Contributed by Sharon Butler / Howard Smith�s understated paintings, on view at Jane Lombard Gallery, are created through a meticulous process of accumulation. Call the technique abstract pointillism. The surfaces are covered with small dots, dashes and brushstrokes, building loosely woven fields of color that sometimes form recognizable geometric shapes. The pieces in this show vary in size from one-inch to eight-feet wide, but the size of the marks remains the same. In most, the color at first glance appears monochromatic, but subtle variations within unified fields create illusions of light and shallow space. In his most recent paintings, the smallest flecks of color are innovatively contrasted with larger dots of different colors. Smith has spent years working in this way. It must be intensely hermetic and time-consuming, but it seems to have been rewarding.
Tag: Abstraction
Thinking beyond New York City
Contributed by Sharon Butler / During a quick tour of Vermont, I discovered Benjamin Ward’s new gallery Stella Quarta Decima, or SQD, on Main Street in Manchester. The gallery will feature artists, primarily from Vermont, who work outside the confines of the commercial art market.
The upstate line
Contributed by Laurie Fendrich / The Subject is The Line at the Thompson Giroux Gallery in Chatham, New York, is a handsome, beautifully installed exhibition of the work of fourteen established artists.
Noticing and being noticed: An interview with Lisa Corinne Davis
Contributed by Sangram Majumdar / Lisa Corinne Davis, whose solo is on view at Pamela Salisbury through November 2, is an abstract painter known for her engaging explorations of map imagery, codes, and drawing systems. Recently she has been thinking about the destablization resulting from Covid, politics, and the current […]
Catalogue essay: Abstract Art Does Not Stop an Hour
Contributed by Laurie Fendrich / The works in “Uncharted: American Abstraction in the Information Age” are, for whatever their reliance on what we call �technology,� first and foremost abstract art. To allow ourselves to be distracted by any �Wow!� factor that might lurk in some of them because they employ […]
Steve Hicks: Sparring shape and line
Contributed by Carol Diamond / Steve Hicks�s oil and acrylic canvases exude confidence and exuberance, like a teenager sporting a new outfit and venturing out to face the world.�I�ve got this, the paintings seem to say. Hicks�s shapes and lines, his layers and hues, impart a robust, jaunty sense of […]
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 Brooklyn-based artist Melissa Capasso�s work, on view at Jennifer Wroblewski�s gallery Gold/Scopophilia in Montclair. Vibrant and predominantly abstract, Capasso�s small-scale paintings suggest beats of life flowing from one […]
Centenary: Mira Schendel
On the occasion of the centenary of Swiss-Brazilian artist Mira Schendel�s birth (she was born on June 7, 1919), Henry Alsopp, the director of Hauser & Wirth London, visited her daughter Ada and grandson Max. Over the course of two days, they discussed Schendel�s courage during World War II, the challenges she faced during a […]
New Roads: Mark Sheinkman at Lennon, Weinberg, Inc.
Contributed by Brian Dupont / I have long been engaged with Mark Sheinkman�s art. I was in grad school when I first came across an image of one of his paintings in an art magazine. It had twisting lines, interrupted with erasures that read as glitches, wrapped around a pair […]
Hilma af Klint: A timely message from the beyond
Contributed by Emma Stolarski / At the Guggenheim, Hilma af Klint�s paintings present themselves one by one, up the spiral ramp, just as she had dreamt in her sketches over 100 years ago. Her visionary drawing, Paintings for the Temple, was created during a session with her spiritual guides. She led […]