Claude Lawrence fills both of Venus Over Manhatten’s gallery spaces, on Great Jones Street, with exuberant canvases inspired by a single work of art—George Gershwin’s 1935 all-Black opera, Porgy and Bess. The paintings are abstract and create a soundless visual opera. Trained as a jazz musician, Lawrence sees his art as a means of social activism. “Many jazz artists supported social issues by playing for huge crowds and raising money for the Civil Rights Movement,” he explains. “The music did not have to be ‘about’ the issues of civil rights. Music could be in the service of these issues and I believe the same of art.” —Clara Molot