Geoff Hippenstiel
Raphael Rubinstein reviews a recent exhibition of paintings by Geoff Hippenstiel at Devin Borden Gallery, Houston. Rubinstein writes: "Although brushwork is evident on close inspection-something these paintings brazenly solicit – Hippenstiel's tool of choice is the palette knife, supplemented to great effect with the unlikely method of spray gun. I say 'unlikely' because spray paint […]
Cy Twombly’s Camino Real
An essay by Ed Schad about Cy Twombly: The Last Paintings at Gagosian Gallery, Beverly Hills, on view through June 9, 2012. Schad writes: "Camino Real is a 1948 play by Tennessee Williams… and when it comes to entering into a dialogue with the works at Gagosian, reading the text can be illuminating… On the […]
Jan Müller at Lori Bookstein
James Kalm visits the exhibition Faust and Other Tales: The Paintings of Jan Müller at Lori Bookstein Fine Art, New York, on view through June 23, 2012. Kalm notes: "Considered as an exotic and tragic figure with a cult following, during his brief career, Müller was generally recognized as the first of the Hans Hofmann […]
Adolph Gottlieb: Master Colorist
Piri Halasz reviews the recent exhibition Adolph Gottlieb: Gravity, Suspension, Motion: Paintings 1954-1972 at Pace Gallery, New York. Halasz writes: "Irving Sandler, in his trail-blazing 'Triumph of American Painting' (1970) recognized that Gottlieb was important enough to rate a major entry, but couldn't really shoehorn him into either of his two categories of 'action painters' […]
Sheldon Tapley: Not-So Still-Life
Daniel Brown reflects on the still life painting of Sheldon Tapley. Brown writes: "… Tapley loves to 'pack' his compositions – reminding us that he matured under the aegis of Abstract Expressionism. Working in the realist idiom challenged him to flatten the pictorial space to make an object seem 'present,' a tactic he learned from […]
Francis Davison: Collage
Sam Cornish considers the collages of Francis Davison on view at Austin/Desmond, London through May 31, 2012. Cornish writes: "Across media the presence of collage can be felt in startlingly inexplicable presentation and dissonant juxtaposition. [Francis] Davison differs in that the separate elements in his collages worked toward coherence rather than dislocation. His aim, aided […]
Wherefore the Figure, Wherefore the Self
Carl Belz considers the challenges of painting the figure and examines the work of Kyle Staver and Anne Harris. Belz writes: "Of all the subjects available to painting, subjects ranging from stripes and squares to fields of color, from landscape vistas and city streets to ordinary objects close at hand, none is brought to the […]
Brian Cypher: Interview
Valerie Brennan interviews painter Brian Cypher about his work and studio practice. Cypher notes: "On an existential level, it really begins with the impulse to create… the wanting of ideas to be actualized; to see that energy manifest into physical form… In terms of what I do physically, it's all about making marks that echo […]
Ryan Cobourn: Interview
Neil Plotkin interviews painter Ryan Cobourn on the occasion of the exhibition Ryan Cobourn: Crazy Nature at Fischbach Gallery, on view through May 25, 2012 . Cobourn remarks: "It’s more about memory and being evocative, as opposed to painting details and specificity. I'm not really interested in specificity. I'm not really interested in how many […]
Considering the Provisional
Ben Meyer reviews the exhibition Considering the Provisional (through May 27, 2012) at FJORD, Philadelphia, featuring works by Amy Feldman, Annabelle Speer, Hannah Hall, Sarah Pater, Brendan Smith, Jenna Weiss, Hannah Tar, and Ryan McCartney. Meyer writes: "Philadelphia co-curators Liam Holding and Sean Robert FitzGerald are taking a crack at identifying just what is provisional […]
A Conversation With Patrick Jones
Over the course of a long career, Jones has developed a rich visual language and applied his rigorous, abstract process to a wide range of interests from Dogon carvings to political injustice.
Jan Müller: Faust and Other Tales
Caleb De Jong reviews the exhibition Faust and Other Tales: The Paintings of Jan Müller at Lori Bookstein Fine Art, New York, on view through June 23, 2012. De Jong writes: "Müller’s literary subject matter, while seemingly at odds with the high Modernist dictates of 1950s New York, hinted at a truth now more greatly […]
Sangram Majumdar: Studio Visit
In a three part video interview, Haniya Rae visits the studio of painter Sangram Majumdar. Of his recent work Majumdar remarks: "Being someone who works with a certain amount of observation and looking at things, I wanted to… compress a space I was familiar with through day to day interaction, like my studio, against a […]
Syria: Painting as Protest
Rima Marrouch reports on Syrian painters who continue to paint despite the violence, and a recent exhibition of paintings smuggled out of Syria at Espace Kettaneh Kunigk (Tanit), in Beirut. Marrouch tells the story of painter Hiba Akkad, who "started protesting in her neighborhood in Syria's capital, Damascus. Men would hoist her on their shoulders […]
MsBehavior
Sharon Butler visits the exhibition MsBehavior at the ArtBridge Drawing Room, New York, featuring work by Amy Feldman, Polly Shindler, Amanda Valdez, on view through June 28, 2012. Butler writes: "All exponents of a casualist aesthetic, the three women rock insouciant shapes using monochromatic color, humble materials, and simple drawing techniques." Additionally curator Jordana Zeldin […]
Janice Nowinski
John Seed writes about the work of painter Janice Nowinski on the occasion of her exhibition at the Bowery Gallery, New York, on view from May 22 – June 16, 2012. Seed writes: "Nowinski, is a 'painter's painter,' one who likes to work against technical refinement, which can quickly degenerate into sentimentality. She is one the […]
Chuck Webster: Moving House
John Yau reviews the exhibition Chuck Webster: Paintings at ZieherSmith, New York, on view through May 25, 2012. Yau writes: "The structure that Webster is here exploring is a stepped form that owes something to Navaho blankets. He uses a thick line to make the form’s border, appendages and interior lines. The thickness of the […]
Brice Marden: Eastern Promise
Jonathan Goodman reviews Brice Marden: New Paintings at Matthew Marks Gallery, New York, on view through June 23, 2012. Of Marden's painting Ru Ware Project, 2007-2012, Goodman writes that the "monochromatic panels effectively join Marden's interest in historical Chinese culture with his minimalist work done two generations earlier. The painting exquisitely makes use of colors […]
Clare Price
A look at the work of Clare Price whose work is on view at studio1.1, London from May 18 – June 10, 2012. Price's paintings are "inspired initially from drawings made on old antiquated computer programs. Marks are translated meticulously onto the canvas allowing for a grid-like structure to reveal itself. It's here that her […]
Gilbert Hsiao: Jump and Flow
Brent Hallard interviews painter Gilbert Hsiao. Gilbert Hsiao: Jump & Flow is on view at Minus Space, Brooklyn through June 16, 2012. Hsiao remarks: "I have never thought in terms of the quantity of information that the eye can hold or that the mind can process. Nor do I want to attack anyone's eye. I […]