ArtSeen
Seurat’s Secret
By Sanford SchwartzOne of the many extraordinary aspects of Seurat’s conté crayon drawings is that they make us newly appreciate the word atmospheric.
Alex McQuilkin: Joan of Arc
By Thomas MicchelliThis assessment, corrosive as it is, doesn’t even take into account the sheer magnificence of the film that McQuilkin has spliced, scrambled and paired with color footage of her own face staring silently into the camera.
Land Grab
By Shane McAdamsCurated by Sarah Lookofsky and Lillian Fellman, Land Grab at Apex Art looks at how contemporary artists are responding to issues of land use as it becomes more scarce and expensive.
High Times for Lawrence Weiner
By Jeremy SiglerI first came upon Lawrence Weiner’s striking, sans-serif text-pieces when I wandered into his “Displacement” project at the old West 22nd Street Dia building in 1992.
The Geometry of Hope
By Geoffrey Cruickshank-HagenbuckleThere is a spidered but unbroken vein feeding cannibals (Yes, I said that) into Concrete Art, snaking through the 20th century from the deepest reaches of the Amazon River in Brazil.
Lalla Essaydi: Les Femmes du Maroc
By Stephanie BuhmannIn Les Femmes du Maroc, Lalla Essaydi revisits her past. She was born in Morocco and lived in Saudi Arabia for many years before moving to Boston, where she received her MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in 2003.
Art & Psyche: The Freudian Legacy
By Valery OisteanuThis recent exhibit, curated by Dr. Lynn Gamwell at the CDS Gallery, was born of a book she edited several years ago called Dreams 1900-2000: Art, Science and the Unconscious Mind (Cornell University Press, 2000), commemorating the centennial of Sigmund Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams.
Edward Burtynsky: Quarries
By Greg LindquistIn Quarries, Edward Burtynsky’s most recent series of photographs, sites of marble and granite quarrying in Vermont, Italy, Portugal, China and Spain are documented in varying stages of activity.
Judith Vivell
By John ReedWhere John James Audubon looked into the avian eyes of faraway migrations and lands unknown, Judith Vivell looks into the eyes of birds looking back.
Nyehaus becomes Indica
By Nora GriffinTo find Nyehaus, an elegant “project space” elusively located on the eighth floor of the National Arts Club, is tantamount to time travel.
Robert Barry: NOT THE ART OF WAR, BUT ART AND WAR
By Robert C. MorganRobert Barry is one of the most convincing conceptualists from the era of the late sixties and seventies. His word lists, wall and window pieces, his sound recordings, and DVD and slide projections, are focused on one central idea: language.
Performa 07
By Ellen PearlmanRose Lee Goldberg the director of the visual art performance biennial Performa 07 deserves an honorary key to the City from Mayor Bloomberg as a high/middle/low/brow cheerleader for the arts.
Nancy Haynes: Threshold
By Joan WaltemathHidden away on the third floor apartment on West 92nd Street, Leslie Heller presents various artists in the different rooms of an apartment. There's furniture to sit down on to look at the work, making the scene homey and allowing for an extended gaze.
Be Blank Consort
By Warren FryFor the first ten minutes of their reading, the Be Blank Consort sat in a circle near the stage hashing out the details of their performance, while casting glances over their shoulders at the audience as it trickled in.
Mating Minds: David Byrne and Evolutionary Psychologist Geoffrey Miller Ask Why Humans Make Art
By Jed LipinskiOn October 10th, David Byrne of The Talking Heads and Geoffrey Miller, PhD, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of New Mexico, took part in a conversation at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in Boston titled, “Connections between biology and culture, sex and beauty, genes and creativity.”
Richard Prince and the American Girl
By Sharon L. ButlerI spent Black Friday in the city with my nuclear family. I wanted to see the Richard Prince show at the Guggenheim, but my eight-year-old daughter Lena was not keen on the idea.
Wade Guyton
By John YauWade Guyton is the perfect artist for these nightmarish times. He makes black monochromes using a large format Epson printer; the “paintings” are printed on pre-primed linen.
David Reed
By John YauIn a 1990 interview with Stephen Ellis, David Reed defined his position vis-a-vis the debate regarding the death of modernism and the ascendance of postmodernism: “I don’t want to be the last painter, and I don’t want to be the first. I want to be part of a continuum.
Drawing Connections: Baselitz, Kelly, Penone, Rockburne and the Old Masters
By John YauIt’s no secret that writers begin as readers. Even a genius such as Mozart listened to his sister practicing on the piano before he began playing it himself, and shortly afterward, at the age of five, began composing.
Shiva Linga Paintings
By Craig OlsonAn insistently repeated image, as in advertising, creates a nullifying emptiness through the manufacture of desire. This is no new rag. However, remove commodification and mechanical reproduction from the equation, and we find ourselves caught in a limbo between want and need.
Cy Twombly
By Ben La RoccoCy Twombly’s stubbornly poetic painting is on display in en exhibition at Gagosian Gallery entitled A Scattering of Blossoms and Other Things.
Brooklyn Dispatches
By James KalmHow far can it go before it pops? With a market bulging like an overinflated Macy’s Parade balloon on the verge of bursting, cultural soothsayers are scanning recent events, like the entrails of a sacrificial chicken, for clues to its future direction.
Anthony Caro: New Galvanized Steel Sculptures
By Hrag VartanianFew sculptors have the range of Brit maestro Sir Anthony Caro, and fewer artists can consistently create three-dimensional forms that feel original yet rooted firmly in the ideals of modern sculpture.
robbinschilds
By Litia PertaMy first real memory of Sonya Robbins and Layla Childs is from a wedding we all attended in the ranchlands of Petaluma. Guests gathered for lemonade in the shadow of the ranch house before hiking deeper into the hills for the ceremony.
Judith Supine
By Erin LindholmA bald, bearded guy wearing a women’s mesh bathing suit and hot-pink spectacles showed up one day on a pair of blue steel doors on Crosby Street. By the mirth in his glance, his coy little grin, he knew the reactions he provoked and loved every minute of it.
Letter from London
By Andrew BickThe Painting of Modern Life presents twenty-two artists whose work is preoccupied with the use of photography as a source.
