Ja’Tovia Gary

Through March 28. Paula Cooper Gallery, 521 West 21st Street, Manhattan; 212-255-1105, paulacoopergallery.com.

Rhythm is central to Ja’Tovia Gary’s “The Giverny Suite” (2019), a nearly 40-minute, three-screen film installation that is the centerpiece of “flesh that needs to be loved,” Ms. Gary’s first show at Paula Cooper.

There is the tempo of the music accompanying the moving images, but just as crucial are the pacing and arrangement of Ms. Gary’s material. There is borrowed footage of Josephine Baker in the movie “ZouZou” (1934) and shots of Ms. Gary walking in Monet’s lush gardens in Giverny, France; there are close-ups of leaves reminiscent of Stan Brakhage’s experimental films like “Mothlight” (1963). There is the terrifying video of Diamond Reynolds’s 911 call after her boyfriend, Philando Castile, was shot by a police officer — and right after that, the singer Nina Simone performing at the Montreux Festival in 1976 and commenting to the audience on how the lyrics of the seemingly saccharine song “Feelings” are actually depressing.

Ms. Gary’s installation could be compared to moving-image works by Arthur Jafa and John Akomfrah, which similarly examine the representation of black bodies and histories of violence. The difference is that Ms. Gary focuses on women. “Do you feel safe?” she asks women in Harlem, holding a microphone toward them. Most answer yes. “I don’t walk alone; I walk with God,” an older woman says. “We’re not the weaker sex,” another asserts. The rhythm of “The Giverny Suite” feels solid and confident, but the tone less consistently affirmative. MARTHA SCHWENDENER