During the coronavirus lockdowns, the artist Thomas Woodruff began painting dinosaurs. It might seem that portraits of Velociraptors are a drastic, if not peculiar key change from Woodruff’s usual topical subjects. But in “Resurrection,” a 2022 exhibition that featured paintings of unhatched prehistoric eggs, Woodruff demonstrated an ability to derive emotion and intensity from primeval sources. At Vito Schnabel Gallery, Woodruff’s successive collection of dinosaur works are on display. And now the eggs have hatched. Each piece in “The Dinosaur Variations” is affecting. The subjects are often silhouetted against some form of imminent destruction, be it a fiery asteroid or an erupting volcano. In response, the dinosaurs are personified: they observe, they cower, they hug. —Jack Sullivan