Filed under: Review, Seattle | Tags: Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Erin Langner, Julia Mangold
The three largest sculptures of Julia Mangold’s Drawings and Sculpture stare, despite being compilations of black, geometric fragments that do not readily read as anthropomorphic. These sculptures made of wood covered in a thick sheen of wax stare not only because they stand at eye level, but their physical masses also emit the weight and form of a standard human when standing beside them. The block forms that comprise their structures protrude and retract strategically, shifting the overall sculptural shapes without giving any sense of being precarious; these staring stacks do not back down. Rather, they hold their own in a room full of people and objects meandering through the same space. - Erin Langner, Seattle Contributor
Installation view. Image courtesy of Elizabeth Leach Gallery.
Filed under: In the Studio | Tags: Amanda Manitach, Chris Buening, Greg Kucera, Joey Veltkamp, Pole Drift
Chris Buening’s (NAP #85) three large pieces at Prole Drift weave in and out of themselves, mesmerizing snarls of color and line and coiling worms. Illustration of Events Happening is the title of the show, as well as the name of a diagrammatic installation on one wall that consists of 29 resin and plaster discs connected by a network of brushstrokes. Embedded in each disc, like fossils trapped in translucent bands of sedimentary strata, are layers of correction fluid drawings, rainbow foil, glitter and Sharpie. To either side of the installation are two large paintings on paper. One of the paintings has been meticulously cut out to form a hydra-like lacework of earthworms (as colorful as Gummi Worms). Facing it is a prismatic, molecular abstraction pulsing with bright spots and worms. Worms are everywhere.
Chris Buening and Illustration of Events Happening (wall installation), 2012, wood, powder pigment, foil, epoxy resin, correction fluid, and watercolor, size varies.
As the title suggests, Illustration of Events Happening sheds light on some recent events in Buening’s life. I met him at his studio to discuss it. – Amanda Manitach, Seattle Contributor
Filed under: Austin, Review | Tags: Anthony W. Garza, Brian Fee, Tiny Park
A solitary tree branch. A rocky shoreline. A bizarre animal-architectural amalgam. A night sky. As evinced from his exhibition at Austin’s Tiny Park, local artist Anthony W. Garza depicts all these with understated reverence, via graphite, watercolor, and acrylics. The sum effect is a naturalistic cycle, engaging us and encouraging us to be more aware of the world around us. — Brian Fee, Austin contributor.
Anthony W. Garza | Layers Upon Layers, 2012, graphite on paper, 44 x 58 inches. Courtesy the artist and Tiny Park, Austin. (more…)
Filed under: Art Fairs, Art Market, Art World | Tags: Chicago, Expo Chicago, newcityart, Robin Dluzen
“There’s going to be an EXPO Chicago next year, right?” Chicago dealer Linda Warren asked Tony Karman Sunday at Festival Hall, voicing the concern that all of us are harboring. We were discussing how the fair was unfolding, Karman mentioning that he wished more collectors from the greater Midwest region would have come out and talking about the holes he’d like to fill in the future. As Karman spoke about how he was the first to arrive at fair that morning at 9AM to take in his fully realized creation before the final day’s activities commenced, he was the confident marketing machine that was responsible for convincing the amazing architects, dealers and vendors to invest in this first year fair. But as Warren inquired about EXPO 2013, Karman’s pitchman countenance disappeared as he sat down on the floor in front of our bench. With his knees bent, Karman began pulling up the dress socks that had pooled around his ankles and politely asking us to pardon that action before admitting with a sheepish smile, “There had better be a fair next year, or I don’t know what I’m going to do with the rest of my life.” - Robin Dluzen, Chicago Contributor
This article was originally posted by Robin on NewCityArt.
Expo Chicago Wrap-Up: Part One
Loock Galerie Berlin’s Booth at EXPO Chicago. Photo by Robin Dluzen
Filed under: Art Fairs, Art Market, Art World | Tags: Art Chicago, art fair, Expo Chicago, Josh Reams, NEXT ART CHICAGO, NEXT Art Fair, Robin Dluzen, Steven Zevitas
New American Paintings headed to the Windy City over the weekend to check out Expo Chicago, which was, in effect, an attempted reboot of Art Chicago in its glory days. Art Chicago was the first art fair that NAP publisher/editor, Steven Zevitas, ever attended. That was 17 years ago…
Art Chicago’s history has been a roller coaster ride. In its heyday, it was the preeminent art fair in the country, and it attracted gallerists and collectors from all over the world. By the late 1990s, though, things started to change. The emergence of The Armory Show in New York and then Miami Basel zapped the life out of the fair, and by the mid-2000s, Art Chicago was teetering on the edge of ruin. In 2006, the Merchandise Mart (MMPI) stepped in to save the fair at the last moment when it became clear that the fair’s tent would not be ready in time. From 2006 – 2011, Art Chicago (Artropolis) was held at the gargantuan Merchandise Mart Building. For many years our magazine had a booth, and it’s where Zevitas participated in four installments of the NEXT Art Fair with his own project, Steven Zevitas Gallery. The gallery was supposed to participate for the 5th year in a row, but MMPI pulled the plug on the fair earlier this year.
A greeting to website visitors on ArtChicago.com
Filed under: Interview, Q&A | Tags: 100, Ellen C. Caldwell, Kevin Arnold
Kevin Arnold’s (NAP #100) multi-paneled canvases are refreshing and humorous. Creating art that is all about the object and its very own objecticity, if you will, Arnold paints canvases as physical placeholders and stand-ins for the very objects he depicts. Canvases become vinyl pillows, packing cardboard boxes, folding chairs and tables.
But besides the visual artifice he creates on the surface plane, he moves far beyond by stacking and arranging the canvases so that they encroach physically into and onto three-dimensional space, much as the object itself would. Canvases of vinyl pillowcases are stacked just as a pile of pillows might be; canvases of stacked folding chairs and a table are propped against adjoining walls, much as the actual objects would be in the corner of a storage room; and canvases of cardboard boxes are heaped in haphazard columns, topped by a canvas “EXIT” sign that even towers above the totems of boxes.
Arnold’s trompe l’oeil, or “trick of the eye,” toys with the mind and is immediately satisfying and intellectually quite smart. - Ellen Caldwell, Los Angeles Contributor
Kevin Arnold | Stay, on multiple canvases, overall 82” x 86”
Filed under: New York, Review | Tags: Bosi Contemporary, James Fuentes, Louis B. James, Picture Farm, Whitney Kimball
NYC Contributor, Whitney Kimball, visits four New York galleries including Bosi Contemporary, Picture Farm, James Fuentes, and Louis B. James. Read her exhibition reviews after the jump!
Russell Tyler | lo-fi 2, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 inches
Filed under: Austin, Review | Tags: Brian Fee, Cordy Ryman, Lora Reynolds Gallery
Scraps and discarded wood become remarkable, contemplative creations in Cordy Ryman’s hands. His style bears some influence of dad Robert—connoisseur of white tones and alchemist with mounting implements—but Cordy is more likely to coat his second- or thirdhand lumber with dazzlingly colorful paint. Or he’ll leave the wood bare to highlight its recycled history. Viewing Ryman’s work, his relief-like paintings and painterly sculptures, in his second solo exhibition at Lora Reynolds Gallery is best done up close and personal. — Brian Fee, Austin contributor
Cordy Ryman | Green Book, 2012, Acrylic and enamel on wood, 24 x 20 x 6.5 inches. Courtesy the artist and Lora Reynolds Gallery.
Filed under: Artists on Artists, Seattle | Tags: Amanda Manitach, Bette Burgoyne, Conversation, Cornish College of the Arts, Jed Dunkerley, Joe Bar, Seattle, Where Things Go
I sit down at a bar at the north end of Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood with two artists whose work is the definition of obsessive, both in technique and content. Neither of them identify as OCD or autistic.
The venue is called Joe Bar. Located next to Seattle’s Cornish College of the Arts and owned, staffed, and curated by a handful of Cornish grads since 1997, Joe Bar is the most likely of unlikely places you’ll find excellent art tucked away in the city. Unlikely because it serves crepes and beer, has garish green walls, and is super cozy, none of which are particularly helpful settings for displaying artwork. But none of that stops some of Seattle’s most interesting artists from hanging their work there. -Amanda Manitach, Seattle Contributor
Joe Bar
Filed under: Art Fairs, Art World | Tags: art fair, SOHO, volta, VOLTA NY
We just found out that one of our favorite fairs is moving to SOHO! From the Volta Show NY press release:
“VOLTA NY, taking place from Thursday, March 7, through Sunday, March 10, is thrilled to announce its NEW LOCATION for 2013: 82MERCER in SoHo, New York.
The Mercer Street building’s 50,000 square foot exhibition space, comprising two floors and daylight loft-like spaces, is nestled in a groovy corner of SoHo and will provide a handsome platform for VOLTA NY’s strictly solo-project format, including a broad international roster as well as plenty of local representation.”
Past NAP/Blog Volta posts:
http://newamericanpaintings.wordpress.com/2012/03/13/new-american-paintings-nyc-art-fair-field-trip/
http://newamericanpaintings.wordpress.com/2012/03/12/lee-gainer-at-volta-ny/
http://newamericanpaintings.wordpress.com/2012/03/11/fountain-volta-independent/
More info from Volta and photos of the new space after the jump!
