Chelsea Spin, Part 2: Past and Present: Poons, Olitski, Noland, Zakanitch, Fish + Moyer

Larry Poons, Choral Fantasy - recently closed at Loretta Howard.
See installation shots here: Larry Poons at Loretta Howard

Large acrylic poured paintings from the 1970s

Color neutralized and then brought out by layers of poured paint

Resulting in clotted surfaces that unexpectedly open in places

Larry Poons

Jules Olitski at Kasmin in the exhibition Plexiglass. See installation photos and press  release here: Olitski at Kasmin link

Detail

At age 64, Olitski began experimenting with plexiglass surfaces, layering paint and mediums on the slick surface to receive his "paint suspended in air" spray technique. 

Balancing the goopy underpainting. 

The paintings are synthetic--on plexi surfaces, made with acrylic~but gleam and glow face on.

Olitski.

Kenneth Noland at Paul Kasmin in a gorgeous show of color. See installation photos here: Kenneth Noland at Kasmin

Ravishing neutrals in odd configurations.

Noland.

Robert Zakanich at Nancy Hoffman in his new exhibitions of works on paper, In the Garden of the Moon.
Hello, Moon. Hello, Duck!

Installation shots here: Robert Zakanitch at Nancy Hoffman

What a gorgeous, inspiring, joyous show, filled with love of light, life, and funny birds.

I was not expecting to love this show as much as I did - the quality of the patterning, offset with simple but inspired views of the moon from Zakanitch's garden delighted the eye.

From a statement on the gallery's website, but not the beautiful statement included in the show, Zakanitch writes,
"An artist always internally carries within him/her, consciously, and more unconsciously, imagery and nuances he or she loves. It is what shapes the work."

Last stop for this view: Janet Fish at DC Moore in Glass & Plastic, the Early Years, returning to the sub motif of works made in the 1970s on view in Chelsea. Exhibition installation shots here: Janet Fish at DC Moore

Simply gorgeous paintings, beautifully designed investigations of surface. 

Janet Fish.

Next and current: Carrie Moyer, who reveals in her first exhibition, Sirens, at DC Moore, the legacy of all the acrylic pour painting seen above. Link to exhibition here: Carrie Moyer at DC Moore. In Moyer's hands, the muted tonalities of letting paint go spring into jeweled action, sometimes literally with the use of glitter. The above screenshot is my favorite painting in the show, but there are many delicious encounters with the balance of hard, opaque shapes and glistening pours she has perfected over the years, based on an early love of Elizabeth Murray's work and small collages that prompt her paintings. (This information is fresh from reading Jennifer Samet's Beer with a Painter with Moyer, just published on Hyperallergic).