Award-winning NYC blogazine, primarily about painting
Friday, October 22, 2021
Contributed by Sangram Majumdar / On the occasion of her first exhibition, beautifully installed at Thomas Erben Gallery, Janice Nowinski and I talked about how time presents itself in every aspect of her paintings – from references to art and personal histories, to the very material qualities of the work.
Contributed by Paul Laster / Blurring the boundary between abstraction and figuration, Ilana Savdie makes colorful canvases that take the eye on a rollercoaster ride through splashes of paint, flesh and body parts. A recent Yale MFA grad who has continued to work in New Haven over the past year […]
Contributed by Jonathan Stevenson / In the 1940s, Philip Guston noted that the problem with figurative art was that it “vanishes into recognition.” By 1960, he was griping about the conceit that abstract art was “autonomous, pure and for itself.” The tension implied by these two conflicting but evidently valid […]
By Laurie Fendrich / Critics have been lavish in their praise of the Brown, queer-themed figurative paintings by the Pakistani-born Brooklyn artist Salman Toor, currently on view in the Whitney Museum’s first-floor lobby gallery (free of charge to the public). And rightly so. Toor’s pictures touch the heart, and his […]
Contributed by Elisabeth Condon / I’ve been stalking Deborah Brown’s paintings on Instagram, excited about a new series of still lifes. As far as I can tell they originated with #selfportraitwithzeusandpeacockscreen, posted on August 3rd. The painting features dramatic black and white, pushes color out to the sides and flings […]
Contributed by Rebecca Chace / Julie Heffernan is primarily known for her large-scale figurative paintings that seamlessly merge a rococo sensibility with contemporary content. Since “Hunter Gatherer,” her 2018 solo show at PPOW in New York, she has been working on her first graphic novel, fusing drawing with memoir and […]
Contributed by Jonathan Stevenson / The Trump administration has tried to physically cordon off Mexico from the United States, and presumably would just as soon exclude the country from America’s cultural orbit as well. From that perspective, the Whitney’s judiciously conceived exhibition “Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists Remake American Art” is […]
Contributed by Sangram Majumdar / I have known Gideon Bok’s paintings from before I knew Gideon. Like many of his musical idols, he has an unusual cult following that eagerly awaits the twists and turns in his work, which manages to maintain a thematic focus while, at the same time, […]
Contributed by Sharon Butler / Susan Rothenberg’s invariably forceful and confident paintings have a beguiling twitchiness, created out of layers of agitated brushwork from a restless hand. In her latest solo at Sperone Westwater, she continues to embrace a non-serial approach, presenting paintings and drawings of various objects and animals […]
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 […]
Thoughts on that small Yuskavage painting
A twelve-inch canvas Lisa Yuskavage included in her exhibition at David Zwirner upstages the entire show and much of the work the artist has exhibited to date.
Two Coats Selected Gallery Guide: October 2021
Welcome to the Two Coats of Paint painting-centric guide to gallery exhibitions in New York City.
Bad Boyfriends and Pink Bathers : A conversation with Janice Nowinski
Contributed by Sangram Majumdar / On the occasion of her first exhibition, beautifully installed at Thomas Erben Gallery, Janice Nowinski and I talked about how time presents itself in every ...
Elizabeth Murray in Buffalo and for the ages
Contributed by Dana Tyrrell / From 1965 to 1967, Elizabeth Murray – a towering presence in contemporary painting who died in 2007 – lived and worked in Buffalo, New York ...
Art and TV: Professor T, an extraordinary burst of mind
Contributed by Laurie Fendrich / Boy did the otherwise on-the-mark Guardian television critic Lucy Mangan get it wrong. In her 2017 review of the Flemish detective series Professor T, ...
Line: Chance drips, hesitant brushstrokes, calligraphic gestures, notional timelines, yarn, and builder’s caulk
Contributed by Sharon Butler / "Walk the Line" at Platform Project Space in DUMBO presents a variety of line, from chance drips, hesitant brushstrokes, spontaneous calligraphic gestures, and notional timelines ...
Transmitter: Painting’s undying versatility
Contributed by Jonathan Stevenson / Painting is persistently and emphatically alive and well. Indeed, the notion that it is dead – or, more kindly, moribund – is so vapid and ...
Transformation: Douglas Melini’s new work at Miles McEnery
Contributed by Sharon Butler / When I saw Douglas Melini’s new work at Miles McEnery (on view until October 16), I was surprised how much it had changed since I ...
Nathaniel Robinson’s train of thought
Contributed by Sharon Butler / When Nathaniel Robinson takes the train from Brewster, New York, down to the city, he snaps pictures along the way. Hastily cropped and blurry in ...
Stacy Lynn Waddell: Moving backwards to jump ahead
Contributed by Jonathan Goodman / In “Mettle,” Stacy Lynn Waddell’s expansive show at Candice Madey, the artist embraces different cultures throughout the world: Malian life in the 1960s; nineteenth-century American ...
