Wayne Thiebaud: Reinventing Reality
John Yau writes about the work of Wayne Thiebaud on view in the recent exhibition Wayne Thiebaud: Memory Mountains at Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco. Yau writes: "Memory Mountains revealed that Thiebaud’s deepest ambition from the outset was nothing less than the reinvention of generic subjects, such as still-life, landscape and cityscape — which may […]
Forrest Bess: Painting Things Visible
After viewing the exhibition Forrest Bess: Seeing Things Invisible at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, Viktor Witkowski argues against the accepted view of Forrest Bess as a "visionary artist." Witkowski writes: "While the visions or dreams that Bess claimed to experience regularly have received most of the attention in numerous articles and essays on his […]
Simone Montemurno: When You Sign Your Name
Geoff Tuck reviews the recent exhibition Simone Montemurno: When You Sign Your Name at metro pcs, Los Angeles. Tuck writes: "In this exhibition Montemurno has provided the viewer with access to several points of view: a shared one with the artist as a participant in looking; one’s own perspective, as an independent viewer; and also […]
Marvin Gates: Barbara 2013
John Goodrich reviews Marvin Gates: The Meander, Barbara, New York, a mobile installation of paintings on view at various locations on the Lower East Side through January 5. The work will be on display again on the Upper East Side from March 5 – May 25, 2014. Goodrich writes: "Parked on a Norfolk Street sidewalk […]
Anke Weyer: Du
James Kalm visits the exhibition Anke Weyer: Du at CANADA Gallery, New York, on view through January 26, 2014. Kalm notes that Weyer's new paintings "are human scaled, reflecting a performative relationship between the canvas and the artist's body and its physical gestures. Using a freewheeling mixture of acrylics and oil paint, and a 'provisional' […]
Christopher Wool & Surviving Sandy
Barry Schwabsky considers two exhibitions – Come Together: Surviving Sandy at Industry City, Sunset Park, Brooklyn and Christopher Wool at the Guggenheim Museum – and what they tell us about the effect of the art market on both blue-chip and lesser-known artists. Schwabsky writes: "It’s a challenge for any artist’s work to withstand the exposure of a […]
Painting on the Lower East Side
William Eckhardt Kohler reviews several group shows on the Lower East Side including: Drifter, curated by David Rhodes at Hionas Gallery (through January 11), Come Like Shadows at Zurcher Studio (through February 16), Clouds, organized by Adam Simon at Lesley Heller Workspace (through January 26t), and It Hurts So Good to Be Loved So Bad, […]
Abstract Painting @ Miami Art Fairs
Joanne Mattera posts an extensive overview of abstract painting on view at the 2013 Miami Art Fairs. Mattera's selections from among the "thousands of paintings at the fairs" includes works by Agathe de Bailliencourt, Agnes Martin, Alex Hubbard, Amy Feldman, Anke Weyer, Anne Truitt, Chris Martin, Craig Taylor, Deanna Lee, Enoc Perez, Federico Cattaneo, Gabriel […]
Dutch Painting @ the Frick
John Goodrich reviews the exhibition Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Hals: Masterpieces of Dutch Painting from the Mauritshuis at the Frick Collection, New York, on view through January 19, 2014. Goodrich writes that he was drawn in particular to Rembrandt who "never shied from sentiment and spectacle, but his muscular drawing and color impart a striking gravity […]
Maria Lassnig
Photo blog of installation photos from the exhibition Maria Lassnig at Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle, Belgium, on view through January 19, 2013. In a 2009 review for Art in America painter Carrie Moyer wrote of Lassnig's work: "From her earliest abstract drawings to symbolic self-portraits of the 1980s, to the mostly representational images of the past […]
Leon Polk Smith in NYC & Chicago
Tamar Zinn blogs about two exhibition of works by painter Leon Polk Smith: Cherokee | Chickasaw | Choctaw at Washburn Gallery, New York (through January 25) and Space Considered at Valerie Carberry Gallery, Chicago (through January 11). In addition to posting a fascinating selection of Polk Smith's works from the two shows, Zinn also includes […]
Wool, Motherwell, Kelley & Kentridge
Mira Schor writes about several current shows in New York including: Christopher Wool (through January 22) and Robert Motherwell: Early Collages (through January 5) at the Guggenheim Museum, Mike Kelley at MoMA PS1 (through February 5), an installation of works by Al Held and William Kentridge: The Refusal of Time at the Metropolitan Museum, New York […]
John Craxton: World of Private Mystery
Robin Blake reviews the exhibition John Craxton: A World of Private Mystery at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, on view through April 21, 2014. Blake writes: "Craxton’s compositional signature, from his early years to much of the mature painting, is a preoccupation with the binary division of the canvas, and the balance of left and right, […]
Christopher Wool: Poetry of Errors
Sharon Butler reviews the exhibition Christopher Wool at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, on view through January 22, 2014. Butler writes: "Sometimes labeled an endgame painter, Wool, to the contrary, breathed new life into painting in a time when it seemed weary and under siege. In an epoch when older painters tended to work for […]
Anne Harris: Interview
Mira Gerard interviews painter Anne Harris about her work and career. Harris remarks: "I’m really interested in the sense that substances can shift their weight–that flesh can be air, that air can be liquid, that density shifts…There’s an assumption that I must intend to paint a conventional description of 3-D form and weight, but really […]
Ingrid Calame: Tracks
James Kalm visits the exhibition Ingrid Calame: Tracks at James Cohan Gallery, New York, on view through February 8, 2014. As noted in the gallery press release, the show centers around the installation "Indianapolis Motor Speedway Pits #4, #7, #9, #26, #32, #33, #35, #37, #39, #40 … a vibrantly-colored large-scale pounce wall drawing wrapping […]
Sonia Almeida: The Event We Call Seeing
Paulina Perlwitz reviews the recent exhibition Sonia Almeida: The Event We Call Seeing at Simone Subal Gallery, New York. Perlwitz writes: "Almeida is playing with the way we take in visual information currently, and I might go so far as to say as she’s poking fun of the fact that contemporary viewers are generally over-stimulated, […]
Mid-Century Geometric Abstraction
In her most recent post on the 2013 Miami Art Fairs, Joanne Mattera photoblogs a fascinating selection of mid-century geometric abstraction on view at the fairs. The post includes works by Lygia Clark, Geraldo de Barros, Willys de Castro, Hercules Barsotti, Samson Flexner, Ana Sacerdote, Maria Friere, Alice Trumbull Mason, Julie Knifer, Shirley Jaffe, Leon […]
Stephen Westfall @ Lennon, Weinberg
John Yau reviews the recent exhibition Stephen Westfall: Jesus and Bossa Nova at Lennon, Weinberg, New York. Yau writes that "Westfall — who is an eloquent champion of hard-edge, geometric abstraction and Precisionism, and less-celebrated artists such as Ward Jackson and Ralston Crawford — first gained attention for his use of skewed and layered grids […]
Robert Minervini: Utopia & Dystopia
Leah Ollman reviews the exhibition Robert Minervini: Until Tomorrow Comes at Marine Contemporary, Venice, CA, on view through January 25, 2013. Ollman writes: "Much of the strength of [Minervini's] work derives from oppositions within it–the dueling senses of hope and despair, and stylistic disjunctions that turn every surface into a lively wrestling match. A straight-ahead […]