Award-winning blogazine, primarily about painting
Saturday, May 27, 2023
Glasgow-based Merlin James’ small architectural paintings invite various associations � domesticity, industry, nostalgia. The mix or alternation of functionality and ornament, and the reference to models or source images, create resonances with the artificial structuring and ‘building’ of the paintings themselves. In The Village Voice, RC Baker compares James’ paintings […]
“Emilie Clark: The Weeklies,” Morgan Lehman, New York, NY. Through December 22. Selected as one of this week’s “Best in Show” by R.C. Baker in the Village Voice, Clark decided in 1995 to make one painting a week for the rest of her life, and she’s still at it. R.C. […]
“Kanishka Raja,” Tilton, New York, NY. Through November 17. Also at Envoy, New York, NY. Kanishka Raja blends pattern and decoration, Op Art, Indian miniature, doubles, mirrors, multiplies and textures to create complex psychological interiors. In The Village Voice, RC Baker recommends the show. “These 18 small canvases initially appear […]
Steve Parrino, Gagosian Gallery, New York, NY. Through Nov. 3. Gagosian presents Steve Parrino’s paintings, drawings and sculpture. Parrino died in a New Year’s morning motorcycle accident at the age of 46 in 2005. “When I started making paintings the word on painting was ‘PAINTING IS DEAD,’” Parrino said. “I […]
“What Is Painting?” curated by Anne Umland. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY. Through September 17. Read updated excerpts and follow links to a roundup of reviews by Jerry Saltz, Christian Viveros-Faune, R.C. Baker, Sarah Schmerler, Daniel Kunitz, and Dan Bischoff.
‘What Is Painting?” curated by Anne Umland. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY. Through September 17 In New York Magazine Jerry Saltz writes his own narrative for the exhibition: “The revisionism of this show works partly because it is so seamless. Except for one or two cases�a generically […]
‘What Is Painting?” The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY. Through September 17 In The Village Voice, R.C. Baker recommends the show: “This big, brightly didactic survey of painting movements since roughly 1965 feels a bit like the Astor Place Kmart�blocky white spaces filled with disparate goods of mixed […]
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
Latest post, link in profile / Rita Ackermann’s alternative dimension / Contributed by Jeffrey Grunthaner / Currently on view at MASI Lugano in Lugano, Switzerland, Rita Ackermann’s solo show, “Hidden,” offers a rare melding of museum-oriented historicism with gallery-style directness. Occupying two cavernous rooms in the museum’s bottom floor, the exhibition comprises four bodies of work, ranging from early sketchbook collages prefiguring Ackermann’s iconic “nymph” paintings of the 1990s to more visceral canvases that explore erasure and disappearance. It culminates in three monumental paintings from Ackermann’s most recent series, War Drawings, which recall murals while also resembling magnified pages of an exploded notebook. Link in profile
@ritaackermann @masilugano @shadowblockedthoo #figurativepainting #ritaackermann #jeffreygrunthaler
Shout out to Salon Zürcher, a satellite fair of Frieze New York, for their 28th Edition of “The Women of Spirit” series, on view through May 21. Artists in this iteration include Bettina Blohm, Petey Brown, Sue Collier, Fukuko Harris, Nancy Manter, Victoria Palermo, Sacha Floch Poliakoff, Jo Ann Rothschild, Sonita Singwi, Jenny Tango, April Vollmer
Images are tagged. Sorry I didn’t take more!
@bettinablohm @__petey.brown__ @Sue_Collier @hukuharri @nmanter2 @victoriapalermostudio @sachaflochpoliakoff @jo_ann_rothschild @sonitasingwi #JennyTango @aprilvollmer_artist
#zurchergallery #womenofspirit #friezenewyork @zurcher_gallery @friezenewyork #twocoatsofpaint #womenartists
Psychedelia reigns @frosch.and.co with JOE WARDWELL’s solo “Present Company Excepted.” These wild layered paintings are harder to read in person than they are in JPEGs. The extra-bold texts all focus on American political divisions and pandemic/post-pandemic anxieties. Through May 28
@joe_wardwell @brandeis_finearts @frosch.and.co #joewardell #froschandco #chinatowngalleriesnyc @uw_paintingdrawing
Jonathan Ryan’s surreal, beautifully-executed landscape paintings remind me of “City,” Michael Heizer’s sprawling land art project built on a desolate outpost in Nevada that looks like a bomb site. Or post-extinction landscapes. Or a miniature golf course on another planet. On view @hesse_flatow through Saturday.
#jonathanryan #hesseflatow #landscapepainting #michaelheizer #miniaturegolfpaintings
Latest post, link in profile / John Walker: Invisible dimensions / Contributed by Lisa Taliano / You need to be in front of a John Walker painting in order to get it. Its luminous qualities, the movement, scale, and touch of the brush...link in profile.
@alexandregallery @ltaliano @johnwalkerpainter #JohnWalker #alexandregallery #twocoatsofpaint
