An award-winning NYC blogazine, primarily about painting
Thursday, April 16, 2026
Contributed by Adam Simon / In the neighborhood of abstract painting, Maureen McQuillan’s backyard – reflected by works on view at McKenzie Fine Art until May 15 – features process-based or system-based painting. Loosely defined, this is painting for which the process of its making is its primary subject and the finished painting is understood as evidence of that process.
At the galleries this month, look for Eric Brown’s solo at Jennifer Baahng on the UES, Elana Herzog at Cathouse Proper in Carroll Gardens, MOD (the show I curated) at Platform Project Space in Dumbo, Scooter LaForge’s sculpture at Theodore in Tribeca, and “Jump Shot,” a charming group show in South Slope ( or is it Gowanus?) at Tappeto Volante, with Ben K. Voss, Marianne Gagnier, Calvin Burton, Maria Walker, Al Svoboda, Julie Torres, Christopher Peterson, and David Scanavino. In Bushwick, check out “Shelter,” a two person show with sculptures and works on paper by Helen O’Leary and Liliana Zavaleta at M. David & Co. through May 14. At Two Coats of Paint HQ we are hosting Afarin Rahmanifar — our first artist-in-residence since Covid arrived in 2020. Please join us for her open studio (55 Washington Street, #454) on May 5, 6 – 8pm. It’s Dumbo First Thursday, so galleries will be open late, too. –Sharon Butler
Contributed by Laurie Fendrich / While an artist friend and I were having dinner together after seeing the Whitney Biennial, she suddenly said” “Art is a cult.” For a second, I thought she was joking – I mean, art is truth and goodness, cults are lies and wickedness. Then I realized how much sense it made.
Welcome to Two Coats of Paint’s inaugural guide to Hudson Valley galleries. With the explosion of impressive exhibitions in the region, Two Coats plans to make the guide a regular feature…
Contributed by Patrick Neal / For her solo show, currently on view at March Gallery in the East Village, Ellen Siebers has created small paintings in oil on beveled birch panel that are poetic in their open-endedness and straightforward in their embrace of beauty.
“Mind the Gaps” at the Osmos space on East 1st Street takes as its curatorial premise that it has no consistent curatorial premise and so offers a welcome respite to the incessant connecting of dots of contemporary life. The curatorial statement of non-intent leaves viewers to “puzzle out their own version of coherence.”
Contributed by Sharon Butler / On Saturday, April 23, and Sunday, April 24, from 12–6pm, DUMBO artists and arts organizations will open their studios to the public for the first time since 2019, after which DUMBO Open Studios went online due to Covid. The art community here (Two Coats HQ is in the neighborhood) is distinct from others in New York because several prestigious residency programs call DUMBO home. In addition, subsidized rents (Two Coats is a grateful beneficiary of the Two Trees Cultural Space Subsidy Program) make the neighborhood affordable for a diverse cohort of talented artists, both emerging and mid-career. Regardless of the artists’ stature or status, most studios will be open.
Contributed by Sharon Butler / From May 4 -10, after a two-year Covid hiatus, the small Two Coats of Paint Residency Program returns with Iranian American artist Afarin Rahmanifar. Born in Tehran and based in Connecticut, Afarin explores the points where Eastern and Western culture intersect.
Contributed by Sharon Butler / Coinciding with their individual solo exhibitions at Anders Wahlstedt Fine Art and Gold Montclair that involve sports imagery and content, I invited Two Coats contributor Zach Seeger to talk to Terry Rosenberg about his practice and current exhibition. This is the exchange that took place.
Contributed by Adam Simon / One of Russell Maltz’s singular achievements is to demonstrate how easily utilitarian objects and materials can be transported, Cinderella-like, into the alchemical realm of fine art. This is partly a property of the materials themselves: the symmetry, weightiness, and economy of products meant for construction. “Russell Maltz: Painted/Stacked/Site” on view at Minus Space in Dumbo, through July 30, with an additional nearby storefront installation and a slide show depicting found sites of construction material.
On a sunny Sag Harbor afternoon Peninah Petruck stopped by the Mark Borghi Gallery to talk to Arlene Slavin before the opening of her show “In Sequence 1970-2022,” which is on view through April 28.
Contributed by Jonathan Stevenson / Not many good contemporary painters fully embrace sports. The subject is burdened by daunting precedent (George Bellows) and mild cliché (Leroy Neiman). But this century, as social media have enabled athletes to reveal and fans to probe the people behind and beyond the moves, sports have acquired greater social and political resonance, sending a stronger demand signal to artists.
Contributed by Sharon Butler / Due to a massive hack attack at Two Coats of Paint, we had to rebuild our most recent files, including the April gallery guide. Call it a work in progress. We will continue to edit and update as necessary. INVITATION: Save the date for DUMBO Open Studios, April 22-24, when I will be showing some recent work created for a collaborative project with CounterPointe9, with choreographer Julia Gleich and Norte Maar in my studio at 55 Washington Street. I also organized a show at Platform Project Space called “MOD” featuring one of my paintings alongside singular works by Peter Dudek, Steve Hicks, Sheila Pepe, and Adam Simon. Located at 20 Jay Street #319, Platform is run by artist Elizabeth Hazan. The opening is scheduled for Friday April 22, 6-8 — the same night as the opening party for the Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program, which is in the same building. Please join us!
Contributed by Tom McGlynn / Claire Seidl’s contemplative works are closely aligned with the Abstract Expressionist/Existentialist ideal whereby the painter must be eminently present in order to access and transmit the sincerity of experience. Her paintings are not history bound, however, but rooted in the perennial quest for a very personal gesture unbounded.
Contributed by Sharon Butler / Deborah Dancy’s big abstractions have migrated from the murky darkness inspired by research into the lives of her Black ancestors, who were enslaved in the South, to a visual language informed by the rural landscape that surrounds her home and studio in Storrs. I visited her on a bitter winter day in March before Kathryn Markel Fine Art in Chelsea and Marcia Wood in Atlanta had picked up work for her upcoming solo exhibitions.
Sam Jablon’s delicious confusion
Miró’s far-reaching tutelage
Elisa Jensen’s expansive interiors 
Stuart Fineman and Alan Greenberg: Meaningfully minimal
Grandma Moses’s simple world
At the Whitney Biennial: Ali Eyal’s mirthless amusement park
Michael and Tim Maul: Art as antidote and refuge
Valerie Hegarty: Enlivening Emily Cole
Rodin and food
Opal Mae Ong: Worlds weighing in
Echo Yan and Cass Yao: An unsettled awareness
Outsider Art Fair 2026: Hunters and prey
