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 […]
Alice Neel’s Brothers Karamazov
Dan Piepenbring blogs about Alice Neel's illustrations for Fyodor Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov, on view in Alice Neel: Drawings and Watercolors 1927-1978 at David Zwirner Gallery, New York through April 18, 2015. Piepenbring writes: "In the thirties, Neel made a series of illustrations for an edition of The Brothers Karamazov that apparently never came to fruition. […]
Brett Baker @ Elizabeth Harris
Sharon Butler reviews my current show of recent paintings at Elizabeth Harris Gallery, New York, on view through March 28, 2015. Butler writes: "Brett Baker's new small-scale paintings at Elizabeth Harris are a little bigger than the ones in his last show, and they continue his exploration of line, thickly layered paint, and color. Several […]
John Zurier: Poetic Reticence
Altoon Sultan blogs about John Zurier: West of the Future at Peter Blum Gallery, New York, on view through April 4 2015. Sultan writes: "This has rarely happened to me, but when I saw John Zurier's show 'West of the Future', currently at Peter Blum Gallery, my awed reaction wasn't just 'I love these paintings', […]
Elizabeth Glaessner on Karin Mamma Andersson
Elizabeth Glaessner writes about her experience of paintings by Karin Mamma Andersson, first in reproduction, and then in person at the recent exhibition Mamma Andersson: Behind the Curtain at David Zwirner Gallery, New York. Glaessner writes " …standing in front of the paint was a transportive experience and as I imagined her process, the stories […]
The Forever Now: Structure Rising
David Salle reviews The Forever Now: Contemporary Painting in an Atemporal World at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, on view through April 5, 2015. The show features works by works by Richard Aldrich, Joe Bradley, Kerstin Brätsch, Matt Connors, Michaela Eichwald, Nicole Eisenman, Mark Grotjahn, Charline von Heyl, Rashid Johnson, Julie Mehretu, […]
Sheila Girling (1924-2015)
Christopher Masters pens an obituary for painter Sheila Girling (1924 – 2015). Masters writes that Girling's "final decades were a period in which [she] produced works of an impressive emotional range within a clearly defined, highly abstracted style. Her use of acrylic was combined with a penchant for collage, the technique through which, according to […]
Merlin James @ Sikkema Jenkins & Co.
John Yau reviews Merlin James: Genre Paintings at Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, on view through March 7, 2015. Yau notes: "James seems to believe that painting is not about categorizing and possessing but about seeing and experiencing the inchoate, often disturbing feelings we face in the most ordinary of situations. He can reinvigorate […]
Eric Sutphin on Manet
As the first post in Noah Dillon's new "Tell Me" series, where artists discuss single work of art in person, Eric Sutphin considers Manet's Boating (1874) (and Bouguereau) at the Met. Sutphin comments: "This painting feels rather stripped in a way, and I think our identification with some kind of subject, a human subject, is […]
What is 21st Century Space?
Mark Stone recaps an ongoing debate on his blog about developing space in 21st century abstract painting and sculpture. Stone concludes: "… what is space at this stage of abstraction’s development? Is it possible for painting to move ahead (or backward) to a different kind of space and would that include abstraction? Can painting rework […]
Ross Bleckner & Volker Eichelmann
James Kalm visits an exhibition of paintings by Ross Bleckner and Volker Eichelmann at Sargent's Daughters, New York, on view through March 15, 2015. From the press release: "In this exhibition, Bleckner presents a group of 18 inch paintings, which span a period of roughly twenty years. This is the first time Bleckner has exhibited […]
Patrick Burns: Interview
Jack Livingston interviews painter Patrick Burns. Burns comments: "In the last few years the central image silhouette is chosen as much for its formal properties as its literal meaning, the cephalopods and now the thorn-thistle images. What I mean by that is that the silhouette contains an evocative presence both visually and mechanically. Mechanically, for […]
Jason Karolak @ McKenzie Fine Art
Thomas Micchelli reviews Jason Karolak: Polyrhythm at McKenzie Fine Art, New York, on view through March 22, 2015. Micchelli writes: "The visual riddles posed by Karolak’s paintings — their refusal to settle into a single perspective and their devilishly complex accumulation of elements — tether their freewheeling abstraction and neon color to an unknowable reality. […]
In the Studio: Paintings @ Gagosian
Anna Heyward reviews In the Studio: Paintings, curated by John Elderfield, at Gagosian Gallery, New York, on view through April 18, 2015. The show features paintings of the artist's studio by Wilhelm Bendz, Honoré Daumier, Thomas Eakins, Lucian Freud, Jean-Léon Gérôme, William Hogarth, Matisse, Picasso, Constantin Brancusi, Alberto Giacometti, Louis Moeller, Alfred Stevens, James Ensor, […]
Debra Ramsay & Alex Paik @ TSA
Carl Belz writes about the work of Debra Ramsay and Alex Paik for their exhibition Generative Processes at TSA Gallery in Bushwick, Brooklyn, on view from February 20 to March 29, 2015. Belz writes: "Both of these artists employ a conceptual system of one kind or another to generate and guide their work and – […]
Her Work @ McCormick Gallery
Chris Miller reviews Her Work at McCormick Gallery, Chicago, featuring paintings by Mary Abbott, Janice Biala, Lynne Drexler, Perle Fine, Gertrude Greene, Charlotte Park, Vivian Springford, Yvonne Thomas, and Michael West. Miller writes: "With the work of nine painters from the New York School in the 1950s, Chicago dealer Thomas McCormick has collaborated with several […]
Sarah Faux: Merging Sensibilities
Painter's Bread
Michael Rutherford blogs about paintings by Sarah Faux. Rutherford writes: “There’s been much said about how abstraction is very prevalent in contemporary painting these days, but there are those who are producing some wonderful work in a unique figurative vein as well, with precedence found in artists such as George McNeil and Amy Sillman. The […]
Bram van Velde: Failure as Success in Painting
In a the second part of a two-part article (Part 1 here), Gwenaël Kerlidou considers the work of largely forgotten School of Paris painter Bram van Velde. Kerlidou writes: "In van Velde’s painting, the ego, distanced from the act of painting, becomes the pained spectator of its own 'failures.' The structure that Cubism offered was […]