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.
Gallery shows
Looking back: Richard Baker at Tibor de Nagy
Contributed by Sharon Butler / Last month, seeing Richard Baker�s paintings from the 80s and 90s at Tibor de Nagy took me back to my early […]
Assistants: Connected through circumstance
Contributed by Adam Simon / Lineage is not a concept with a lot of currency these days; too close, perhaps, to its more d�class� kissing […]
Amna Asghar: Plumbing orientalism
Contributed by Jonathan Stevenson / Amna Asghar�s gently captivating new paintings, on display at Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery on the Lower East Side, explore a rich […]
Melissa Capasso: Good vibrations
Contributed by Jennifer Rose Bonilla-Edgington / It�s the visual vibrations, both from individual paintings and from the show as a whole, that first call the viewer to […]
Thomas Berding: Something wild
Contributed by Jonathan Stevenson / Thomas Berding�s insouciant show �Field Test,� at The Painting Center in Chelsea, is a smart, spirited consideration of the tension between […]
Catherine Howe: Sly virtuosity
Contributed by Sharon Butler /�Calling Catherine Howe�s whirling, monochromic flower paintings �the pleasure garden� is archly ironic, like calling de Kooning�s early paintings �women.� Although […]
William Powhida’s inquisition
Contributed by Jonathan Stevenson / For a while it looked as though William Powhida might be painting himself into an existential corner. His mission was to […]
Frankie Gardiner: Painting the unknown
Contributed by Martin Bromirski / Frankie Gardiner lives in an old house across from a barn at the curve of a narrow road. Her yard […]
Neue Galerie’s “degenerate” art and Babylon Berlin
Contributed by Jonathan Stevenson / Neue Galerie?s compellingly incisive exhibition, titled ?Eclipse of the Sun: Art of the Weimar Republic? and anchored by Georg Grosz?s […]
Benjamin Pritchard and Natasha Wright: Dark, murky, and subterranean
Contributed by Sharon Butler / Recently, Natasha Wright and Benjamin Pritchard had concurrent solo exhibitions at the John Davis Gallery in Hudson, NY. Both painters are drawn […]
Post-exhibition shout-out: “We Woke Up This Way” at Sardine
Contributed by Sharon Butler / Despite our deep dive several years ago into Provisional painting and the Casualist tendency, a battery of questions continues to confront painters in […]
An artist’s notes: Christina Tenaglia
Images by Julie Torres, text by Christina Tenaglia / In addition to drawing and keeping sketchbooks, artists often take notes throughout the process of making their […]
Artist�s statement: Tamalin Baumgarten
Contributed by Sharon Butler / Tamalin Baumgarten�s haunting paintings are inspired by the landscape, history, and people of Cuttyhunk, a small island off the coast of […]
Andrew Woolbright: Shrinebeasts
Contributed by Zach Seeger / In Andrew Woolbright�s current show “Expresso Your Depresso,” at ADA Gallery in Richmond,�Virginia, the artist creates a series of mixed […]
Roadtrip: The Clark, MASS MoCA, Bascom Lodge in Western Massachusetts
Contributed by Sharon Butler / Several weeks ago I returned to Mount Greylock, the highest peak in Massachusetts, where I was an artist-in-residence at Bascom […]
Barbara Laube�s coexisting states of mind
Contributed by Carol Diamond / What is the difference between being with a person and seeing a picture of her, FaceTime versus a coffee date, […]
A quiet roar: Build a house, dig a hole, in Hartford
Contributed by Neil Daigle-Orians / Walking in to Hartford’s Artspace Gallery, the viewer is immediately struck by a large, hand-painted green screen. Merging the analog with […]
Caroline Wells Chandler: Pied Piper of weirdness
Contributed by Jennifer Coates / I met Caroline Wells Chandler when he was an MFA student at Yale, and we immediately connected in a lunatic […]
Yevgeniya Baras: Impastoed strata
Contributed by Jason Andrew / Spend anytime out in the rural West, particularly the plains of southwest Texas, and you�ll discover the daunting challenge […]





































