NEW DELHI National Gallery of Modern Art Sudarshan Shetty, describing his recent installation, Shoonya Ghar (emptiness is the house), has said that it “challeng[es] my own relationship with the market as an artist. Since it is a museum show, this is an opportunity to push those boundaries in my work rather than doing a retrospective, which is what I was offered.” And push boundaries he did, with élan, combining diverse mediums and materials to seamlessly blend the distant past with the present. The inspiration for this body of work came from the great 12th-century Nirgun poet, Gorakhnath, speci­fically his dohas, or couplets, that speak hauntingly of inhabitants in settlements and places.

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STOUFFVILLE, ONTARIO, CANADA The Latcham Gallery Cloud Cell, the central component in Xiaojing Yan’s recent exhibition “Hybrid Vigour,” is a splendidly ethereal and luminescent installation. Constructed of thousands of freshwater pearls suspended on monofilament between two aluminum squares, this cloud-like rendering uses light and space to great effect. As in the contemplation of clouds, there are many interpretations. Yan’s references include the scholars’ rocks prevalent in Chinese gardens, which have been used as objects of meditation since ancient times.

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NEW YORK Cue Art Foundation Kambui Olujimi did not invent the concept of “Solastalgia,” but his memorable exhibition launched it as a universal concern today. Coined by Australian philosopher Glenn Albrecht, the word refers to the psychic distress that results from displacement from one’s home whether by natural, social, or economic causes. In the U.S., gentrification, violence, and police brutality disproportionately affect African American and low-income neighborhoods— a fact that Olujimi underscored in this show with a series of memorials to his neighbor and mentor Catherine Arline and to fallen victims of violence on both sides of the police badge.

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NEW YORK Frances Naumann Fine Art Mike Bidlo is one of the earliest of the so-called “appropriation” artists in the U.S. Others, such as Sturtevant, Richard Prince, and Sherrie Levine, have received considerable attention, but Bidlo was there at the beginning. One might argue that he came from another place, from his own observations, not only in relation to Duchamp, but also in relation to other artists, ranging from Léger to Pollock. Indeed, Bidlo continues to maintain a focus on Duchamp, which may verge on obsession. I am not referring to “obsession” as a clinical condition, but as an extreme aesthetic focus.

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NEWARK, NEW JERSEY Solo(s) Project House Robert Lach is a mid-career sculptor whose studio (since 2013) is just down the hall from the exhibition space at Solo(s), a gallery that during the winter dedicates its expanse to in-house artists working on special projects and new works. Lach uses Arte Povera mainstays such as found wood, cardboard, tape, and spackle to build organic sculptures through repetitions of form—hence “Cellular,” the title of the show. One of his most interesting materials is white packing foam, which is highly flexible. Many artists today are working with throw-away materials in an attempt to realign sculpture with a physical reality not so distant from actual life.

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BOSTON Boston Sculptors Gallery From afar, Jessica Straus’s carefully constructed and colorful forms appear quirky and playful. A closer look at the circus colors, however, reveals a less happy message. These pieces are a polemic about the world’s next crisis—the lack of drinkable water. Oversize oil cans and water carriers are covered with strips sliced from red-and-yellow “Danger” signs. We can piece the letters together to read “Caution,” “Non beber,” “Non potable,” and “Do not drink.” Meticulous, time-consuming craftsmanship has been a hallmark of Straus’s work throughout her career.

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SAN FRANCISCO Gallery 16 With a sweetly acerbic humor, Libby Black’s work navigates the roiled waters of desire and consumption as experienced through the filters of feminism, lesbian culture, and the great American obsession with self-help—and its frequent traveling companion, addiction. Well over a decade ago, Black began creating paper-and-paint sculptures that replicate high-end luxury goods: Kate Spade shoes, Louis Vuitton bags, even things as large as a Mercedes.

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NEW YORK Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Doris Salcedo asks questions that are difficult to answer. Can art serve a purpose? Can it act as witness or perform as testimonial? Can it console and heal? Can it repurpose trauma? Can it be both aesthetically pleasing and meaningful? These queries form the heart of Salcedo’s practice. But rather than reply, she ensnares us in the creative and moral challenges of making art in a world dominated by war, state-sponsored violence, and terrorism. As a recent retrospective demonstrated, Salcedo has long dealt with the mechanisms of power and its abuse.

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