From the press release for William Powhida’s second solo show at Postmasters (pictured above): Overculture 1:(noun)1.a small cultural group (artists) within the larger culture, often affirming the beliefs or interests of the ruling class (collectors).“The two parties thus engage in an uneasy courtship around unspoken divisions and unacknowledged […]
Solo Shows
Leslie Wayne: Absorbed and wiped out
In the last few years, much has been made of hybrid paintings that re-purpose canvas and stretcher bars to create sculptural objects. In her solo at Jack Shainman, Leslie Wayne takes a brilliant tangent, presenting small-scale objects made from oil-paint skins that she folds to look like cloths. In the […]
Resolution and dissolution at once: Angelina Gualdoni at Asya Geisberg
Michael Krebber update
Contributed by Sharon Butler / One of the best things about subletting other people’s studios is being surrounded by unexpected things–books, postcards, odd materials and so forth. I recently moved into a new place in Williamsburg, near the Graham Avenue stop on the L train, and happened upon a trove […]
Gregory Amenoff’s studies
Gregory Amenoff has discovered a new decisiveness. He generated his previous paintings improvisationally, arriving at images directly through the process of painting. In contrast, Amenoff’s new large-scale canvases are based on small pencil studies, which he made during a trip to Paris in the summer of 2012. “I was staying […]
Paul D’Agostino: Fear and Loathing in Purgatory
Contributed by Jonathan Stevenson / Like an eccentric Brooklyn character in a Paul Auster novel, Paul D�Agostino � writer, curator, Italian literature scholar, and resolute insomniac � thinks in the cadences of Dante. In his exhibition �Twilit Ensembles� at Pocket Utopia, he combines jangled fictional cartoon narratives inspired by paint […]
Jered Sprecher: The liar’s paradox
Contributed by Sharon Butler / Fearless painter Jered Sprecher counts quilts, children�s drawings, signage and gemstones among the diverse source material for his new work on view in “I Always Lie,” his third eye-popping solo show at Jeff Balley. Working on numerous paintings at once, Sprecher says he “feels around […]
In her own words: Kyle Staver
When old-school is new: Michelle Segre at Derek Eller
At The Brooklyn Rail this month, Elizabeth Baker, former editor of Art in America, served as guest editor to the Art section, asking contributors to consider the question, “What’s new?” Writing in her introduction she suggested that Among the artists, words like �progress,� �innovation,� and �originality� barely crop up. Yet […]
Ralph Fasanella: Defending the 99%
In his review of Jubilation/Rumination: Life, Real and Imagined, the new exhibition at the American Folk Art Museum, Ken Johnson neglected to mention that there are two paintings by Ralph Fasanella (American, 1914-1997), a self-taught artist whose large, detailed depictions of the urban working class critiqued post-World-War II America. An […]