Vincent Desiderio: Painter & Theorist
John Seed interviews painter Vincent Desiderio about his work on the occasion of an exhibition at Marlborough Gallery, New York, on view through February 8, 2014. Desiderio remarks: "a successful painting remains in constant motion; evoking a sense of the perpetual present tense of being. It remains open ended, thus facilitating the flow of artistic […]
The Ability of Paint
Interview with painter Paul Behnke, curator of the exhibition Eight Painters at Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, New York.
Four Abstract Classicists
Ed Schad reviews the exhibition Four Abstract Classicists at LACMA – Los Angeles County Museum of Art, on view through June 29, 2014. The show features works by Karl Benjamin, Frederick Hammersley, John McLaughlin, and Lorser Feitelson. Schad writes: "The origin of the hard edge most likely can find root in the dispersal of the […]
Susanna Coffey: Interview
Christopher Joy and Zachary Keeting talk to painter Susanna Coffey at her exhibition Elemental at Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects, New York, on view through February 9, 2014. Asked about her more abstract recent paintings Coffey remarks: "It's all figure painting, it's the only thing I do… They're about the figure, they're portraits, and that's […]
Rob Anderson: A Place in Time
Jonathan Kamholtz reviews Rob Anderson: A Place in Time at the Hiestand Gallery, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, on view through February 3, 2014. Kamholtz writes: "In 'Laundry' (2013), the woman—perhaps standing, perhaps sitting on the floor—bends over a pile of things, sorting through them with a combination of delicacy and tight concentration. Once again, the […]
Matthew Penkala @ Western Project
David Pagel reviews the exhibition Matthew Penkala: The Day You Crossed A Nova at Western Project, Los Angeles, on view through February 8, 2014. Pagel writes: "Unlike so much of what makes up today’s visual landscape, Penkala’s paintings are slow burns. Combining the instantaneous appeal of eye-grabbing attractions with the lasting satisfactions of time-tested abstractions, […]
Yvonne Jacquette: Aerial Revelations
Tim Keane reviews the exhibition Yvonne Jacquette: The High Life at DC Moore Gallery, New York, on view through February 8, 2014. Keane writes: "The longer the visitor stands before these landscapes, the more it becomes clear that their realistically represented subjects are subordinate to their finely painted detailing and decentered arrangements. Like the painter working […]
Observation & Invention
Larry Groff posts an essay by painter Scott Noel, written for the exhibition Observation and Invention: The Space of Desire at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, on view through April 6, 2014. The show features paintings by Michael Ananian, Lennart Anderson, Victoria Barnes, David Campbell, Tim Conte, Edwin Dickinson, Frank Galuszka, Elizabeth Geiger, […]
Lucy Jones: Looking Out, Looking In
Jackie Wullschlager profiles painter Lucy Jones whose exhibition Looking Out, Looking In is on view at King's Place Gallery, London through March 21, 2014. Wullschlager writes that half the show features "introspective and brutally frank self-portraits where simplified compositions – the full-length figure placed boldly against flat abstract grounds – confront conventions of self-presentation, identity, […]
Jason Rohlf: Studio Visit
Paul Behnke posts a photo blog of a studio visit with painter Jason Rohlf. Behnke writes: "Upon encountering Rohlf's paintings, one first thinks of celestial charts, ancient navigational maps or imagined cosmologies – stories, plot, directions and plans. After spending more time with the work the artist's materials and processes sneak to the fore and […]
Christopher Wool Roundtable
David Cohen, Nora Griffin, David Rhodes, and Joan Waltemath engage (and clash) in an email roundtable discussion about the recent Christopher Wool retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum, New York. Topics debated include the paintings' surface and reflectivity, Wool's knowing (or unknowing) engagement with the flow of art history, the presence or absence of "experiential space" in the […]
Celia Gerard: Interview
Charlie Schultz interviews painter Celia Gerard about her work on the occasion of her exhibition Lost at Sea at Sears Peyton Gallery, New York (through February 8, 2014). Gerard remarks that this series of works on paper "came out of sculpture … I started working in low relief, and playing with very small increments of […]
Angelina Gualdoni @ Asya Geisberg Gallery
Zachary Keeting and Christopher Joy talk to painter Angelina Gualdoni at her exhibition Held in Place, Light in Hand at Asya Geisberg Gallery, New York, on view through February 15, 2014. Gualdoni, whose new work employs pouring and staining techniques honed in earlier abstract paintings to still life subjects, comments on combining a variety of […]
Squeak Carnwath: Studio Visit
John Yau blogs about the work of painter Squeak Carnwath. Yau writes that Carnwath's paintings "are diaristic but non-narrative, simultaneously complete and a collection of fragments — often resulting in a combination of language, symbolic iconography and abstract patterns… Carnwath seems to be advancing that the corporeal space the painting occupies with the viewer is […]
Bleaching, Staining & Dyeing
Sharon Butler blogs about a range of painters employing bleaching, staining, and dyeing techniques in their work. Butler posts images by Matthew J. Mahler, Helen Frankenthaler, Halsey Hathaway, Lauren Luloff, Saira Mclaren, Piotr Uklanski, Angela Gualdoni, and Richard Tuttle. In the cited examples, she writes, the artists use "canvas and fabric like the woven materials […]
Tess Jaray: Interview
Lily Le Brun interviews artist Tess Jaray, curator of the exhibition The Edge of Painting recently on view at The Piper Gallery, London. Jaray comments: "I was asking myself why I think of these works [in The Edge of Painting] – works that I particularly admire and love – as paintings. They aren’t paintings in […]
Françoise Gilot: In the Studio
In a recent video studio visit, Françoise Gilot discusses her paintings. In the video Gilot comments "When you paint you have to be fast…when you are fast you are better than if you are slow. Because you have to put the energy of your being into the painting – that's the most important." In a […]
Joseph Montgomery: Interview
Painter's Bread
Michael Rutherford interviews artist Joseph Montgomery about his work. Montgomery comments: "I have since developed a studio practice that facilitates the building of objects that look and act as paintings while I publicly call myself a painter. I assemble the image of a painting from a variety of materials that achieve the component elements of […]
John Singleton Copley: Primacy of the Object
Altoon Sultan blogs about an "insistence on the thingness of things, presented in an abstract way" in John Singleton Copley's paintings. Sultan writes that: "Copley's American portraits of well-to-do New Englanders have an almost uncanny presence, solid and still. The artist himself is not present, he is a vehicle for delineating the flesh and beautiful […]
Zoe Nelson: Interview
Kevin Blake interviews painter Zoe Nelson about her work on the occasion of her exhibition at Western Exhibitions, Chicago (through January 25, 2014). Nelson comments: "The paintings and installation at Western look completely different depending on where you stand in the room, and these shifting states are integral to the form and content of the […]