An award-winning NYC blogazine, primarily about painting
Monday, April 27, 2026
Contributed by Jonathan Stevenson / As the title “Blue Italian Skies Above” suggests, walking into the exhibition of Edith Schloss’s paintings now at Alexandre Gallery produces a kind of pastoral contentment. But don’t be fooled into thinking she was a shallow, acquiescent Pollyanna. Lurking in that casual lightness is a distinct quality of mortality and limitation.
Contributed by Barry Nemett / With squiggly marks and brilliant colors bringing the bucolic outdoors indoors, the exhibit Joan Mitchell is a sensual delight. What a treat to feel, smell, and hear the French countryside’s springtime breezes and see its glorious summer’s colors in Baltimore.
Contributed by Sharon Butler / Here is a selection of art articles and books I’ve been reading and pondering this week.
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 […]
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 / 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.
The Christophers: NFS
Kari Cholnoky: Stalking dullness
Eric Wolf: Into the fog
Folk Art’s faux-ish innocence
Two Coats Resident Artist Gyan Shrosbree, May 5 – 10
E.M. Saniga: Country life vigorously observed
Paul Klee, degenerate for the ages
Ken D. Resseger: Closer to creation
Ruby Palmer: Flowers are forever
Sam Jablon’s delicious confusion
Miró’s far-reaching tutelage
Elisa Jensen’s expansive interiors 
