Larry Groff interviews painter Susan Jane Walp about her work, her thoughts on painting, and her development as an artist. Walp remarks "that the concentration of working from observation can be similar to a meditation practice. And perhaps with still life even more so than working from the figure or landscape, because the distractions are
Robin Miller reviews the recent exhibition Jennifer Omaitz: Above Ground, Beneath the Surface at 1point618 Gallery, Cleveland. Miller writes that Omaitz's "work contains layers, not only in the literal sense but also in the many ideas behind it. She works with ideas from the histories of abstraction, architecture, landscapes, natural disasters and tactical responses to
Paul Soto interviews painter Jacqueline Humphries about her work on the occasion of a recent exhibition of new paintings at Greene Naftali, New York. Humphries remarks that in a "passage about the stylistics of film noir [Paul Schrader] talks about how the character, or figure, in noir films, is unlike the figure in Western or
Kyle Gallup reviews the exhibition Katherine Bradford: New Work at Edward Thorp Gallery, New York, on view through May 26, 2012. Gallup writes: "The lush surfaces reveal under-painting and a sense that she is searching for her subjects, allowing them to reveal themselves slowly through the painting process and within their own invented time. The
John Seed talks with painter Mitchell Johnson about his work on the occasion of the exhibition Mitchell Johnson: Are You Going With Me? at Res Ipsa Gallery, Oakland, CA on view from May 4 - June 15, 2012. Johnson observes that in his paintings "the abstraction was always happening, in many ways all of my
After visiting painter Gary Stephan's studio, John Yau muses on Stephan's new work. Yau writes: "Gary Stephan has moved into a place where he is operating without a safety net, where there is no justification or theory that supports what he does, or even the move he makes in a particular work, but there it
James Panero reviews Jack Bush: New York Visit at Freedman Art, New York, on view through April 28, 2012. Panero writes that Bush's "colors are battery powered. His paint application is luminous. His shapes are unashamed. Bush was an artist who came of age relatively late in his career, but he somehow managed to keep
Steve Roden writes about the work of painter Frederick Hammersley, whose work is on view at LA Louver through May 12, 2012. Roden writes: "when i discovered hammersley's organics they felt not only like the perfect antidote to the bombastic gargantuan works of painters like anselm kiefer and julian schnabel, but they also felt like
Erin Langner reviews an exhibition of paintings by Denzil Hurley and Robert Storr on view at Francine Sedars Gallery, Seattle, WA through May 6, 2012. Langner writes that "Hurley's works make the subtle details of Storr's design more poignant and graspable. Conversely, the light, easy pace embedded within Storr's series brings out the heavy, slowness
Mark Stone profiles Brooklyn painter Giles Lyon. Stone writes: "I connected immediately with the paintings. Giles was working in an AbEx style but doing it very self consciously. He was changing the intent of the historical style to make over 'action painting' into a thoughtful reexamination of the act of painting. It was an abstraction
Jonathan Jones previews the exhibition Picasso Prints: The Vollard Suite at the British Museum, London, on view from May 3 - September 2, 2012. Jones asserts that "lay bare his imagination and his creative energy like nothing else he ever did. If every painting by Picasso were to vanish, and only this series of prints
Kent Minturn undertakes and in-depth examination of Clyfford Still's thesis on Cézanne and the clues it provides to Still's early and later development as an artist. Minturn notest that "In his thesis Still eloquently emphasizes Cézanne’s 'tactual' application of paint and takes pains to describe the way his predecessor 'feels' his way around his forms.
Katarina Hybenova interviews painter Rob de Oude about his work and process. De Oude remarks: "The patterns [in my paintings] are completely random. That's a funny thing. I work with many opposites, like the perfection of the line combined with the fact that I do it by hand. It seems very mechanical but actually the
Christopher Joy and Zachary Keeting interview painter Enrico Riley on the occasion of the exhibition Enrico Riley: The Open Window at Giampietro Gallery, New Haven, CT, on view through May 25, 2012. Riley discusses his work and process noting: "I really strive to not have the paintings feel like just compositional games… and maybe in
David Brody reviews the recent exhibition Jane Dickson: Eat Slots, Play Free at Valentine Gallery. Brody writes that "Dickson's steady, sober vision strips the distracting fluff away down to architectural bones that show casinos to be a kind of peopled re-enactment of 20th century abstraction at its most positivist –– from Kandinsky to Frank Stella
A must read article by painter Alan Gouk on the work of Piet Mondrian and Ben Nicholson, on view in the exhibition Mondrian, Nicholson: In Parallel at The Courtauld Gallery, London, on view through May 20, 2012. Gouk offers an insightful analysis of the work of each artist as well as a comparison of their
A review of the recent exhibition Sam Moyer: Slack Tide at Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York. Despite an association with 1960's minimalism, the review notes that "when standing in front of one of Moyer's immense canvases, their dimension seems to be directed more inward than outward. Particularly in light of their oceanic titles, the paintings
Nancy Natale visits four painting exhibitions in New York: Debra Ramsay: Desire Lines at Blank Space (thorough May 19), Reed Danziger at McKenzie Fine Art (through April 28), Catherine Lee: Quanta at Galerie Lelong (through April 28), and Lush Geometry at DM Contemporary featuring work by: Steven Baris, Richard Bottwin, Carole Freysz Gutierrez, Joanne Mattera
D. Cloninger blogs about the exhibition Afro Burri Fontana at Haunch of Venison, New York, on view through April 28, 2012. Cloninger writes that "the gallery sought to create a balanced show that would make evident the original dialogue between the three post-WWII Italian abstract artists and their American contemporaries [de Kooning, Twombly and Rauschenberg]..."
Caleb De Jong reviews the exhibition Pia Fries: Randmeer at CRG Gallery, New York, on view through April 28, 2012. De Jong writes that "Fries visually embeds through her silkscreen technique the 16th century Mannerist prints of Hendrick Goltzius and the Baroque printmaker Stefano della Bella. Mechanically reproduced versions of etched lines interact with viscous