Rackstraw Downes @ Betty Cuningham
Caleb De Jong reviews an exhibition of new paintings by Rackstraw Downes at Betty Cuningham Gallery, New York, on view through November 24, 2012. De Jong writes that "each picture in this exhibition searches for a moment of stillness, the moment when all traces of the human presence vanishes. Downes process, hours spent minutely detailing […]
Gerhard Richter’s Frigid Digitals
Joanne Mattera blogs about the recent exhibition of new works by Gerhard Richter at Marian Goodman Gallery, New York. Mattera writes: "These are ink, not paint… And yet. Something interesting happens when you are surrounded by the horizontally striped prints, something the images on this blog post cannot convey. The prints, some multipanel, are so large that […]
Alan Robb: Interview
Dr. Janet McKenzie interviews painter Alan Robb about his work and career. Robb comments: "Broadly speaking, I have always painted from two- and three-dimensional references, and images emerge which have resonance and associations for me. All my paintings are made up of many small intuitive decisions within an evolving theme. I can develop a body […]
Mernet Larsen: Three Chapters
John Yau writes about the paintings of Mernet Larsen, on view in the tri-partite exhibition Three Chapters at Vogt Gallery, New York. The thrid installment "Narratives" is on view through October 27, 2012. Yau writes: "One thing that struck me about Larsen’s work was her imaginative synthesis and restating of radically different artists and traditions. […]
Jonathan Lasker: Clarified and Incoherent
On the occasion of the exhibition Conceptual Abstraction at the Hunter College/Times Square Gallery (through November 10), Mario Naves posts his thoughts on the work of Jonathan Lasker. Naves writes: "Mr. Lasker engages in a purposefully inconclusive dialogue about figure and ground. Bulky, diagrammatic forms—which, at times, achieve a grudging biomorphism—abut or overlay meticulously delineated […]
4 Who Paint
Sharon Butler blogs about the exhibitions 4 Who Paint: Lauren Collings, Barbara Friedman, Gili Levy, Shelley Marlow and paintings by Patricia Satterlee at Valentine Gallery, Ridgewood, Queens, New York, on view through October 14, 2012. Butler writes: "the paintings look good, bouncing ideas off each other and reveling in their sheer painterliness. In the smaller front […]
Olive Ayhens: Freewheeling Landscapes
Elisabeth Condon blogs images from a studio visit with painter Olive Ahens. Condon writes: "In 1996 I flipped over an Olive Ayhens painting at DC Moore for its painterly facture and humorous drawing portraying a traffic jam of cars falling between rocks as if water. The serendipitous combination of real elements and imaginary landscape delighted the […]
George Hofmann’s Instant Awareness
As our ability to sense individual moments is being destroyed, George Hofmann paints what amounts to a collection of instants.
Rackstraw Downes: Interview
Jennifer Samet interviews painter Rackstraw Downes on the occasion of an exhibition of new paintings at Betty Cuningham Gallery, New York, on view through November 24, 2012. Downes comments: "…we are a sound bite culture. My work is very slow; it evolves very slowly. I have been drawing in a four-block range, with the Columbia […]
To Be A Lady
Thomas Micchelli writes about the exhibition To be a Lady: Forty-Five Women in the Arts curated by Jason Andrew, organized by Norte Maar, on view at 1285 Avenue of the Americas Art Gallery, New York through January 18, 2013. To be a Lady, Micchelli notes, is a show of "startling scale, ambition and quality: a […]
Uwe Kowski: Interview
Jonathan Beer interviews painter Uwe Kowski. Kowski comments: "The way we perceive the world, is the way we influence it. I see that in reference to economic interests and their consequences, to the latest technological developments, you could say. That development goes and has always gone along with a change of perception, or which knowledge […]
James Rosenquist’s Multiverse
M. Steward blogs about the exhibition James Rosenquist: Multiverse You Are, I Am at Acquavella Galleries, New York, on view through October 13, 2012. Steward posts: "Rosenquist has long been recognized for incorporating fragmented pictoral images in his paintings, yet in his most recent works, abstractions, patterns, and astronomical motifs play heavily. This is no […]
Abstraction: Second Derivative
John Haber blogs about the resurgence of abstract painting, evident in a large number of high quality exhibitions recently on view in New York. Haber writes: "Call me old-fashioned. Just don’t call me derivative. That put-down dogged abstraction for a long time, back when painting was, you know, dead. Since then abstraction has roared back, […]
Louise Fishman: A Restless Spirit
Painter Carrie Moyer writes about the paintings of Louise Fishman on view in three concurrent exhibtions: Louise Fishman at Cheim & Read, New York (through October 27), Louise Fishman, Five Decades at Tilton Gallery, New York (through October 13), and Generations: Louise Fishman, Gertrude Fisher-Fishman, and Razel Kapustin at Woodmere Art Museum in Philadelphia (October […]
Building Geometry
Joanne Mattera blogs about four recent exhibitions – Steven Alexander, Recent Paintings at David Findlay Gallery, Warren Isensee, New Work at Danese Gallery, Chris Johanson, Windows at Mitchell-Innes and Nash (through October 20), and Christian Maychack, Flats at Jeff Bailey Gallery – featuring "four artists (two painters, two painter/sculptors) are building geometry, whether layer by layer, […]
Wyatt Kahn
Sam Cornish writes about the exhibition Wyatt Kahn: Painting at Hannah Barry Gallery, on view through November 11, 2012. Cornish writes that "Broadly the type of illusion Kahn employs is one that comes after the reduction of minimalist painting. The flat, object quality of each part is in one sense simply accepted. There is no […]
Gutai: Japan’s New York School
David Carrier reviews the exhibition A Visual Essay on Gutai at Hauser & Wirth, New York, on view through October 27, 2012. Carrier writes: "Nowadays any history of contemporary art has to be a worldwide history, looking at the contributions from every culture. It’s astonishing to look back forty-some years and find serious commentators like […]
Wendy White: Dividing Line
Brian Dupont writes about Wendy White's latest exhibition Pix Vää at Leo Koenig, Inc, New York, on view through October 20, 2012. Dupont writes: "Wendy White's paintings have always walked a fine line between abstraction and real world reference, between gestural immediacy and polished construction. She does not walk an easy path in painting. As […]
Small Is Big
On the occasion of the show Small is Big at Grunwald Gallery of Art, Indiana University, Bloomington, the exhibiting artists – Catherine Kehoe, EM Saniga, Ken Kewley, Eve Mansdorf and Tim Kennedy – answer questions about working methods, subject matter, scale, influences, and narrative. Small is Big looks at small scale work from a figurative perspective. Tim […]
Focusing the Field
While nearly every other aspect of abstract painting has been exhaustively investigated and re-imagined, examples of focusing the field to a small scale have been isolated and few.