LES: Coffey, Hesidence, Calabrese

Susanna Coffey, Crimes of the Gods at Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects through June 30th. Here, a print on paper, a counterbalance to the large abstract painting and a thesis for the woodcut prints of Greek myths that inform this show. Do not miss this show Coffey fans! Gallery Link

We get the backstory on the portraits Coffey is renowned for... 

In the large, epic abstraction of Greek myths featuring Demeter and Persephone

Amidst a lush, psychological landscape Coffey brilliantly links to #MeToo.

Here, a skull shocking in its nakedness and depth of vision.

Across from this portrait that integrates both facets of Coffey's painting.

The paint is rich and infused by the large abstractions and woodcuts made around the same time, circa late 1980s, when I first knew Coffey's work. Form and formlessness, their endless dance.

Daniel Hesidence at CANADA in his solo exhibition, Placeholders (this show closed May 27th. The gallery link images are superior in every way to these iPhone images). Gallery Link

I love this artist for the way he applies paint; surface and color are always interesting and change from show to show.

Detail. 

Also closed, the elegant Kristin Calabrese's Message To The World at Brennan and Griffin (closed May 27th). Gallery Link

Press release says, "The five works on view are still life paintings of crumpled and stained canvas. The prosaic subject of the paintings provide a surprisingly complex and mysterious reading which slowly unfolds, having ramifications both within and beyond the physical boundaries of the canvas."

Here is an overexposed detail to show the quality of paint handling throughout Calabrese's surfaces.

I loved these elegant paintings (2015-2018). On one hand, opaque surfaces, but on the other, worlds within worlds.

Another overexposed detail - see the color changes adding up to dark.

One with some color stained on to canvas surface within the painting.

Installation views.

There is another exhibition I saw but did not photograph, which closes June 16th: Sarah Peters' Figureheads at Van Doren Waxter, 195 Chrystie St. Just go. You can read all about it through the gallery link and John Yau's incisive Hyperallergic review, but even elegant images will not prepare you for the physical reality of the figures in situ. Gallery Link

This can be safely said about any of these shows and so many others - there is simply no substitute for the real thing.