There is only one horrible way to describe Spirit, Judy Stone’s video installation: New Age. Her videos somehow manage to combine mediation with discharging firearms, which sounds a lot like Sean Penn’s Oscar speech. Yikes. Until Feb. 27, at the Hillyer Art Space. [Arts and Artists] MORE »

“Real Machers: Portraits of American Jewish Gangsters,” an exhibit of pen-and-ink drawings by graphic artist Pat Hamou, is opening tomorrow at the Ann Loeb Bronfman Gallery. Hamou’s portraits of the “machers” (Yiddish for “big shot”) are hardly threatening in their fedoras and bow ties, but you can guarantee, as Hamou does, that they have “bigger matzoh balls than most.” Feb. 18-May 17. [DCJCC] MORE »

The Connor Contemporary showcases the works of John Kirchner and Brandon Morse in a joint exhibit, “Unknowns” and “This Shape We’re In,” an exploration of decay and rebirth. Kirchner takes old oil paintings from unknown artists and adds commonplace things to them — an apple, a shirt — while Morse’s videos show structures breaking down and forming new shapes. Until March 21. [Connor Contemporary] MORE »

Exhibition Picks:

If you love vintage posters, drop by the National Portrait Gallery’s “Ballyhoo! Posters as Portraiture” exhibit before it ends on Feb. 8. Featured works include a Bob Dylan poster from the 60s, a Got Milk? PSA shot by Annie Leibovitz and an army recruitment ad circa 1917. The exhibit illustrates how posters “define the reputation of prominent Americans” (which kind of explains how Shepard Fairey turned Obama into a hipster.) [Smithsonian] MORE »

Exhibition Picks:
Roller derby girls are frightening: They wear torn fishnets, have tattoos and are into feminism. But Cory Oberndorfer makes them look as sweet as ice cream in his Flashpoint exhibition, “Flavor of the Month,” a collection of candy-colored graphic art prints. At Flashpoint, until Feb. 13. [Flashpoint] MORE »