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Quick study

This edition of “Quick study” includes the inaugural show at the Met Breuer, Spring/Break’s roster of curators, The Review Panel, New American Paintings Northeast selection, Amy Sillman, Martha Tuttle, Robert Straight, and Patrick Neal’s thoughtful review of my show in Hyperallergic.

Looking forward: In March “Unfinished: Thoughts Left Visible,” opens in the Whtney’s old building. Organized by the Met, the show contemplates the unresolved and open-ended, a subject that I’ve been exploring for several years.

[Image above: Alice Neel, James Hunter Black Draftee, 1965, oil on canvas, 60 x 40 inches. COMMA Foundation, Belgium. � The Estate of Alice Neel]

From the press release:

This exhibition addresses a subject critical to artistic practice: the question of when a work of art is finished. Beginning with the Renaissance masters, this scholarly and innovative exhibition examines the term “unfinished” in its broadest possible sense, including works left incomplete by their makers, which often give insight into the process of their creation, but also those that partake of a non finito�intentionally unfinished�aesthetic that embraces the unresolved and open-ended. Some of history’s greatest artists explored such an aesthetic, among them Titian, Rembrandt, Turner, and C�zanne.

The unfinished has been taken in entirely new directions by modern and contemporary artists, among them Janine Antoni, Lygia Clark, Jackson Pollock, and Robert Rauschenberg, who alternately blurred the distinction between making and un-making, extended the boundaries of art into both space and time, and recruited viewers to complete the objects they had begun…

Non finito? Hell yes!

The Review Panel has relocated from the National Academy on the Upper East Side to the Dweck Center at the Brooklyn Public Library’s Central Branch. On Tuesday, February 9, at 7 pm, panelists will include organizer-moderator David Cohen, novelist Siri Hustvedt, NYTimes art critic Roberta Smith, and artist Alexi Worth. They’ll be discussing Katherine Bradford’s “Fear of Waves” and Elizabeth Kley’s “Ozymandias,” on view at Canada; Charles Harlan’s “Flood,” at Pioneer Works, in Red Hook; and Glenn Ligon’s “We Need to Wake Up Cause That�s What Time it Is,” showing at Luhring Augustine Bushwick.  I’ll see you there–unless I’m still snowed in in Mystic. (Image above: Glenn Ligon, Therapy #2, 2004, oil stick and acrylic on canvas, 30 x 30 inches.)

SPRING/BREAK Art Show returns for its fifth installment and the 2016 theme will explore curators’ interpretations of ?COPY?PASTE. Spring/Break takes place at the same time as the Armory Fair, but features independent curatorial efforts, many lead by artists and featuring unpredictable installations, combinations and collaborations. Two Coats will do the Spring/Break quiz again this year, so look for the images on March 1, the day of the press preview. When: March 2-7, 2016 Where: Across from Penn Station at 421 Eighth Avenue, Main Post Office Lobby, New York, NY. According to In The Air, the selected curators include:

A. Moret, Aaron Levi Garvey, Adam G. Mignanelli, Adam Mignanelli, Adam Parker Smith, AJ Hughes, Alejandro Jassan, Alex Sewell, Alex McQuilkin + Andy Mister, Alva Calymayor, Ambre Kelly + Andrew Gori, Andrea McGinty, Arielle de Saint Phalle + Taylor Roy, Cade Tompkins (Cade Tompkins Projects), Caroline Tilleard + Anna Maria Cuevas, Catherine Mahoney, Ch� Morales + Amanda Uribe, Chris Bors, Christopher Stout + Will Hutnick, Claire Mirocha + Vanessa Thill, Corey Oberlander + Lindsey Stapleton, David Packer, Dennis Dawson, Elisabeth Smolarz + Jamie Diamond + Lauren Silberman, Elizabeth Denny, Elizabeth Keithline, Emily Davidson + Stuart Lorimer, Emily Kiacz, Eve Sussman + Simon Lee, Fanny Alli� + Ketta Ioannidou, Jac Lahav + Adam Thompson + Susannah Palmer, Jacob Rhodes, Jennifer Sullivan, Jennifer McCoy + Jennifer Dalton, Jessica Hodin, Jo Shane + Maripol, Jon Lutz, Jonah Freeman, Juliette Premmereur + Nicole Grammatico, Kara Brooks, Kari Adelaide + Max Razdow, Karin Bravin, Katherine Aungier + Alta Buden, Katya Valevich + Julie Solovyeva, Kelly Schroer, Kevin Van Gorp + Shen-Shen Wu (101/EXHIBIT), Kirk Stoller, Krista Saunders Scenna, Kristin Sancken, Lalita Salander + Patrick Jaojoco, Magdalena Sawon, Magdalyn Asimakis, Marc Azoulay, Margaret Lanzetta, Marie Salom� Peyronnel, Marly Hammer, Maureen Sullivan, Mebrak Tareke, Melinda Wang, Michael Gaughran, Michael Valinsky + Gabrille Jensen, Katharine Mulherin (Mulherin Toronto New York), Myla Dalbesio, Nati Hyojin Kim + Kat JK Lee, Nick Doyle, Patrick Mohundro, Rachel Phillips, R�my Bennett + Kelsey Bennett + 1985, Ren�e Fox (Shulamit Nazarian), Vanessa Albury + Rachel Rampleman + Lynn Maliszewski, Rachel G Barnard, Robert Dimin, Sarah G Sharp + Parsley Steinweiss, Teriha Yaegashi + Juliette Premmereur + Ella Marder, Vince Contarino + Brian Balderston + Chad Stayrook + Jos� Ruiz, and Yulia Topchiy.

(Image of the old post office via Wikipedia)

Amy Sillman’s solo show at Sikkema Jenkins features some inkjet-on-canvas printing. Above:
Panorama, selection of 14 from a series of printed and painted works, 2015, acrylic, gouache, and ink on inkjet-printed canvas, painted wood base, 79 x 59 inches.

At The Brooklyn Rail, Phong Bui pens a review for Martha Tuttle’s Tilton show (image above) in the form of a poem.

“Edges travel with elation. Lines sag.

                                                                Wrinkles recall sages

Eager to impart wisdom to the troubled world….”      (read more)

Rachel Schmidhofer, big bad wolf, 2015, oil on panel, 24 x 20 inches.

The Northeast edition of New American Paintings hits newsstands this month. Curated by Sarah Montross, Associate Curator at deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts, the annual regional competition is a “juried exhibition-in-print.” As usual, forty painters were selected, and the competition was stiff–several of the winners already show in the New York area. According to the press release, “unlike other art publications, New American Paintings does not discriminate by style or yield to art-world trends.”


Congratulations to each of you! 

I recently received a tip to check out Philadelphia painter Robert Straight’s work. This one is
P-566, 2016, acrylic, canvas, wood panel, 40 x 36 inches. “I’ve been working in the studio for over 40 years,” he writes. “I’ve accumulated a vast repository of ideas and techniques that come and go, are added onto and sometimes temporarily forgotten….” I like his use of curved shapes and color, and there’s a hint that he’s putting larger ideas about the cosmos into play. Straight shows at Schmidt/Dean Gallery, in Philadelphia.

At Hyperallergic, Patrick Neal contributed “Philosophical Paintings that Bare Their Process,” a thoughtful essay about my show at Theodore:Art. Thanks, Patrick, for articulating some ideas I hadn’t yet put into words.
Image above: Sharon Butler, Goethe’s Triangle, 2015, oil on canvas, 16 x 20 inches.

Note: The show has been extended through February 21, 2016. 

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