Piri Halasz reviews Larry Poons: Choral Fantasy at Loretta Howard Gallery, New York, on view through February 13, 2016. Halasz writes: "Entering [the gallery] is like walking into the middle of Niagara Falls, or being confronted by the descending lava of a volcano—all as frozen for eternity by a modernist photographer like Brassaï..." Halasz adds:
Maria Calandra visits the studio of painter Matt Phillips whose show Comfort Inn is on view at Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects, New York through February 6, 2016. Calandra writes: "With multiple points of entry, Phillips' work is generously made. The larger canvases, which often depict familiar fantastical structures straight out of a sixties psychedelic
John Yau reviews Katherine Bradford: Fear of Waves at Canada, New York, on view through February 14, 2016. Yau writes: "These are Bradford’s “Deluge” paintings — that’s what I mean by breakthrough. She has done something unforeseen — the envisioning of an all-consuming catastrophe of biblical proportions. She is not only updating Guston’s own take
George Lawson interviews painter Alan Ebnother on the occasion of Ebnother's exhibition twelve paintings at George Lawson Gallery, San Francisco, on view through February 20, 2016. Ebnother comments: "With my love of a paint structure thicker and heavier then history provided me, I was forced to study and learn how to create a thick paint
Roberta Smith reviews paintings by Sally Michel at D. Wigmore Fine Art, New York, on view through February 13, 2016. Smith writes: "This excellent exhibition sheds needed light, presenting about 30 of Michel’s paintings from the 1950s... Mostly landscapes, they are clumsier but also more intense, less Olympian than [husband Milton] Avery’s works. They tend
James Campion reviews Natalie Dower: Reflections, at Eagle Gallery, London, on view through January 16, 2016. Campion writes: "All the works in the show sit on a spectrum of decipherability... I think it might be fruitful to evaluate each of Dower’s works in terms of her ‘management of decipherability’. One can think about how successfully
Xico Greenwald reviews Jane Freilicher and Jane Wilson: Seen and Unseen at the Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, New York, on view through January 18, 2016. Greenwald writes: "Despite all they have in common, in this show [Freilicher's and Wilson's] differences stand out. While working in the same place at the same time, moving in
David Rhodes reviews works by Ann Pibal at Lucien Terras, New York, on view through January 17, 2016. Rhodes writes: "Pibal’s art is not one of cool formalism. There is a precision here that does not exclude either intellect or sensual pleasure. Neither of these attributes is reduced because of the presence of the other;
Piri Halasz reviews Carolanna Parlato: A Delicate Balance and Sandy Walker: Stehekin Poems at Elizabeth Harris Gallery, New York, on view through February 13, 2016. Halasz writes that Parlato's "earlier work ... was conspicuously (if attractively) dripped and/or poured." In this show Halasz adds, "Parlato employs acrylic and molding paste to create many small to
Rob Kaiser-Schatzlein interviews painter Clare Grill. Grill comments: "What I do as a painter is to paint a lot. It's part of what we all do as artists, doing a lot of work over and over again. In a way being an artist is growing your gut muscle and that tells you when you have
Yifat Gat interviews painter Valerie Brennan. Brennan remarks: "I don’t think each painting is an isolated event, so I find myself starting with the last paintings I made in my mind, sometimes painting what I have done before, and to go forward, I must destroy that and let the new painting reveal itself. When I
Group discussion: Anne Smart, Anthony Smart, John Pollard, Alexandra Harley, Nick Moore, Robin Greenwood, Sarah Greenwood, Hilde Skilton, Mark Skilton, Noela James, Patrick Jones, Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann, Matthew Dennis, Andrew Revell, Bob Aldous, Fred Pollock discuss the collages of artist John Bunker. Opening the discussion with a short statement, Bunker comments: "For me [scale] a bit
Altoon Sultan blogs about the recent exhibition Mary Heilmann: Geometrics: Waves, Roads, etc., at 303 Gallery, New York. Sultan writes: "With a quick glance, we might think that Mary Heilmann is a formalist abstract artist, concerned with issues of shape and color, with the unity or breaking of the picture plane. But, what to make
James Kalm visits Janet Fish: Glass & Plastic, The Early Years, 1968-1978 at DC Moore, New York, on view through February 13, 2016. Kalm notes: "As a serious painter, battling against both the historic legacy of Abstract Expressionism, and the contemporary steamroller of Minimalist dogma, Fish concentrated on capturing the delicate and transient effects of
Sharon Butler blogs about the paintings of Mariam Aziza Stephan, whose show Undercurrents is on view at The Gezira Art Center, Cairo, Egypt, through January 12, 2016. Butler writes that in Stephan's paintings: "Multiple forms are situated in the same space, and different points in time are revealed at once. At first glance the paintings
Joseph Nechvatal reviews Karel Appel at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, on view through January 11, 2016. The show will be on view at the Pinakothek der Moderne/Staatliche Graphische Sammlung from February 4 April 17, 2016. Nechvatal writes: "Appel was one of our best, last bets on visceral enthusiasm, so if anyone can restore zeal to
Fiona Maddocks profiles painter Rose Wylie whose work will be on view at Turner Contemporary, Margate (January 12 - March 13) and at Chapter, Cardiff (February 13 – May 29). Maddocks writes: "[Wylie's] eclectic inspirations include Almodovar and Tarantino, as well as Egyptian art, Pompeii, fashion, jewels, regalia, uniforms. She has also painted, less typically
Anna McNay reviews Munch : Van Gogh at the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, on view through January 17, 2016. McNay writes: "While both painters’ lives were filled with anguish, their paintings remain somehow appealing and accessible to the masses, not just because of the bright colours and often simplified compositions, but because of the depth
Sarah Granett interviews painter Hearne Pardee. Pardee comments: " I combine work inside and outside the studio. I’m really concerned with perception, with observing, through painting on site, which I then combine and edit in the studio. That editing process goes in two directions. One is going in and dissecting the painting by using colored
Scott Indrisek reviews a show of works by Jacqueline Humphries at the Contemporary Art Center of New Orleans, on view through February 28, 2016. Indrisek writes; "Upstairs, a gallery outfitted with black lights provides a coolly psychedelic environment for a series of canvases painted with ultraviolet enamel pigments. What might have been a nifty gimmick