
Carrie Hott at Southern Exposure
Through March 8 - White Hot Lamp Black at Southern Exposure. Light and shadow, reflections and refractions all come into play in this superb group show featuring work by Carrie Hott, Hillary Wiedemann, Dario Robleto, and Jeremiah Barber. Robleto displays two series of concert photos, but instead of representations of the performers we see just the stage lights that illuminated the likes of Johnny Cash and Sun Ra. Robleto's found images in some instances could be mistaken for nebulae, and Wiedemann similarly references the cosmic with her interest in capturing the sun in ways that slightly displace it from how we usually see it, both in her video of sunlight reflected in a telescopic lens and in her prints of the sun as viewed from Mars. Hott's dual installations of glass lamp parts cast evocative shadows on the gallery walls, while her video Part One: To Cover pairs a fascinating voiceover about topics such as blackouts, curfew, and whale falls with the sculptural forms of lighting fixtures and night footage of a flashlight's beam. Finally the show includes video documentation of a live piece Barber enacted with Ingrid Rojas Contreras, performed as they lay on their sides facing each other, half-submerged and shivering in water. It's not every day an exhibition gives you the opportunity to peek into several diverse universes like this one does.

Merce Cunningham and John Cage by Peter Hujar at Fraenkel Gallery
Through March 8 - Peter Hujar: Love & Lust and Nan Goldin: Nine Self-Portraits at Fraenkel Gallery. Goldin is one my goddesses, and her self-portraits reverberate with the kind of honesty and courage that kicks the ass of any contemporary selfie. Hujar's photos are also insanely beautiful, full of NSFW sex and tenderness too. The images of David Wojnarowicz are devastating in particular, as it was impossible for me not to flash forward in my head to Wojnarowicz's own famous image of Hujar on his deathbed.