I really like what Brooklyn artist Mark Dean Veca is doing with himself. He takes poppy street art characters and combines them with intricate patterns and ornamentation to create some large, pretty raw illustrations that kind of make it feel like you’re residing within someone’s innards.

Beyond that even, though, he has some pretty creative installation works under his belt, and his ability to transform space into an unreal cartoon domain is commendable.

David Salle

Words overlaying images is certainly nothing new, but at least David Salle attempts to present them in a way that’s a bit different from standard fare by making them huge, bold, and nude? His Some Pictures From The 80s show is now on display at Mary Boone (541 West 24 St., New York, NY) through June 26th, 2010.

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Christian Vetter

Christian Vetter’s current show at Yvon Lambert, The Presence Of Absence, seems to tell stories with sentences that float in and out, disappearing and reappearing in unexpected spots and ways.

(Images taken from Art Splash.)

It often seems that something is lost when street artists show in gallery settings, but this  Irvine Contemporary show from Brooklyn based street artist Gaia is a welcome example of a successful transition from canvas-as-wall to canvas-on-wall.

New York is ever crammed full of amazing art. Here are just some of the shows going on right now through mid-June that you, yes you, should really go check out.

Alison Elizabeth Taylor

Alison Elizabeth Taylor is a talented multi-disciplinary artist who lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She is now showing Foreclosed through June 19th at James Cohan Gallery (533 West 26th Street, New York, NY), a show in which her wood grain patterns capture moments in rural areas.

29 Palms, 2007 - Wood veneer, shellac - 47 X 77 inches

Morning After Pabco, 2006 - Wood inlay, shellac - 41 X 72 inches

T.J. Wilcox

T.J. Wilcox has some huge acetate and foil panels on display at Metro Pictures Gallery (519 West 24th Street, New York, NY) through June 12th!

Hyun Ju Park

Hyun Ju Park’s Out Of Darkness….Light is on display throuh June 14th at Causey Contemporary (92 Wythe Avenue, Brooklyn, NY). Her pieces utilize materials often used in contemporary art — ink, hair, nails — but combine them in a way that shimmers and moves like the sun reflecting off a wave.

Louie Cordero

Frequently gaudy but always interesting, Louie Cordero’s works are now on display at Jonathan Levine Gallery (529 West 20th Street, 9th Floor, New York, NY). Are these imaginary gods and goddesses?

UK artist Charming Baker is a funny dude, and it certainly comes through in his artwork. Take, for instance, his latest exhibiton, which features a painting of Michelle Obama with her face stitched together like a jigsaw and four rabbit paintings that have been shot through with a shotgun.

Show details: NYSG, 154 Stanton Street (@ Suffolk) on New York’s Lower East Side

Brooklyn collage artist Jasmine Golestaneh has some truly mystically confounding works. But she creates them all with charm; you might not know the story or the mindset behind them, but that doesn’t make them any less legitimate.

I should also mention that Golestaneh was formerly in the awesome band, Sea Sick, and is now playing with Queen Of Quartz.

Brooklyn artist Julia Rothman can pump out patterns for a good portion of her artistic career, and that is an amazing thought. With colors that pop, the patterns seem suitable for anything from wallpapers and wrapping papers to desktop backgrounds. And that might sound like a lot, but that list is actually pretty short-sighted; Rothman has an “applications” section on her website that shows her patterns in action, and the possibilities are very, very plentiful. The patterns are at times dizzying, yes, but in a great way that captures all moods, much like greeting cards might (and greeting cards actually do happen to be one of the million uses, of course).

What happens when New Age themes mix with surrealism and whimsy? Inka Essenhigh’s work! This New York artist has exhibited her oil paintings throughout the United States and Europe, and she now has an exhibit on display at 303 Gallery in New York City through February 20th. Here’s just an itty-bitty taste of what’s on display there.

Snowflake (Pink), oil on canvas, 64 x 72 inches

Green Goddess II, oil on canvas, 72 x 60 inches

Fog, Moss, Lichen, oil on canvas, 64 x 72 inches