Saturday, April 16, 2016

April Chelsea Afternoon

Elena Sisto at Lori Bookstein Fine Art - The Mistress of Black
Bookstein Gallery Link

Like Manet and Velasquez, deep, rich color where one thinks there is none

The green book jacket is such a spring surprise in this painting

More blacks

Venetian or Indian red undertone - so lovely with the violet

There is a fine density in the paintings, both from the oil medium and attention to detail, that veers from almost realistic to a combination of the observed and the gestural. 

This painting, by the front desk, is one such example.

At David Zwirner, Raoul de Keyser.
Zwirner Gallery Link

Off-handed, charming, but canny and knowing, as well.

Beautiful overall painting

That balances bright and dull greens

Some other, very small (14 x 12?) paintings on the far wall in the second gallery

Including this charcoal beauty

One has the feeling of the painter musing, which has been mentioned in the press, but the compositions do speak to sustained observation


Raoul de Keyser

A gorgeous Sterling Ruby at Skarsdedt, in the David Salle-curated show Nice Weather
Skarsdedt Gallery Link

Detail - cloth on cloth (the flesh tone is a visibly woven surface, more like a muslin)

Cecily Brown bumping up the scale from her 2014 show of small paintings (Secret Gardens) at Macaroni

Cecily Brown, Detail - in Nice Weather

Chris Martin - this is simply a gorgeous painting, big and lush with all of my favorite materials, fluorescent and glitter

Rashid Johnson, distressed surfaced portraits

Rashid Johnson, detail

Sterling Ruby, Lucy Dodd and Cecily Brown - installation view

Mary Weatherford. These are simple, but elegant paintings.

Rashid Johnson portrait on the way out of this excellent show.

Jennifer Bartlett, paintings from 2007-11 at Paula Cooper
Paula Cooper Gallery Link

I confess to being a long time, ardent Bartlett fan, and enjoy her take on the grid via 'trainer' brushes used for decorative painting

The four separate brushes on one handle add a hallucinatory effect to straightforward landscapes and revel in the application of marks, consistent with her work

The landscape subject matter is seemingly benign, a vehicle for paint, but I have always sensed the  tenor of danger within

Detail

She is painting her homes

And skies

An early work from the series, 2007. So glad Paula Cooper is showing this work again.

Gary Stephan at Susan Inglett. Susan Inglett Gallery Link
One image only, as the gallery was small and two artists were exhibiting. Though I enjoyed the premise and tongue-in-cheek relationship between painting and sculpture, the placement of the sculpture in the middle of the floor was profoundly annoying. The pantings were more developed and would have benefitted from an emptier space.

Barclay Hendricks at Jack Shainman. Formally,  the exhibition at Studio Museum remains his recent best.

Melissa Meyer's calligraphic paintings at Lennon, Weinberg - my favorite, black on titanium buff and pale yellow ground

Monday, April 11, 2016

Wave Hill: Art / Landscape

(Not So) Still Life at Wave Hill's Glyndor Gallery: read about it here: Wave Hill exhibition link
Here, Beth Lipman's Cut Table, 2014, made with glass, glue, wood and paint, courtesy Claire Oliver Gallery.

Nicole Cohen's site specific video overlay of the Hudson River with 18th c. Dutch master Jan van Huysum's Fruit  Piece 

Jessica Jackson Hutchinson

In the sun room, an installation with screen print on Japanese paper by Tai Hwa Goh.
This is a small detail. There is a Meet the Artist event May 14 at 2 PM; she was also present at the exhibition opening.

The paper is screen printed then folded or cut at an ambitious scale~the images you see here surround a central core of larger-scale works




Likening natural forms to bodies, Goh creates eruptions and tunnels through the plant like forms

Looking out onto the sunroom, a jungle of tropical plants!
The confluence between the Everglades and Hudson River landscapes gets me thinking...
Adam Brent's painted digital prints (the texture below flows forth, like a waterfall) and bric-a-brac collages set into recessed areas at Glyndor House's front entrance, part of (Not So) Still Life

Magnolia tree~ 

Fecund spring landscape



The grounds beyond the greenhouse - just waiting to burst into flower

Tree like an old ship, or mountain - 

At Wave Hill House, Rachael Wren's Turning Point (2016)
24 x 24 detail) from her solo exhibition "The Edge of Place"
Old Growth, 2014, 48 x 48 inches - reminiscent of Andrew Forge's approach
Detail 
And, detail
Rachael Wren, Recurrence, 2016, 24 x 24 inches, in situ
Rachael Wren, Endless Season, 2016, 48 x 48 inches
The touch is light, the surface matt, the color subtle, the grid solid~holding steady amidst the vagaries of season and climate change

In the Wave Hill House Tea Room, Caroline Larsen's Fruit and Foliage paintings. The marks are assembled from cake-decorating materials, physically laid on board to create doodle-inspired, textural patterns that comprise the images. 


Close to my heart, the artist seeks to conjoin her love of pattern with Larson's Sarasota, FL childhood environment.

The paintings are framed in color, which in this case (Black Lace, 2015, oil on board, 20 x 16 inches) is a hot fluorescent pink that pulsates against the brilliant blues, so space billows in and out.

Pathways on the Wave Hill property, formerly a private home (where Mark Twain lived two years) 
Its sweeping scale and gorgeous grounds  uphold the great tradition of private estates: Yaddo, Miami's Deering Estate and Viszcaya, among others
The color of the smallest flower launches untold ideas
The greenhouse closed before I could get there~so, a tantalizing glimpse through the doors.