Sammy Peters: Interview
Victoria Webb interviews painter Sammy Peters about his work. Peters comments: "I’m not an artist who likes to wait for inspiration to paint, usually the act of painting is my inspiration to keep exploring…The specific imagery of each piece develops during the process of painting. In all but a few cases, I have no idea […]
Hilma Af Klint: Paintings for the Future
A new exhibition sheds new light on a pioneering abstract painter and one of the most enigmatic artists of the 20th century.
Larry Poons: Painterly Cravings
Jason Andrew blogs about the exhibition Larry Poons: New Paintings at Loretta Howard Gallery, New York, on view through March 2, 2013. Andrew writes: "I take a step back from the frame and then focus on the surface. Each painting, every one, radiates a Dionysian surge of color against color, paint against paint. If my […]
Paradox Maintenance Technicians
A report on a panel discussion about contemporary painting at the exhibition Paradox Maintenance Technicians at the Torrance Art Museum, California, on view through March 9, 2013. The exhibition surveys contemporary painting in Los Angeles and beyond featuring the work of 26 painters. "Despite some disagreement about whether painting was dead as a medium (or […]
Richard Roth: Interview
Ridley Howard interviews Richard Roth on the occasion of the exhibition Richard Roth: Under the Influence, New Paintings and Early Work, at Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, Virginia, on view through February 23, 2013. Roth comments: "The small 3-D polychrome paintings are arrived at in a pretty traditional way, they evolve from the process of their making. […]
Mary Webb: Journeys in Colour
Daniel Slater reviews the recent exhibition Mary Webb: Journeys in Colour at Hatton Gallery. Slater writes that "pictorially certain regions in these paintings appear bound by some unseen adhesion; instantaneously aided by their counterparts. Many are often departmentalised by a cloisonné of black bands, which evoke remote images of intense shadows behind objects which are […]
From Color Field to Figure
Elisabeth Condon photo blogs visits to several painting shows on view in Chelsea: Peter Williams at Foxy Production (through March 23) Charlie Roberts: Girl Power at Kravets Wheby (through February 23) Shinique Smith: Bold As Love at James Cohan Gallery (through March 16), and Caro, Frankenthaler, Louis, Motherwell, Noland, Olitski, Stella, curated by Hayden Dunbar at […]
Leo Steinberg: The Craft of Looking
Noah Dillon reviews the exhibition The Eye is Part of the Mind: Drawings from Life and Art by Leo Steinberg at the New York Studio School, on view through March 9, 2013. Dillon writes: "Steinberg, one imagines, would have loved these drawings, were they not his own… In them, one can see an inquisitive student’s […]
Temporal Shifts: Painting’s Time
Caleb De Jong posts his catalog essay for the exhibition Temporal Shifts: Paintings by works by Craig Olson, Paul Behnke, and Anne Russinof, curated by Matthew Neil Gehring, on view at Flecker Gallery, Suffolk County Community College through February 28, 2012. De Jong writes: "Craig Olson, Paul Behnke and Anne Russinof harness painting’s ability to […]
In the Schnabel Chapel
On the occasion of the exhibition Julian Schnabel 1978 – 1981 at Oko, New York, Thomas Micchelli asks "Is it possible to look at Julian Schnabel’s 'St. Sebastian' (1979) with fresh eyes, as if the past 34 years of Schnabel Sturm und Schnabel Drang never really happened? As if it were a new painting fresh […]
Anna Plesset: Interview
Christopher Joy and Zachary Keeting interview artist Anna Plesset about her exhibition A Still Life at UNT/TLED, NY, on view through February 24, 2013. In work that effortlessly melds painting, sculpture, and installation through multiple instances of trompe l'oeil, Plesset investigates shifting notions of observation, memory and history. Inspired by her discovery of the American […]
Tadasky (Tadasuke Kuwayama): Interview
Julie Karabenick interviews painter Tadasky (Tadasuke Kuwayama) about his work. Tadasky comments: "My work uses simple geometric forms, most often the circle, because they allow me to create the visual impact that I seek. I’ve always wanted my work to be clear. The circle is a form from Nature—one of the most common forms for […]
Giacometti in Bushwick
Allison Galgiani reviews the exhibition Giacometti and a Selection of Contemporary Drawings, at Norte Maar, Bushwick, Brooklyn, on view through February 17, 2013. Galgiani writes: "The stubborn humanity and personality that can be seen in Giacometti’s sculpture, paintings and drawings, like his Double Sided Drawing featuring Double Portrait of Diego and Standing Man Arms Outstretched […]
Neo – Expressionism Not Remembered
Raphael Rubinstein investigates the "near total erasure" of Neo-Expressionism. Rubinstein writes: "Chia, Cucchi, Clemente, Mariani, Baselitz, Lüpertz, Middendorf, Fetting, Penck, Kiefer, Schnabel . . . these and other artists are engaged not (as is frequently claimed by critics who find mirrored in this art their own frustration with the radical art of the present) in […]
William Conger & Vera Klement
Chris Miller reviews Vera Klement: Early and Late Style and William Conger: New Paintings at Zolla Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, on view through February 23, 2013. Miller writes that "aesthetically, these two artists definitely complement each other… [Conger’s] pictorial energy has intensified within the smaller twelve-by-twenty-inch squares that he has filled with dynamic patterns barely constrained […]
Abstract Painting in Houston
Rachel Hooper blogs about three exhibitions highlighting abstract painting in Houston: In Plain Sight, curated by Aaron Parazette, at McClain Gallery, Common Objects, curated by Shane Tolbert, at David Shelton Gallery, and Artist’s Picks, curated by Howard Sherman, at HAA. Hooper writes that "abstract painting has long been an important part of the Houston art scene, but these three […]
Zombieland: On Contemporary Painting
Ben Street posts his catalogue essay on contemporary painting for the exhibition 32 Paintings at Phoenix Brighton, curated by painters Patrick O'Donnell and Nicholas Pace (through March 24, 2013). Street begins: " 'Painting is dead' is dead, and now we can move on and discuss what it is, exactly, that keeps painting alive, despite everything. […]
The Influences of Manet
Painter Alan Gouk visits Manet: Portraying Life at the Royal Academy (through April 14, 2013) and muses on the ways Manet has influenced later painters. Gouk concludes: "There are aspects of modernism which of course challenge this nexus of values, but Manet’s art is a permanent reminder that the complex constructions of cerebral compulsiveness, the […]
Katherine Bradford: In Conversation
Julia Schwartz interviews painter Katherine Bradford about her work and development as an artist. Bradford remarks: "It took me awhile to learn not to put too much story into the Superman and Ocean Liner pieces. I pretty much focused on the sight of Superman flying and the sight of the ocean liner in the same […]
Piero @ The Frick Collection
Piri Halasz reviews Piero della Francesca in America at The Frick Collection, New York on view through May 19, 2013. Halasz writes: "The paintings at the Frick are all oil and tempera on panel, and are accordingly well preserved and/or restored. Their combinations of composition and color afford bewitchingly beautiful images, even though there is […]