjointed landscapes and natural forms in a similar dot style, using white correction fluid (e.g. Wite-Out). These paintings are inspired by the natural landscapes of the Pacific Northwest, filtered through the artist’s understanding of wave functions—a concept from quantum mechanics that describes a particle’s behavior, and gestures to the paradoxical nature of subatomic physics.

Nagai lives and works in Los Angeles, where he has presented solo shows at Over the Influence and Sow & Tailor. His other solo shows have been mounted by The Hole in New York, Red Arrow Gallery in Nashville, and pt.2 in Oakland, California.

MAXIMILLIAN WILLIAM, London

Through Feb. 8, 2025

Painter Somaya Critchlow typically starts her paintings with sketches drawn from a variety of sources: photographs of herself, 1960s soft porn, Renaissance paintings, and TV shows like Love & Hip Hop. In recent years, Critchlow has gained recognition for her intimate, small-scale portraits of Black women, but her work on paper is far less well-known. Now, critic Hilton Als is curating the first show devoted entirely to her sketches: “Triple Threat” at MAXIMILLIAN WILLIAM in London, which features around 40 of these works.

The 31-year-old artist has obsessed over the prints of Spanish artist Francisco de Goya, particularly those from the series “The Caprices” and “The Disasters of War.” Over the past year, she has frequently revisited these works, sometimes producing daily copies. Many of her works reflect Goya’s fixation on the interplay of beauty and darkness, as well as his representation of the tension between power and folly. This is most evident in her drawing Owls, Bats and Cats (2024), which depicts a nude woman seen from behind, surrounded by shadowy animals emerging from the darkness.

Critchlow earned a BA in painting from the University of Brighton before completing a postgraduate diploma at The Royal Drawing School in London in 2017. In April 2023, her first institutional solo show in North America opened at The FLAG Art Foundation in New York.

The Valley, Taos, New Mexico

Through Jan. 4, 2025

“World Without End” references the nuanced tradition of speculative fiction, championed by writers like Ursula K. Le Guin. Instead of traditional sci-fi’s focus on annihilation and large-scale desolation, these writers explored new visions of society and human connection. Today, these themes are even more pressing as climate change, technological progress, and social unrest challenge nations worldwide. At New Mexico gallery The Valley, “World Without End” brings together five artists—Aron John Dubois, Lowe Fehn, Estefania Puerta, Sarah M. Rodriguez, and Noah Schneiderman—who all use their work to imagine a future defined not by catastrophe but by regeneration and connectedness (the show attaches a quote from Le Guin as a preface to the show).

The works in “World Without End” range from Rodriguez’s aluminum sculpture Rooted Honey Creeper (2024), which presents an imaginary plant complete with a detailed root system and seed pods, to Lowe Fehn’s large-scale works on paper that capture serene pastoral scenes. Notably, Schneiderman’s The Architects (2024) portrays an ethereal landscape in purple, auburn, and ocher. Though some works veer deeper into supernatural themes, each piece underscores an enduring connection between the Earth and its inhabitants.