Christopher Howard reports on a recent conversation between Olivier Mosset and Marie Heilich at Parapet/Real Humans, Saint Louis. Howard writes: "Mosset affably stated that he has no strategy, does what he wants, and cannot control trends. 'I’m basically interested in abstract painting,' he said, and somehow people are attracted to what he does. Heilich questioned
Marvin Aguilar writes about the work of Nathan Pankratz which was recently on view at Bridgette Mayer Gallery, Philadelphia. Aguilar writes: "Looking at the titles, the show is undeniably an homage to love and how it reveals itself to people. Yet the show also is a metaphor for the artist’s love of interacting with paint.
Kim Connerton interviews artist Erik Parker on the occasion of his exhibition Undertow at Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York, on view through January 23, 2016. Parker comments: "I am trying to pack as much into a painting as I can ... I am trying to make loaded paintings because we live in a loaded time...
Joyce Kozloff considers the work of Liubov Popova. Kozloff writes: "After the passage of a full century, shouldn’t we recognize the uniqueness of a [Varvara] Stepanova or [Nadezhda] Udaltsova as readily as we do with [an Alexander] Rodchenko or El Lissitzky? Over the years, I have returned again and again to Liubov Popova, whose art
Claude Smith profiles painter John Phillip Abbott, whose work is the subject of two exhibitions: Turquoise Sunset at Devening Projects + Editions, Chicago (on view from January 10 - February 13, 2016) and On Any Sunday at Pierogi Gallery, New York, (on view from January 8 – February 7, 2016). Smith writes: "'Tennis,' 'Cosmos,' 'Pontiac,'
Maria Calandra visits the studio of painter Jennifer Coates. Calandra notes: "Coates is a painter's painter. She evokes the chaos of Pollock's drips in one canvas and divides a grilled cheese or doughnut down the middle like Barnett Newman's 'zips' in another, while the landscape between two cookies of an ice-cream sandwich oozes with the
Jane Durrell profiles painter Cole Carothers. Durrell writes: "What is happening here is that [Carothers], trained when Abstract Expressionism ruled the art schools, in his own work turns to representational depiction and makes abstraction an ingredient but not the reason for being. Carothers’ paintings pull the viewer in, are not quite literal so produce the
Allie Biswas interviews Ruth Root on the occasion of Root's exhibition Old, Odd and Oval at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut, on view through April 3, 2016. Root comments: "'Odd', to me, means 'hard to describe'. The paintings are almost like flattened sculptures that have been turned into paintings. Otherwise, they could be
Robert Moeller interviews painter Lisa Yuskavage on the occasion of her exhibition The Brood, recently on view at the Rose Museum at Brandeis University. The show will be on view at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis from January 15 - April 3, 2016. Yuskavage comments: "There are entrenched prejudices against all things female, and
Patricia Albers reviews Between Life and Death: Robert Motherwell's Elegies in Bay Area Collections at the de Young Museum, San Francisco, on view through March 6, 2016. Albers writes: "Among the most powerful in the de Young’s exhibition is SFMOMA’s 7 x 9-foot oil and charcoal Elegy to the Spanish Republic, No. 57. Here, as
David Carrier reviews a recent show of works by Doron Langberg and Gaby Collins-Fernandez at at Danese/Corey, New York. Carrier writes: "A little suspicious of the intrinsic power of visual images, Collins-Fernandez ... turns to words, gathered from overheard city conversations, and fabrics, materials that have a very different visual identity... Her materials, she rightly
Arthur Peña interviews painter Joyce Pensato on the occasion of the exhibition FOCUS: Joyce Pensato at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, on view through January 31, 2016. Pensato comments: "I’m taking the ways of Abstract Expressionism in the way I apply paint but I don’t censor pop culture from my work. I’m combining
Rachel Schwartz reviews Andrea del Sarto: The Renaissance Workshop in Action at the Frick Collection, New York, on view through January 10, 2016. Schwartz writes that the show "offers a rare chance to explore the drawn sources of this artist’s paintings... The works range from schematic sketches of multiple figures with faces, hands, and feet
Jeff Jahn remembers painter Ellsworth Kelly (1923-2015). Jahn writes: "As one of my favorite artists what I appreciated most in Kelly's work was his way of sharing the otherwise impossible world of pure, concentrated observation. As subjectivity demands, conveying what one individual apprehends necessitates a kind of distillation and transposition into abstraction. Usually something is
Amy Weiskopf writes about Carlo Carra's, Natura Morta con la Squadra (1917) in the Museo del Novecento, Milan. Weiskopf begins: "If Pompeian still life frescos and Cubist still life paintings had a baby, Carlo Carra’s Natura Morta con la Squadra would be that child. Within the positivism of those Pompeian paintings and the analytic nature
Hilton Als interviews painter Celia Paul on the occasion of the exhibition Desdemona for Celia at the Metropolitan Opera Gallery (curated by Als) on view through January 2, 2016. In his curatorial statement Als writes: "The majority of Paul’s paintings—or the majority of the paintings I saw then—were of women: her mother primarily and then
Joanne Mattera photo blogs an extensive selection of paintings from the 2015 Miami Art fairs including Art Basel Miami Beach, Untitled, Pulse, NADA, and Miami Project.
Rebecca Allan remembers painter Robert Berlind. Berlind's work will be on view at Lennon, Weinberg, Inc., New York from January 9 - February 13, 2016. Allan writes: "The movement of Berlind’s vision reminded me of the gestures of a Tai Chi practitioner, gradually encompassing all dimensions of space (and time). We sense the scanning and
Peter Schjeldahl reviews a retrospective of works by Robert Ryman at Dia:Chelsea, New York, on view through June 18, 2016. Schjeldahl writes: "Ryman’s reductions of painting to basic protocols are engaging only to the extent that you regard painting as an art that is both inherently important and circumstantially in crisis. You must buy into
Gwendolyn Zabicki interviews painter Matthew Metzger. Metzger comments: "I am tied to the belief that paint can be alchemic in a way. I think the illusion that paint has the capability of reconfiguring itself through becoming something other than itself has always been fundamental to painting. ... I know it sounds ridiculous or perhaps a