Jack Whitten: Cosmic Put-on
Edward M. Epstein reviews the recent exhibition of works by Jack Whitten at Alexander Gray Associates, New York. Epstein writes: "Exuberant is the word I would use to describe Jack Whitten’s work over the years. While it is certainly possible to link the artist’s work to his African American background, to political turmoil current and past, […]
Dana Schutz: On Her Work
Dana Schutz comments on her recent paintings which are on view at The Hepworth Wakefield through January 26, 2014. Schutz comments: "Painting has many acts that are put together as one. My exhibition at the Hepworth revolves around canvases that show figures demonstrating simple actions as vehicles for painting. There’s one painting, for instance, where […]
“New Paintings By” at Jack Hanley Gallery
Andrew Russeth reviews the exhibition New Paintings By at Jack Hanley Gallery, New York (through November 10), featuring works by Tisch Abelow, Matthew Fischer, Heather Guertin, Heidi Hahn, and Ariel Dill. Russeth writes that the works are "joyfully brash, lively and sophisticated. It’s a counter survey of sorts, fixed on pleasure… These people, and these […]
Scott Olson: Interview
Veronika Vogler interviews painter Scott Olson about his work. Olson comments: "I am attracted to painting because of its problems. Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish inherent problems in painting from the ones we make for it. I am drawn to them especially as they change over time through different periods of art history. I […]
Sargy Mann’s Perceptual Journey
Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco reviews a book on Sargy Mann, a painter who has continued to make perceptual-based work even as his eyesight has deteriorated. A short film trailer about Mann and information on both ebook and print copies are available via the book's kickstarter page. Del Turco writes that the book is a "go-back-to […]
Gladys Nilsson & Julia Benjamin
Photo blog of the exhibition Gladys Nilsson, Julia Benjamin at The National Exemplar, New York, on view through October 19, 2013. The gallery press release states that Nilsson's paintings "depict a labyrinth of images, dense masses of people in motion, small figures balancing atop much bigger ones, overlapping and fighting with each other for space, […]
Patrick George: A Likeness
Larry Groff blogs about the new film Patrick George – A Likeness. Discussing plein-air painting in the film's trailer, George comments: "You can only suggest how it might be – 'it looks something like this' – to the best of my ability. When I come from London to the country, I'm always amazed at the […]
Mark Dutcher: Transfer
Christopher Knight reviews the exhibition Mark Dutcher: Transfer at Coagula Curatorial, Los Angeles, on view through October 19, 2013. Knight writes: "Together, Joan Mitchell and Jasper Johns would seem to be an unlikely pair of inspirations for a new body of paintings, but there they are hovering in the background of 10 lovely recent works […]
Julie Heffernan: Sky is Falling
John Seed interviews painter Julie Heffernan on the occasion of the exhibition Julie Heffernan: Sky is Falling at PPOW Gallery, New York, on view from October 17 – November 16, 2013. Introducing the interview Seed writes that Heffernan's works are "imaginative visions of a world that is blighted and chaotic yet somehow still transcendent. Each […]
Hans Hofmann: Magnum Opus
David Evison reviews the recent exhibition Hans Hofmann: Magnum Opus at the Museum Pfalzgalerie. Kaiserlautern. A video (in English and German featuring Karen Wilkin and William Agee) about the show is available here. Evison writes: "From the evidence of this exhibition, Hofmann does not make a sudden breakthrough but gets to the top gradually. The […]
The Loss of Painting
Viktor Witkowski responds the Jerry's Saltz's recent New York Magazine article Art’s Insidious New Cliché: Neo-Mannerism, in which Saltz bemoans "that ever-expanding assembly of anemically boring, totally safe artistic clichés squeezing the life out of the art world right now… Looking at 2-D work, I'm this close to that old Carter-administration-era croak of 'Painting is […]
David Park: California Dreaming
Carl Belz posts an essay on the work of painter David Park. Belz writes: "I believe Park’s decision (to abandon abstraction) went deeper; it entailed an intuitive grasp of what he could and could not use in Abstract Expressionism, a process of selection that in itself marked the coming to maturity of his artistic thought. […]
Many Faces of Catherine Kehoe
Tucker Harris blogs about the self portraits of Catherine Kehoe. Harris writes: "Kehoe knows how to make a simple view very dynamic. Each head becomes a landscape, light contrasting dark and vibrant colors juxtaposed with muted hues to carve out the portrait. It’s easy to distinguish features by leaning on tonal contrast (just add a […]
Out of Step
Anne Russinof photo blogs a visit to the exhibition Out of Step at New Jersey City University, Harold B. Lemmerman Gallery, on view through November 7, 2013. The show, curated by Brendan Carroll, features works by Sharon L. Butler, Mark Dagley, Enrico Gomez, Tom McGlynn, Gary Petersen, Kati Vilim, and Sara Wolfe. Curartor Carroll writes […]
René Magritte: Brussels & Paris
Thomas Micchelli reviews the exhibition Magritte: The Mystery of the Ordinary, 1926–1938 at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, on view through January 12, 2014. Micchelli writes: "as I circled around the first couple of rooms, I began to notice a qualitative difference among the images, which prompted me to take note of when […]
James Krone: Waterhome
Steven Cox interviews painter James Krone about his work in the exhibition Waterhome: We is Somebody Else at Brand New Gallery, Milan, on view through November 09, 2013. Cox writes: "Acting as a visual analogy, the algae-esque surfaces of Krone’s Screen Paintings comparably relate to the evolving and growing algal bloom that physically exists within […]
Julie Oppermann: Interview
Sarah Elise Hall interviews painter Julie Oppermann. Oppermann comments: "I value the 'hand' or physical gesture in my work. I allow the paint to bleed, smudge, peel back at times, which disrupts the illusory or pictorial space, emphasizing the materials and surface instead… the way in which I construct illusions of depth and space, where […]
Frank Bowling: Map Paintings
Abstract Critical
John Bunker interviews painter Frank Bowling on the occasion of the exhibition Frank Bowling: The Map Paintings 1967-1971 at Hales Gallery, London, on view through November 23, 2013. Bowing discusses his early figurative work and his transition to abstract painting. Asked about the orgin of the Map Paintings, he comments: "I was just laying the […]
Leland Bell: Pictorial Drama
Henry McMahon reviews the exhibition See It Loud: Seven Post-War American Painters at the National Academy Museum in New York (through January 26, 2014), focusing in particular on the paintings of Leland Bell. McMahon writes that Bell’s "forms are described by open planes of light and shadow, with nothing but the color’s saturation and a […]
David Rhodes: Schwarzwälde
Rhodes’ paintings embody minimalism’s factuality, employ the techniques of color field painting, and evoke the existentialism of the New York School.