This group show of a dozen women brings together several generations of explorers in the realm of neo-concrete, minimal and conceptual art, with an emphasis on materiality. A counterweight, one might way, to the male-heavy left-brained aesthetics of, for instance, Materializing “Six Years”, the Lucy Lippard celebration at the Brooklyn Museum. Artists on view are Leonor Antunes, Jo Baer, Elaine Cameron-Weir, Lygia Clark, Channa Horwitz, Agnes Martin, Dorothea Rockburne, Analia Saban, Mira Schendel, Davina Semo, Valeska Soares, and Allyson Vieira.

Weights & Measures, October 5 to November 4, 2012 at Eleven Rivington, 195 Chrystie Street, 212 982 1930

Megan Liu Kincheloe, Hodler Unfriendly Edit, 2012. Oil on panel, 30 x 72 inches. Courtesy of the Artist

Megan Liu Kincheloe’s ‘Hodler Unfriendly Edit’ (2012) is on view in Kaegan Sparks’ eponymously sparky group show at the Brooklyn non-profit through Sunday, November 11. Also on view, works by Beyza Boyacioglu, Lizzy De Vita, Lanny Jordan Jackson, Daniel J. Wilson, Jonathan Rajewski, Ilene Godofsky, Elizabeth Duffy, Nicholas Warndorf, Ellen Grossman, Francisco Westendarp, Murphy Chang, Jess Levey, JaeWook Lee, Laura Arena, Cheryl Yun, Luke Munn, Ian Addison Hall, Robert Brush, Cassandra Guan and Eddie Hopely.

Prolonged Exposure: A Recession Art Exhibition, November 3 – 11, 2012 at Invisible Dog, 51 Bergen Street, 718 260 8688

Rob Van Erve, Operae Pretium Est (detail of work in progress), 2012. Wood, MDF, steel, fabric and gold leaf, dimensions variable. Courtesy of Accola Griefen

Born in The Netherlands and now resident in Brooklyn, Van Erve will show a monumental golden staircase, made from luxury materials, that visitors are invited to climb in his show at Accola Griefen, as well as sculpture that in one case bisects the gallery wall, and collages on paper. The Latin in the show’s title, Operae Pretium Est, translates loosely, “It is Worthwhile,” and refers both to the painstaking hand work required to realize the artist’s vision, and the relationship he perceives between the staircase in the gallery and stage settings for operas.

Rob Van Erve: Operae Pretium Est, September 6 to October 13, 2012 at Accola Griefen Gallery, 547 West 27th Street, 646 532 3488

Nathlie Provosty, RubedoIII, 2012. Gouache and egg yolk on paper, 30 cm x 21.5 cm. Courtesy of the Artist 

Artcritical editor David Cohen moderates a discussion between emerging painters Nathlie Provosty and Nicole Wittenberg as part of the Studio School’s legendary Evening Lecture series on Tuesday, October 9 at 6:30 PM. Provosty will stage her debut New York solo show at 1:1 Gallery, opening November 4; Wittenberg’s was held at Freight & Volume in the spring.

James Welling’s ambitious, three-part exhibition takes Andrew Wyeth as a point of departure. In homage to an artistic inspiration of his youth, Welling ventured to the painter’s haunts in Maine and Pennsylvania to photograph not only Wyethesque scenes but also Wellingesque views of the painter’s easel and rooms of 18th-century houses where Wyeth painted. Welling’s triangulation of Wyeth, photography and painting-by-proximity hits upon an alchemy underlying photography in which theory, process, and chance freely percolate in uncertain proportions.

James Welling: Overflow, September 7 to October 27, 2012 at David Zwirner Gallery, 533 West 19th Street, 212 727 2072