Contributed by Sharon Butler / Lauren Luloff’s rigorous new paintings, on view at Fridman Gallery through July 24, have taken a decisive turn away from organic form, floral patterns, and flowing structure towards compulsive geometric pattern.
Author: Sharon Butler
Kate Spencer Stewart’s liminal spaces
Contributed by Jackson O’Brasky / In her solo exhibition “Convention” at Bureau on the Lower East Side, Kate Spencer Stewart has rendered dialogues of the long, dark night of the soul into paint.
Reading suggestions
Contributed by Sharon Butler / Here is a selection of art articles and books I’ve been reading and pondering this week.
A conversation with Pauline Decarmo
On Saturday, May 14, at 3 pm, Two Coats of Paint founder and publisher Sharon Butler will discuss the work in Pauline Decarmo’s solo exhibition “Exit,” on view at LABspace through May 29. The event is free, outdoors, and open to the public. Visitors should bring a chair or blanket, […]
The Whitney Biennial: On the heels of trauma
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.
Two Coats Selected Gallery Guide to the Hudson Valley: May 2022
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…
Two Coats Resident Artist: Afarin Rahmanifar
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.
Russell Maltz: Radical thrift
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.
Deborah Dancy: To seduce and unnerve
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.
We have taken in a refugee family and we need a mattress
Contributed by Julia Kunin / On March 1, 2022, I reconnected with my friend the Hungarian artist Anita Kroo after reading that she and her family had taken in a refugee family from Ukraine. She told me about the experience. Anita Kroo: I remember when war broke out on Thursday, February […]
