ArtSeen
Histories of Violence
By Yasmeen Siddiqui, Hrag Vartanian, Thomas Micchelli, and Dore AshtonTwo concurrent Chelsea exhibitions tackle the aesthetics of violence within the context of war: Thomas Hirschhorn’s Superficial Engagement at the Gladstone Gallery and the projects of Walid Raad/The Atlas Group at The Kitchen under the title The Dead Weight of a Quarrel Hangs.
Dan Walsh
By Joan WaltemathIn Dan Walsh’s current exhibition at Paula Cooper Gallery in Chelsea, large-scale canvases are hung mostly below eye level. In the 1980’s in Soho Alan Uglow made it a point to position his paintings below eye level, a move which not only added a sense of gravity to their bearing, but reflected the position of abstract painting at that time as being below the radar.
Thomas Nozkowski
By Ben La RoccoIn his current show at Max Protech gallery, as in his career to date, Thomas Nozkowski demonstrates an absolute commitment to easel painting.
Gelah Penn
By Ben La RoccoGelah Penn is exhibiting an installation entitled “Detour” at Kentler International Drawing Space in Brooklyn.
Susan Bee and Miriam Laufer
By Robert C. MorganMiriam Laufer and Susan Bee are both painters, the former being the mother of the latter. The concept behind the current exhibition at the A.I.R. Gallery, Seeing Double, is to offer a modest survey of Laufer’s work from the sixties and seventies alongside Bee’s most recent opus of collage/paintings.
Alberto Magnelli
By Stephanie BuhmannAn autodidact, Alberto Magnelli (1888-1971) is often considered the first Italian abstract painter. Born in Florence and deeply inspired by Tuscany’s abundant Renaissance treasures, he began painting in his mid-teens.
Nick Lawrence
By James KalmAs a long time member, both as an artist and gallerist of the Provincetown and Chelsea art scenes, “Bloopers, Gaffs and Other Rough Patches” is Lawrence’s New York debut exhibition.
David Kapp
By James KalmMini glaciers of frozen snow still dotted the side streets of Midtown, remnants of the record-breaking snowstorm of ‘06. As the elevator door opened on David Kapp’s selection of recent cityscapes, I was convinced that if the radiant heat generated by these works could be harnessed, it would’ve melted the last remains of winter.
Leon Golub
By David MarcusIn the dwindling years of the Eisenhower era, painter Leon Golub undertook a series of large scale works which sought to encapsulate mankind’s panhistoric conflict within a singular metaphor: the male body under ‘duress.’
Maria Elena González
By Thomas MicchelliMaria Elena González was born a Catholic in Cuba two years before the revolution. By the time she was five, Castro had closed the churches and “Catholicism became little more than a residual consciousness,” according to Eleanor Heartney’s insightful catalogue essay for Internal DupliCity, González’s recent sculptural installation at Knoedler & Company.
Charlene von Heyl
By Roger WhiteCharlene von Heyl has been making smart but elusive abstract paintings for some time now. Her current show at the Friedrich Petzel gallery offers a clear view of her sometimes hermetic approach without giving the game away.
