In this week’s gallery picks, our artists explore the complex relationship between the present and the past with their richly layered techniques.

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1. Knowingly borrowing what iconography lies just as easily in thrift shops as any museum collection, Holmes navigates grandiose concepts of biography, introspection, and materiality with all the sincerity of a scrawled cocktail napkin at Mike Wise Gallery
2.Using Renaissance images, long forgotten in dusty archives of museums, Ingrid Dee Magidson combines them with the contemporary materials and objects at Unix Gallery
3. Sage Vaughn explores the physical and abstract associations of the phrase “nobody’s home” through an examination of stale interiors and the vacancy with which society unquestioningly consumes objects and occasions of mass appeal at Lazarides Rathbone
4. Lalla Essaydi covers her models, and sometimes the garments and walls, in layers of hand-painted henna calligraphy, subverting traditional Muslim gender stereotypes through the presence of the written word.at Jenkins Johnson Gallery
5. Yinka Shonibare’s latest show focuses on education, enlightenment, and opportunity – all ideals embraced by Dr. Barnes at Barnes Foundation
6. Through Margo Wolowiec’s dizzying textiles, the internet’s grating imagery washes away into something softer, almost dreamlike, like when cereal turns to mush after hours left in milk at Johansson Projects