Contributed by Ken Buhler / One afternoon last summer I decided to go to the National Gallery in London. I was in upstate New York, idly turning the pages of a book of Italian paintings, when I came upon Piero Della Francesca’s Baptism. Its geometric perfection and its eloquence struck me full-on. The plan for the … read more… “Two Pieros for Mary Hambleton”
William Powhida’s inquisition
Contributed by Jonathan Stevenson / For a while it looked as though William Powhida might be painting himself into an existential corner. His mission was to sensitize his audience to the hypocritical churn of the art market – to the reality that what made producing something putatively nobler and loftier than money viable was in fact … read more… “William Powhida’s inquisition”
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”
Studio Visit (at last) with Lucy Mink
Contributed by Jason Andrew / Lucy Mink was the first artist I came to know solely through Facebook. She didn’t live in Brooklyn but in rural Contoocook, New Hampshire, and I became cyber-obsessed, waiting for each new post from her studio. What I saw then and continue to see today in Mink’s work is an embrace of the kind … read more… “Studio Visit (at last) with Lucy Mink”
Rachel Howard: A fascination with madness
Contributed by Sharon Butler / British painter Rachel Howard is in town this month, presenting “L’appel du vide,” her first New York solo show, at Blain|Southern. Howard is known for a visceral, intuitive approach to abstraction that embraces painting, sculpture, and work on paper. Last week, after she’d finished installing the show, she and her old friend (and Brooklyn gallerist) Stephanie … read more… “Rachel Howard: A fascination with madness”
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”
Two Coats Selected Gallery Guide: September 2019
UPDATED / The number of painting shows in the September guide is truly impressive. Highlights include Loie Hallowell’s first solo show at Pace, Elizabeth Hazan’s debut at Johannes Vogt, and William Powhida’s first NYC solo in five years at Postmasters (also at Posmasters: Diana Cooper’s first solo there in six years). Lisson is presenting work by French painter Bernard Piffaretti, whom they now represent, … read more… “Two Coats Selected Gallery Guide: September 2019”
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”
Elisa Lendvay: Waltz of charms
Contributed by Liz Ainslie / For several years I have watched Elisa Lendvay’s sculptures emerge with a winning combination of grace and wonkiness from the cement floors and drywall corners of Bushwick spaces, and appear as jewel-like talismans atop the pedestals of Midtown galleries. “Rise,” Lendvay’s solo exhibition at Sargent’s Daughters on the Lower East Side, … read more… “Elisa Lendvay: Waltz of charms”
Neue Galerie’s “degenerate” art and Babylon Berlin
Contributed by Jonathan Stevenson / Neue Galerie’s compellingly incisive exhibition, titled “Eclipse of the Sun: Art of the Weimar Republic” and anchored by Georg Grosz’s 1926 painting Eclipse of the Sun, yields an ominously resonant tableau of a post-World War I Germany saturated with angst. Grosz’s busy, quizzical work depicts an aloof and corrupt Paul … read more… “Neue Galerie’s “degenerate” art and Babylon Berlin”