Albert Adams @ Gallery Oldham
Megan Plumstead reviews an exhibition of works by Albert Adams at Gallery Oldham, on view through April 19, 2014. Plumstead writes: "Born in Johannesburg in 1929 and raised by his grandmother, Adams’ work reflects his struggles growing up as a mixed-race child in apartheid South Africa and as an émigré artist in London. Adams’ talents […]
The Edge of Painting
Luke Elwes reviews two painting exhibitions: Painting Now: Five Contemporary Artists at Tate Britain (through February 9, 2014) and The Edge of Painting, curated by Tess Jaray at The Piper Gallery (through December 30). Elwes writes that the shows ofer "two quite different perspectives" on the continued relevance of painting. Painting Now, he writes, "and […]
Charline von Heyl: Unexpected Collisions
Ann Landi profiles painter Charline von Heyl. Landi writes that von Heyl's "paintings revel in unexpected collisions between the geometric and the organic, the decorative and the figurative… In some works, bits of figures and faces emerge. That’s a total accident in the process of completing a large painting, the artist says. 'I stumble over […]
Leon Kossoff: Affirmation in Truce
Thaddeus Radell reviews the exhibition Leon Kossoff: London Landscapes at Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York, on view through December 21, 2013. Radell writes: "After discovering a motif, his London Landscapes, for example, [Kossoff] attempts to understand what its meaning is to him. Even more important than the visual impact of its inherent form and physicality, even […]
Jai Llewellyn: Interview
Valerie Brennan interviews painter Jai Llewellyn about his work and process. Llewellyn's work is currently on view in the exhibition Pair: Forty Paintings, Twenty Painters, curated by Ian White Williams at Proto Gallery, Hoboken, NJ (through February 9, 2014). Llewellyn comments: "I work in both print and paint. Etching is fast, direct and primitive, you […]
Christopher Wool @ the Guggenheim
John-Paul Stonard reviews a retrospective exhibition of works by Christopher Wool at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, on view through January 22, 2014. Stonard writes: "Abstract painting has always had an uneasy relationship with decorative art. How to partake of its effects, while achieving a sense of reflection and the force of statement? The mistakes […]
Brice Marden: Graphite Drawings
Brian Fee reviews the exhibition Brice Marden: Graphite Drawings at Matthew Marks Gallery, New York, on view through December 21, 2013. Fee writes: "The works on view, primarily a combination of charcoal, graphite, and beeswax, coincide with Marden's relocation to New York in the early 1960's. His understanding and utilization of grid structure begins this […]
Alex Couwenberg: Crosscurrent
David M. Roth reviews the exhibition Alex Couwenberg: crosscurrent at Andrea Schwartz Gallery, San Francisco, on view through December 20, 2013. Roth writes that "Couwenberg’s precisely crafted paintings — built of off-kilter geometric and biomorphic shapes, taped-off lines and blocks of strong color — radiate the kind of synthetic sex appeal that has long been […]
Three Painters @ Valentine
Etty Yaniv reviews an exhibition of works by Gili Levy, Katherine Bradford, and Todd Bienvenu at Valentine Gallery, Ridgewood, Queens, New York, on view through December 29, 2013. Yaniv writes that “the three painters featured in the current show share a deep love of color, gesture, and an expressionistic gusto, resulting in unabashedly painterly canvases […]
Painting, Perception, & the Emphatically Handmade
Thomas Micchelli reviews the exhibition Let’s Get Physical at Ventana 244, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, curated by Rick Briggs. The show features work by Jonathan Allmaier, Yevgeniya Baras, Rick Briggs, Chris Martin, Dona Nelson, Jackie Saccoccio, Russell Tyler, Maria Walker, and Chuck Webster. Micchelli writes: "The kind of work found in this show, which avoids 'narrating or […]
Cora Cohen: Studio Visit
Zachary Keeting and Christopher Joy visit the studio of painter Cora Cohen. Cohen comments: "I'm interested in exploring what I'm thinking about as I'm doing it. So, that means, I want to work slowly. And that's a really crucial issue." She adds that her works "come from real things in the real world usually… then […]
George Grosz: Shock and Awe
Robert Cicetti reviews the exhibition George Grosz in Germany, curated by Karen Wilkin, on view at the New York Studio School Gallery through January 4, 2014. Cicetti writes: "Grosz’s deranged yet graceful pen work might first appear as the aping of primitive or outsider art, but it is not merely an artistic affection. His cross-sectional […]
David Anfam on Abstract Expressionism
David Anfam discusses Abstract Expressionism with Sam Cornish on the occasion of the exhibition Re-View: Onnasch Collection at Hauser & Wirth, London, on view through December 14, 2013. Anfam comments "Instead of thinking of Ab Ex… as having a fixed 'center,' it makes more sense to regard this impossibly manifold phenomenon as a shifting set […]
Patricia Treib: Theater of Abstraction
Gabriela Salazar reviews an exhibition of paintings by Patricia Treib at Wallspace, New York, on view through December 21, 2013. Salazar writes: "Treib’s marks read as simultaneously improvised and practiced. She works on the floor or a tabletop, and the paint, responsive between the surface of the canvas and the pressure of the brush, bleeds […]
Paul Resika: Silent Poetry
Mario Naves writes about the prints of Paul Resika on the occasion of the exhibition Paul Resika; Silent Poetry at Vandeb Editions, New York, on view through January 22, 2014. Naves notes that "In Resika’s intaglio prints, gritty fields of aquatint are emboldened by staccato hatching; clubby lines dance upon zooming, milky expanses; and dense […]
Dana Schutz @ The Hepworth Wakefield
Maggie Gray reviews an exhibition of paintings by Dana Schutz at The Hepworth Wakefield, on view through January 26, 2014. Gray writes that Schutz's "most effective works communicate that feeling with a sort of slapstick immediacy, felt rather than told. It’s not clear how the figure ‘Getting dressed all at once’ has found herself in […]
Pair @ Proto Gallery
Anne Russinof photo blogs a visit to the exhibition Pair: Forty Paintings, Twenty Painters, curated by Ian White Williams at Proto Gallery, Hoboken, NJ, on view through February 9, 2014. The show includes works by Chris Ashley, Karen Baumeister, Ashlynn Browning, Lindsay Chandler, Marc Cheetham, Lauren Collings, Paul Corvers, Inge Decuypere, Judith Farr, Terry Greene, […]
Nate Ethier: Studio Visit
Christopher Joy and Zachary Keeting visit the studio of painter Nate Ethier. Ethier notes that each part of the painting needs "an even tension, and even treatment… the same amount, the same touch, the same amount of material, the same weight of my hand, and by achieving that kind of even surface treatment I feel […]
Lesley Vance at David Kordandsky
Trevor Spaulding reviews an exhibition of paintings by Lesley Vance at David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles, on view through January 4, 2014. Spaulding writes that "Vance, who began her career making representational still lifes, continues to start each painting with an object, photograph, or idea that serves as the impetus for the work. This is […]
David Mann: Interview
Alicia DeBrincat interviews painter David Mann about his work. An exhibition of his paintings was recently on view at McKenzie Fine Art, New York, Mann comments that his work are "really about perception, the experience of abstraction and dealing with the medium of paint and the qualities and characteristics that can be investigated and realized […]