Award-winning blogazine, primarily about painting
Thursday, June 1, 2023
Contributed by Ken Buhler / One afternoon last summer I decided to go to the National Gallery in London. I was in upstate New York, idly turning the pages of a book of Italian paintings, when I came upon Piero Della Francesca�s Baptism. Its geometric perfection and its eloquence struck me […]
Contributed by Carter Ratcliff / Let�s begin with a painting�not sure it�s a work of art�that could have been painted only now, during Trump�s presidency. This is The Republican Club, a group portrait of selected Republican presidents, by Andy Thomas. Hanging now in the White House, it appeared behind Trump during […]
Contributed by Sharon Butler /�Brian Dupont’s�paintings, on view at Adah Rose Gallery in Bethesda, Maryland, through December 31, are uniquely transfixing for several reasons. One is their lean, industrial look – they�re oil on metal. Another is the sense, owing to the stenciled letters and numbers present, that they reveal�something […]
Contributed by Sharon Butler / During the 1960s, the world was rocked by massive political upheaval. In May 1968, two weeks of student riots in Paris blasted traditional approaches seemingly across the socio-political board, from government to gender roles to education. Civil rights and anti-war protests roiled the United States. Africa fitfully […]
The latest issue of Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly, called the “Atlas of Eating,” features travel articles related to food, such as “How Food Became Religion in Peru’s Capital City” and “The Humble Beginnings of Goulash.” Editor Jeff Bartholet invited me to contribute something about art and food, so I put together a short history of […]
In 2011, seeing a relationship to the casualist tendency in contemporary art, I posted about Claude Viallat’s work and the inventive art movement known as “Supports/Surfaces” that took hold in the mid-1960s in the south of France. Expanding the notion of painting, Supports/Surfaces artists stressed the experimental use of non-art […]
This essay, which builds upon an essay about contemporary abstract painting that I wrote for The Brooklyn Rail in 2011, was just published in the January/February 2014 issue of Christie’s Magazine. —– Contributed by Sharon Butler / A few years ago, having operated safely within traditional painting strictures for decades, I […]
I recently stumbled upon old work by Claude Viallat, which strikes me as a precursor to the Casualist aesthetic. Born in Nimes, France in 1936, Claude Viallat used to show at Leo Castelli, and had his last NYC solo show at Cheim & Read in 2002. He attended the Ecole […]
Contributed by Sharon Butler / The pioneers of abstraction�the Cubists, the Abstract Expressionists, the Minimalists�emerged from firm and identifiable aesthetic roots and developed their own philosophies. In the competitive maelstrom of 20th century art, those philosophies became dogmas, and the dogmas outright manifestos. In the new century, many abstract painters […]
Wendy White, “Hip Replacement,” 2009, 91 1/2 x 196 in In the Fall Arts Preview at The L Magazine, Paddy Johnson wonders why Wendy White hasn’t had the breakout success her work deserves. White’s multi-paneled spray paint canvases have been exhibited in so many places that it’s hard to call […]
Latest post, link in profile / Donna Dennis’ extraordinary invitation / Contributed by Iris Cushing / Donna Dennis is an artist of transition and transformation. Her architectural installations – which she pioneered in the 1960s and has continued to develop – often take the shape of transitory sites: subway stations, hotels, tourist cabins, and, in the case of her show “Ship/Dock/Three Houses and a Night Sky” at Private Public Gallery in Hudson, a loading dock. Like much of Dennis’ work, this installation draws on her experience and observation of vernacular spaces. Link in profile
@donnadennisstudio @Irismarble @privatepublicgalleryhudson #vernacularspaces #hudsongallery
Joshua Nierodzinski / HOW IT STARTED, HOW IT’S GOING / On view at @contextspacebk through June 11 / Artist talk and brunch on Sat, June 3, 11am -1 pm
"Context is pleased to announce the opening of HOW IT STARTED, HOW IT’S GOING, the first solo exhibition in New York City by artist Joshua Nierodzinski. Curated as a retrospective, the presentation spans a decade exploring the forensic imagination through drawings on microscopic slides, videos, and multi-layered photosensitive painting. It is accompanied by a publication with essays by the artist and Sam O’Hana, a performance and research-led practitioner in critical and lyrical writing."
Joshua Nierodzinski (b.1982) is an artist who merges painting and forensic photography to address personal and national histories. He is a co-founder of HEKLER, a transnational artist-run platform that fosters the critical and experimental examination of hospitality and conflict. Selected awards include the National Endowment for the Arts Grant, an artist-in-residence at the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, The Sam and Adele Golden Foundation, and the Wassaic Artist Residency. Joshua is a recent AIM Bronx Museum Fellow and currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Context Art Space
948 Third Ave., 2nd Floor, Brooklyn, NY
Wednesday – Saturday 11am – 6pm
@jnierodzinski @contextspacebk #samohana #wassaicproject #samandadelegoldenfoundation #contemporarypainting #bronxmuseumaimfellowship #josefanniealbers #twocoatssponsor
I saw Alicia Feng’s haunting and beautiful graphite drawings at Sunnyside Arts the other day when I popped in to buy a tube of paint. Director Ed Kim tells me that she pens well known graphic novels under a different name.
@sunnysideartsnyc #artsupplies #artstore #drawings #graphite
Latest post, link in profile / Chakaia Booker’s lyrical muscle / Contributed by Jonathan Stevenson / Making deeper sense of some abstract art past its initial visual impact can require extended consideration. Not so much Chakaia Booker’s sculpture, now on view in her solo show “Public Opinion” at David Nolan Gallery. Composed predominantly of exactingly configured pieces of black rubber tires along with wood and metal, the work immediately grips you like a confident advocate, calm and insistent. Link in profile
@chakaiabooker @davidnolangallery #jonathanstevenson #twocoatsofpaint
Jim Condron has put together a lovable show of crazy sculptures he made using things sourced from other artists and writers. One piece includes a pair of pink crocs — Grace Hartigan’s last painting shoes — and I was reminded of a Rachel Harrison piece I saw this winter @glenstonemuseum . Kind of heartbreaking that Hartigan’s shoes don’t have more paint on them. Swipe for images
Jim Condron: Collected Things
Sculptures from the Collected Items of Artists, Writers and Thinkers
On view through June 17 @artcake_nyc (but closed for Memorial Day Weekend)
Image info:
Grace Hartigan’s Things, 2023
Crocs shoes, paint stick, pillow, steel
antique chair, steel
35 x 45 x35 inches
In the Glenstone collection:
Rachel Harrison, Sculpture with Boots, 2017
wood, polystyrene, chicken wire, cardboard, burlap, cement, acrylic, steel, and pigmented inkjet print
93 x 60 x 46 inches (236 x 152 x 116 cm)
© Rachel Harrison
Rachel Harrison, Sculpture with Boots (detail)
@jimcondron #gracehartigan #leekrasner @pollockkrasnerfoundation #rachelharrison #paintersshoes
(I gave Jim a few coffee pots from my favorite hometown thrift shop —the only store I’ve ever loved. Go see what he did with them ☕️)
On the UES yesterday I stopped in to see Andrea Marie Breiling’s solo
“Swallowtail” at @alminerech. In the press release the artist says that the paintings are like the swallowtail butterflies in that the closer you get to the work, the more the surface begins to reveal its details, but honestly the details don’t really seem important, overwhelmed as they are by the brash color, the mesmerizing circular action of the mark making, and the mural-sized scale. Natural wonder doesn’t stand a chance next to Breiling’s industrial strength vision, but maybe that’s the point. Love the illusion of depth and the sense of light. On view through June 10.
@alminerech @andrea_marie_breiling #futurism #contemporarypainting #LAPainting #LAArtist
Latest post, link in profile / Ethel Schwabacher: Canon-adjacent? / Contributed by David Carrier / Revisionist arguments about who should be counted among the artistic elite, whether they be old masters or modernists, provide essential stimulus in the art world. They proceed in an established manner. Some reasonably influential figure contends that a significant artist has been unjustly excluded from a particular art canon. Commentaries are published and shows organized making the case for supplementing it. The recent amendments to the predominantly white male Abstract Expressionist elite have proven especially tricky, as issues of gender and race enter the picture. Does Alma Thomas belong? Norman Lewis? What about Ethel Schwabacher? With “Woman in Nature (Paintings from the 1950s)”, Berry and Campbell argue energetically, though not entirely convincingly, that she deserves a place. Link in profile
#davidcarrier #ethelschwabacher @berrycampbell #womenpainters #1950spainting #abstractexpressionism @carrier3909 #twocoatsofpaint
Spread across two floors at Magenta Plains, Jennifer Bolande’s solo, “Persistence of Vision” is as compelling as it is enigmatic. Downstairs, Bolande captures images of fragmented scenes and objects (perhaps from dusty road trips in an old muscle car?), a series of moments that manifest deeper meaning. The work upstairs focuses on the handmade. Rachel Kushner, are you out there? Through June 17.
@magentaplains #jenniferbolande #rachelkushner #lesgalleries #magentaplains #persistenceofvision #contemporaryphotography #plastersculpture
This afternoon I spent some time @platformprojectspace talking with artist (and curator for this show) @franklinevansart and gallery director @elizabethhazan during the last day for “Philosophicalinvestigations” a lovable group show that included faded images of exhibitions past and work by artists who are showing for the first time in the space. It has been a glorious celebration of Platform’s first five years 🎉😀🏆 Congratulations Elizabeth and Franklin. Great show.
#philosophicalinvestigations #franklinevans #elizabethhazan #platformprojectspace
