Urban Landscape
Rackstraw Downes @ Betty Cunningham
Hyperallergic
John Yau reviews Rackstraw Downes: Paintings and Drawings at Betty Cunningham Gallery, New York, on view through October 14, 2018. Yau writes: “In ‘Outdoor Passageway at 15 Rivington,’ Downes recognizes infinite time (the sky above), seasonal time (the air conditioning units), and historical time (the dirty walls), as well as time passing (the passageway). Despite all the […]
Claude Monet: Strictly A Revolution In Seeing
Artlyst
Edward Lucie-Smith reviews Claude Monet & Architecture at The National Gallery, London, on view through July 29, 2018. Lucie-Smith observes: “One of the most interesting things about the show, at a time when social and political virtue-signalling have become primary subjects for art, is that, where themes of this kind are concerned, Monet is studiously […]
Robert Birmelin: Interview
Painting Perceptions
An engaging conversation between painters Larry Groff and Robert Birmelin. Asked about how he “[leads] the viewer’s eye through your paintings in unexpected ways” and evoking “visual surprise,” Birmelin comments: “I’m interested in movement, in the transient moment of noticing. In the eye as it selectively focuses within a changing, often overloaded environment… I was […]
When Photorealism Meets Delacroix
Hyperallergic
Joe Fyfe observes connections between the work of Robert Bechtle and Eugene Delacroix. Bechtle’s work is on view at Gladstone 64, New York through April 21, 2018. Fyfe writes: “Both Delacroix and Bechtle are representing an ethos, that is, something that an era believes, but not something that is necessarily true. In both cases, this belief […]
Paris/New York/Nexus
James Kalm Rough Cut
James Kalm visits Paris/New York/Nexus at Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects, New York, on view through April 15, 2018. The show features works by Balthus, Leland Bell, Anne Harvey, Jean Helion, Louisa Matthiasdottir, Bob Thompson, and Robert De Niro Sr. Kalm notes: “This presentation focuses on a select group of figurative artists who formed connections […]
Camille Pissarro: The Perennial Student
New York Review of Books
Julian Bell reviews two exhibitions: Camille Pissarro: Le premier des impressionnistes at the Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris (through July 16) and Pissarro à Éragny: La nature retrouvée at the Musée du Luxembourg, Paris (through July 9). Bell writes: “Nearly always, Pissarro composes poems about passing light that can be mapped intelligibly, letting you know just […]
Celia Reisman: A Moment Noticed
Phindie
Lev Feigin reviews Celia Reisman: A Moment Noticed at Gross McCleaf Gallery, Philadelphia, on view through May 26, 2017. Feigin writes: “Only in ‘Echo Park Coral’ do we witness contact between two people. The couple at the lower end of the composition – we only see their heads and shoulders – face each other in […]
Making Work for LS Lowry
The Guardian
Reprinted from May 12,1960, photographer Robert Smithies recounts commissioning a painting from LS Lowry. Smithies recalls: “The steps rose from ruins of a demolished terrace. A lamp-post, bent with age, pointed from the bottom to the surmounting stock brick façade of yet another chapel – the Primitives… ‘Now I really must paint that! What do […]
Richard Raiselis: Interview
Painting Perceptions
Larry Groff interviews painter Richard Raiselis. Raiselis comments: ” I often say that I paint what I see. I do my best to paint the differences that I perceive where colors touch, both inside a form, like the change of color on the sunny and shady sides of a house; and outside the form, like […]
Marc Trujillo: Nowhere and Everywhere
Huffington PostJohn Seed
John Seed interviews painter Marc Trujillo on the occasion of the exhibition Marc Trujillo: Urban Ubiquity at The Bakersfield Museum of Art, on view through May 7, 2017. Trujillo comments: “The chill of the void is alluring to me. These places that are nowhere and everywhere, big stretches of concrete and linoleum give me a […]
Susan Abbott: Interview
Painting Perceptions
Larry Groff interviews painter Susan Abbott. Abbott remarks: “I used to go back and forth on trying to figure out how to construct my paintings. It felt like a very big philosophical issue to me, and was exhausting (much more so than the actual painting) to try to decide whether there was a right and […]
Derek Buckner: Interview
Painting Perceptions
Larry Groff interviews painter Derek Buckner whose work was recently on view at George Billis Gallery, New York. Buckner notes: “… one of the reasons I am drawn to the industrial landscape is because it is visually different than what we see in our usual urban surroundings. The trucks are different, the structures are different, they […]
Clintel Steed @ Steven Harvey
Hyperallergic
John Yau reviews Endymion: Recent Paintings by Clintel Steed at Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects, New York, on view through October 9, 2016. Yau writes: “Steed strokes the paste-like paint onto the surface, creating an uneven tactile skin that is pebbled and brushy. This tactility is at odds with our digital world – its endless barrage […]
Marc Trujillo: Interview
Hilary Harkness: Huffington Post Arts
Hilary Harkness interviews painter Marc Trujillo. Trujillo comments: “Acting is the thing, we’re painters and are supposed to think with brushes in hand, right? This is one of the things that plein-air painting is great for, the clock is ticking, the light is changing, you are mortal and need to act. The deadliest trap is […]