Link to Post:
http://www.paintinginla.com/2013/05/one-painting-review-llyn-foulkes-pop.html
Lucy Chinen muses on Llyn Foulkes' painting Pop (1985-90) on view in the Llyn Foulkes retrospective at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles though May 19, 2013.
Chinen writes: "The expression of disgust towards American capitalism and immersive pop culture is not a particularly unique perspective in contemporary art, which is why it is rare when a work is able to communicate this feeling without being trite. Foulkes' stance does not come off as trite because it does not adhere to the currency of unique ideas within contemporary art. Foulkes adopts a narrative of tired resignation, illustrating himself with an intoxicated look in his eyes, a facial expression of vacant submission. The music emanating from the painting is darkly patriotic and carnivalesque. The domestic setting for an American dystopia is perfectly preserved in the diorama-like painting. Various styles converge in the work which plays with an exaggeratedly banal King of the Hill caricature, the grotesque thickness of a Phillip Guston painting, and the illusionistic qualities of Magritte."
Link to Post:
http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-opinion/conversations/2013-04-25/becoming-adults-the-paintings-of-elena-sisto/
Julian Kreimer interviews painter Elena Sisto on the occasion of the exhibtion Between Silver Light and Orange Shadow: Paintings by Elena Sisto at Lori Bookstein Fine Art, New York, on view through May 25, 2013.
Asked about the "line between abstraction and figuration," Sisto comments: "To say a painting is abstract doesn't necessarily mean it has no figures in it; it means that it's constructed abstractly. We're living in a moment when we see so many images all the time. People are looking at them iconographically. There's a lot more to a painting than just how the iconography reads. That's why it's very important to me if someone goes up close to my painting. When you look at one of my paintings, I want you to look at it and say, "Oh, I know what that is." And as soon as you start looking at it, the abstraction carries your eye off in an unexpected way."
Link to Post:
http://danielgalas.blogspot.com/2013/04/aubrey-levinthal-studio-visit.html
Daniel Galas visits the studio of painter Aubrey Levinthal.
Galas writes that Levinthal "varies brushwork, prefers pastel colors, and is not afraid to boldly interpret in subject. Aubrey primarily works from life but doesn't hesitate to alter the composition in any imaginative manner she finds fit. Still life is her subject of choice... mainly cups, tabletops, and food. I love her compositions, the confident loose brushwork, her focus on soft light and atmosphere, the melting of representation into abstraction, and her hints of naive/primitive articulation of form."
Link to Post:
http://paintingperceptions.com/contemporary-realism/pursuing-humanity-an-interview-with-simon-dinnerstein
Elana Hagler interviews painter Simon Dinnerstein about his work. Dinnerstein's painting The Fulbright Triptych is on display in the lobby of the German Consulate, 871 United Nations Plaza, New York through April 1, 2014.
Dinnerstein comments: "I am very interested in this humanity, a living humanity that I described before. When I choose to find art that depicts the full measure of a human being, I find myself turning to the world of film. Here, also, the concern isn’t over riding, but nevertheless it is there. For instance, the recent Michael Hanneke film Amour is clearly an example of a really deep work of art about the human spirit. So, I would like to hold out the possibility that there are instances where paint (and also charcoal, carbon, etc.) will somehow reach past the medium and reveal spirit."
Link to Post:
http://www.gorkysgranddaughter.com/2013/04/catherine-murphy-at-peter-freeman-inc.html
Christopher Joy and Zachary Keeting talk with Catherine Murphy about the work in her exhibition Catherine Murphy: Recent Work at Peter Freeman, Inc., New York, on view through April 27, 2013.
Murphy discusses her process and how she came to care "about the whole surface." She explains: "It's a kind of way of seeing that I linger, I linger, I linger, I linger, so that makes… a flat painting. If you don't decide you're going to focus your attention in one place, you're going to end up making a painting that's flat." She continues: "So I think my paintings are flat… even though there's this detail, there's an equal detail throughout the whole painting. That's always what interested me, even when I was a very young painter… I decided if I was going to talk about paintings in which you were seeing reality… talk about the act of observation, I had to get closer to how I observed rather than just use as a model how everyone else observed. In so doing I realized that there's two things, there's what I'm looking at and there's this rectangle and they have to come into harmony…"
Link to Post:
http://www.burnaway.org/2013/04/im-trying-my-best-to-be-well-balanced-studio-visit-with-shara-hughes/
Rachel Reese interviews painter Shara Hughes on the occasion of the exhibition Shara Hughes: Don’t Tell Anyone But…, at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, on view from April 19 - June 15, 2013.
Hughes comments: "Interiors became the foundation where I could lay all different artists who have come before me into and onto the painting. So I could paint a really detailed Renaissance painting inside of, on top of, a Bridgette Riley-esque type wallpaper thing. It opened up access for me to flow between everything I wanted to do, that I couldn’t do, because 'that looks like this' or 'that looks like that.' ... I would also look back in art history and see what kind of symbolism artists were using. For example, dogs are a symbol of protection. So, I would put a dog in my painting to talk about protection of myself, or some birds, or several other traditional symbols. And then I began to remove them, and I would bring in my own symbolism—broken trees or rocks that have been cut halfway. I continually create my own alphabet from my own symbols as my work progresses."
Link to Post:
http://blog.art21.org/2013/04/08/new-kids-on-the-block-summer-wheat-and-her-flight-from-the-cowboy-space-gangsters/
Jacquelyn Gleisner profiles painter Summer Wheat.
Referring to Wheat's recent show at Valentine Gallery, Gleisner writes that "Given the context, the documentation of work in the Valentine show pertains to the daily maintenance of personhood—that is, grooming. Inverting the art historical formula of female bathers painted by male artists such as Bonnard and Picasso, Wheat made several large paintings of male bathers as well as objects like mirrors, toothbrushes, and combs sculpted out of paint. Tension arises when the palpable delight of the work’s execution confronts the grotesque rendering of the forms as in Kiss... In this painting the squishy embrace of two massive heads is memorably depicted, subject matter matching the heft of the haptic aspects of the work. Wheat gropes touchy subjects as the materials and forms are raucously upended."
Link to Post:
http://hyperallergic.com/67886/catherine-murphys-challenge/
John Yau blogs about the work of Catherine Murphy, on view at Peter Freeman, Inc., New York thorugh April 27, 2013.
Yau writes: "Murphy doesn’t generalize, doesn’t develop shorthand for her subjects, doesn’t use paint in any way that announces painterliness or style. Rather, she does something far more difficult and demanding — she remains devoted to her subject, however plain and ordinary. And if the subject requires that Murphy paint layers of flesh-colored tissue paper or flakes of falling snow seen through a window on a windy night, then she will take up the challenge. Think of all the artists who become content to produce examples of their brand with just the right little twist. There is none of that in this exhibition. Every painting and drawing is distinct, no variations."
Link to Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-eckhardt-kohler/matt-bollinger-at-zurcher-studio-road-of-ashes_b_2968506.html
William Eckhardt Kohler reviews the exhibition Matt Bollinger: Bed on the Floor at Zürcher Studio, New York, on view through April 28, 2013.
Kohler writes that the works in the show (which include an installation and collage works) address "the theme of despair and loss... a slow moving katabasis; the dystopic descent of bottoming out, depression and loss of social standing. Robert Bly, in his book Iron John, calls this the 'Road of Ashes.' In mythology katabasis refers to the heroic descent into the Underworld. [Bollinger's] images however are firmly placed within familiar this-worldy narratives and contexts of cheap beer, homelessness chain link fences and empty lots full of rubbish."
Link to Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-seed/dominic-cretara_b_2951266.html
John Seed interviews painter Domenic Cretara, whose work is on view at the Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara, CA through April 14, 2013.
Seed writes that Cretara is a "narrative painter who comes from the heart, Cretara's work fuses the personal with the theatrical, and channels emotions ranging from nostalgia to tenderness to indignation." Asked about his experience as a young painter traveling to Italy on a Fulbright, Cretara comments: "Confronting the work in person I felt that I was communicating directly with the artists, especially with Andrea del Sarto and Pontormo. There was no sense of childhood nostalgia at all. The formal, technical and content ideas were so interwoven, especially in their drawings, that all I could think of was, "I want to work with that level of complexity too." I analyzed, studied and asked the works questions unceasingly."
