Deborah Kahn @ Bowery Gallery
John Goodrich reviews Deborah Kahn: Paintings at Bowery Gallery, New York, on view through May 16, 2015. Goodrich writes: "Kahn vigorously characterizes the elements within these scenes, not through illustrative descriptions but through pictorial events. What does this mean? Simply put, if you look at the paintings and absorb their most elemental effect – the […]
Suzanne Caporael: The Landscape
Steven Alexander blogs about the exhibition Suzanne Caporael: The Landscape at Ameringer/McEnery/Yohe, New York, through May 23, 2015. Alexander observes: "Unlike the majority of her paintings in recent years, the new works 'read' immediately as landscapes, rather than as abstract paintings distilled from fleeting observations. That is not to imply that they have lost any […]
Joan Snyder: Sub Rosa
A. Bascove reviews Joan Snyder: Sub Rosa at Franklin Parrasch Gallery, New York, on view through June 20, 2015. Bascove writes: "Snyder is in full mastery here. Her use of multiple materials, lush color, and the tension of opposites; the thin washes under built up mounds of paint and paper mache, the stark contrast of […]
Paul Pagk: Studio Visit
Zachary Keeting and Christopher Joy visit the studio of painter Paul Pagk. Pagk comments: "The experience I'm going for is different than what happens when I'm painting them… I'm trying to get to a place I don't know … then it can capture my attention… I don't want paintings to arrive at final ideas too […]
Brenda Goodman: Backstory
Brenda Goodman recalls the experience of making her 1985 painting Breakthrough. Goodman writes: "The middle of the right hand side wasn’t working but it was so beautiful I didn’t want to give it up. I was standing on the edge of the abyss but willfully chose not to jump in. I did not want to […]
Callum Innes: Exposed Paintings
Charley Peters reviews works by Callum Innes recently on view at Frith Street Gallery, London. Peters writes: "In these works geometry, and in some ways painting itself, is a performance; a systematic process of structurally marking out pictorial space in which to frame areas of chaotic chemical intervention; each stain of pigment recording decisive moments […]
Dale McNeil: Interview
Hunter Braithwaite interviews painter Dale McNeil, whose show Material Will: Force In Form is on view at Tops Gallery, Memphis through May 31, 2015. McNeil comments: "A part of my painting process involves placing a step—a phase or transitional level—between the traditional applications of paint to canvas. I take impressions from paintings in process, propagating […]
Remembering James Adley: (1931-2015)
William Tucker remembers painter James Adley (1931-2015). Tucker recalls: "You could not get back far enough in his studio to get a picture without distortion, and even in a large public space the actual visual experience of a 50-foot canvas like Transition (1988-98) was impossible to capture in a slide. Size was a necessary component […]
Modigliani @ the Estorick Collection
Anna McNay reviews Modigliani: A Unique Artistic Voice at the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, London, on view through June 28, 2015. McNay writes: "As the artist put it: 'What I am searching for is neither the real nor the unreal, but the subconscious, the mystery of what is instinctive in the human race.' […]
Cecily Brown: Interview
Julie L. Belcove interviews painter Cecily Brown whose work will be on view at Maccarone Gallery, New York through June 20, 2015. Brown comments: "With the small ones … I’d deliberately not get back from them and look, then at the end of the day be like, Whoa! It had become this very dense world, […]
Josh Dorman & David Martin
Susan Heywood reviews exhibitions by Josh Dorman (though May 16) & David Martin (through May 30) at John Martin Gallery, London. Heywood writes of Dorman: "Precise and painstakingly drawn illustrations which predate the slick, glossy anonymity of photography feed the eclectic imagination of this American artist. Dorman’s pen and brush work has a delicacy and […]
Brad Eberhard & Monique van Genderen
George Melrod reviews two recent exhibition: Monique van Genderen: Manufactured Paintings and Brad Eberhard: Screen Gems at Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects. Melrod observes that the shows "showcased two savvy, LA painters who have chosen almost diametrically opposed paths to engage the medium, with all of its historical baggage; yet both showed glimmers of hope […]
Wendy White: Interview
Jason Stopa interviews painter Wendy White whose show Double Vanity is on view at Sherrick & Paul in Nashville, through June 13, 2015. White comments: "In a way, I think all my work challenges the very basic notion that anything truly exciting can happen within the stupid rectangle. I like putting painting in a subservient […]
Mernet Larsen @ Various Small Fires
Jody Zellen reviews the recent exhibition Mernet Larsen: Chainsawer, Bicyclist, and Reading in Bed at Various Small Fires, Los Angeles. Zellen writes: "Larsen’s paintings have a purposeful naiveté, a quality that is also prevalent in the works of younger painters including Jonas Wood and Avery Singer, who are known for works that flatten space and […]
Joan Semmel: Interview
Susan Silas interviews painter Joan Semmel. Across Fives Decades, a retrospective of Semmel's work is on view at Alexander Gray Associates, New York, through May 16, 2015. Semmel comments: "I never thought of myself, when I switched over, as a 'figurative painter.' Never. I never made the break. I was never figural. What I was […]
Bill Jensen: Loom of Origins
David Carrier reviews Bill Jensen: Transgressions at Cheim & Read, New York, on view through May 9, 2015. Carrier observes: "By sticking to his guns at times when abstraction has been beleaguered, [Jensen] earned our respect—and the right to be boldly experimental. That said, this is the strangest show, by miles, of a famous artist […]
Syd Solomon & Larry Poons: Ecstatically Chromatic
Charles A. Riley II reviews Syd Solomon: Swingscape, Paintings from the 1970s at Berry Campbell Gallery (through May 23) and Larry Poons: New Paintings at Danese/Corey, New York (through May 29). Riley writes: "The great critic and curator Robert Pincus Witten once observed that 'Poons instrumentalizes chance (the very hallmark of Abstract Expressionist painting).' The […]
Andrea Belag: Interview
Will Corwin interviews painter Andrea Belag. Belag comments: "I use brushes, rags, knives, and I do walk around the painting in order to have a continuous stroke… I think that gesture is somewhat misunderstood and I don't think it's what my work is about. Although it is a way of getting yourself into the painting. […]
David Salle: Interview
Hunter Braithwaite interviews painter David Salle whose work is on view at Skarstedt Chelsea (through June 27) and Dallas Contemporary (through August 23). Salle comments: "The main quality of image culture is its relentlessness. My experience of my own work is somewhat different. Of course we all grow up awash in images, more or less […]
Alex Katz: Interview
Ellen Gamerman interviews painter Alex Katz whose work is on view at Gavin Brown's Enterprise, New York, through June 13, 2015. Gamerman begins: "One morning. That’s how long it takes Alex Katz to start—and finish—a painting. This high-speed routine has repeated itself many mornings, for many years. Such remarkable productivity would be a feat for […]