Remember Hurricane Sandy? It was a devastating superstorm that struck the northeastern United States on October 29, 2012, and turned into one of the most […]
Tag: Sharon Butler
Painters in conversation: Jeanette Fintz and Stephen Westfall
Contributed by Sharon Butler / At 68 Prince Street Gallery, a spacious new gallery in Kingston, now featuring Jeanette Fintz’s paintings alongside Monika Zarzeczna’s architecturally oriented work in “Elusive Thresholds,” Fintz engaged in a freewheeling conversation with noted painter Stephen Westfall. I was fortunate enough to get hold of the recording and here try to distill some wisdom. Both artists are geometric abstractionists, and they discussed the evolution of Fintz’s artistic practice from cubist-influenced studies in the 1980s to her current explorations of the environment through geometry, touching on philosophical and technical considerations underlying contemporary abstract painting.
Ariel Bullion Ecklund, August 3–8
Contributed by Sharon Butler / Next month, Two Coats of Paint Residency Program welcomes Ithaca, NY, artist Ariel Bullion Ecklund. Ecklund creates ceramic objects and photographs that draw from the memories she accumulates as she moves through the world. Universal themes such as absence, impermanence, memory, and yearning inform work that is also deeply personal. For our next resident, our bodies hold memories as much as our minds do. This understanding is the foundation for everything she makes.
Two Coats Resident Artist Sage Tucker-Ketcham, July 20–25
Contributed by Sharon Butler / This month, Two Coats of Paint welcomes Vermont artist Sage Tucker-Ketcham. Sage’s recent nature-based work operates in the space between observation, memory, and imagination. Each painting begins with something she saw on a walk or caught in her peripheral vision from a car window – moments that lodge into her consciousness, like seeds waiting to germinate.
Enzo Shalom’s meandering brush
Contributed by Sharon Butler / On view in the upstairs gallery at Bortolami, Enzo Shalom’s paintings – modest in image and muted in palette – carry a quiet intensity that has felt rare among young New York painters in recent years. At a time when traditional painterly bravado dominates, Shalom takes a different route, making vulnerability seem like a radical act. His work leans into restraint: awkward angles, washed-out tones, and just enough mark-making to read as intentional without seeming overworked. If you can imagine early Luc Tuymans’ bleached-out hues, EJ Hauser’s jagged lines, and Gary Stephan’s off-kilter compositions, you’ll land somewhere near the world of Shalom’s paintings. It’s a subdued, thoughtful space, low-key but deeply engaging.
Michele Araujo: A straight-in shot
Contributed by Sharon Butler / In “The Vulnerable Paintings,” on view at OSMOS Address through March 4, Michele Araujo has decisively found her voice. After working on rigid aluminum panels for years, Araujo has shifted to sheets of vellum, unapologetically embracing the beauty of color and the seductive nature of process. The result is a handsome and satisfying kind of arrival.
Two Coats Selected Gallery Guide: November 2018
Contributed by Sharon Butler / Update (November 11): I don�t know about you, but I feel a tremendous burden has been lifted thanks to the […]
Two Coats Selected Gallery Guide / September 2018
Contributed by Sharon Butler / Last fall, there was a dearth of solo exhibitions by female painters. This September, a slew of seasoned women have mounted terrific […]
Two Coats Selected Gallery Guide / June 2018
Contributed by Sharon Butler / Here is a selected list of painting shows I�m heading out to see this week. For a more comprehensive, all-media listing, check […]
Two Coats Selected Gallery Guide / May 2018
Contributed by Sharon Butler / After classes end (final crits this week!), but before everyone heads out of town for summer (hello Truro in […]
Quick study
This edition of “Quick study” includes good news about how the arts drive economic growth and bad news about MoCA curator Helen Molesworth. Also: Grant […]
The 2018 New York Art Fair Facts
The art fairs have already started! This year ADAA runs from February 27th through March 4th, and then the rest of the fairs run from March […]
Sharon Louden: Consultants, careers, and community
I frequently get pitches via email from art consultants who offer to help me (and I imagine many other artists) get exhibitions, grants, publicity, and […]
Sharon Louden: Animated life
Contributed by Sharon Butler / For several years Sharon Louden, who studied painting when she got her MFA at Yale, has been making large-scale, site-specific […]
Pop abstraction: Nicholas Krushenick at the Tang
Contributed by Sharon Butler / Last week at the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, I got a chance to […]


































