Michael Ottersen @ SEASON
Erin Langner reviews the exhibition Michael Ottersen: The (Mentholated) Roads Around Naples at SEASON, Seattle, on view through September 29, 2013. Langer writes that "most of the canvas-spanning forms can be contorted into geometric faces. But then, there are the titles, which counter the initial straightforwardness with an esoteric sense of humor that reads as […]
Richard Diebenkorn: The Berkeley Years
Mark Van Proyen reviews the exhibition Richard Diebenkorn, The Berkeley Years 1953-1966 at the M.H. De Young Museum, San Francisco, on view through September 29, 2013. Van Proyen writes that the show "has two undeniable hallmarks, the first being its breathtaking display of sheer painterly virtuosity; the second being the way that it shows the […]
Dennis Kardon: Painting & Intentionality
Sharon Butler blogs about a recent conversation with painter Dennis Kardon. Butler writes: "During our wide-ranging conversation, Kardon revealed an interest in philosophy, particularly John Searle's theories of intentionality. Searle's work implies that when one perceives a painting, he or she apprehends not merely the object itself but a larger set of beliefs and understandings […]
Carl Ostendarp: Studio Visit
Maria Calandra visits the studio of painter Carl Ostendarp. Calandra writes that Ostendarp's "perfectly thought-out nuances of color and highly meditated canvas configurations address the history of minimalism and also [his] own involvement in color field painting while mixing in a heavy dose of humor, timing, and optical irony… Currently, Ostendarp makes life's banalities and […]
In Search of Forrest Bess
Robert Boyd ventures out in search of the remains of Forrest Bess' remote home/studio. Boyd writes: "Why should we care where Bess lived? He was an important artist, and I like knowing about the lives of Texas artists. That’s probably reason enough. But I think the place was important to who Bess was and how […]
Thomas Scheibitz @ Baltic Mill
Laura Cumming reviews an exhibition of works by Thomas Scheibitz at Baltic Mill, Gateshead, on view through November 3, 2013. Cumming writes: "Scheibitz is an old-fashioned draughtsman with a hyper-modern mind. Twenty years ago he began to create his own parallel universe, based on this one but translated out of time through the use of […]
Sam Sanford & Jeremy DePrez
Katie Geha reviews two painting exhibitions in Austin, Texas: Sam Sanford: Furniture Music at N Space (through September 15) and Jeremy DePrez: Not a Crack or a Split at Farewell Books. Geha writes: "What is nice about Sanford and Deprez’s recent exhibitions is the ease in describing what the works are seemingly about. So often […]
Suzanne Kammin: Interview
Phillip J. Mellen interviews painter Suzanne Kammin about her work and process. Kammin speaks in depth about her process which includes freely experimenting with compositional possibilites via computer sofware. Using the software as a studio tool, she comments, "eliminates a certain amount of anxiety about destroying the painting and that frees me up to try […]
Lion & Lamb: Summer Saloon
Andy Parkinson blogs about the Summer Saloon Show at Lion and Lamb Gallery, London, on view through September 1, 2013. Parkinson writes that "Forty three painters are represented… Many of them are well known, and many are artists previously not shown… A theatre of competing patterns might also be a description of the summer saloon […]
Perils of Message Painting
Piri Halasz reviews the exhibition The Civil War and American Art at Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, on view through September 2, 2013. Halasz writes: "I glanced at the label of the [Martin Johnson] Heade – and that was the beginning of my undoing, because the label was all about how this picture was […]
John Zurier: Interview
John Seed interviews painter John Zurier about his work which was recently on view at Peter Blum Gallery, New York and will be on view at Claes Nordenhake Gallery, Berlin from September 21 -November 9, 2013. Zurier comments: "Even when I put shapes or lines in a monochrome field, I am thinking of form in […]
Lina Tharsing: Interview
Rachel Reese interviews painter Lina Tharsing about her new series of work Making a New Forest, which will be on view at {Poem 88} in Atlanta from September 7 to October 19, 2013. Speaking about her recent work Tharsing comments: "The paintings in my most recent series are based on archived images from the American Museum […]
Per Kirkeby @ Michael Werner
D. Creahan reviews the exhibition Per Kirkeby: Recent Paintings at Michael Werner Gallery, London, on view through July 27, 2013. Creahan writes: "A tangible sense of degradation runs through the canvases of artist Per Kirkeby, currently on view at Michael Werner in London. Walking a fine line between impressionist figuration and pure abstraction, his works […]
Edward Hopper: Drawing Nighthawks
Reviewing the exhibition Edward Hopper: Drawing at the Whitney Museum of Art (through October 6), Robin Cembalest takes a closer look at Hopper's preparatory drawings for his iconic painting Nighthawks (1942). Cembalest notes: "Hopper generally didn’t consider his drawings as art objects that should be exhibited or sold. To him, they were simply studio materials—documents […]
Looking at Patrick Caulfield
On the occasion of the exhibition Patrick Caulfield at Tate Britain (through September 1), curator Nicholas Serota and artist Dexter Dalwood look at two Caulfield paintings: Interior with a Picture (1985-86) and Dining Recess (1972). Dalwood comments: "What I really like… is just how 'hard-core' the paintings are, in the sense that they're so pared […]
Hyman Bloom: Rabbinical Series
James Kalm visits the exhibition Hyman Bloom 1940–2005 Paintings (“The Rabbinical Series”) and Drawings, curated by Jan Frank, on view at White Box, New York through September 15, 2013. The press release states: "The Rabbinical paintings presented in this exhibition, permeated by historical influences ranging from Grünewald and Rembrandt, to Redon and Soutine, to Indian […]
Jackson Pollock: The Literary & the Spatial
Robert Linsley considers the both literary and spatial issues in the paintings of Jackson Pollock. Linsley begins: "Today, the stature and importance of Jackson Pollock’s work is taken for granted, however, critical interpretations of his work have not changed much since the sixties. The formalist line of Clement Greenberg is pretty much entrenched in academia, […]
Frei Carlos: Light of Iberia
Xico Greenwald reviews the exhibition O Frei Carlos da América at Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon, on view through September 15, 2013. Greenwald writes: "Born in Flanders, Frei Carlos joined a convent outside Évora, Portugal, where he ran a painting workshop making delicately colored scenes for the Hieronymites, a hermetic Christian order that took […]
Fabricio Lopez: Interview
Caroline Menezes reviews the exhibition Fabricio Lopez – Várzea at Mercedes Viegas Arte Contemporânea Gallery, Rio de Janeiro (on view through August 24 ) and interviews the artist about his work – large scale woodcuts and carved relief paintings. Menezes writes that "it is rare to find an emerging artist who uses woodcut as his main artistic […]
AFRICOBRA: Philosophy
Randall Miller reviews the exhibition AFRICOBRA: Philosophy at the Logan Center for the Arts, Chicago, on view through August 11, 2013. Miller writes: "Much of the work on display features iconic compositions of figures front and center in an almost neo-Byzantine style. The simple messages surrounding the figures are frank and explicit, creating a collection […]