Filed under: DC, Review | Tags: Baltimore, DC, Gina Beavers, Matthew Smith, NUDASHANK
There’s no escaping the physicality of Gina Beavers’ paintings. Culled from the unremarkable — quotidian moments and bits of cultural flotsam — her work is grounded by the immediacy of her source material. Despite the occasional abstraction, these representations aren’t meant to veer far from their physical subjects; they’re tethered to experiential moments that are as concrete as the sculptural reliefs on her canvases. Indeed, borrowing from the pictorial language of naive painting, Beavers’ works suggest redemption for what’s unheroic among us. Le Sigh, her solo show at Nudashank in Baltimore, opened earlier this month and I had the chance to drop by for a visit. – Matthew Smith, Washington, D.C. contributor
Gina beavers | 6-color palette, acrylic & paintbrush on canvas, 12” x 14”, 2011, (courtesy Nudashank and the artist)
Filed under: Art World, DC, MFA | Tags: 93, Baltimore, Benjamin Edmiston, Bill Traylor, Bob Dylan, Captain Beefheart, Christopher Daniels, David Hockney, Devon Troy Strother, Dire Straits, Favourite Sons, Horace Pippin, Howlin' Wolf, Jockum Nordstrom, Karl Wirsum, Kim Dorland, Leon Russell, MFA Annual, NUDASHANK, Paul Wackers, Vito Acconci
Benjamin Edmiston, Boxer’s Nose, Snake Brains, 2011 | Gouache, acrylic and silkscreen on paper. Courtesy the artist.
Currently featured in #93, the MFA Annual edition of New American Paintings now on newsstands, Benjamin Edmiston‘s latest work — elaborate paintings, drawings, and collages — is also on view at Nudashank in Baltimore as part of the group show Radiant Fields (also featuring Edward Max Fendley and Steven Riddle). The show opened over the weekend, so I took the opportunity to catch up with Edmiston to play a severely abridged game of 20 Questions. His thoughts on influences, music, and beer (and lots of pictures) after the jump. —Matthew Smith, DC Contributor
Filed under: Art World, DC | Tags: Alex Lucas, Baltimore, Benjamin Edmiston, DC, Maria Walker, Matthew Craven, Matthew Smith, Nick Van Woert, NUDASHANK, Stacy Fisher, Tracy Thomason
TOP: Tracy Thomason (left) and Stacy Fisher (right), BOTTOM: Maria Walker. Installation views, The Shape Of Things To Come at NUDASHANK, Baltimore.
NUDASHANK’s progressive bent can make most local commercial galleries seem downright uncouth. Arguably the crown jewel of Baltimore’s thriving DIY artist-run spaces, NUDASHANK routinely showcases emerging artists that are on a firm upward trajectory, like Nick Van Woert, Matthew Craven, Alex Lukas, and Benjamin Edmiston (included in the current MFA Annual edition of New American Paintings).
Currently on view in NUDASHANK’s expansive downtown space are the works of Brooklyn-based artists Stacy Fisher, Tracy Thomason, and Maria Walker, all of whom work at the intersection of sculpture and painting to varying degrees. Co-curated by gallery founders and co-directors Alex Ebstein and Seth Adelsberger (editions #45, #57, #75), The Shape Of Things To Come, a title with fateful connotations borrowed from a novel by H.G. Wells, is as airy as it is grounded in familiar materials and forms. —Matthew Smith, DC contributor
