James Kalm visits an exhibition of paintings by Ross Bleckner and Volker Eichelmann at Sargent's Daughters, New York, on view through March 15, 2015. From the press release: "In this exhibition, Bleckner presents a group of 18 inch paintings, which span a period of roughly twenty years. This is the first time Bleckner has exhibited
Jack Livingston interviews painter Patrick Burns. Burns comments: "In the last few years the central image silhouette is chosen as much for its formal properties as its literal meaning, the cephalopods and now the thorn-thistle images. What I mean by that is that the silhouette contains an evocative presence both visually and mechanically. Mechanically, for
Thomas Micchelli reviews Jason Karolak: Polyrhythm at McKenzie Fine Art, New York, on view through March 22, 2015. Micchelli writes: "The visual riddles posed by Karolak’s paintings — their refusal to settle into a single perspective and their devilishly complex accumulation of elements — tether their freewheeling abstraction and neon color to an unknowable reality.
Anna Heyward reviews In the Studio: Paintings, curated by John Elderfield, at Gagosian Gallery, New York, on view through April 18, 2015. The show features paintings of the artist's studio by Wilhelm Bendz, Honoré Daumier, Thomas Eakins, Lucian Freud, Jean-Léon Gérôme, William Hogarth, Matisse, Picasso, Constantin Brancusi, Alberto Giacometti, Louis Moeller, Alfred Stevens, James Ensor,
Carl Belz writes about the work of Debra Ramsay and Alex Paik for their exhibition Generative Processes at TSA Gallery in Bushwick, Brooklyn, on view from February 20 to March 29, 2015. Belz writes: "Both of these artists employ a conceptual system of one kind or another to generate and guide their work and –
Chris Miller reviews Her Work at McCormick Gallery, Chicago, featuring paintings by Mary Abbott, Janice Biala, Lynne Drexler, Perle Fine, Gertrude Greene, Charlotte Park, Vivian Springford, Yvonne Thomas, and Michael West. Miller writes: "With the work of nine painters from the New York School in the 1950s, Chicago dealer Thomas McCormick has collaborated with several
Painter's Bread
Michael Rutherford blogs about paintings by Sarah Faux. Rutherford writes: "There's been much said about how abstraction is very prevalent in contemporary painting these days, but there are those who are producing some wonderful work in a unique figurative vein as well, with precedence found in artists such as George McNeil and Amy Sillman. The
In a the second part of a two-part article (Part 1 here), Gwenaël Kerlidou considers the work of largely forgotten School of Paris painter Bram van Velde. Kerlidou writes: "In van Velde’s painting, the ego, distanced from the act of painting, becomes the pained spectator of its own 'failures.' The structure that Cubism offered was
Tyler Akers reviews Margrit Lewczuk: Me,We, curated by Suzy Spence, on view at The Gallery @1GAP, Brooklyn through April 23, 2015. Akers writes that "in [Lewczuk's] work one might sense the organic symmetry of Ukrainian or Mexican folk art, the vibrating illusions of ’60s Op art or Islamic textiles, the expressively abstracted mathematics of Agnes
Julia Schwartz interviews painter David Lloyd. Lloyd commetns: "I start with a concept but it inevitably changes in the course of making the work. I can’t conceptualize a whole painting ahead of time nor do I want to. For me paintings have a life of their own. If I leave myself open the painting will
Jonathan Goodman reviews the recent exhibition Eric Holzman: Small Paintings at Lori Bookstein Fine Art, New York. Goodman writes: "Painting, which is far from dead, is in the hands of Eric Holzman singingly alive... Holzman bravely undertakes the recording nature in all its particularity, a stance still capable of engaging, even moving the viewer in
Matthew Bollinger considers Gregory Gillespie's painting Self-Portrait on Bed (1973-74). Bollinger writes: "When I saw Self-Portrait on Bed in person ... I immediately walked up close to it. As I approached, the painting switched from comprehensive illusion to a fragmented material world. Some of the paint Gillespie allowed to act as itself—the painted palette in
Francesco Dama reviews Marlene Dumas: The Image as Burden at Tate Modern, London, on view through May 10, 2015. Dama writes: "Dumas never paints from life. She would rather work from photographs, images cut from magazines or newspapers, postcards, reproductions of artworks from every period and style... the [recent Luc Tuymans] case draws attention, once
John Seed interviews painter Dan McCleary whose show Every Day Sacred is on view at the USC Fisher Museum through March 7, 2015. McCleary remarks: "I will have the model come and pose for drawings and sometimes a photograph. The models return many times and pose in sets I build in the studio... It can
Larry Groff interviews painter Elizabeth O'Reilly about her work. Responding to a question about "looking at nature closely as a means of getting out of your head," O'Reilly comments: "I think that it stops me being self-conscious because it’s not something that I carefully set up and have this serious thought about which object goes
Stephen Westfall reviews Nicholas Krushenick: Electric Soup at the Tang Museum at Skidmore College, on view through August 16, 2015. Westfall writes: "Krushenick's work is too Pop for the abstract purists and too abstract for Pop's populism. Maybe that's why it doesn't look dated in the least... Krushenick's paintings are akin to representation in the
James Kalm visits Gary Petersen: Not now, but maybe later at THEODORE:Art, Bushwick, Brooklyn. The video includes an extended interview with Petersen about the work in the show and a short interview with gallerist Stephanie Theodore.
Nora Griffin, Becky Brown, Dennis Kardon, Carrie Moyer, Raphael Rubinstein, and Jason Stopa discuss The Forever Now: Contemporary Painting in an Atemporal World at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, on view through April 5, 2015. The show features works by works by Richard Aldrich, Joe Bradley, Kerstin Brätsch, Matt Connors, Michaela Eichwald,
Mary Ann Caws reviews Jon Schueler: The New York Years, 1975-1981 recently on view at David Findlay Jr. Gallery, New York. Caws writes: "After studying with the great and eccentric Clyfford Still at the California School of the Arts, exhibiting with the Abstract Expressionists in New York, and having endured stints of teaching on the
Charley Peters interviews painter Sharon Hall about her work. Hall comments: "The paintings evolve from a starting point that uses simple geometry for dividing up the overall surface area through an implicit and rational use of proportion. I have always tried to avoid complex mathematical or geometric permutations in my works, and I strive for