Contributed by Jonathan Stevenson / Swiss-American photographer and filmmaker Robert Frank is now 94, which means he has been in the midst what he calls a “natural disaster” – old age – for at least fifteen years. Yet when he was 80, as Gerald Fox trailed him for Fox’s 2005 documentary Leaving Home, Coming Home: … read more… “Art and Film: Robert Frank’s will to believe”
Centenary: Mira Schendel
On the occasion of the centenary of Swiss-Brazilian artist Mira Schendel’s birth (she was born on June 7, 1919), Henry Alsopp, the director of Hauser & Wirth London, visited her daughter Ada and grandson Max. Over the course of two days, they discussed Schendel’s courage during World War II, the challenges she faced during a difficult childhood, and the travails … read more… “Centenary: Mira Schendel”
Interview: Emma Soucek on curiosity and loss
Contributed by Linnéa Borgo / On a hot Brooklyn afternoon, Emma Soucek and I met at Safe Gallery to discuss her two-person show with the late Maddy Parrasch. The three of us had been students at Rhode Island School of Design before Maddy died in a car accident shortly after she had completed her thesis in December … read more… “Interview: Emma Soucek on curiosity and loss”
Art and Books: Joanne Mattera remembers
Contributed by Sharon Butler / How artists apprehend the world is framed largely by their early experiences. Yet, unless artists achieve blue-chip success, we rarely get a firm handle on what those experiences might have been. That’s why Joanne Mattera’s memoir Vita makes compelling reading. Artists like Mattera don’t measure their success by rising auction … read more… “Art and Books: Joanne Mattera remembers”
Eric N. Mack and Vivian Suter: How to fill a space
By Kristen Clevenson / Eric N. Mack‘s exhibition “Lemme walk across the room“ at the Brooklyn Museum and Vivian Suter’s eponymous show at Gladstone Gallery are ostensibly similar. Both artists have completely transformed white cube spaces with thoughtfully hung, colorful, unstretched artworks. Mack’s installation, both commanding and purposeful, remains an assembly of individual artworks. Suter, on the other hand, … read more… “Eric N. Mack and Vivian Suter: How to fill a space”
Barbara Laube’s coexisting states of mind
Contributed by Carol Diamond / What is the difference between being with a person and seeing a picture of her, FaceTime versus a coffee date, eyeing a digital image of an artwork and standing in front of it? Perhaps we assume that we know the answer: one is real and one is not. But the … read more… “Barbara Laube’s coexisting states of mind”
Two Coats Selected Gallery Guide: June 2019
UPDATED June 25, 2019 / In June Basel hosts the international art world from Tuesday, June 11, to Sunday, June 16, so beware that NYC openings will be sparse and a slew of #artbasel2019 posts will be flooding your Instagram feed. At the end of the list this month, we’ve added a “Roadtrip” section that includes … read more… “Two Coats Selected Gallery Guide: June 2019”
Roadtrip: Marie Harnett and Kristian Evju at the Albers Foundation
Contributed by Sharon Butler and Stephanie Theodore / This spring, we visited Marie Harnett, a London artist who was in residence at the Josef + Anni Albers Foundation in Bethany, Connecticut, and her visiting guest, Kristian Evju. During a two-month residency, Marie worked steadily on a series of highly detailed graphite drawings based on altered images from films. Unlike other programs, the Albers … read more… “Roadtrip: Marie Harnett and Kristian Evju at the Albers Foundation”
A quiet roar: Build a house, dig a hole, in Hartford
Contributed by Neil Daigle-Orians / Walking in to Hartford’s Artspace Gallery, the viewer is immediately struck by a large, hand-painted green screen. Merging the analog with the digital, Michael Siporin Levine’s set up for Vision Test lingers outside the context of his performative projection. Looking across, we see paintings by Blake Shirley and Erin Koch Smith … read more… “A quiet roar: Build a house, dig a hole, in Hartford”
Art and Film: Joanna Hogg’s sublime deliberation
Contributed by Jonathan Stevenson / In the autobiographical film The Souvenir, writer-director Joanna Hogg’s fourth and latest feature and a gemlike crystallization of her seamless method, she uses Jean-Honoré Franogard’s eighteenth-century canvas of the same title to set the terms of the budding relationship between Julie, the film’s ingenuous protagonist, and the older Anthony, a … read more… “Art and Film: Joanna Hogg’s sublime deliberation”