John Matthews reviews Justin O'Brien: The sacred music of colour on view at the Art Gallery of New South Wales through February 27, 2011. O'Brien (1917-1996), an Australian artist, is best known for painting religious themed paintings with a saturated palette. Matthews writes "One thinks of modern artists appropriating the formal traits of the Renaissance
Matthew Farina writes about the exhibition Thought Patterns: Paintings by Rachael Wren and Julie Shapiro on view at The Painting Center through January 29, 2011. Farina notes that although the artists "entertain stylistically diverging approaches..." the paintings require "steady or prolonged perception from a viewer... both artists have given us a reason to remain in
SPREAD Artculture's Kiša Lala blogs about the stories of martyrdom depicted in paintings by Carlo Dolci and Artemesia Gentileschi at Sperone Westwater. The exhibition showcases "a collection intended to showcase the importance of post-renaissance Italian art, highlighting the lesser luminaries coming after Rafael, Michaelangelo and Leonardo."
(*Editors Note: The link above is the permalink to the video page. Currently the video is not playing from that page. If you have difficulty please visit the Vernissage TV homepage. It is well worth the extra click). Vernissage TV video about the work of Polish artist Wladyslaw Strzeminski (1893-1952). Strzeminski was a student of
Sperone Westwater's current exhibition Italian Paintings from the 17th & 18th Centuries includes a newly attributed “Portrait of an Unidentified Man” by Artemisia Gentileschi. Kyle Chayka writes that the portrait "shows a slyly grinning figure posted in contrapposto with both hands alighted on hips. The dark, swirling black clothing that the figure wears is another
An exhibition of little known paintings by Don Dudley is on view through February 19, 2011 at 1-20 Gallery. Artnet's Charlie Finch tells the story of the redicovery of this "...subtle body of work, done on aluminum panels, which the Los Angeles-born Dudley had exhibited in Germany in the 1960s."
James Wagner visits a novel exhibition of painting, "Battle of the Brush" in Bryant Park, NYC. The show pits "abstract" painters vs. "realist" painters in a tongue-in-cheek mock battle; a clash as obviously senseless as any taking place around the world today. Wagner remarks that the show is "one of the most creative art shows
Although favoring the paintings of Velázquez for years, painter Altoon Sultan discusses how time widens our perspective on paintings of the past. She writes: "I no longer want to have a 'favorite artist'; I see so much that moves me and enriches my life and my work. Now I see the clarity of the artists
Kyle Chayka reviews Jennifer Bartlett, Recitative at Pace Gallery. The exhibition installation is a single 158 foot long work. However, Chayka writes, "What at first appears to be a gallery-size abstraction coalesces into a didactic walk-through of art at the atomic level and a joyful celebration of what it means to make a purposeful artistic
Nancy Natale visits the Mark Bradford exhibition at the ICA Boston. Natale discusses the materials and techniques Bradford employs: "... the works have a very strong physical presence, not only because of their enormous size but because of the thick layers of paper, the rough surface, their usually tattered bottom edges and the sense of
Presenting photorealist work by painters such as Ralph Goings, Richard Estes and Chuck Close alongside photographs by Jeff Wall, Andreas Gursky and Thomas Ruff, the exhibition Hyper Real at MUMOK "looks into the history of the interrelationship of painting and photography up into the present, presenting numerous important international positions."
While David Hockney is still making paintings the old fashioned way Culture Monster's Barbara Isenberg reports that "The art-making medium he’s using most these days is the iPad, brother to the iPhone, which he took up earlier. Whether he’s lying in bed or driving through snow-covered woods, his ever-ready iPhone and iPad are always by
In her second post in a three part series on "The Plane" Joanne Mattera highlights work by Steven Alexander and Taro Suzuki at Heidi Cho Gallery and Sven Lukin's paintings at Gary Snyder Project Space. Lukin's shaped paintings break the picture plane and jut out into the gallery.
A James Kalm Report via Two Coats of Paint. Kalm visits Deborah Brown's exhibition at Lesley Heller Gallery. Sharon Butler notes that Kalm "compares Brown's paintings to those of Loren MacIver, who depicted the objects and incidents of her daily life in a fragile, ethereal style reminiscent of Marc Chagall and Paul Klee."
Excellent installation views of Sergei Jensen's exhibition of paintings and works on paper at Portikus in Frankfurt. Jensen's abstract paintings are accompanied by his drawings of dogs in an adjacent gallery. "Jute, linen, and colorful fabrics now on standardized stretcher frames and now on frames he builds himself are the materials Sergej Jensen uses as
New City Art reviews Judy Ledgerwood’s exhibition Chromatic Patterns for Chicago. "Ledgerwood deftly appropriates Color Field abstraction’s scale and subsequent power to activate space and affect viewers by drenching Hoffman’s front room in prismatic vibrations." The exhibition includes "Two large paintings applied directly to opposite walls of the gallery... [and] dyed-urethane foam blobs (Blob Paintings)"
Dougal McKenzie links to an interesting essay about artist Henry Darger, Realms of the Unreal by Stephen Prokopoff. The essays title refers to Darger's own "picaresque tale in 12 massive volumes composed of some 19,000 pages ... entitled The Story of the Vivian Girls, in what is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of
Larry Groff posts about Martin Gayford's book Man with a Blue Scarf: On Sitting for a Portrait by Lucian Freud. The book "reveals what it was like having Lucian Freud paint his portrait over the course of seven months. It is an engaging read with many interesting moments as Lucian Freud discusses his work, art
In the wake of the blockbuster Abstract Expressionist New York exhibition should MoMA be considering retrospectives of George McNeil and Norman Bluhm rather than another Willem deKooning exhibition? Mario Naves thinks so. What do you think?
Artist bloggers are doing interesting things these days, including curating exhibitions on their blogs. Click to see Pamela Farrell's blog invitational show Pink. Blog exhibitions are an excellent idea, one I hope more bloggers will consider. Farrell's statement is at the top of the post. Scroll down for the paintings. Enjoy.