For Ms. Marcus, this interest manifests itself in cryptic, almost surreal self-portraits, done with a muted palette, in which the artist dresses up and poses with classical ruins, as if she were a goddess or guardian. Ms. Gross sometimes reinterprets famous art historical works, as in two massive takes on Delacroix’s “Women of Algiers” (1834). “Dark Air,” her roughly 9-by-9-foot construction that reimagines it with fashionable friends and riotous patterns, is a showstopper and the first piece you see upon entering the gallery.

Ms. Gross and Ms. Marcus frequently portrayed friends, family and acquaintances, including each other. They cultivated an intimacy that pushes against the cold monumentality of the canon. Today, when figurative painting has become a powerful province for artists who are not white, straight and male, this work feels as current as anything you would see in Chelsea. That is what makes it a revelation. JILLIAN STEINHAUER