Dana Schutz: Piano in the Rain
James Kalm visits the exhibition Dana Schutz: Piano in the Rain at Friedrich Petzel Gallery, New York, on view through June 16, 2012. Kalm writes: "With this exhibition, the artist appears to be thinning down her paint, exercising a more virtuosic and slippery brush stroke, and striving for a fresher and more spontaneous style. Melding […]
Rebecca Morris: In Conversation
Michael Shaw visits the studio of painter Rebecca Morris and interviews her about her work. Morris reads from her Abstract Manifesto and recalls what prompted her write a manifesto about abstract painting: "when I came out of school in the 90s, abstraction wasn't very in… that wasn't the sort of gallery style at the moment… […]
Rita Ackermann: Fire by Days
Aimee Walleston talks to painter Rita Ackermann about her new series of work Fire by Days, on view in a solo exhibition at The Journal Gallery, Williamsburg (through June 3, 2012) and in the group show Mix/Remix at Luhring Augustine, New York (through June 9, 2012). Walleston writes that Ackermann's "loose, understated abstractions are often […]
Cy Twombly: Last Paintings
M. Hoetger blogs about the exhibition Cy Twombly: The Last Paintings at Gagosian Gallery, Beverly Hills, on view through June 9, 2012. Hoetger writes: "The Last Paintings includes eight untitled works from 2011—all known under the moniker Untitled (Camino Real) – which are closely related to the Camino Real group that inaugurated Gagosian Paris in […]
Norman Bluhm: Coney Island Beauty
Charlie Finch visits Norman Bluhm's monumental painting Coney Island Beauty, recently installed at 499 Park Ave, New York. Although Finch finds that the painting owes an "overwhelming debt to Pablo Picasso," he writes that "a doubling in the subject at hand restored, for a moment, to me, what is right about the painting, why I […]
Ariel Dill: Studio Visit
Maria Calandra visits the studio of painter Ariel Dill whose exhibition Oscillations is on view at Southfirst Gallery, Williamsburg, Brooklyn through May 27, 2012. Calandra writes: "Ariel's paintings are lush musings on color, pattern, and, as described in the title of her exhibition, oscillations. She arrives at these vibrating medium-sized works both through her vast […]
Conversations with Painters
Jeffrey Collins posts video conversations with painters Ronnie Landfield, Michael Brennan, Ruth Ann Fredenthal, and John Zinsser as part of his on-going documentary project, "a 21st century version of the legendary 1972 film Painters Painting by Emile De Antonio." Discussing the documentary in a recent article in NYArts Magazine Collins noted: "I began with a […]
Édouard Vuillard and His Muses
Mario Naves reviews the exhibition Edouard Vuillard: A Painter and His Muses, 1890-1940 at The Jewish Museum, New York, on view through September 23, 2012. Naves writes: "Vuillard wasn't inspired by hearth and home so much as haunted by them. In the best paintings, familial complexity is distilled into images of daunting psychological nuance. (Not […]
Four Paintings at Regina Rex
Howard Hurst reviews the exhibition Four Paintings featuring a single painting each by Britta Deardorff, Jackie Gendel, Juan Gomez, and Eric Sall at Regina Rex, Ridgewood, Queens, New York, on view through June 3, 2012. Hurst writes that "these four local artists were chosen because they share something in common. In their work we see […]
Sean Scully: Doric Order
Alexandra Koroxenidis previews the exhibition Sean Sully: Doric Order at the Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece, on view from May 9 – July 15, 2012. Koroxenidis writes: "The six featured paintings from the nine in the so-called 'Doric' series, which Scully began in 2008, are partly a response to the financial crisis that has spread throughout […]
Bernard Chaet: When More is More
Jenni Higginbotham visits the recent exhibition Bernard Chaet: Coastal Memories at LewAllen Galleries, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Higginbotham writes: "Known best for his landscape paintings, the subject matter of Chaet's work challenges and celebrates the representational power of paint. A gushy slab of burnt sienna is a cloud on the sea’s horizon. Oblong slathers of […]
Second Skins: Painted Barkcloth
William Poundstone blogs about the exhibition Second Skins: Painted Barkcloth from New Guinea and Central Africa at the Fowler Museum, UCLA, on view through August 26, 2012. Poundstone writes: "Painted barkcloths were originally clothing, to be worn and discarded. Many of the designs draw on tattooing (in New Guinea) or skin painting (in the Ituri […]
David Park: Two Views
Bill Berkson reviews two biographies of painter David Park: David Park, Painter: Nothing Held Back by Helen Park Bigelow (Hudson Hills Press) and David Park: A Painter's Life by Nancy Boas (University of California Press). Berkson writes that "Read in tandem, [the books] are distinct and complement each other perfectly. Helen Park Bigelow's is a […]
Studio Visit with Chuck Webster
Photoblog studio visit with painter Chuck Webster, showing works in progress related to the current exhibition Chuck Webster: Paintings at ZieherSmith, on view through May 25, 2012. The gallery notes that Webster's new paintings "Further deviating from previous paintings which were each an idiosyncratic image often on a smaller panel, the final surface on this […]
Painters Talking Shop: Johns, Twombly, Marden, Novros
Painter Steven Alexander discovers a treasure trove of video interviews by Carol Mancusi-Ungaro with painters including: Jasper Johns, Brice Marden, David Novros, Cy Twombly, and James Rosenquist at the Artists Documentation Program. Alexander writes: "Ms. Mancusi-Ungaro is remarkably adept at asking questions that lead to revealing insights into each artist's thinking process as well as […]
Clyfford Still: Perspectives
In part one of a two part post Charles Kessler reflects on the life of Clyfford Still and stories he uncovered while writing his masters thesis on Clyfford Still at UCLA in 1973. In addition to anecdotes about Still's interactions with collectors Fred Weisman and Betty Freeman, and painter Richard Diebenkorn, Kessler addresses Still's notorious […]
Polly Apfelbaum in Chelsea
Review of two recent exhibitions: Flatland: Color Revolt at Hansel and Gretel Picture Garden and Flatterland Funkytown at D'Amelio Gallery. "Seen in concert, these exhibitions demonstrate that Apfelbaum is an impressively crafty artist, and not only because her materials of choice are glitter, clay, and hand-dyed velvet. More important is the artist’s clever and considered […]
Melissa Dunn: Studio Visit
Dwayne Butcher photoblogs a studio visit with painter Melissa Dunn. Dunn says of her work: "My painting process combines both intuition and rational ordered structure. But no matter which of these modes I use to make a mark, my goal is to reflect human nature and find a universal visual story out of my own […]
Natalie Dower: Line of Enquiry
Mel Gooding writes on the work of painter Natalie Dower on the occasion of the exhibition Natalie Dower: Line of Enquiry at Emma Hill Fine Art, Eagle Gallery, London, on view through June 1, 2012. Gooding writes that Dower "observes, as we all do, what is manifest in every phenomenal moment: that the outcomes of […]
Terry Greene: Interview
Valerie Brennan interviews painter Terry Greene. Greene comments: "I’m engaged with drawing attention to the fact of the paint (or tape) on the loose plane of the canvas. Often tape is employed as little objects on the canvas while at the same time they are colour and light illuminating the ground. I’m particularly interested in […]