James Kalm visits an exhibition of works by Robert Ryman at Dia:Chelsea, New York, on view through June 18, 2016. Kalm notes: "This show presents a wide survey of various experimental and conceptual approaches to the project of painting. Since beginning his practice in the mid 1950s, Ryman has limited his materials to mostly white
Jordan Amirkhani reviews Mary Addison Hackett: A Tin of Egyptian Cigarettes at Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta, on view through February 6, 2016. Amirkhani observes: "While the studio paintings lend the exhibition an important theme, it is Hackett’s dialogue with painting itself that provides the coherent pulse. Whether a studio scene or a vibrant explosion of
Ed Schad writes about unexpectedly encountering Alexander Rodchenko's triptych Pure Red, Pure Yellow, and Pure Blue (1921) on a trip to Mexico City. Having been fascinated by the story of this work for decades, Schad notes: "I poured over the surfaces, but there was nothing to see other than cracks and age and fraying edges.
Joanne Mattera photo blogs a walkthrough of The Onward of Art: American Abstract Artists at 1285 Avenue of the Americas Gallery, New York, on view through March 25, 2016. In the exhibition brochure, curator Karen Wilkin writes: "The founders of AAA believed implicitly in the power of autonomous, non-representational images to communicate profound ideas and
Jacqueline Gourevitch reflects on Piet Mondrian’s Oval with Colored Planes (1914) in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gourevitch writes: "for the sheer immediacy of seeing what lies at the heart of making a painting, I turn to this early Mondrian. I want to look closely at how this painted surface,
Kelly Reaves reviews works by Scott Wolniak and John Phillip Abbott at Devening Projects + Editions, Chicago, on view through February 13, 2016. Reaves writes: "With nods to studio noodling, [Abbott's paintings] seduce with flashy neon hues and sexy pools and swirls of paint. They start on unstretched canvas first used for sopping up spills
John Yau reviews Allison Miller: Speeds at Susan Inglett Gallery, New York, on view through January 30, 2016. Yau writes: "Miller’s process isn’t to cover the canvas with paint so much as to cover and uncover it, to interrupt, upend or subvert an expectation. For her, a canvas isn’t a surface to which another uniform
Zachary Keeting and Christopher Joy visit the studio of painter Michael David. David remarks: "I came up from the roots of AbEx and from punk and I learned all the academics but my goal was to make paintings that when they went on the wall were undeniable. And your experience with them was not well
As part of the Brancaster Chronicles studio visit series, Hilde Skilton, Mark Skilton, Anne Smart, Anthony Smart, John Pollard, Alexandra Harley, Nick Moore, Robin Greenwood, Sarah Greenwood, Noela James visit the studio of painter Patrick Jones. Painters' Table interviewed Jones in 2012.
Martha Schwendener reviews Dana DeGiulio & Molly Zuckerman-Hartung: Queen at Lyles & King, New York, on view through February 7, 2016. Schwendener writes: "DeGiulio’s paintings take a simple trope, the floral still life, and remake it into a black-and-white postpunk-type affair. Call it Manet for the millennium, after his late flower paintings... If ... DeGiulio’s
James Kalm visits an exhibition of paintings by Jonathan Lasker at Cheim & Read, New York, on view through February 13, 2016. In his intro to the video Kalm writes: "These paintings continue Lasker's investigation into the operations of perception, as well as how viewers might decipher various visual codes of abstraction. Kalm ponders the
Franklin Einspruch reviews Painting Tranquility: Masterworks by Vilhelm Hammershøi at Scandinavia House, New York, on view through February 27, 2016. Einspruch writes: "... Hammershøi began painting unqualified masterpieces while still in his mid-twenties. It’s not excessive to say that Woman Seen from the Back (1888) recalls Vermeer’s treatment of women in the midst of domesticity.
Robert C. Morgan reviews Odili Donald Odita: The Velocity of Change at Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, on view through January 30, 2016. Morgan writes that over the course of his career "Odita has focused on diagonal, hard-edge color combinations, emphasizing color values and varying hues. His intention is not to illustrate color theory in
Janet McKenzie interviews painter Carole Robb. Robb remarks: "Drawing is essential to me; I use it as a means of investigation. I use it to probe. I draw when I have a structural/formal painting problem and I draw from observation to collect specific information for a painting, so I draw a lot. I don’t draw
Sharon Butler blogs about the exhibition Color Matters at The Painting Center, New York, on view through January 30, 2016. The show features works by April Hammock, Barbara Campbell Thomas, Becky Yazdan, Carla Aurich, Claudine Metrick, Kimberly Thorpe, Fukuko Harris, Louise P. Sloane, Marianne DeAngelis, Ophir Agassi, Ruth Ava Lyons, and Stephanie Franks. Butler writes:
Tamar Zinn blogs about the work of Ilse D'Hollander, on view at Sean Kelly Gallery, New York through February 6, 2016. Zinn writes: "In her intimately sized canvases and works on paper, D'Hollander transformed elements from the landscape and built world into abstractions, alternating between vigorous visual statements and more tentative, suggestive explorations. The tension
Larry Groff interviews painter Eve Mansdorf. Mansdorf comments: "I often want a tension between formal elements such as form, light, color and other elements that are more subjective and psychological. I guess the Freudian part is the psychological aspect of the painting. The Kantian part is the formal part... When you’re doing figure painting, one
Alex Greenberger profiles painter Jack Whitten. Greenberger notes: "By the mid-’70s, Whitten had leapt into total, process-based abstraction, and had even switched media—he stopped working with oil paint all together and took up acrylic because it dried faster. His 'Slab' paintings, the works shown at the Whitney in 1974, were very much of their era,
Jennifer Samet interviews painter Gregory Amenoff. Amenoff comments: "Landscape, as an idea, has to do with longing. Paintings are alternate worlds – worlds unto themselves, manifested by each artist to satisfy a desire to fill a void. One summer I taught with Per Kirkeby at Skowhegan and he said that paintings are more real than
Megan Abrahams writes about the work of Sarah Cain whose installation The Imaginary Architecture of Love was recently on view at the Contemporary Art Museum (CAM), Raleigh, North Carolina. Abrahams writes: "[Cain's] work encompasses the range from gestural, loose and playful marks to controlled repeated lines and shapes that define sections of composition, like measures