Letting Paint Do What It Will

Andrea Belag's buoyant exhibition of new paintings, Inheritance, at Morgan Lehman. Gallery Link

Belag has changed the surface of her work, as far as I have seen, to expansive, oil-ground linen substrates that hold each gesture or swipe with transparent clarity. 

The inheritance in this work is a freedom, expansiveness, and lightness that has achieves maximum velocity, celebrating life and those who have lived, in paint. Belag works in silence, processing recent deaths of those close to her. As I write, I am listening to her interview with Brainard Carey (accessible on gallery link). This exhibition continues the expansiveness of Belag's bold MTA station (U Station, F Culver Line).

Beautiful swipes that creates a geological strata under and over which paint flows and changes.

Guston-esque huddled shapes, over and under swipes. Belag uses six colors, works improvisationally, and often makes a painting a day (Carey interview).

 

A work on wood; a promise for the expanse on linen.

Installation view. This is a gorgeous show.

Bobbie Oliver's new exhibition, Residuals, at High Noon Gallery.  Gallery Link
These images are horrible! Please check link for more accurate views.

Oliver also attends to surface; the pours of color that she uses as a meditative focus in a time of great upheaval disperse in a variety of ways, enhanced by the substrate's weave and prime.

It is notable to me that Oliver, in her early artistic development, worked for Isauu Noguchi and LaMonte Young, masters of the minimal and elegant.