Contributed by Katy Crowe / Ron Linden’s exhibition “re.dux” at 478 Gallery in San Pedro is a welcome introduction to a large body of visually engaging abstract work that invites interpretation. His reductive, conceptual approach has persisted while evolving. Linden’s palette is minimal, mostly ochre and shades of black with, now and then, red oxide and cobalt blue. Included in his tool kit are staples of traditional painting, commercial and scenic art from which he also borrows tricks of the trade, such as forced perspective, stencils, and faux-finish techniques. The show comprises 16 medium-to-large paintings and a dozen smaller ones installed as a single set. They all adhere to his minimal palette, and most are acrylic and charcoal on canvas, just two on paper. 478 Gallery’s generous exhibition space allows for plenty of air between works, and the consistent palette, punctuated by a spot of red oxide here and there, makes for visual coherence.
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NYC Selected Gallery Guide: Nov 2023
Welcome to the Two Coats of Paint painting-centric guide to galleries in New York. Interesting shows this month include Keltie Ferris at Mitchell-Innes & Nash, Katherine Bradford at Canada, Fran Shalom at Kathryn Markel, Ann Craven at Karma, and Yinka Shonibare, who is exploring African abstraction in his solo at James Cohan. A group show at Marinaro called “The Triumph of Death” seems to suit the mood of the past few weeks, as does Yevgeniya Baras’ solo at Sargent’s Daughters. She began the series of paintings while she was on a summer residency in Tel Aviv. We’re intrigued by images of Anna Berlin’s work at Olympia. Are the paintings made in grayscale or are the pictures black and white? Must run over and check them out IRL this week.
Hudson Valley Selected Gallery Guide: Nov 2023
New stuff for November: Last month we produced a handy interactive map of the galleries in the Hudson Valley region for the Two Coats Gallery Crawl, with links to both the galleries and to their location on Google Maps. As out-of-towners, we found it incredibly helpful driving from space to space, so we have decided to create a version for use year-round. Readers can find a link on the menu bar at the top or click here to take a look. Keep in mind it’s a work in progress, and more galleries will be added shortly. Note that a couple of galleries have closed for the season: Elijah Wheat and the Re Institute.
The sea: Vulnerable and mysterious at Field of Play
Contributed by Jenny Zoe Casey / The title of the group exhibition “1,000 Year Current,” on view at Field of Play Gallery in Gowanus, refers to the time it takes for a particle of water to circumnavigate the earth. Curated by gallery director Matt Dogsdon, the show encompasses a generous range of linked subjects, from the sea’s primal mysteries to its vulnerability to climate change.
Charline von Heyl’s audacious eclecticism
Contributed by Barbara A. MacAdam / Where to begin in exploring Charline von Heyl’s formidably eclectic and multifaceted show of new paintings at Petzel Gallery? She embarks on a visual discussion with her mostly nineteenth- and twentieth-century European and American predecessors and counterparts in a tour de force. The show, cluttered yet precisely deployed, demands equally targeted unpacking, close looking, and an individual assessment of each painting on its own terms.
Meet UConn’s MFA Studio Art Class of 2026
UConn’s MFA Studio Art program is a fully funded three-year graduate program which supports a broad range of art making including painting/drawing, photography/video, printmaking, and sculpture/ceramics with an international faculty and superior and generous facilities in a rural environment centrally located in Southern New England for easy day trips to New York, Boston, Providence, Hartford, and New Haven. The program culminates with an exhibition in a NYC gallery. and a thesis exhibition in UConn’s William Benton Museum of Art. The deadline for submitting the application is January 15, 2024.
Frieze London: Quieter voices
Contributed by Kenneth Greiner / Having recently relocated to London, I was delighted when a friend offered me a free ticket to the twentieth-anniversary Frieze Art Fair in Regent’s Park. On a sunny Saturday, I took the Jubilee Line tube from my new flat in northwest London to Baker Street before joining the line in front of the fair’s enormous white tent. This, I would discover, was where the contemporary works were on display. With 130 galleries participating, I knew I’d need to be a bit discerning if I was going to spend more than a few seconds with any particular painting. I soon found myself standing in front of The Only Thing Left Behind, a mid-size oil painting by British artist Martyn Cross at the Hales Gallery booth.
David Humphrey and Gregory Amenoff’s long conversation
Contributed by David Humphrey / On a sunny August afternoon, I visited Gregory Amenoff in his Kerhonkson, New York studio, crowded with paintings and a circular palette table piled with paint. I’ve known Gregory for years and our paintings have been talking to each other but we have never had a sustained dialog like this one. It was a great pleasure to prompt words from an artist who has had ambitious art pouring out of him for half a century. “Chords of Memory,” a survey of five decades worth of Greggory Amenoff’s work, is on view at Pamela Salisbury through November 5.
Gandy Brodie’s loaded brush
Contributed by David Carrier / Painting with a loaded brush to create heavy layers of pigment by juxtaposing strands of varied colors is a distinctive, philosophically interesting art form. Eugène Leroy (1920–2000), a notable practitioner of it, had real doubt about the validity of the very act of making paintings. So did Alberto Giacometti. They asked when an artwork was finished, and answering the question is a particularly stiff challenge for one who wields a loaded brush. Such an artist tends to feel compelled keep painting until he or she can “get it right,” which may never happen. Repainting, of course, can also simply manifest love of the activity, and the desire that it never end.
Jules and Julian: Painting for generations
Contributed by Jonathan Stevenson / Julian Schnabel and Jules de Balincourt are hardly strangers to socially or psychologically attentive art. Schnabel’s neo-expressionist painting as well as his films have often manifested an acute sense of history and conscience. And de Balincourt in his work has consistently demonstrated a penchant for celebrating the grand resonance of particular moments. At the same time, though, neither has ever seemed overtly essayistic or advocative, as though he were self-consciously speaking for his fellow human beings. With their respective solo exhibitions now up at Pace, that disposition appears to have changed.