Gina Beavers @ Retrospective
Scott Indrisek profiles painter Gina Beavers whose paintings were recently on view at Retrospective Gallery, Hudson, New York. Indrisek writes that Beavers'"paintings aren’t simple reproductions of the ubiquitous 'this is what I ate today' images shared via social media. 'If I paint something directly from a photo it looks like a copy,' she explained. Beavers […]
Marc Desgrandchamps: Solitudes
Harriet Thorpe talks to painter Marc Desgrandchamps about the work in his exhibition Solitudes at Eigen + Art, Berlin, on view through August 16, 2014. In her introduction Thorpe writes: "Sitting in the back seat of my parents’ car as a child watching people and scenery passing by, figures were flattened by the glass, their […]
Sigmar Polke: Roundtable
Eric Gelber, Nora Griffin, Suzanne Joelson, Drew Lowenstein, and Saul Ostrow discuss the exhibition Alibis: Sigmar Polke 1963–2010 at MoMA, New York, on view through August 3, 2014. Ostrow: "[Polke's] imagery tends to be metonymic rather than metaphorical. If painting is to be about opticality – he literally paints distortion, if it is to be […]
David Saunders: Interview
Andrew Bick interviews painter David Saunders about his work and career on the occasion of the exhibition David Saunders: Paintings and Works on Paper 1974-2014 at Mummery+Schnelle, London, on view through July 5, 2014. Saunders comments: "I think that without sensibility no serious art is possible. Improvisation, which has always interested me, depends being sensitive […]
Celia Paul @ Victoria Miro
Jackie Wullschlager reviews an exhibition of work by Celia Paul at Victoria Miro, London, on view through August 2, 2014. Wullschlager writes: "Large-scale, intensely concentrated, pared-down self-portraits and portraits of her four sisters contrast with small, luminous, hazy depictions of bastions or symbols of (male?) establishment power: the British Museum, St George’s Church at dawn, […]
Robert De Niro, Sr.: Opulence of Restraint
Jennifer Samet reviews Robert De Niro, Sr. Paintings and Drawings 1948-1989 at DC Moore Gallery, New York (through July 31) and the film Remembering the Artist Robert De Niro, Sr. which premiered on HBO on June 9. Samet writes that the "defining characteristic of De Niro’s work is the line: the arabesque that rounds the […]
Camilla Fallon on Édouard Manet
Camilla Fallon blogs about Édouard Manet's The Dead Toreador, 1864 in the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. Fallon writes: "The figure cuts a powerful diagonal within the rectangle’s frame. The beautiful, exquisitely dressed corpse floats before us for our inspection. We see hardly a crease in the clothes, or a mark on the body. […]
Paintings on Paper
Tamar Zinn blogs about the exhibition Paintings on Paper at David Zwirner Gallery, New York, on view through August 15, 2014. The show features works by Ben Berlow, James Bishop, Ilse D'Hollander, Raoul De Keyser, Suzan Frecon, Mary Heilmann, Paulo Monteiro, Rebecca Morris, Ad Reinhardt, Al Taylor, and Stanley Whitney. Zinn begins noting that "the […]
Sigmar Polke’s Provincialism
John Goodrich reviews the exhibition Alibis: Sigmar Polke 1963–2010 at MoMA, New York, on view through August 3, 2014. Goodrich writes: "Museumgoers will debate Polke’s achievement. Does it represent a savvy assessment of — and a necessary alienation from — the zeitgeist of postwar Germany, and contemporary western culture in general? There’s no doubt that […]
Mark Wethli & Douglas Witmer
David Raymond reviews a recent exhibition of paintings by Mark Wethli and Douglas Witmer at ICON Contemporary Art, Brunswick, Maine. Raymond writes that Wethli and Witmer "share a painting language developed in visually intimate spaces. Both present frontal forms, their rectangularity parallel to the picture plane. Witmer’s images absorb the gaze, whereas Wethli’s have an […]
Mike Henderson @ Haines Gallery
Julia Couzens reviews Mike Henderson: Traces of Places at Haines Gallery, San Francisco, on view through June 28, 2014. Couzens writes: "One strength of Henderson’s paintings is that they offer visual forms that don’t appear to be directed by a catalogue of art historical references or skilled projections of what he “knows” about painting. The […]
Juan Uslé: Interview
Shirley Kandea interviews painter Juan Uslé about his work and career. Uslé's works were recently on view in his exhibition Al Clarear at Frith Street Gallery, London. Towards the end of the interview Kandea asks: "I think painting, unlike other mediums, has a tremendous history that can’t be ignored. The painter always has to work […]
Five Painters @ Elizabeth Harris
Joanne Mattera photo blogs a walk-through of the Summer Invitational show at Elizabeth Harris Gallery, New York, on view through July 15, 2014. The show features works by Rick Klauber, Joanne Mattera, Paul Mogensen, Gary Petersen, and Sarah Walker. A lively conversation of form, mark, and color emerges from the juxtaposition of these five unique […]
Five Bay Area Painters & William Bailey
Franklin Einspruch reviews two exhibitions in New Haven: Five West Coast Artists: Bischoff, Diebenkorn, Neri, Park, and Thiebaud at Yale University Art Gallery (through July 13) and William Bailey at Giampietro Gallery (through July 12). Einspruch writes that in the 1950s, "Bay Area Figuration, an undersung movement (undersung relative to Pop, anyway) of west coast […]
Jon Imber: Force of Nature
Carl Little reviews the exhibition Jon Imber: Force of Nature at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art in Rockport, Maine, on view through July 6, 2014. Little writes: "'Low Tide' (2004), the earliest piece in the show, leads me to paraphrase a song by Bob Dylan, Imber’s favorite poet: tangled up in hues. It’s not […]
Margot Bergman @ Corbett vs. Dempsey
Shreya Sethi reviews the exhibition Margot Bergman: Greetings at Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago, on view through July 19, 2014. Sethi writes the the show "features brash and vigorously emotive neo-expressionist paintings. Large flat female faces with rough features and tense expressions stare directly at incoming viewers from some of the paintings while others exist as […]
Starting Out: 9 Abstract Painters
Marcia G. Yerman reviews the exhibition Starting Out: 9 Abstract Painters 1958-1971 at Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York, on view through August 1, 2014. The show includes works by Edward Avedisian, Darby Bannard, Friedel Dzubas, Paul Feeley, Helen Frankenthaler, Jane Freilicher, Ralph Humphrey, Kenneth Noland, and Kendall Shaw. Yerman writes: "Most of the exhibited […]
Olive Ayhens: Interior Wilderness
Stephen Maine reviews the exhibition Olive Ayhens: Interior Wilderness at Lori Bookstein Fine Art, New York, on view through June 28, 2014. Maine writes: "Demonstrating formal finesse, visual wit and disarmingly direct technique, the recent paintings of Olive Ayhens are a pleasure to behold. The profusion of anecdotal detail in this artist’s work (in particular, her […]
Betty Kaufman: A Story of Red
John Haber reviews Betty Kaufman: A Story of Red at Leslie Tonkonow Art Works + Projects, New York, on view through June 28, 2014. Haber writes that the show "is about a series of works or perhaps a work in series. It is also about squares, red squares. They look all but identical at first, […]
Sight Specific
Larry Groff blogs about the exhibition Sight Specific: A Selection of American Perceptual Paintings, curated by George Nick, at the Concord Art Association (MA), on view through August 13, 2014. Groff notes that curator George Nick "selected more than 75 paintings from 56 artists for this show. The diverse range of styles, subjects and formal […]