Chris Lowrance interviews painter Kelley Johnson. Johnson comments that his new work "came out of questioning what I want or wish painting could be right now, for me. A type of interaction with the two-dimensional surface and it surroundings and a desire to control the space. I think that sometimes it’s easier to talk about
Joan Waltemath reviews paintings by Cary Smith and Don Voisine at Gregory Lind Gallery, San Francisco, on view through December 20, 2014. Waltemath writes that the show "is heavy on black and white, with notes of color punctuating in concert and alone. Both Smith and Voisine are working out of a tradition of geometric abstraction
Scott Robinson interviews painter Stuart Lorimer. Lorimer remarks: "I’m looking for a non-linear, more elusive image... There is always that contention between the reference image and creating an original picture. These are old painting problems… Perhaps it’s best not to over-think, and make the painting... The fun thing about painting is that you can do
Mark Godfrey interviews Peter Doig about the work of Sigmar Polke on the occasion of the exhibition Alibis: Sigmar Polke 1963–2010, on view at Tate Modern through February 8, 2015. Doig comments that he felt "connected to Polke because of his use of popular imagery in a kind of witty irreverent way, and that he
Christopher Joy and Zachary Keeting visit the studio of painter Alison Hall. Hall remarks that while the subject may be veiled in an abstract painting, its feeling gets "embedded into the work. I think the spirit of that can be felt in an abstract way. It's not like you can identify it or name it,
Valerie Brennan interviews artist Debra Ramsay. Ramsay comments: "My starting process arises from a mixture of my environment and a desire to track something within it. My methods are conceptually rigorous and process-oriented. With a faithful allegiance to geometry and its capacity to reveal profound truths, I work to generate or guide form in precise
Nadja Sayej interviews painter Joanne Greenbaum on the occasion of her show Dysmorphia at Galerie Crone, Berlin, on view through January 31, 2015. Greenbaum notes that "with this group of paintings, a common denominator was the use of the drawing to dictate the form that the paintings would take in the end. I also wanted
Robert C. Morgan reviews works by Ha Chonghyun at Blum & Poe, New York, on view through December 20, 2014. Morgan writes: "These scribbled, marked, and incised paintings are a challenge to consider the importance of our tactile sensations in discovering fulfillment within the cycles of nature. The force contained within these paintings is a
Addison Parks blogs about the paintings of Nina Nielsen on the occasion of her recent exhibition at Bow Street Gallery, Lincoln, MA. Parks writes: "In her textured dream-like paintings ... Nielsen shows us something. She gives us something. A peek at something. A vision of sorts... [these paintings] have that sense of themselves; that completeness;
Joanne Mattera photo blogs a selection of paintings from the Miami Art Fairs. Mattera notes: "There was a lot of painting at the fairs. A lot. Figuration and abstraction, gestural and geometric, contemporary and modern, young artists and veteran painters, from blue-chip galleries and emerging dealers... [this selection is] fairly representative of some trends, including
Sharon Butler reviews 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, Nicole Eisenman, Mark Grotjahn, Charline von Heyl, Rashid Johnson, Julie Mehretu,
John Barrell reviews Late Turner: Painting Set Free at Tate Britain, on view through January 25, 2015. Barrell writes that Turner "was an artist fully engaged in his time, anxious to communicate what he believed were important truths about the (then) modern world, but anxious too to sell work and to attract new commissions. His
David Loncle reviews Pat Passlof: Paintings from the 1950s at Elizabeth Harris Gallery, New York, on view through December 20, 2014. Loncle writes that Passlof "is, by the early 50's, fully contending with the '...world of artist concerns...' introduced by de Kooning and the eclectic cadre of artists in the downtown enclave. These paintings grapple
Reprint of a classic John Ashbery review of Jane Freilicher's 1975 show at Fischbach Gallery, New York. Freilicher passed away earlier this week. Ashbery notes that: "The swift transition from style to style is one of the most remarkable things in Freilicher's painting. The denotative and connotative jostle each other, with no fixed boundaries; a
Painter's Bread
Michael Rutherford interviews painter Brian Cypher. Cypher comments that the work "starts with being open to the observation of everything at all times. It's important for me to have lots of different work happening all at once. I start with unknown marks and it goes on from there; it all begins with an idea that
Tim Keane reviews Robert Motherwell: Works on Paper 1951-1991 at Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York, on view through January 3, 2015. Keane writes that the show "testifies to that still-radical modernist belief that an artist should try for a maximum degree of innovation on behalf of a totally personalized expression. And there is enough varied,
James Kalm video blogs a walkthrough of The Forever Now: Contemporary Painting in an Atemporal World at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, on view from December 14, 2014–April 5, 2015. The show features works by works by Richard Aldrich, Joe Bradley, Kerstin Brätsch, Matt Connors, Michaela Eichwald, Nicole Eisenman, Mark Grotjahn, Charline
Sabine Russ interviews painter Neo Rauch on the occasion of his exhibition At the Well at David Zwirner Gallery, New York, on view through December 20, 2014. Rauch comments: " ...my personnel are closely interwoven with natural processes. This is a precondition that I have to impose on the entire painting from the start as
Rachel Howard profiles painter John Zurier whose work is on view at the Berkeley Art Museum through December 21, 2014. Zurier comments: "Elmer [Bischoff] gave me this idea that you could find the color tone of the painting — all the colors work together to create a very specific tone, and once that’s found, you
Erin Langner interviews painter Emily Gherard. Gherard comments: "I am realizing more and more how important that physicality is to my actual practices. I think it is really fundamentally crucial. My techniques started off as ways to create a particular kind of layer, and they often had connections to the content; the forms that I