Christina Kee reviews the exhibition Claudia Chaseling: Infiltration at SLAG Contemporary, Brooklyn, on view through August 30, 2012. Kee writes that Chaseling's "small but ambitious show consists of a video, a handful of canvasses and a large, vaguely squid-shaped wall painting that appears to be divulging, or perhaps digesting, a number of discrete miniature paintings
Altoon Sultan blogs about American paintings in the collection of the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut. Sultan writes: "There is a strain in American painting that takes its essential character from the primitive, from a desire to grasp hold of things, to make them present and tangible. It's a reality that goes beyond the visual
Daniel Galas blogs about the work of Wu Guanzhong, recently on view in the exhibition Revolutionary Ink: The Paintings of Wu Guanzhong at the Asia Society, New York. "What is so striking about Guanzhong's work is that it is so fresh, simple, modern, and ancient. It is amazing how he has transformed traditional Asian art
Victoria Webb interviews painter Ryan Coleman about his work and process. Discussing influences Coleman remarks: "I tend to lean toward abstraction and obscuring the subject matter or imagery into something which contains a shroud of mystery. I’m drawn to work that has a bit of this mystery in it, and one artist in particular who
John Yau explores the portraits of Giovanni Battista Moroni on view in the exhibition Bellini, Titian, and Lotto: Northern Italian Paintings from the Accademia Carrarra, Bergamo at the Metropolitan Museum, on view through September 3, 2012. "What is striking about Moroni’s portraits is that he seems never to have retreated into a style, never flattered
Piri Halasz reviews the exhibition Edouard Vuillard: A Painter and His Muses at The Jewish Museum, New York, on view through September 23, 2012. Halasz writes: "In other paintings in this latter part of the show, one can see Vuillard's style evolving backwards, so to speak, from post-impressionism to something more like impressionism. Still, he
Craig Stockwell visits the Vermont studio of painter and blogger Altoon Sultan. Stockwell writes that Sultan "has moved into a rich, connected and powerfully self-directed engagement in a wide field of artistic endeavor and questioning. She is living art rather than simply going to the studio... At present there are several different projects going on,
Review of the exhibition Michael Bevilacqua: An Ideal For Living at Gering & López Gallery, New York, on view through August 24, 2012. "The tension between [the] two readings of linear narrative and archaeological accretion is what makes the 'spatiality' in Bevilacqua's painting at least potentially 'eerie': unsettling yet intriguing, and suggestive that something might
Mario Naves reviews the exhibition Josef Albers in America: Painting on Paper at the Morgan Library, New York, on view through October 14, 2012. Naves writes: "The majority of Josef Albers in America is dedicated to informal studies on paper. Covered with scrawled notations, flurried applications of color and grease stains, they reveal Albers’s rigorous
Richard J. Goldstein looks at the recent work of Stephen Posen which merges painting and photography. Goldstein writes: "Access and memory are two words that come to mind when viewing Posen’s work. His initial question of communication in turn became one of recognition. How does the viewer comprehend recognizable space through added layers of concealment?
Philip Koch blogs about the exhibition George Bellows at the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., on view through October 8, 2012. Koch writes that "Bellows was a school mate of... Edward Hopper and Rockwell Kent... at the New York School of Art. All three showed a marked influence from their teacher, the charismatic Robert
Painter Mike Cockrill discusses his new work with James Kalm. Kalm notes that "After nearly forty years of working as a figurative painter, with a background of training at the Pennsylvania Academy of Art, and battling notions of aesthetic good taste with his own weird version of 'bad painting,' the unexpected has happened. Cockrill has
Christopher Joy and Zachary Keeting visit the studio of Franklin Evans. Evans discusses multiple elements of his art practice including abstract painting, trompe l'oeil, collage, and installation, and sound works. The video includes a sample of one of Evans' sound pieces playing while the camera pans the studio. Evans' exhibition eyesontheedge was recently on view
Jonathan Beer and Lily Koto Olive interview painter Kristine Moran about her work and process. Moran comments: "...because my work depends largely on the painting process itself, even the most detailed sketch will at times translate into something completely different on canvas. For the most part, the paintings tend to morph into unexpected territory as
Martin Bromirski photo blogs installation photos from the recent exhibition Brenda Goodman: Paintings at John Davis Gallery in Hudson, New York. In a 2007 interview with David Brody, Goodman said about her work: "I... move back and forth between abstraction, figuration and the combination of the two a lot in my work as well as
James Gibbons writes about the link between Miró’s politics and the experimental nature of his paintings as seen in the exhibition Joan Miró: The Ladder of Escape is on view at the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. through August 12, 2012. "Seeking to understand the politics of Miró’s art, as the Ladder of Escape
On the occasion of the exhibition Matisse: Doubles and Variations on view at the National Gallery of Denmark, Cohenphagen (through October 28 - opening at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York on December 3), Franklin Einspruch makes an observation about Matisse's technique: "underpainting. Specifically, grays. The colorist of the century worked his magic on
Robin Greenwood considers "an important and relevant question to ask (time and again) about abstract art: what does distinguish it from design?" He continues: "Matisse's late work does contribute quite prominently, if not iconically, to a certain strand in the conjunction of modernism and abstraction which blurs the distinction between art and design, and more
Sharon Butler blogs some of Ellsworth Kelly's thoughts on being in the studio. "Unlike most other painters I know," Butler writes, "Kelly likes to paint in silence..." Ellsworth Kelly: Plant Drawing is on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York through June 5–September 3, 2012.
After viewing the recent exhibition Vaulting Limits with works by Cao Jigang, Lin Yan, Wei Jia, Xiao Bing, and Yuan Zuo at the Tenri Cultural Institute, New York, Robert C. Morgan reflects on the development of ink painting among contemporary Chinese painters. Morgan writes "I am taken by the fact that many artists are seemingly