Award-winning blogazine, primarily about painting
Friday, September 29, 2023
In Bookforum, Arthur Danto reviews Suzanne P. Hudson�s Robert Ryman: Used Paint (October Books). “It is part of Robert Ryman�s legend that he is a self-taught artist. He moved to New York in 1952, at age twenty-two, to pursue a career in jazz. A year later, he took a job […]
Cordy Ryman’s new abstract paintings, sculptures and installations at DCKT continue his playful exploration of paint, color, two-by-fours and wooden constructions. According to the gallery’s press release, Ryman is “manipulating and reconstituting an inherited visual language, and defining himself in relation to it.” Well, I doubt Cordy thinks that much […]
Obviously a labor of love and obsession, Morris’ small paintings on wood are like an introverted mash-up of early Robert Ryman, James Sienna and some wacky Islamic pattern and decoration. The paradoxical knowing-ness and uncertainty of the hand-drawn line, the layered opacity/transparency of the surfaces, and the subtle color ooze […]
After his last show, No Title Required, at Pace Gallery uptown, painter Robert Ryman welcomed Brooklyn Rail Publisher Phong Bui to his West Village studio to talk about his recent paintings and other related work. Read more.
Two Coats Obituaries
Obituaries & Remebrances at Two Coats of Paint / The Blind Swimmer: Gordon Grant Fraser (December 2, 1975 – November 1, 2020) / Two Coats of Paint has recently learned of the death of Gordon Fraser, a talented artist and art blogger who penned the now defunct The Blind Swimmer, of a heart attack after undergoing a series of treatments for colon cancer. Gordon was an early and interesting contributor to the art blogging community, and…Link in profile
Image: Gordon Fraser, Half Moon Bay, 2020, pages from his chemo sketchbook
@blndswmr #gordonfraser #saumanchoyfraser @prattalumni #artistobituaries #artblogger #theblindswimmer
Latest post, link in profile / Steve Greene’s crafty agitation / Contributed by Jonathan Stevenson / In an adventurous departure from drawing and collage, Steve Greene now offers intriguingly acerbic abstract paintings in his solo show “News From Nowhere,” on view at Frosch & Co. They are rich with sharply drawn shapes and robustly differentiated visual content, yet they require little deliberation to be appreciated. They penetrate immediately. This quality stems from the thematic cohesiveness produced by trenchant cultural and art-historical tropes distributed among the paintings. Judging by the fluidity of his marks and line, Greene generates these allusions intuitively, with minimal contrivance. Link in profile
#stevegreene #froschandco #jonathanstevenson #contemporarypainting #abstractpainting #newsfromnowhere
Sirius Namazi “Pending” @magasin3, curated by Tessa Praun / Namazi, born in Kerman, Iran, in 1970 and based in Stockholm, teases out ideas about memory, loss of information and exclusion. Meticulously produced exhibition, featuring enormous projected video on a stretched canvas, a series of machine-made embroideries based on details from the sculptures, 3-printing from handmade ceramic sculptures, and more. Not for the casually inclined.
#SiriusNamazi #magasin3 #stockholmartist #konsthall #tessapraun @tessapraun #output
@_lisa_tan knows how to fill a space. The waiting room entrances with framed prints of Klee, Matisse, etc, the room framing, the large letters, a video viewing room with chairs for an audience @acceleratorsu in Stockholm.
Two Coats of Paint is celebrating National Daughter’s Day by honoring Lena, who some of you may recall was the mastermind behind our Social Media Services Project a few years ago. She has since opened her own business @honeyhomeofbeauty in #OldMysticCT. Love you @lena.alohalani ❤️🏆❤️ Daughter, visionary, and muse.
Image: @meadowflowerphotography #honeyhomeofbeauty @mystic_disc #mysticct
Latest post, link in profile / Elisa D’Arrigo: Between the beautiful and the grotesque / Contributed by Kay Whitney / There is a fundamental paradox at work in Elisa D’Arrigo’s ceramic objects – while they are unmistakably beautiful, they break every standard for what is considered “beautiful.” They are small, shambolic, eccentric objects lacking symmetry; they are not overtly colorful and don’t attempt to please. They are humble, not loudly announcing nor applauding their own appearance; understated and private, the viewer must come to them. Rather than exhibiting the mechanical surfaces of a wheel-thrown or machine-made object, her forms bear the imprint of her hands and in that way reveal the processes of their making. If there is any other artist with whom her work could be compared only George Ohr, the “mad potter of Biloxi,” comes to mind. His small “puzzle mugs” demonstrate the same sensibility — simultaneously humorous and serious, their extraordinary eccentric surfaces and coloration are reminiscent of D’Arrigo’s, exposing a shared aesthetic. Link in profile
@elisadarrigo1 @elizabethharrisgallery @k.whtny #ceramics #chelseagalleries
Image: Elisa D’Arrigo, Making a Move 6, 2023 7 x 6.5 x 4 inches, courtesy of the artist & Elizabeth Harris Gallery
“Something darkly set itself at our senses’ five thresholds without stepping over them,” a cinematic two-person show @bonnierskonsthall with Tulsa Lovell and Sara-Vide Ericson, is a haunting mediation on the past, the future, and the inexorable force of nature. In terms of craft and content, unlike anything I’ve seen in NYC. Or is it? Images are tagged.
@tildalovell @saravidee #swedishartists #konsthall #theatricalinstallation #manvsnature #bonnierskonsthall
Snapshot: Overlooking the Central Baltic Sea from @fotografiska.stockholm. We saw the @shirin__neshat and @therealpeterlindbergh shows — strange combo, but both moving in their own way. The place is dark and loud — more like a nightclub than a gallery. The bar on the top floor is beautiful.
Latest post, link in profile / Inside: Arthouse art house / Contributed by Jonathan Stevenson / The set-up of Vasilis Katsoupis’ slickly but somewhat facilely resonant feature debut Inside is deceptively simple. A high-end art thief is helicoptered onto the roof of a luxury Manhattan high-rise and, with the aid of a techie accomplice, hacks into the security system of an absurdly opulent penthouse, owned by a high-end art collector who is evidently away for a season or two. The thief is targeting several of Egon Schiele’s signature vampy drawings and a singularly valuable self-portrait. Link in profile
@insidethefilm #insidethefilm #jonathanstevenson #twocoatsofpaint #filmreview #wilemdafoe #VasilisKatsoupis
