Month: November 2019

Solo Shows

N. Dash: More enervating than edgy

Contributed by Curtis Mitchell / The moment of entering a gallery opening — bright lights, convivial conversation, and walls and floor partially seen through conjoined bodies — is not conducive to thoughtful viewing. N. Dash’s paintings recently on display at Casey Kaplan, with their radically blown-up images of nubs of fabric and other household remnants, provide immediate visual motivation to leap the obstacles.

Gallery shows

Amanda Church: The contemporary gaze

Contributed by Adam Simon / One of the under-appreciated aspects of art viewing is the way that a given work establishes a certain relationship with a viewer. Mark Rothko famously claimed that “lots of people break down and cry when confronted with my pictures.” He may have been trying to fend off a formalist reading of his work, but I can’t help wondering about the type of relationship he posits in that quote. In Amanda Church’s fine exhibition “Recliners” at High Noon, a very different type of relationship is established, in which the object playfully attunes the viewer to the knowledge and predilections he or she might bring to the experience of looking. Don’t expect to cry, but do prepare to be winked at.