Pre-Raphaelite Painting: Take a Closer Look
Sharon Butler posts a defense of the paintings of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, written by painter Thomas Germano. Germano questions the prevailing tendency to dismiss Pre-Raphaelite painting: "While some will dismiss Pre-Raphaelite art as illustrative because they were the first artists to employ the new technology of photography in their art, the use of photography today […]
Baker Overstreet: Presence of Paint
Thomas Micchelli reviews the exhibition Baker Overstreet: Frown Upside Down at Fredericks & Freiser, New York, on view through March 30, 2013. Micchelli writes: "Overstreet’s symmetrical designs, built up over time, with traces of previous decisions establishing the bases for further formulations, emerge as an infrastructure for channeling the wellspring’s flow. The paintings’ resemblance to 1980s-era […]
Matthew Neil Gehring: In Process
As part of his blog series In Process, Paul Behnke posts about the development of the recent painting And the Vital Vigor Stood it's Ground (2013) by painter Matthew Neil Gehring. Behnke writes that: "Gehring's use of color and form combine to produce a visual deception bordering on Op Art. However, these works offer more […]
Radical Painting: Two Essays
Jeffrey Collins posts two essays on painting associated with two artists associated with the Radical Painting Group: Frederic Matys Thursz and Joseph Marioni. Matys Thursz, in his essay Leger's Palette writes: "To make paintings, I apply the best paint I know to the best linen I can obtain. Alone, I am witness to its making. […]
Tyler Wilkinson
Jane Durrell profiles painting Tyler Wilkinson who is currently an Artist in Residence at Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati. Commenting on figurative painting Wilkinson notes: "You can connect more strongly there… Since the first figures were drawn on the cave walls of Lascaux in southern France mankind has been obsessed with the human experience. Figurative paintings transcend […]
Dominic Cretara: Interview
John Seed interviews painter Domenic Cretara, whose work is on view at the Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara, CA through April 14, 2013. Seed writes that Cretara is a "narrative painter who comes from the heart, Cretara's work fuses the personal with the theatrical, and channels emotions ranging from nostalgia to tenderness to […]
Susanna Heller: Traveling in Painting
Bradley Rubenstein reviews the exhibition Susanna Heller: Phantom Pain at Magnan Metz Gallery, New York, on view through April 20, 2013. Rubenstein writes: "Heller's painting presents a journey of sorts… Traveling in a painting is not linear, and one must be willing to take the time to travel. Painting also embodies this place: the seeming […]
Painting in Black & White
Tamar Zinn considers the limitations and potential of painting in black and white. Zinn writes that "painting in black and white is not the same as thinking in black and white. By painting in black and white, the artist has pared down one part of image-making — color choice, but rather than certainty we are […]
Abstract Painting Advanced
Brian Fee reviews the exhibition Painting Advanced at Edward Thorp Gallery, New York, on view through April 20, 2013. The show features paintings by Andrea Belag, Jim Lee, Rachel Malin, Andrew Spence, and Gary Stephan. The gallery press explains that the exhibition "addresses the ever-expanding range of complexity in recent abstract painting… [and seeks] to […]
Christopher Deeton: Remote Symmetries
Raphael Rubinstein writes about the work of painter Christopher Deeton which was recently on view at Steven Sclaroff Gallery, New York. Rubinstein writes: "Eliciting beautiful tonal nuances from black paint alone, Deeton uses symmetry not to riff on the legacy of Morris Louis, but to devise a new iconography and a new technique—despite appearances, his […]
Norbert Prangenberg
Photo blog of a recent exhibition of works by the late painter Norbert Prangenberg at Barbara Gross Gallery, Munich. The gallery notes that in Prangenberg's "later paintings the artist essentially departs from the repertoire of geometrical shapes of his early works and concentrates on 'painting colors.' The thick impasto application of the oil paint creates […]
Leslie Wayne: Interview
Julia Schwartz conducts an in-depth interview with painter Leslie Wayne. Wayne comments: "My relationship to landscape is really rooted in memory, in the light, colors and geography of the West. So here, in the middle of midtown Manhattan, I approach the subject more as an opportunity to depict visual manifestations of physical forces: compression, subduction, […]
10 NYC Painting Shows
Piri Halasz reviews ten current and recent painting exhibitions in New York including: Jim Dine and Thomas Nozkowski at Pace, Going Into the Dark at The Painting Center, Walt Kuhn: American Modern at DC Moore, Marina Adams: Coming Through Strange at Hionas Gallery, Walter Robinson: Indulgences, Recent Paintings & Works on Paper at Dorian Gray […]
Amy Feldman: Raw Graces
David M. Roth reviews the exhibition Amy Feldman: Raw Graces at Gregory Lind Gallery, San Francisco, on view through April 20, 2013. Roth writes that Feldman's works "are the product of joyful, intensely physical, whole-body gestures — not of the old-school variety now shunned by younger painters – but those of a certain unaligned faction […]
On Frank Bowling
Abstract Critical
Courtney J. Martin writes about the paintings of Frank Bowling on the occasion of the exhibition Frank Bowling: Paintings 1967 – 2012 at Spanierman Modern, New York, through April 20, 2013. Martin writes that Bowling’s “poured paintings were often a combination of action painting and compositional devices, like vertical lines, that were used by the […]
Laura Owens: Moving Painting Forward
Andrew Berardini reviews the exhibition Laura Owens: 12 Paintings at 356 S. Mission Road, Los Angeles, on view through June 30, 2013. Bernardini writes that Owens is "exploring with humor and skill the possibilities of paintings. It doesn't wholly make sense just to isolate a single work — these feel entirely intended to be seen […]
Two Approaches to Abstraction
Xico Greenwald visits two abstract painting exhibitions: Thornton Willis: Steps at Elizabeth Harris Gallery (through April 13) and Al Held: Alphabet Paintings at Cheim & Read (through April 20). Greenwald writes that despite "superficial similarities, the works on display reflect the strikingly different temperaments and intentions of two ambitious abstract artists… Willis’ work comes out […]
Elizabeth Murray: In the Studio
A new video documents painter Elizabeth Murray working in the studio. In the film, Murray talks about her working process: "What I'm looking for," she notes, "is resolution. I have it one day and I don't have it the next day. But that's what's so great about being an artist – that you can get that kind […]
Schwitters In Britain
Michael Spens writes about the exhibition Schwitters In Britain at Tate Britain, London, on view through May 12, 2013. Spens notes that "the remarkable thing about Kurt Schwitters at the period of major setbacks was his stoicism, which seemed never to fail… Concepts of dislocation however became prevalent in his work… In the core of […]
Philip Guston’s Line
John Yau blogs about the exhibition Philip Guston: A Centennial Exhibition at McKee Gallery, New York, on view through April 20, 2013. Yau writes that "the marvel of the exhibition [is that] — it is all done with line, drawn or in paint. Sometimes the line becomes a rounded shape (a cloud) or a circle […]