Abstract Narrative Painting
Inka Essenhigh @ Miles McEnery Gallery
Hyperallergic
Peter Malone reviews paintings by Inka Essenhigh at Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, on view through May 25, 2018. Malone concludes: “What separates Essenhigh … is her willingness to embrace the implications of her narratives and to share her dramatic intuitions openly with the viewer, without abandoning the improvisational spontaneity of her drawing and painting. […]
Howard Hodgkin: Painting India
The Telegraph Arts
Mark Hudson reviews Howard Hodgkin: Painting India at Hepworth Wakefield, on view through October 8, 2017. Hudson writes: “The paintings he produced in India and in recollection at home are far from straightforward travelogue. For Hodgkin, the subcontinent represented a place apart from the inhibited West, where life was ‘transparent’: with emotion so close to […]
Lee Lozano: c 1962 @ Hauser & Wirth, London
Studio International
Joe Lloyd reviews Lee Lozano: c 1962 at Hauser & Wirth, London, on view through July 29, 2017. Lloyd writes: “Each piece is untitled and diminutive in size. In shape, they range from squares to frieze-like panels… By forcing one to scrutinise closely, the form draws one into Lozano’s domain while distancing it from the […]
Howard Hodgkin: Paintings That Shout
New York Review of Books
Jenny Uglow reviews Howard Hodgkin: Absent Friends at the National Portrait Gallery, London, on view through June 18, 2017. Uglow writes: “It always feels wrong to scatter words around Howard Hodgkin’s paintings. Their tactile richness should just burn into eyes and minds, leaving a trace behind the eyelids, a memory to which we can return. […]
Howard Hodgkin: Absent Friends
Evening Standard
Matthew Collings reviews Howard Hodgkin: Absent Friends at the National Portrait Gallery, London, on view through June 18, 2017. Collings writes: “[the show] … emphasises that [Hodgkin] would cling to subject matter as a taking-off point even though he always departed into abstract realms — but always returned as well, making it clear somehow that […]
Beyond the Surface: Howard Hodgkin (1932–2017)
Apollo Magazine
Martin Gayford’s 2010 profile of painter Howard Hodgkin (1932–2017), republished to mark the artist’s passing this week at age 84. Gayford notes that “[Hodgkin’s] work is deeply paradoxical. For one thing, it frequently looks abstract at first and even second glance, but it is actually figurative and rooted in his experience… Hodgkin is an intensely emotional […]
New Geometries: Embracing Narrative & Content
Two Coats of Paint
Sharon Butler posts excerpts from Alex Baker’s catalogue essay for New Geometries at Fleischer/Ollman gallery in Philadelphia on view through November 12, 2016. The show features works by Martha Clippinger, Gianna Commito, Diena Georgetti, Jeffrey Gibson, Eamon Ore-Giron, and Clare Rojas. Butler notes that “Baker sums up the history of abstract painting and then suggests […]
Sarah Faux: Interview
#FFFFFF Walls
Jonathan Chapline and Lorraine Nam interview painter Sarah Faux. Faux comments: “I think a lot in analogies between the substance of paint and bodily fluid. Like oil paint being a physical oily skin, or poured pigment reading as blood, urine, semen… The physicality of paint and the experience of living inside a fleshy mass are […]
Sarah Faux: Merging Sensibilities
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 […]