Filed under: New York, Review | Tags: Britta Deardorff, Eric Sall, Four Paintings, Jackie Gendel, Juan Gomez, Regina Rex, Whitney Kimball
The walls of Regina Rex have been taken over by four large, brightly-colored paintings, with luscious layers of thick and thin paint and most with elements of pure black. The paintings in the exhibition, Four Paintings (on view through June 3rd), are the kind of hate-it-or-love-it guilty pleasure that arouses a gut reaction and a tip-of-your-tongue familiarity. The gallery deems this an “unapologetic and visceral appeal to the viewer.” It’s an interesting question, which I think Regina Rex is trying to ask: for what do these have to apologize? - Read the full review by NYC Contributor, Whitney Kimball, after the jump!
Jackie Gendel | tbt, 2012, oil on canvas. 80 x 70 in
Courtesy of Jeff Bailey Gallery
Another full week on the blog. In addition to introducing our West Juror, Bill Arning, and reminding everyone to apply to the West Region competition by the April 30th deadline to avoid a late fee, we recommended two exhibitions and did a Q&A with past New American Paintings’ featured artist Marissa Textor (#97). After the jump, check out summaries of this week’s posts!
Marissa Textor | Trouble in Paradise, graphite on paper, 18″ x 16.5″
Ellen Caldwell, our LA Contributor, said in her post, “Her subjects vary, but she often creates images of pre- and post-destruction, conjuring an extreme sense of foreboding or impending devastation. Somehow this momentum she captures lingers with you as a viewer…” Simply put, we think her drawings are crazy-good. She has been on our radar for a while, and we were psyched to see her selected for issue #97 last year, chosen by juror Anne Ellegood. Learn more about Marissa Textor by reading the Q&A Caldwell did with the talented illustrator here.
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Ellen followed up her Q&A with a nice review later in the week. This time, she visited Jonas Wood’s solo show at the David Kordansky Gallery. She went so far as to say it was her favorite show of 2012! Be sure to see what left Caldwell feeling “shaken and stirred with a new interest in still lifes and a new fascination with Wood’s world.” Full Post
Jonas Wood, BBall Studio, 2012, oil and acrylic on canvas, 105 x 138 inches.
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Finally, Seattle Contributor, Erin Langner, stopped by Francine Sedars’s house-turned-gallery, to see paintings by Robert Storr and Denzil Hurley. Langner writes, “Without the priming experience of Hurley’s purely experiential paintings, it is hard to imagine a similar desperation for a reference point naturally accompanying [Storr's] S.P. #1, 2, 3, 4. Storr’s work is, in general terms, abstracted. However, Hurley’s works make the subtle details of Storr’s design more poignant and graspable. Conversely, the light, easy pace embedded within Storr’s series brings out the heavy, slowness of Hurley’s; moving between the two artists is the exhibition. This conscious exchange between the two sets of work is the show’s greatest success; these paintings percolate when left to talk amongst themselves, in their hilltop gallery, away from it all.” Read the full review here!
Robert Storr | S.P. #1,2,3,4, acrylic on linen on board, 2012, each 20” x 24”
Image courtesy of Francine Sedars Gallery.
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Stay tuned to the blog next week…Whitney Kimball reviews Four Paintings at Regina Rex, and Kansas City Contributor, Hallie Miller, discusses the work of artist Davin Watne. And, of course, much more!
Filed under: Review, Seattle | Tags: Denzil Hurley, Erin Langner, Francine Sedars Gallery, Robert Storr
One would not expect to happen upon Robert Storr’s paintings inside a small gallery in a residential neighborhood of Seattle. Finding Storr’s paintings on the Internet is difficult enough, given the visual art behemoth’s repertoire of curatorial projects and writings. For the month of April, however, four modest works titled S.P. #1, 2, 3, 4 reside in a corner of Francine Sedars’s house-turned-gallery, alongside a series of monochromatic black paintings by Seattle artist Denzil Hurley. - Erin Langner, Seattle Contributor
Installation view. Image courtesy of Francine Sedars Gallery.
Filed under: Los Angeles, Review | Tags: David Kordanksy, Ellen C. Caldwell, Jonas Wood
Straight up, Jonas Wood’s solo show at the David Kordansky Gallery (through May 12th) is one of my favorite shows of 2012 thus far. His larger-than-life, vibrant, and bright paintings are fetching, nostalgic, and cheerful. They are not “cheerful” in a sickening, sugarcoated, Katy-Perry-esque way, but in one that is varied, unexpected, and welcome. Some of the imagery and styles bring to mind childhood memories and the accompanying nostalgic feelings. - Ellen Caldwell, LA Contributor
Installation at David Kordansky Gallery
Filed under: Competitions, NAP News | Tags: #102, Bill Arning, competition, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, NAP, West
We are nearing the deadline for our West competition which is April 30th, Midnight (EST). So, if you reside in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, or Wyoming, now is your chance to apply to New American Paintings. We are excited to have Bill Arning, Director, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, as our 2012 juror.
So, what are you waiting for? The last few minutes of April to Apply? PLEASE DON’T (our technical support people thank you)!!! It’s easy to submit work, you just need 4 images, 1200 pixels at their greatest dimension or less, and a credit card for our submission fee. Go here and apply now if you live in AZ, CO, ID, KS, MT, ND, NE, NV, OK, SD, TX, UT, or WY!
As always, you can learn a little more about the competition on our website. Or, check out our FAQs.
GOOD LUCK!
Filed under: Q&A | Tags: Cooper Cole Gallery, Ellen C. Caldwell, Marissa Textor
Marissa Textor’s graphite drawings are hyperrealistic and vivid. With her pencil, Textor bends and molds shades of grey and white seamlessly, creating images so true to life that they appear to be photographic.
Her subjects vary, but she often creates images of pre- and post-destruction, conjuring an extreme sense of foreboding or impending devastation. Somehow this momentum she captures lingers with you as a viewer. After seeing “Alone out Here” in NAP 97, I am still somewhat-subconsciously haunted and chilled by the quiet and predatory sharks she depicts. - Ellen C. Caldwell, LA Contributor
Marissa Textor | Alone Out Here, graphite on paper, 28.5″ x 43″
Filed under: Competitions | Tags: #102, Bill Arning, CAMH, competition, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, NAP, West
We are thrilled to have our friend, Bill Arning, serve as the juror of the upcoming West region competition. The deadline is April 20th, Midnight, EST. In case you haven’t been following the blog in recent weeks, there is more information about the West competition, including the states invited, after the jump!
Bill Arning is the Director of the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. At CAMH, he has organized the exhibitions Matthew Day Jackson: The Immeasurable Distance (2009) and Marc Swanson: The Second Story (2011). Stan VanDerBeek: The Culture Intercom (2011), which Arning co-curated with João Ribas, Curator, MIT List Visual Arts Center, received the prestigious award of “Best Show Involving Digital Media, Video, Film, or Performance” from the United States section of the International Art Critics Association (AICA/USA). Arning was formerly the curator at MIT’s List Center for eight years where he organized such critically acclaimed exhibitions as America Starts Here – Ericson and Ziegler (2006). Other exhibitions include Chantal Akerman’s first American museum survey Moving Through Time and Space (2008) and Christian Jankowski – Everything Fell Together (2006). As a writer on art and culture, Arning’s essays have been published in Time Out New York, Aperture, Modern Painters, The Village Voice, Art in America, Trans, Out, and Parkett.
We are all looking forward to Bill’s picks for the 2012 West Issue!
Bill Arning, Courtesy Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. Photo: Jenny Antill
Filed under: Video | Tags: Christie's, Forrest Bess, James Kalm, Loren Munk, Whitney Biennial
We are pleased to present a new video from James Kalm, aka the painter Loren Munk. In this installment, James provides “…this program for hard-core Forrest Bess fans only. As one of the most mythic and eccentric American painters of the Twentieth Century, Forrest Bess (1911-1977) exerts a force over contemporary art that is hard to measure. Working in isolation and on a small scale, he was nonetheless able to garner the attentions of critical and art world heavyweights. With his inclusion in the Whitney Biennial of 2012, in an installation curated by Robert Gober, and the presentation of a cache of mostly late paintings from Texas, this program records over twenty-six minutes of paintings, possibly documenting twenty-five percent of his life’s output.”
Filed under: Review, Seattle | Tags: Claire Cowie, Eric Elliott, Erin Langner, James Harris Gallery, Marcelino Gonçalves, Mary Ann Peters, Mirage, Seattle, Will Henry
The concept of the mirage is one of intrigue, as evidenced by pop culture’s frequent attempts to define its mystery. A floating desert oasis memorably deceives Daffy Duck into inhaling a mouthful of sand (“Aqua Duck,” 1963), while Steve Wynn’s Mirage casino enchants Las Vegas visitors with its lush terrarium and waterfall-lined swimming pools. Within the context of such widely known references, the question of how the mirage can function within a painting is an interesting one posed by James Harris Gallery’s group show focused on this theme. –Erin Langner, Seattle Contributor
Will Henry | In the Dust, 2011. gouache on paper, 11” x 10”
Filed under: Sneak Peeks | Tags: Caitlin Cherry, California College of the Arts, Charley Alexander, Columbia University, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Indiana State University, Kari Breitigam, Korakrit Arunanondchai, Kristin Cammermeyer, Marylene Camacho, Otis College of Art and Design
The New American Paintings, MFA Annual, Issue #99, is now hitting newsstands across the US. It is expected to ship to subscribers in the next 1 to 2 weeks, so keep an eye out. The juror for the MFA Annual was Alma Ruiz, Senior Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA.
The MFA Annual is one of our most highly anticipated issues. It contains artists that have recently completed their Masters of Fine Arts studies within the last year, or are current MFA candidates. Over 100 art schools from all over the country were represented in this competition. We think Ms. Ruiz nicely sums up our excitement for this particular publication by stating in her essay that, “Although the work and its synonyms –”hazard,” “jeopardy,” and “peril” – seem to connote something negative, I prefer to think of it in terms of opportunity or chance. Why shouldn’t an art student be willing to take risks in graduate school? It is the ideal place for exploring seemingly endless possibilities…” – View a list of all featured artists and schools, and see a few more sneak peeks pictures after the jump!
You can pre-order the issue for the newsstand price of $20 by calling 617-778-5265 ext.0
