This Week in Art Openings: Susan Jamison, Tala Madani and Eugenio Dittborn

Susan Jamison, “For the Curious”

In Susan Jamison’s “For the Curious,” you’ll see a lot of waiflike creatures and florally tattooed nude femmes. This exhibition of new paintings continues Susan Jamison’s overtly historical, feminine work with dainty animal portraits and near mythical-looking bald-headed ladies merging with the natural world. Bald heads are intricately embroidered with lacing vines and veiny leaves in a patchwork pattern reminiscent of turn of the century phrenology. Other historical references to Renaissance portraiture and the Garden of Eden can’t be mistaken, and the title itself was taken from the bizarre Renaissance “cabinets of curiosities” -- collections of the mysterious, the artistic and the unknown.

Spanierman Gallery, 53 E. 58 St., (212) 832-1400. Apr. 10-May 3.

Tala Madani, “ASS•AS•SIN: hashish anyone?”

Iranian-born and American-educated Tala Madani’s paintings are bold in brushstroke, color and meaning -- darkly comic, ironic and sometimes grotesque, these works feature Middle Eastern men in absurd situations (often clad in undies only) to help lighten the otherwise prickly issues of nationalism and religion. Look for “Smiley,” a large-scale painting that drips with both paint and irony, of men covered in American flag-like stripes holding smiley face drawings in front of their faces.

Lombard-Freid Projects, 531 W. 26th St., (212) 967-8040. Opening reception Fri., Apr. 11, 6-8 p.m. Through May 17.

Eugenio Dittborn, “Enteras Partes de Now and Then”

Eugenio Dittborn’s inspiration for his multi-material airmail paintings in “Enteras Partes de Now and Then” runs the gamut, taking cues from drawings by a schizophrenic patient, a 16th-Century book on cannibalism in the New World, newspapers and police records from the1940s and 1950s, a Pisanello mural and a collaborative text by an Aztec draftsmen and a Spanish Catholic priest. Santiago-based Dittborn ships the pieces, composed of dye, embroidery and photo silkscreen, from continent to continent to be assembled on-site.

Alexander and Bonin, 132 Tenth Ave., (212) 367-7474. Opening reception Sat., Apr. 12, 5-7 p.m. Through May 17.