Filed under: Chicago, Review | Tags: Matthew Metzger, Robin Dluzen, Tony Wight Gallery
There’s no getting around the fact that Matthew Metzger makes difficult paintings. His may be among most difficult paintings I have ever seen, though the act of “seeing them” or “looking at them” is certainly not the difficult part. In his current exhibition at Tony Wight Gallery entitled, “Backdrop,” the artist presents a succinct seven paintings, rendered in the artist’s trademark, impeccable trompe l’oeil. Metzger’s practice has long employed this unwavering stylistic approach, depicting objects that also speak to the history of painting, like Duchampian rubber bands or the faux-monochrome of a Sharpie-d cover of The Eagles’ The Long Run. -Robin Dluzen, Chicago Contributor
Matthew Metzger | Guard (version 1), 2012, acrylic and oil on MRMDF, 36 1/4 x 24 1/4 inches, Image courtesy of Tony Wight Gallery
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Filed under: Chicago, Interview | Tags: Adam Scott, Angel Otero, Antonia Gurkovska, Curtis Mann, Josh Reames, Kavi Gupta, Tony Tasset
I recently went to Kavi Gupta Gallery in Chicago to see Antonia Gurkovska’s first solo show with the gallery, after viewing her show I stepped into Kavi’s second gallery where a group show of his artists was installed. I made my way past a Tony Tasset sculpture, a huge Angel Otero painting, and a few Curtis Mann photos to the back room, which was full of a group of incredibly exciting, though unfamiliar paintings. It came as quite a shock to find out they belonged to Adam Scott, whose work I have been familiar with and a huge fan of. Adam has been making large, super-saturated paintings of deconstructed cartoon-y figures and scenes with a sort of implied narrative. The paintings are made by pouring paint in a controlled way to construct an recognizable image, but with a degree of slippage allowing for a wavy, tripped-out looseness to the it. The new work is much different; no cartoons, a new collage aesthetic, and a nod to a left-brained formalism not formerly prevalent in his paintings. So I decided to talk to Adam about the reinvention (after the jump)… –Josh Reames, Chicago Contributor
Adam Scott | Victory at Sea, 2011, acrylic polymer, mica, silica, and color xerox on canvas,
66″ x 60″ (more…)
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Filed under: Chicago, Review | Tags: Chicago, Devening Projects + Editions, Josh Reames, Joshua Abelow
Devening Projects + Editions just opened up a solo show of Joshua Abelow’s work entitled Songs From a Room. The exhibition features an assortment of Abelow’s small-ish paintings spanning the last four years. I’m a big fan of Joshua’s work, and the show is happening at an important point in his career; since his recent move to James Fuentes in NYC and the ever-growing popularity of his obsessively updated blog, ART BLOG ART BLOG, the name Joshua Abelow has been unavoidable.
Joshua Abelow | Self Portrait, 2011, oil on burlap on canvas, 18”x14”
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Filed under: Art World, Chicago, Dallas, DC, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, Must-Sees, New York, Oakland, Philadelphia, Portland, San Francisco, Santa Fe | Tags: Exhibitions, February, Must-SEe, NAP, Paintings, Publishers Pick, Steven Zevitas
One of the best parts of my job is getting to see the careers of artists that we have worked with take off. Artists such as James Siena, Amy Cutler and Matthew Day Jackson were all featured in New American Paintings long before they reached the international spotlight. This month is not only an extraordinary month for the medium of painting at galleries around the country, it is a particularly strong month for New American Paintings’ alumni. No fewer than twenty artists featured in past, or upcoming editions, have their work on view in February. Two of my favorites, Summer Wheat and Benjamin Degen, will be featured in the soon to be released 2012 Northeast Edition (#98).
I want to bring special attention to the work of Sarah McEneaney, who was first featured in the mid-1990s. Based in Philadelphia, Sarah is a profoundly gifted artist, and, in my opinion, simply one of the best painters working today. Her painstakingly crafted egg tempera paintings have always had a startling immediacy. Of the many micro-trends that are noticeable in current painting practice, a certain predilection for “faux-naïve” representation is high among them. Sarah was entrenched in this pictorial language long before it washed over the art world. Unlike many younger artists, her creative direction is not a conceptual gambit; rather, it is born out of an internal necessity. - Steven Zevitas, Editor/Publisher
Summer Wheat | Onlooker, oil on canvas, 18 x 24 inches
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Filed under: Art Market, Art World, Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, DC, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, Must-Sees, New Jersey, New York, Oakland, Philadelphia, Philly, Portland, San Francisco, Santa Fe, Seattle | Tags: December, Must-SEe
In the 300+ gallery exhibitions that we previewed for this post, we discovered a number of New American Paintings’ alumni on view in December. Jim Lutes continues to produce a substantial body of work and, once again, demonstrates why he is one of Chicago’s leading painters. And check out Dolphin Gallery’s group exhibition “Push” which features several NAP artists, including a favorite of ours, Michael Krueger. Other shows that stand out: Fernando Mastrangelo at Charest-Weinberg, Byron Kim and James Cohan Gallery, and Cordy Ryman and Eli Ridgway. Enjoy the list! Please check them out and let us know what you think in the comments section after the jump!
Cordy Ryman | Shadow Boxed, acrylic, enamel and graphite on wood, 38 x 33.5 x 3.5 inches
(more…)
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Filed under: Chicago, Review | Tags: Eddie Martinez, Geoffrey Todd Smith, Josh Reames, Matthew Palladino, Ryan Travis Christian, Western Exhibitions
I’ve never seen anyone successfully treat a pencil as a painting tool the way Ryan Travis Christian does. In his current show, entitled River Rats, at Western Exhibitions is a large array of his recent drawings of technically proficient geometric explosions, early 20th century-style cartoon characters, drug references, and op-art patterns that fluctuate between being graphic and expressionistic. The space in the drawings is both converging and exploding simultaneously. The work itself seems mischievous, the product of a recurring theme of a self-referential suburban upbringing and the tomfoolery that accompanies the banality of growing up in the ‘burbs. Again, what I find most striking about Ryan’s work is how painterly it is. Without the interjection of the cartoon figures, the drawings could be a hybrid of early Guston and Joan Mitchell; an ethereal mass of gestures and mark-making that the figures come in and out of. - Josh Reames, Chicago Contributor
Ryan Travis Christian | Western Exhibitions Installation Shot (more…)
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Filed under: Chicago, Review | Tags: Chicago, Daniel Reich Gallery, Josh Reames, Kavi Gupta, Luce Gallery, MCA, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Saatchi Gallery, Scott Reeder
It is difficult to think about Scott Reeder’s work without the word “funny” coming to mind. The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago recently opened up with the Milwaukee-native’s first museum show that features his colorful, faux-naïve paintings of smoking fruit, symmetrical pirates, protesting pandas, and humorous still-lives: the usual suspects in Reeder’s art historical and pun-based visual jokes. The exhibition also includes Reeder’s newer untitled spaghetti paintings, made using raw and cooked noodles and spray-paint. Upon entering the MCA, visitors are confronted with a massive, two-story, raw spaghetti painting; commissioned specifically for the show. - Josh Reames, Chicago Contributor
Scott Reeder | Installation view of “Untitled,” 2011, acrylic and enamel on canvas, 180” x 300”
(detail) of “Untitled”
More pictures after the jump! (more…)
Filed under: Chicago, Review | Tags: Andrew Falkowski, Andrew Rafacz Gallery, Josh Reames
No More Heroes, Andrew Falkowski’s (NAP #35) first solo show at Andrew Rafacz Gallery, features a fresh body of work broken down into three parts: Napoleon Bonaparte, ransom letters, and geometric abstraction. Though the three bodies of work seem at first to be disparate, they turn out to be more like three Venn diagrams that overlap and inform each other while maintaining their individual properties. This allows for a tension-generating dialogue between source material and formal qualities. – Read more by Chicago Contributor, Josh Reames, after the jump!
Andrew Falkowski’s Installation at Andrew Rafacz Gallery
Filed under: Art Fairs, Chicago | Tags: Alex Ebstein, Chicago, MDW, MDW Fall Showcase
Chicago’s MDW Fall showcase is the second presentation in the past seven months of the loosely structured art fair and projects organized by Illinois non-profits Threewalls, Roots and Culture, and the Public Media Institute. An even mix of performative pieces, non-commercial installation, small presses and cleanly presented 2 and 3D works for sale, the quality of the art was consistently high, while approach and project goals varied. The fair, which ran concurrently (although separated by floor) with the Hand in Glove conference on DIY arts organization, alternative funding and sustainability, encouraged networking and camaraderie, while building steam to perhaps become a destination for savvy collectors interested in work by emerging artists. The fair featured many amazing galleries, including Nudashank, run by our Baltimore contributor, Alex Ebstein. Pictures after the jump!
Steven Ruiz covered the fair for Artslant, a link can be found here: http://www.artslant.com/chi/articles/picklist#p28480
Paul Nudd, Western Exhibitions’ Booth at MDW
Filed under: Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, DC, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Must-Sees, New York, Philadelphia, Philly, San Francisco, Santa Fe, Seattle | Tags: Editor's Pick, Must-SEe, New American Paintings, November
We reviewed upcoming November exhibitions at close to 300 commercial galleries from throughout the United States to compile this list. Once again, it is another extraordinarily strong month for the medium of painting. Highlights include the feverishly painted work of Alison Schulnik at Zieher Smith, Nathan Hylden’s complex meditations on the studio at Richard Telles, and Llyn Foulkes idiosyncratic landscapes at Andrea Rosen. - Must-See November painting shows after the jump!
