The combinatorial possibilities of flat geometric shapes are nearly infinite. Over the course of her long career, Carmen Herrera has filled thousands of sheets of tracing paper, drawing innumerable variations based on mathematical logic. This Cuban-American artist, who has been painting since the 1930s but attained wide recognition only in the last decade, transposes onto the larger dimensions of canvas those compositions that, among so many examples, respond to her desire to attain an ideal balance and represent the solution to a problem she poses. She made a few paintings on paper in the

Visitors to Luca Francesconi’s recent solo show “Geode Cupa” were welcomed by Untitled (Eel) (all works 2013), a metal fishhook hung from a linen thread anchored to the ceiling and supporting a damp, dripping eel skin. Moving on, one couldn’t help but stop to examine black traces of soot, evidence of a fire that the artist—not to be confused with the composer of the same name—had set in the gallery and then allowed to burn out. Near the large windows that distinguish the gallery space, light from the exterior courtyard was slightly dimmed, since not far from the glass panes several