Link to Post:
http://www.artcritical.com/2012/09/28/fran-oneill/
Jonanthan Goodman reviews the exhibition Fran O'Neill: Recent work at The New York Studio School, on view through October 13, 2012.
Goodman writes: "Fran O’Neill’s fine show... demonstrates how the practice of gestural abstraction can remain very much alive in the hands of someone willing to explore and experiment. While Louise Fishman’s accomplished, historically aware exhibition at Cheim & Read shows us a mature artist committed to the lexicon of the New York School, in O’Neill’s paintings we see the pursuit of an originality that really pushes forward the vocabulary of abstract art. Her backwards glance toward the legacy of mid-20th century painting is transformed into a forward leap into the unknown."
Link to Post:
http://patternsthatconnext.wordpress.com/2012/09/28/the-empiricism-of-michael-kidner-dreams-of-the-world-order/
Andy Parkinson visits the exhibition Michael Kidner: Dreams of the World Order: Early Paintings at Flowers Gallery, London, on view through October 20, 2012.
Parkinson writes: "To my mind the work in this exhibition is proof, if proof were needed, that a rational, systematic (empirical rather than pre-conceived) approach to abstraction can result in works that are both emotionally charged and intellectually interesting. It could even be said that Kidner combines the opposing traditions of expressionism and constructivism. Although he criticised abstract expressionism for its “assault on the unconscious” there is something of Rothko’s feeling for colour in these paintings. Yet there is no mysticism or 'spirituality' here, even though there is Grace in the sense of the term that (following Aldous Huxley) systems thinker Gregory Bateson used of 'integrating conscious and unconscious minds.' "
Link to Post:
http://www.thegreatgodpanisdead.com/2012/09/aaron-parazette-keeps-you-off-balance.html
Robert Boyd reviews the exhibition Aaron Parazette: Flyaway at the Art League, Houston, Texas, on view through November 2, 2012.
Boyd writes: "Flyaway wraps around two walls. Each wall has a focal point where several lines converge. The intersections of these lines, and the edge of the painting itself, form flat geometric shapes... Size matters. At this scale, the straight lines of the wall painting engage with the straight lines where the floor and ceiling meets the walls, and where two walls meet each other. The triangles and trapezoids echo the perspective space of the room. You are enveloped by the painting just as you are enveloped by the gallery itself. Flyaway loses the autonomy of an individual easel painting, but gains a dialogue with the architecture."
Link to Post:
http://www.twocoatsofpaint.com/2012/09/mark-dagley-one-man-punk-band.html
Nick Stolle visits the exhibition Mark Dagley: Structural Solutions at Minus Space, Brooklyn, on view through October 27, 2012.
The exhibition includes three large paintings - according to the press release: "one matte red and black scalene triangle, one prismatic stained grid, and one pale yellow and blue striped rectangle with notched L-shaped holes."
Stolle writes: "Walking into [the exhibition] is like accidentally wandering into the middle of a peculiar standoff. Three strong, distinct energies surround you, pushing and pulling, bandying you about."
A retropective of Mark Dagley's work entitled Mark Dagley: 35 Years, 1976-2011 is also on view, at Kent Place Gallery, Summit, New Jersey through October 5, 2012.
Link to Post:
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-cm-art-review-mimi-lauters-dining-out-at-marc-selwyn-fine-art-20120918,0,7857261.story
David Pagel reviews the exhibition Mimi Lauter: Dining Out at Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles, on view through October 27, 2012.
Pagel writes: "More than just about any other artist of her generation, Lauter excites our desire to know what we are looking at only to short-circuit such unimaginative, even mechanical activities. What results is an extraordinary dance between our capacity to think clearly and our knowledge that that’s not enough... Refusing to play into our culture’s current obsession with instantaneous gratification, Lauter’s slow, sensuous pictures of organic forms are Old World in their appreciation of subtlety and love of sophistication."
Link to Post:
http://www.furiousdreams.com/blog/?p=12937
Victoria Webb photoblogs visits to several painting exhibitions currently on view in Atlanta, including A Web of Artists: Friends of a Social Network on view at Thomas Deans Fine Art with paintings by Ken Kewley, Philip Koch, Paul Behnke, Harry Shooshinoff, Bill Gingles, Donald Beal, Mitchell Johnson, Alicia Rothman, Greg Minah, and Rick Stevens (through October 13).
Link to Post:
http://www.gorkysgranddaughter.com/2012/09/jacob-feige-august-2012.html
Zachary Keeting and Christopher Joy visit the studio of painter Jacob Feige.
In a review of Feige's exhibition After Dense Fog at Lombard Fried Projects, for Frieze Magazine, Christopher Bedford wrote: "Jacob Feige’s work explores the threshold that divides and binds mimetic and abstract painting... Feige’s fondness for 19th-century Romanticism and the sublime landscape tradition in particular is evident in almost every canvas. Rendered with an airy, atmospheric touch, these grand, unspoiled vistas do not dominate the pictorial field, but rather occupy the background, while the foreground is given over to gestural abstraction and/or hard edge, Technicolour geometries. The spatial implausibility of these modernist elements inscribed upon Feige’s often idealized landscape depictions yields far more harmonious compositions than one might expect. Nevertheless, his paintings retain an edgy, propositional quality."
Link to Post:
http://structureandimagery.blogspot.com/2012/09/plane-space-worcester-cathedral.html
Paul Behnke posts installation photos of the recent exhibition Plane Space, curated by Dan Roach, at Worcester Cathedral Crypt. The exhibition included paintings by Karl Bielik, Katrina Blannin, Sarah McNulty, Dan Roach, Paul Rosenbloom, and Gwennan Thomas.
Behnke writes: "For the event, Roach brought together six abstract / non-objective painters whose works offer a dramatic contrast to their ancient surroundings even as formal elements (grids, texture, color and composition) are often reflected in the environment of the crypt. The crypt was an inspired choice for the exhibit as it brazenly highlights or slyly secrets away these contemporary interlopers."
Link to Post:
http://youtu.be/gPg3qmeq4YM
James Kalm visits the exhibition Joshua Aster: Little Conversations at Sam Lee Gallery in Los Angeles, on view through October 6, 2012.
The gallery notes that Aster's "works, measuring no more than 24x24 inches each, are intimate in scale and elemental in their emphasis on straightforward mark making. Aster employs ordinary objects such as wood off-cuts, erector set parts, broken plates, and picture frames found in his studio and intuitively arranges them on the canvas. He then traces their outlines and finishes the work by coloring in between the lines with oil paint, thus creating a familiar yet fresh pattern..."
Link to Post:
http://elisabethcondon.blogspot.com/2012/09/sunday-les-92312.html
In a two part post, Elisabeth Condon photoblogs paintings currently on view at New York's Lower East Side galleries including Agro Crag at Bosi Contemporary, Drew Shiflett at Lesley Heller Workspace, Line and Plane at McKenzie Fine Art, and Josh Podoll and Gina Magid at Feature, Inc.
In the accompanying post Condon features Matthew Miller at Pocket Utopia, Judy Linn at Feature Inc., Mary Weatherford at Brennan & Griffin, and Color/Forms: Doreen McCarthy and Ivelesse Jiminez at Cuchifritos.
