Julie L. Belcove interviews painter Cecily Brown whose work will be on view at Maccarone Gallery, New York through June 20, 2015. Brown comments: "With the small ones ... I’d deliberately not get back from them and look, then at the end of the day be like, Whoa! It had become this very dense world,
Susan Heywood reviews exhibitions by Josh Dorman (though May 16) & David Martin (through May 30) at John Martin Gallery, London. Heywood writes of Dorman: "Precise and painstakingly drawn illustrations which predate the slick, glossy anonymity of photography feed the eclectic imagination of this American artist. Dorman’s pen and brush work has a delicacy and
George Melrod reviews two recent exhibition: Monique van Genderen: Manufactured Paintings and Brad Eberhard: Screen Gems at Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects. Melrod observes that the shows "showcased two savvy, LA painters who have chosen almost diametrically opposed paths to engage the medium, with all of its historical baggage; yet both showed glimmers of hope
Jason Stopa interviews painter Wendy White whose show Double Vanity is on view at Sherrick & Paul in Nashville, through June 13, 2015. White comments: "In a way, I think all my work challenges the very basic notion that anything truly exciting can happen within the stupid rectangle. I like putting painting in a subservient
Jody Zellen reviews the recent exhibition Mernet Larsen: Chainsawer, Bicyclist, and Reading in Bed at Various Small Fires, Los Angeles. Zellen writes: "Larsen’s paintings have a purposeful naiveté, a quality that is also prevalent in the works of younger painters including Jonas Wood and Avery Singer, who are known for works that flatten space and
Susan Silas interviews painter Joan Semmel. Across Fives Decades, a retrospective of Semmel's work is on view at Alexander Gray Associates, New York, through May 16, 2015. Semmel comments: "I never thought of myself, when I switched over, as a 'figurative painter.' Never. I never made the break. I was never figural. What I was
David Carrier reviews Bill Jensen: Transgressions at Cheim & Read, New York, on view through May 9, 2015. Carrier observes: "By sticking to his guns at times when abstraction has been beleaguered, [Jensen] earned our respect—and the right to be boldly experimental. That said, this is the strangest show, by miles, of a famous artist
Charles A. Riley II reviews Syd Solomon: Swingscape, Paintings from the 1970s at Berry Campbell Gallery (through May 23) and Larry Poons: New Paintings at Danese/Corey, New York (through May 29). Riley writes: "The great critic and curator Robert Pincus Witten once observed that 'Poons instrumentalizes chance (the very hallmark of Abstract Expressionist painting).' The
Will Corwin interviews painter Andrea Belag. Belag comments: "I use brushes, rags, knives, and I do walk around the painting in order to have a continuous stroke... I think that gesture is somewhat misunderstood and I don't think it's what my work is about. Although it is a way of getting yourself into the painting.
Hunter Braithwaite interviews painter David Salle whose work is on view at Skarstedt Chelsea (through June 27) and Dallas Contemporary (through August 23). Salle comments: "The main quality of image culture is its relentlessness. My experience of my own work is somewhat different. Of course we all grow up awash in images, more or less
Ellen Gamerman interviews painter Alex Katz whose work is on view at Gavin Brown's Enterprise, New York, through June 13, 2015. Gamerman begins: "One morning. That’s how long it takes Alex Katz to start—and finish—a painting. This high-speed routine has repeated itself many mornings, for many years. Such remarkable productivity would be a feat for
James Panero reviews six New York shows: Keith A. Smith: The Fabric Works: 1964–1980 at Bruce Silverstein (through June 6), Karen Schwartz: Down the Rabbit Hole at Life on Mars Gallery (through May 31), Mel Bernstine at McKenzie Fine Art (through May 3), Graham Nickson: Spectrum at Betty Cuningham Gallery (through May 22), Louise P.
Paul Behnke photo blogs a studio visit with painter Richard Timperio whose work is on view at Andre Zarre Gallery, New York through May 9, 2015. Behnke notes: "Timperio's bold color and interlocking forms lay the groundwork for the paintings' formal concerns and create a backdrop for primed canvas outlines, imperfections in the surface, and
Jack Hartnell writes about the work of Joyce Kozloff whose work was recently on view at DC Moore Gallery and is on view in Mapping Brooklyn at the Brooklyn Historical Society, through September 6, 2015. Hartnell writes: "The political and the decorative remain intertwined in Kozloff’s work, the urgency of her social commentary never far
Laura Mylott Manning interviews painter Todd Bienvenu. Bienvenu comments: "If you get personal in the work it’s more likely to resonate in a universal way. My friends show up in the paintings, drinking buddy as muse. They all start as automatic drawing, abstract marks and then I see an image in the mess and it
Jennifer Samet interviews painter Jason Karolak whose work is on view in the group exhibition Full Tilt at Novella Gallery, New York, through May 10, 2015. Karolak comments: "I want to have one form in the painting at the end. It may have multiple elements or a network-like feel. But I still want it to
Jeremy Harding reviews and exhibition of works by Richard Diebenkorn at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, on view March 14 - June 2, 2015. Harding concludes: "The last room celebrates Diebenkorn’s return to abstract painting. We’ve understood by now that his career was not a single, mechanical oscillation from abstract through figurative and back,
James Kalm talks with painter John Dubrow at his recent exhibition Transformations at Lori Bookstein Fine Art, New York. Kalm notes that "Many of [Dubrow's] paintings have undergone years of revisions and repainting. The resultant surfaces and compositions bare the patina of this long struggle."
Rachel Williams reviews Charline von Heyl: Düsseldorf: Paintings from the early 90s at Petzel Gallery, New York, on view through May 2, 2015. Williams writes that von Heyl is "known for an eclectic style which admires both the natural and the constructed. Serving as a window into the painter’s early work and artistic roots, [the
Bradley Rubenstein reviews Bill Jensen: Transgressions at Cheim & Read, New York, on view through May 9, 2015. Rubenstein writes: "Jensen strives for an ego-less, unpretentious practice devoid of preconceived outcomes, surrendering to the painting process, allowing it to determine the path and destination of his work. His intensive layering and reworking of the canvas