Robin Williams on Sylvia Sleigh
Painter Robin Williams reflects on Sylvia Sleigh's Annunciation: Paul Rosano (1975). Williams notes: "I was first struck by [Sleigh's] somewhat naive approach to painting. She fixated on details, roving over a scene telescopically, describing textiles, hair follicles, or flower peddles with equal intensity. Surfaces seemed fetishized or eroticized, but playfully so. Perspectives were sometimes skewed or slightly […]
Anne Smart: Studio Visit
Anthony Smart, Emyr Williams, Robin Greenwood, Sarah Greenwood, Alexandra Harley, Patrick Jones, Desmond Brett, Helga Joergens-Lendrum, David Lendrum, Sam Cornish, Mark Skilton, Hilde Skilton, and John Pollard participate in a group studio visit with painter Anne Smart. Sam Cornish: I think Feather Ledded and Broiderie Landings both seem to have quite a natural, I don’t […]
Carl Ostendarp: Depth in Flatness
Susan Silas reviews Carl Ostendarp: BLANKS at Elizabeth Dee Gallery, New York, on view through September 6, 2014. Silas writes: "In the show at Elizabeth Dee, we are presented with paintings that are fields of color. A salmony pink in the first room, a glorious yellow and a saturated orange in the second. And on […]
Rauschenberg: Fulton Street Studio
Mark Bloch reviews the recent exhibition Robert Rauschenberg: The Fulton Street Studio, 1953-54 at Craig F. Starr Gallery, New York. Bloch writes: "The 15 paintings, collages and objects borrowed from private collections for this exhibit, including four from Jasper Johns, show us just enough of that critical moment of Rauschenberg’s life to manifest a first […]
Sandra Blow in Cornwall
Adam Milford reviews works by Sandra Blow at Newlyn Art Gallery, Newlyn and The Exchange, Penzance, Cornwall, on view through October 4, 2014. Milford writes: "On heading out of the gallery, you encounter the huge painting Swimmer, 1987. It’s predominantly blue and grey, with white dry-brushed marks and coloured collage emphasising a bulging blue area […]
Pareidolia @ Pluspace
Andy Parkinson blogs about the exhibition Pareidolia at Pluspace Gallery, Coventry, on view through September 14, 2014. The show features works by Ralph Anderson, Louisa Chambers, Frances Disley, Jack Foster, Rachael MacArthur, Ellie MacGarry, David Manley, Phoebe Mitchell, and Andy Parkinson. Parkinson writes: "With pareidolia a vague visual stimulus is perceived as something clear and […]
Gillian Ayres: Interview
Lorraine Rubio interviews painter Gillian Ayres on the occasion of an upcoming exhibition at Alan Cristea Gallery, London, on view from April 16 – May 30, 2015. Ayres comments: "There are many artists whose work I admire—Miro and Picasso especially—but really too many to list. Ultimately though, although I may admire an artists’ work, theirs […]
EJ Hauser: Studio Visit
Sharon Butler photo blogs a visit to the studio of painter EJ Hauser. Butler notes: "Hauser operates in a systematic sequential fashion, turning drawings into digital prints, enlarging the images into paintings, and using images of the paintings to begin new prints and repeat the process, cannibalizing earlier imagery as she goes. Her practice hinges […]
Dan Ramirez: Interview
Julie Karabenick interviews painter Dan Ramirez whose work was recently on view in the exhibition Dan Ramirez [Epoche] Recent Paintings at Zolla/Lieberman Gallery, Chicago. Asked about his motivations, Ramirez comments: "I’ve never been someone who can begin a painting by saying, 'I’ll begin with a couple of circles.' I’ve always had to have something to […]
Norman Zammitt @ Andrew Rafacz
Matt Morris reviews an exhibition of paintings by Norman Zammitt at Andrew Rafacz Gallery, Chicago, on view through September 6, 2014. Morris writes: "While peers in the loosely delineated movement of Light and Space in California from the 1960s onward abandoned painting in favor of more immaterial installation strategies, Norman Zammitt made a career of […]
Denis Farrell: Studio Visit
John Yau recounts a visit to the studio of painter Denis Farrell. Yau writes: "Farrell shares something with the reductive impulses that are central to Minimalist artists such as Robert Ryman, Brice Marden and, to a lesser degree the Radical Painting of Marcia Hafif. What distinguishes Farrell’s work from these American painters is the connection […]
Todd Bienvenu: Interview
Brian Edmonds interviews painter Todd Bienvenu about his work on the occasion of the upcoming exhibition Todd Bienvenu: Borrowing Tomorrow's Fun at Life on Mars Gallery, Bushwick, Brooklyn, on view September 5 – 28, 2014. Bienvenu remarks: "I don’t really think about it in terms of 'characters.' I don’t feel like I’m a story teller. […]
Gary Petersen: zip line tow rope
Noreen Kress reviews the exhibition Gary Petersen: zip line tow rope, curated by Alexis Granwell at Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Philadelphia, on view through August 31, 2014. Kress writes: "Forsaking the clean white wall paint for a creamy yellow, Petersen created a floor-to-ceiling backdrop, upon which plays a multitude of flashing, dancing color. The painted forms […]
Lucio Fontana: Retrospective
E. Baker reviews Lucio Fontana: Retrospective at Museum D’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, on view through August 24, 2014. Baker writes: "Fontana’s cut works and sculptures are expressive in their minimalism, examining the singular act of cutting or punching a hole as the opening of dimensions, the breakdown of the painter’s two dimensional […]
Lauren Luloff: Heliotrope
Kendra Jayne Patrick writes about the work of Lauren Luloff on the occasion of the recent exhibition Heliotrope at Halsey McKay Gallery. Patrick writes: "Reviewing the way that Luloff has explored domesticity — arguably her portfolio’s seminal concept — provides useful insight into the way that she commands in tandem the various aspects of her […]
Trevor Winkfield: Shelf Life
Barry Schwabsky reviews two new books by painter Trevor Winkfield: How I Became a Painter: Trevor Winkfield in Conversation With Miles Champion (Pressed Wafer) and George Braque and Others: The Selected Art Writings of Trevor Winkfield (The Song Cave). Schwabsky notes that "among the pleasures of his new collection of criticism, George Braque and Others… […]
Six Sins of Joan Mitchell
John Perreault reviews the exhibition Joan Mitchell: Trees at Cheim & Read, New York, on view through August 29, 2014. After enumerating six reasons Mitchell's work has been under-appreciated, Perreault addresses the paintings in the show: "In Mitchell touch is vision, is ocular, curiously resplendent. She admired van Gogh and it shows. He too confused […]
Carrie Moyer: Identity Concealed in Paint
Yves Jeffcoat reviews the exhibition Carrie Moyer: Pirate Jenny at the SCAD Museum, Savannah, Georgia, on view through October 2, 2014. Jeffcoat writes: "Moyer’s abstracted images are amorphous yet anthropomorphic—although they are nonrepresentational, at times they create shapes that resemble biological forms. Eyes, torsos, eyelashes, saliva, and fingers materialize in the organic shapes in her […]
Maria Lassnig: Selves and Reciprocals
Paul D’Agostino reviews Maria Lassnig at MOMA PS1, New York, on view through September 1, 2014. D’Agostino writes: "Through Lassnig’s aesthetic pursuit of what she called 'body awareness,' the depictive self that she 'is' or 'becomes,' and the manners and modes of self-ness she conveys, can also be intuited, by viewers, with reciprocity. … From […]
Leland Bell: Morning into Motion
Tim Keane reviews the recent exhibition Leland Bell: Morning Series at Lori Bookstein Gallery, New York. Keane writes: "Bookstein showcases Bells’ late career Morning series so that the paintings, hung in very close proximity to one another, resemble reframed expositions, each with a luminosity and intimacy that resembles both early Renaissance Italian frescoes and the […]