Albert Oehlen: The Accidental Abstractionist
Raphael Rubinstein considers the career of painter Albert Oehlen. Rubinstein observes: "Interestingly, Oehlen refers to his 1988-97 abstract paintings as 'post-non-objective.' The phrase is odd since you would expect an artist who had switched from figuration to abstraction to call his new work 'post-representational' or 'post-figurative' rather than 'post-non-objective,' the term 'non-objective' being a common […]
Jacob Lawrence: Promised Land
Lea Feinstein reviews Jacob Lawrence: Promised Land at the Cantor Arts Center, Stanford, on view through August 3, 2015. Feinsteing writes: "Like the Italian masters who depicted scenes from the Bible, Lawrence created extended narrative cycles. He chose to chronicle the stories of normal citizens like himself—largely invisible in the art of the time—and situate […]
Audrey Flack: The Abstract Expression Years
Peter Malone reviews Audrey Flack: The Abstract Expression Years at Hollis Taggart Galleries, New York, on view through June 6, 2015. Malone writes: “Though Flack has become an artist with an impressive career as a representational painter, and later a sculptor of public monuments, her early experiments in abstract painting — like those of Pat […]
Al Loving @ Garth Greenan
Piri Halasz reviews works by Al Loving at Garth Greenan Gallery, New York, on view through June 27, 2015. Halasz writes that Loving's "mixed media collages are magisterially composed of almost incredibly intricate cut-out spirals, strips, diagrammatically outlined boxes, curlicues and other geometric flourishes. Everything is soldered together and elegantly colored, with multiple hues that […]
Fabian Marcaccio on Jasper Johns
Fabian Marcaccio writes about the work of Jasper Johns. Marcaccio observes: "Most American painters are voluntarily simplistic. They are proud of maintaining one single technique, working on one single support and keeping one single attitude over the course of their careers. Johns wants to be a complete painter, not a specialist in this or that. […]
Rosy Keyser @ Maccarone
A. Zlotowitz reviews Rosy Keyser: The Hell Bitch at Maccarone Gallery, New York, on view through June 6, 2015. Zlotowitz writes that in her recent work, Keyser "continues the discourse of painterly reduction. While breaking away from the traditional frame, Keyser’s works allow for viewers to consider definitions of empathy, profanity and form through her […]
Julian Kreimer: Interview
Larry Groff interviews painter Julian Kreimer whose work was recently on view at the Lux Art Institute. Asked about making both abstract and perceptual paintings Kreimer comments: "Some of the things are really central to both. The negative space is probably the main link in both: if there’s a kind of formal structure that has heavy […]
Sean Scully & Peter Doig in Venice
Mark Stone blogs about two painting exhibitions on view in Venice Sean Scully: Land Sea curated by Danilo Eccher at Palazzo Falier (through November 22) and Peter Doig at Palazzetto Tito. Stone writes: "Scully’s newer works have gotten much looser, the paint handling is more offhand, drippier, the compositions have opened up and become less structured. […]
Malcolm Morley: Still Keeping Painting Alive
John Mitchell blogs about the work of Malcom Morley, on view at Sperone Westwater, New York through June 6, 2015. Mitchell writes: "There’s a poetic multiplicity of meaning to every aspect of Malcolm’s work. The spirit of playfulness in his painting is joyful and at 83, he’s charged with youthful vigor for his work – […]
Agnes Martin: Profile
Oliva Laing profiles painter Agnes Martin. An exhibition of Martin's work will be on view at Tate Modern from June 3 – October 11, 2015. Laing begins "Art must derive from inspiration, Agnes Martin said, and yet for decades she painted what seems at first glance to be the same thing over and over again, […]
Karen Schwartz: Speaking the Language of Paint
Thomas Micchelli reviews Karen Schwartz: Down the Rabbit Hole at Life on Mars Gallery, Bushwick, Brooklyn, on view through May 31, 2015. Micchelli writes: "Despite the recognizable humans, birds and animals floating in and out of Schwartz’s canvases, Morgan argues that her work is more strongly connected to Abstract Expressionism than to a likelier source, […]
Bill Jensen: Painting is a Prayer
Katelynn Mills reviews the recent exhibition Bill Jensen: Transgressions at Cheim & Read, New York. Mills writes that "Jensen’s work communicates something profound about the union of spirit and physical being. He addresses the heart of humanity in his process and reminds us how to stay in touch with ourselves in a society which encourages […]
Leon Golub: A Necessary Man
Mira Schor writes about Leon Golub: Riot at Hauser & Wirth, New York, on view through Jue 20, 2015. Schor observes: "Golub is a painter. He is a political painter, consciously so. He strives for the heroic, via the anti-heroic, but irony is not his calling card and materiality, flayed scumbled paint on unstretched raw […]
Charles Burchfield: The Nature of Seeing
Paige K. Bradley reviews Charles Burchfield: The Nature of Seeing at DC Moore Gallery, New York, on view through June 13, 2015. Bradley writes: "Start anywhere, go everywhere—that would seem to be the calling card of mid-twentieth-century painter Charles Burchfield’s body of work, which predominately captures scenes from nature and rural, country life as charged […]
Jered Sprecher: Resonance & Abstraction
Lily Kuonen reviews Jered Sprecher: The Hollow That Echoes at Gallery Protocol, Gainesville, Florida, on view through May 29, 2015. Kuonen writes: "… just as a coherent string of words creates a sentence, or several clicks creates data tracking, an assortment of visual qualities or even strategic marks can be combined to produce an image. […]
Heidi Hahn: Studio Visit
Christopher Joy and Zachary Keeting visit the studio of painter Heidi Hahn. Hahn comments: "I'm such a figurative artist that … it's not a painting until there's a person in it… even though there's a lot of abstracted moments within this figuration that come together … I've always been that kind of person where I'm […]
Nancy Haynes @ Regina Rex
Anna Tome reviews the recent exhibition Nancy Haynes: anomalies and non-sequiturs at Regina Rex, New York. Tome writes: "As one walked through gallery, one witnessed an artist—self taught, remarkably—inventing her own forms and paying homage to her forbearers, all the while conscious of her own status as a woman painter coming up in the male […]
Thomas Berding @ The Painting Center
John Goodrich reviews Thomas Berding: Discard Parade at The Painting Center, New York, on view through May 23, 2015. Goodrich writes that "the installation handsomely pairs [Berding's paintings] according to their internal dynamics. The diagonals emerging from the background tapestry of brushstrokes in one canvas mirror the angles in another; the somewhat centripetal rhythms of […]
Friedel Dzubas: Thesis / Antithesis / Synthesis
Piri Halasz reviews two exhibitions: Friedel Dzubas: Paintings of the 1960s at The Elkon Gallery (through May 29) and Epic Abstraction: Friedel Dzubas in the 1970s at Loretta Howard Gallery (closed). Halasz writes; "For most artists, a 'late style' comes as the final fillip. With Friedel Dzubas, it represents the third stage of an evolution […]
Frank Auerbach: Profile
Nicholas Wroe profiles painter Frank Auerbach. An exhibition of Auerbach's work will be on view at Tate Britain from October 9, 2015 – March 13, 2016. Wroe writes: "… why has [Auerbach] adhered to a regime over much of the last 60 years that is far more restrictive than anything an employer would impose, often […]