Several art exhibitions currently on view across Manhattan offer a diverse range of contemporary works exploring cultural, political, and historical themes.

At Foreign & Domestic on Rutgers Street, an exhibition by the pseudonymous Charlotte-based artist Tinmantis runs through July 25. Known for blending sharp cultural critique with a meme-like sensibility, Tinmantis presents 10 large-scale paintings on poster paper. The works feature motifs ranging from aliens and medieval imagery to doodles, combining pop culture references with deeper social commentary. Among the pieces is an image of a car’s remote lock described as a magical incantation, highlighting society’s perception of technology as a form of modern mysticism. Other paintings reference figures such as Jeff Koons and Jordan Wolfson, alongside nods to black metal music, William Blake’s illustrations of Dante’s Inferno, and Philip Guston’s controversial “hoods” series. The show captures a sense of soliloquy typical of online discourse, while reckoning with personal and collective tragedies including addiction, despair, and the artist’s own losses.

At Olney Gleason on West 27th Street, Jill Magid’s exhibition opens to July 17, coinciding with the country’s 250th anniversary and the Supreme Court’s recent ruling reaffirming birthright citizenship. The installation centers on the ritualized nature of presidential Rose Garden speeches and executive orders, spanning from 1973 to the present. Using wall-mounted texts, sculptures, and neon signs, Magid explores the performative aspects of political power, including applause patterns and moments of silence transcribed in official records. A key feature includes facsimiles of executive orders related to themes such as motherhood, Judaism, and the arts, on which Magid has added her own signature beneath the presidential one. One piece presents a pen engraved with “Now, Therefore, I am Jewish,” displayed beneath Ronald Reagan’s 1986 national day of Jewish Heritage proclamation. In addition to these works, bronze casts of Magid’s heart sit atop Corinthian columns labeled as purchased from a “White House Gift Shop” — a private retailer unrelated to the government — reflecting both personal investment and the limitations of civic engagement in American democracy.

Management Gallery on East Broadway hosts “New Grotesque” through July 26, an exhibition featuring gothic and visceral sculptures and paintings. The show includes Linda Marwan’s “Chimeras (Evelyn, Marian),” depicting impish figures with exaggerated features, and Willhead Eilers’s “Das rote pferd,” which portrays a thoroughbred horse in a state of intoxication. The works combine themes of violence, sexuality, and dark humor. A standout piece is Sibylle Ruppert’s large-scale drawing “Le Chant de Maldoror” (1918), executed in white pencil on black paper. Ruppert, a Swiss artist noted for her surreal, hybrid imagery merging anatomy, machinery, and leather, has not previously had a solo exhibition in the United States. The intricate, almost grotesque forms in the drawing evoke both repulsion and fascination.

At Essex Flowers on Monroe Street through August 1, Erin Johnson presents a multichannel video work reflecting on the 1983 filming of the Cold War nuclear attack drama “The Day After” in Lawrence, Kansas. The film famously employed thousands of local residents as extras, portraying mass casualties from nuclear devastation. Johnson’s piece features interviews with survivors who recount their experiences of emotional trauma and perceived radiation exposure, though the footage deliberately blurs the line between reality and fiction by omitting explicit references to the production itself. The work captures a haunting sense of lingering anxiety over nuclear threats, underscoring the enduring potency of such cultural memory amid ongoing political tensions. Johnson originally filmed the interviews in 2018 but withheld the release until now to avoid exacerbating contemporary anxieties.

Together, these exhibitions provide multifaceted examinations of contemporary life and history through imaginative and often provocative artistic approaches.