Lighting Out for Territory
Martin Mugar posts his essay for the exhibtion Lighting Out for Territory at Kimball Jenkins Galleries, Concord, NH, on view through April 30, 2015. The show features paintings by Susan Carr, Martin Mugar, Paul Pollaro, Addison Parks, and Jason Travers. Mugar writes that the show title comes from "the line spoken by Huck Finn at […]
Paintings @ VOLTA
Sharon Butler blogs a selection of paintings on view at VOLTA New York art fair, on view March 5-8, 2015. Butler comments: "This year plenty of good paintings are on view, though some of the figurative work seems out of synch with the most compelling contemporary work in that vein. Although well painted, many of […]
Heidi Howard @ Nancy Margolis
Kate Liebman reviews a recent exhibition of paintings by Heidi Howard at Nancy Margolis Gallery, New York. Liebman writes that Howard's "pictures are deeply embedded in the tradition of Western portraiture, and her biggest influence is apparent throughout the show: the Nabis. She paints her friends, herself, and her family, seeking to capture physical likeness […]
Lois Dodd: Interview
Larry Groff interviews painter Lois Dodd whose exhibition Recent Panel Paintings is on view at Alexandre Gallery, New York, through April 4, 2015. Asked about selecting subjects, Dodd comments: "It’s more about what I see when I’m walking around looking for something. Then after that it a matter of what size I want to work […]
Leon Golub: Bite Your Tongue
Adrian Searle reviews Leon Golub: Bite Your Tongue at the Serpentine Gallery, London, on view through May 17, 2015. Searle writes that Golub's "early paintings are curdled, overworked and overwrought, and he managed to develop this into a dreadful meatiness. He had a great sense of pictorial drama, his figures erupting against a theatrical emptiness […]
8 Figurative Painters in an Atemporal World
Patrick Neal reviews 8 Painters at Danese Corey Gallery, New York, on view through March 14, 2015. The show features works by Nina Chanel Abney, Matt Bollinger, Caitlin Cherry, Joey Frank, Doron Langberg, Liz Markus, Kimo Nelson, and Jennifer Packer. Neal notes that "it is interesting that 8 Painters, comprised of all figurative painting, and […]
Tucker Nichols @ Gallery 16
David M. Roth reviews Tucker Nichols: New Paintings at Gallery 16, San Francisco, on view through March 6, 2015. Roth notes that "these standalone works reveal the quieter, more contemplative side of the artist’s personality. They’re plaintive works on panel and paper that depict plants, cups, teapots and other still life subjects… These works — […]
Tim Kennedy @ First Street Gallery
Catherine Kehoe posts an essay by painter Tim Kennedy, written for his exhibition Paynetown, on view at First Street Gallery, New York, from March 3 – March 28, 2015. Kennedy writes: "Working directly from the motif without an intervening filter such as photography, at least for now, is important to me. I think of my […]
Rubens and his Legacy
Julian Bell reviews Rubens and his Legacy: Van Dyck to Cézanne, Royal Academy, London, on view through April 10, 2015. Bell writes: "The apple hadn’t yet fallen on Newton when Rubens died in 1640. Bodies might have weight, but gravity made a local rather than a comprehensive claim on them. Minerva’s heel thrusts down on […]
Monochrome / Duochrome: Thoughts on Color
Katrina Blannin collects thoughts on color from a numner of artists including: Andrew Bick, Caterina Lewis, Clem Crosby, Dan Coombs, David Rhodes, Emma Biggs, Juan Bolivar, Karen David, Kate Terry, Kiera Bennett, Mali Morris, Selma Parlour, Simon Bill, Simon Callery, and Tom Benson. In her introduction, Blannin writes of her interest in Iona Singh's argument […]
Madame Cézanne
Charles Kessler blogs about the exhibition Madame Cézanne at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, on view through March 15, 2015. Kessler writes: "I don't think capturing [Madame Cézanne's] personality, or the personality of any other of his sitters for that matter, was Cézanne's concern, any more than capturing the personality of an apple […]
Joan Waltemath @ Hionas Gallery
Sharon Butler blogs about Joan Waltemath: One does not negate the other at Hionas Gallery, New York, on view through March 14, 2015. Butler writes: "Centuries ago, artists were a bit like chemists, mixing secret recipes for binders and varnishes that least would affect the lightfast quality of their pigments and the surfaces of their […]
Merlin James @ Sikkema Jenkins
Altoon Sultan blogs about the exhibition Merlin James: Genre Paintings at Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, on view through March 7, 2015. Sultan writes that the show "was a wonderful surprise for me … I hadn't seen his work before, and when I looked at the show online it seemed to me to be […]
Gregory Botts: Interview
Jennifer Samet interviews painter Gregory Botts. In her introduction Samet writes: "Botts has an exuberant but economic way with paint, marking the curve of a flower stem, the form of a mesa, and a cloud sitting in the sky with accuracy and poetic bravado. The landscapes are punctuated by geometric interruptions: squares of saturated color […]
Lauren Collings: Interview
Polly Shindler interviews painter Lauren Collings. Collings comments: "I like making choices and limiting. As much as you’d want to put in, eliminating 80% of that makes it much more interesting… In one of Philip Guston’s lectures at the Studio School he was saying that he would take a year or so off from painting […]
Fred Valentine @ STUDIO 10
James Kalm visits the exhibition Fred Valentine Toward Grandfather Mountain at STUDIO 10, Bushwick, Brooklyn, on view through March 8, 2015. Kalm notes that Valentine's "show presents many small scaled paintings featuring the artist's heavily worked surfaces, and rich warn pallet. There's a sly, mischievous quality to the work due to the artist's knowingly tweaking […]
Lisa Bradley @ Hollis Taggart
Jonathan Goodman reviews Lisa Bradley: The Fullness of Being at Hollis Taggart Galleries, New York, on view through February 28, 2015. Goodman writes that Bradley’s paintings "communicate feeling above all else. Often looking like cloudscapes, and usually occurring in a dark, midnight blue, Bradley’s pictures summon visions of endlessness on a cosmic spiritual level. Her […]
Thomas Micchelli: Interview
Linda Francis interviews Thomas Micchelli about the work in his show Bacchantes and Bivalves at John Davis Gallery, Hudson, New York, on view through March 1, 2015. Asked to describe his working process, Micchelli comments that it is: "Rather chaotic, less so in the drawings than in the paintings, which are often free-for-alls in terms […]
Territory of Abstraction
Joanne Mattera blogs about the exhibition Territory of Abstraction at Pentimenti Gallery, Philadelphia, on view through April 4, 2015. The show features works by Steven Baris, Rob de Oude, Edgar Diehl, Gabriele Evertz, Kevin Finklea, Enrico Gomez, Brent Hallard, Gilbert Hsiao, Gracia Khouw, Joanne Mattera, Mel Prest, and Debra Ramsay. The post includes a Q&A […]
Eric Holzman: Tribute to Jake Berthot
Eric Holzman remembers painter Jake Berthot (1939-2014). Holzman writes: "Since Jake came to landscape painting from a different angle than everyone else, that is abstract painting, I imagine the grids provided a scaffold upon which he could build and construct his compositions. They must have made the space between things seem palpable and real, measurable […]