Brian Rutenberg’s recent paintings are influenced by Cubism, which he calls the “delicious conflict between naturalism and abstraction or� bending the laws of nature to fit the laws of art,” but Hans Hoffmann’s influence is unmistakable. In The Village Voice, RC Baker reports that Rutenberg’s canvases may at first recall […]
Tag: The Village Voice
Chan, Molnar and Wozniak at Platform
Launched in September 2007, Denise Bibro created Platform to highlight local New York-area curators, emerging artists and spotlight works outside of the mainstream. Currently on view is work by Amy Chan, Cheryl Molnar, and Karla Wozniak, who met during their undergraduate studies at Rhode Island School of Design. I’m not […]
Artists Space busted by jargon police
David Everitt Howe complains in The Village Voice that Artists Space is suffering from excessive, overwrought verbiage. “Curator Jeffrey Uslip splashes in puddles of academicism�his sprawling statement for the group exhibition ‘Nina in Position’ finger-paints with rhetoric like ‘legibility of lack,’ ‘post-sculpturalism,’ and ‘Left Melancholia.’ Gag. It’s like bingeing on […]
Mala Iqbal’s radiant calamity at PPOW
“Mala Iqbal: Washed Away,” P.P.O.W, New York, NY. Through January 5. In The Village Voice, RC Baker’s picks this week include Mala Iqbal’s garishly vivid, Disneyesque landscapes. “Imagine Max Ernst’s ‘Europe After the Rain’ (a corrosive 1942 painting conjuring the shattered landscape and psychological devastation of World War II) spray-bombed […]
Merlin James’ elusive architecture
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’s 12″ x 9″ future
“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 at Tilton
“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 […]
New reviews: Kara Walker’s racy cutouts
“Kara Walker: My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love,” organized by Philippe Vergne and Yasmil Raymond, both from the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN. Whitney Museum of American Art, , New York, NY. Through Feb. 3. UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA March 2 to June 8, 2008. At […]
Ofili shows us the long journey, the big picture
“Chris Ofili,” David Zwirner, New York, NY. Through November 3. This is Ofili’s first NY solo show since The Holy Virgin Mary came to the Brooklyn Museum in 1999 and sparked a huge controversy. Ofili now lives in Trinidad and no longer uses elephant dung on his canvases. In New […]
Steve Parrino’s sex and death paintings
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 […]
