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Lenz Geerk is the contemporary artist of melancholia. Renowned for his moody and wistful images of solitary figures or of pairs ruminating on objects or engaged in solitary activities, the Düsseldorf-based German artist applies the principles of expressionism to convey a modern-day understanding of alienation. A group of new paintings currently on display at MASSIMODECARLO in London introduces empty, enigmatic storefronts to his repertoire of still lifes, dreamscapes, and anonymous artist portraits. They follow a suite of monochrome paintings recently unveiled at Roberts Projects in Los Angeles that found the artist rendering his view of the uncanny in a haunting, minimalist language.

The New York Sari exhibition aims to shine a light on how the garment is woven into the complex histories of the Indian subcontinent and, in unexpected ways, New York City and the United States, and how it “might tell stories about migration and diaspora and struggle,” Salonee Bhaman, a historian and a curator of the exhibition, said while walking a gaggle of visitors through the show last week.

Then Margo thought of Betye Saar, whose work, like Cornell’s, is marked by a roving spirit of wonder. Although born a generation apart (Cornell in 1904, Saar in 1926), the two artists share a childlike quality that transforms itself in their work into an eerie wisdom. Then, almost by chance, we discovered a direct link between Cornell and Saar. In 1967, the 41-year-old Saar came upon an extensive exhibition of Cornell’s work at Pasadena’s Huntington Museum; it delighted and inspired her. Even now, in her late 90s, Saar still speaks about this exhibition as crucial to her artistic practice.

Suchitra Mattai is included in the 36th edition of the São Paulo Biennial. Entitled Not All Travellers Walk Roads – Of Humanity as Practice, the edition takes its cue from Afrobrazilian poet Conceição Evaristo’s enigmatic poem Da calma e do silêncio [Of calm and silence].