Contributed by Sharon Butler / When I stopped by Suzanne Joelson‘s studio a few weeks ago, I found her working on several things at once, […]
Author: Two Coats Staff
It’s good to be lonely: Jason Tomme at Theodore:Art
Stephanie Theodore gets the prize for press release of the day for her five deceptively simple takes on Jason Tomme’s exhibition. The show is a […]
Images: Jessica Weiss
Contributed by Sharon Butler / In Jessica Weiss‘s ruggedly handsome paintings, strange, puppet-like figures emerge and recede from floral wallpaper patterns that are vigorously screen-printed […]
Invitation: Tamara Gonzales and Sharon Butler, An Artist Dialogue
On Saturday at 2:30, please join me at the Mid-Manhattan Library for a lively conversation with painter Tamara Gonzales about blogging, zines, artists books, and […]
Painting? Painting?
Contributed by Sharon Butler / At the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, curators Eric Crosby and Bartholomew Ryan have organized “Painter Painter,” an exhibition comprising work by fifteen artists, some of whom are working with painting materials in ways that are often labeled “painting” but may be more firmly rooted in Minimalism and Process Art than with the formidable history of painting and abstraction. Considering the work presented in this show as well as the work selected for the deCordova Museum’s “Paint Things,” perhaps we aren’t experiencing an expansion of painting as the curators have proposed, but rather a return to handmade sculptural objects…that sometimes have paint on them or are hung on the wall.
Medium unspecificity prevails
At the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts, curators Dina Deitsch and Evan Garza have organized “PAINT THINGS: beyond the stretcher,” an exuberant exhibition that focuses on work merging painting, sculptural form, video, performance, and installation strategies. The curators selected artists who are exploring materiality, context and space–physical, social, political, or emotional. I wish Clement Greenberg, the art critic who championed color and
flatness in the 1940s, could see the show. I wonder why painters were so intrigued with Greenberg’s notion of medium specificity back in the day?
Catalogue essay: COVER THE EARTH by Stephen Maine
Curated by artists Elisabeth Condon and Carol Prusa, “POUR,” an exhibition that examines the use of poured paint in contemporary art practice, opens this week at the Schmidt Gallery, Florida Atlantic University, in Boca Raton, Florida. Condon, a painting professor at University of South Florida and Prusa, a painting prof at FAU, tapped Stephen Maine to write the essay, which references Pollock, Kaprow, Frankenthaler, Morris Louis, James Brooks and others.
“Sharon Butler: Precisionist Casual” at Pocket Utopia
From the press release: Pocket Utopia is pleased to present “Precisionist Casual,” a solo exhibition of new paintings by Sharon Butler. The exhibition will […]
Sly and witty: Female Surrealists in Los Angeles
Contributed by Sharon Butler / Past surveys of Surrealism have either largely excluded female artists or minimized their contributions, so the exhibition of lady Surrealists at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art that runs through May 6, 2012, is a big deal.
Green light: Peter Halley in Portland
On Sunday, “Prison,” Peter Halley’s first exhibition in the Northwest, opens at Disjecta, a non-profit space in Portland. The site-specific installation is a digitally generated […]
Sneaky funny in Ridgewood
Contributed by Sharon Butler / Artists Jonathan Terranova and Matthew Mahler opened Small Black Door in late 2010 to mount some interesting shows by emerging […]
Merlin James: Secret world
Contributed by Sharon Butler / In his current show at Sikkema Jenkins, Merlin James presents handcrafted relief-like objects that look like the backs of […]
Sharon Butler, Joy Curtis, Cathy Nan Quinlan at STOREFRONT
Sharon Butler, “Brightly Colored Separates 6,” (detail) 2010, oil on canvas, 30″ x 40″ This month my paintings will be in “On Display,” an exhibition […]
Amy Sillman: The O-G Volume 3
While visiting Amy Sillman’s exhibition at Sikkema Jenkins this month, readers can pick up the latest volume of The O-G for a buck. Folded inside the low-budget artist booklet is a small poster, “Some Problems in Philosophy,” sort of a crib sheet to understanding the famous philosophers and their theories, from Descartes through Derrida. In hand-drawn chart form, the poster (originally made as a drawing for the show) lists the “great” and “not so great” about each. In a postscript at the bottom Sillman advises readers not to worry about Hannah Arendt, Simone Weil, Elizabeth Grosz, and other women philosophers. “Women – who cares what they think?? Don’t even bother–probably minor stuff–[!]” In this terrific exhibition, Sillman drolly explores the battle between conceptual art and painting, latching onto the image of a lightbulb as both muse and model.
Butler gets a Jackson Pollock valued at 2 million
Jackson Pollock, “Silver and Black,” 1950, oil and metallic paint, 21.25 x 15.75.” The Business Journal Daily reports that a painting by Jackson Pollock, valued […]
Rackstraw Downes and Mark Bradford win MacArthur Genius Grants
There are three criteria for selection of MacArthur Fellows: exceptional creativity, promise for important future advances based on a track record of significant accomplishment, and potential for the fellowship to facilitate subsequent creative work.
Studio update: January Residency at Pocket Utopia
Contributed by Sharon Butler / I spent the week-long residency creating circle charts, which represent the point in my work where words and images intersect. […]
Laurie Fendrich: Why do painters have to justify being painters?
Fendrich recently returned to New York from a stint as a Visiting Artist at Painting’s Edge, a summer painting workshop in Idyllwild, CA. She reflects […]
Pattern and Decoration revisted in Yonkers
Pattern and Decoration: An Ideal Vision in American Art, 1975-1985, curated by Anne Swartz. Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY. Through Jan. 20. The HRM presents […]
Anselm Keifer thinks big
Alan Riding looks at the artist chosen for the innaugural solo show at the Grand Palais in Paris. “Since moving to France in 1993, this […]










































