Contributed by Jonathan Stevenson / If bad times increase the demand for nostalgia, the current bull market is going to persist for at least another year. But Donald Trump, the ultimate stimulus for that demand, is himself a product of a certain toxic brand of nostalgia – one for a time of white male domination, … read more… “Art and Film: Merchants of nostalgia”
Author: Editor
The Abstract Zeitgeist in Storrs
Contributed by Stephen Maine/ On view at the University of Connecticut’s Contemporary Art Galleries through November 29 is “Constructed,” a lively exhibition of seventeen works by five distinguished midcareer painters whose handling of color—as a kind of visual armature—is inseparable from structure. The show’s curator, Museum Director Barry Rosenberg, calls on Beverly Fishman, Marilyn Lerner, … read more… “The Abstract Zeitgeist in Storrs”
Catalogue essay: Elisabeth Condon’s flowers and the visionary impulse
Contributed by Jason Stopa / Some painting of the last decade presents itself as politically neutral, simply about aesthetic taste, and lacks any stakes. Others still are incredibly didactic, demanding the viewer agree with their sentiment as much as their surfaces. Somewhere in the nexus of this is a painting that acts as a container … read more… “Catalogue essay: Elisabeth Condon’s flowers and the visionary impulse”
Invitation: Houses in Motion, a tectonic tremor
Contributed by Sharon Butler / If you haven’t been to Bushwick lately, you might want to head out to Theodore:Art to see Houses in Motion, a jangly exhibition of contemporary geometric abstract painting. I’ve got a few new paintings in the show, along with popping work by Laurie Fendrich, Richard Kalina, Gary Petersen, and recent NYU grad Eric Santoscoy-McKillip. … read more… “Invitation: Houses in Motion, a tectonic tremor”
Amanda Church: The contemporary gaze
Contributed by Adam Simon / One of the under-appreciated aspects of art viewing is the way that a given work establishes a certain relationship with a viewer. Mark Rothko famously claimed that “lots of people break down and cry when confronted with my pictures.” He may have been trying to fend off a formalist reading … read more… “Amanda Church: The contemporary gaze”
Hans Haacke’s ethical snark
Contributed by Jonathan Stevenson / If mid-century art lovers had thought Robert Rauschenberg’s cheeky erasure of Willem de Kooning’s drawing in 1953 was irreverent, they might have revised their definition of the term twenty years later, when Hans Haacke tendered them detailed questionnaires about their backgrounds and attitudes as they entered the John Weber Gallery, … read more… “Hans Haacke’s ethical snark”
Melissa Capasso: Good vibrations
Contributed by Jennifer Rose Bonilla-Edgington / It’s the visual vibrations, both from individual paintings and from the show as a whole, that first call the viewer to Brooklyn-based artist Melissa Capasso’s work, on view at Jennifer Wroblewski’s gallery Gold/Scopophilia in Montclair. Vibrant and predominantly abstract, Capasso’s small-scale paintings suggest beats of life flowing from one piece to the next.
Frankie Gardiner: Painting the unknown
Contributed by Martin Bromirski / Frankie Gardiner lives in an old house across from a barn at the curve of a narrow road. Her yard is almost overgrown, the forest is closing in. With the lights out inside her house, near the end of an August day, I visited to see her paintings. A figure … read more… “Frankie Gardiner: Painting the unknown”
Art and Film: Mark Asch’s New York
Contributed by Jonathan Stevenson / Rivaled only by Los Angeles among cities celebrated in American cinema, New York deserves its own pointedly knowing and satisfyingly chunky essay on films set there. Now the city has one, in the form of Mark Asch’s New York Movies, the latest volume in Little White Lies Magazine’s Close-Ups series … read more… “Art and Film: Mark Asch’s New York”
Matthew Miller: Inside the near-perfect black
Contributed by Jonathan Stevenson / Brooklyn-based Matthew Miller, recognized as an extraordinary figurative painter for some time, recently held an open studio in anticipation of a three-person show in Copenhagen. Included among three paintings slated for display is an unusually complex one for him, magnificent in both its solemn, old-world dignity and its cagey, contemporary fusion … read more… “Matthew Miller: Inside the near-perfect black”