Jerry Weiss reviews Richard Estes: Painting New York at the Museum of Arts and Design (through September 20) and John Dubrow: Transformations at Lori Bookstein Fine Art (through April 25). Weiss writes that Estes' "cityscapes are straightforward in their depiction of surfaces—usually architectural but occasionally organic—and as free of social commentary as one could imagine.
John Yau reviews Julia Fish: Threshold at David Nolan Gallery, New York, on view through April 25, 2015. Yau writes: "[Judith Russi] Kirshner gets to the heart of Fish’s paintings when she advances that the artist’s 'close focus allows her subjects to become unhinged from their referents, to become inexplicable.' I would further advance that
Jeffrey Collins photo blogs a visit to Ralph Humphrey: Conveyance at Garth Greenan Gallery, New York, on view through May 16, 2015. The gallery press release notes: "The exhibition focuses on the Conveyance paintings, a singularly important, emotionally fraught body of work, created between 1974 and 1977. The paintings—hulking masses of casein and modeling paste
James Kalm visits an exhibition of works by Mara Held, Margrit Lewczuk and Meg Lipke at David Findlay Jr. Gallery, New York, on view through May 9, 2015. Kalm notes that these three painters have "achieved unique visions through independent approaches, to not just formal issues like color, line and shape, but who've also experimented
In a new video, artist Katharina Grosse discusses the use of color in her work. Katharina Grosse: The Smoking Kid will be on view at Johann König Gallery, Berlin from May 2 - June 21, 2015. Grosse comments: "...color is such an very, very important spatial feature in my work in relationship to the crystallized
Jennifer Samet interviews painter Jason Stopa on the occasion of his exhibition Double Trouble at Hionas Gallery, New York, on view through April 25, 2015. Stopa observes: "At the end of the day I am most interested in [the paintings] being read as formal images. I am less interested in images that are solely based
Paddy Johnson reviews Alice Neel Drawings and Watercolors 1927-1978 at David Zwirner, New York, on view through April 18, 2015. Johnson writes that Neel's images of "parks, beaches, political rallies, and even illustrations for the Brothers Karmazov (1938)—that offer some respite from a show otherwise defined by portraits that expose the sitter in some way.
Sharon Butler reviews Peter Halley: Big Paintings at the Florence Griswold Museum, on view through May 31, 2015. Butler writes: "Halley’s strict visual language is clear enough and his political underpinnings are well documented. Yet his nine enormous paintings, with the shifts in the shapes, sizes, and configuration of their three primary geometric elements, also
Altoon Sultan blogs about Walter Darby Bannard: Minimal Color Field Paintings, 1958-1965 at Berry Campbell Gallery, New York, through April 18, 2015. Sultan writes: "Bannard's color is unique and surprising. In the exhibition ... there are pinks and warm reds and cool greens, and all colors confound expectations with their pleasurable seriousness. After all...pink? When
Deborah Garwood reviews Judith Simonian: Foreign Bodies, Recent Paintings at Edward Thorp Gallery, New York, on view through April 18, 2015. Garwood notes that "Simonian demonstrates a genius for color, texture, and the exploration of spatial conundrums. Twenty canvases, worked in acrylic, range in size from a mere eight by ten inches to as much
John Goodrich reviews In the Studio: Paintings, curated by John Elderfield, at Gagosian Gallery, New York, on view through April 18, 2015. Goodrich writes: "In the Studio may be a rambling journey, but as [curator John] Elderfield writes, it’s intended not as a survey but as a speculative 'essay on the history of studio painting.'
Simon Carr reviews Langdon Quin: Recent Paintings at The Painting Center, New York, on view through April 25, 2015. Carr writes that in Quin's painting Down & Out (2013) "the foreground tumbles steeply down at the base of the canvas. The eye is launched into a sharp decline before rising up again with another hillside.
James Kalm visits the exhibition Post Analog Painting at The Hole, New York. The show includes works by Trudy Benson, Mariah Dekkenga, Robert Otto Epstein, Mark Flood, Jeanette Hayes, Adam Henry, KATSU, Misaki Kawai, Jonathan Lasker, Rachel Lord, Neil Raitt, Josh Reames, Joe Reihsen, Nathan Ritterpusch, Michael Staniak and Matthew Stone. Kalm notes that the
Ashley Garrett interviews painter Brenda Goodman about her work and career. Goodman's recent paintings are on view at Life on Mars Gallery, Bushwick, Brooklyn, through April 19, 2015. Goodman remarks: "I don’t get in front of a painting and think I’m going to be open or I’m going to be vulnerable or I’m going to
Janet McKenzie interviews painter and printmaker Frances Walker. Walker comments: "This is what it is all about: to be able to communicate with someone I haven’t even met. For me, that is what making art is all about. I am not making works to sell, that is a byproduct. I’m not doing them to impress
As part of the Backstory series, Andrew Baron reflects on his work. Baron's solo exhibition Welcome Fellow Travelers is on view at R.Jampol Project(s), New York through May 10, 2015. After years of incorporating text in his paintings, Baron writes that in his recent work: "I abandoned the use of text in my painting, but
Jackie Wullschlager reviews From Giotto to Caravaggio: The Passions of Roberto Longhi at the Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris, on view through July 20, 2015. Wullschlager writes: "A century ago Italian art historian Roberto Longhi radically reconsidered Renaissance pictures in the light of the contemporary avant-garde... [this exhibition] is a thoughtful, sensitively selected, exquisite connoisseur’s show recounting
Larry Groff interviews painter Kurt Moyer. Discussing his series of paintings of bathers, Moyer comments: "The Barnes and Philly collections are so full of bather-themed paintings by Cezanne, Renoir, and Matisse that I just accepted 'Bathers' as a subject for painting that was as common-place to me as 'Landscape' or 'Still life'. I admire Cezanne’s
Ken Carpenter profiles Canadian abstract painters Jack Bush and Jock Macdonald. The retrospective of works by Jack Bush will be on view at the Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton (May 30 - August 23, 2015.) and Jock Macdonald: Evolving Form is on view at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, Ontario (through May 24) and will
John Yau reviews Brenda Goodman: New Work at Life on Mars Gallery, Bushwick, Brooklyn, on view through April 19, 2015. Yau writes: "There are few contemporary artists who can make a convincing narrative painting, one that doesn’t devolve into a mere story. Brenda Goodman is one of them. Her densely packed surfaces convey a state