ESSAY: Huang Rui Works Offer Glimpse of Afterlife of a Revolutionary Hero
It seems like such a wishful anachronism to call an artist a “hero.” That kind of adulation—typically reserved for artists like...
ART REVIEW: Eric Aho Paintings at DC Moore Meditate on the Idea of a Forest
“Eric Aho: Guide” at DC Moore in New York consists of about a dozen canvases invested with painterly meditations on the idea of a...
ART REVIEW: From Delacroix, Elegance in the Eye of the Romantic Tempest
“I want a hero: an uncommon want,/When every year and month sends forth a new one.”
These opening lines of Lord Byron’s epic...
ART REVIEW: Offbeat “Cheese Ball Challenge” in Southold Makes Art Lovers Smile, and Think
As a museum director and itinerant art critic, I hit openings all too often. The old joke about Andy Warhol being ready to go to any...
ART REVIEW: High-Voltage Selection of Joan Mitchell Paintings at Cheim & Read
For sheer, unbridled ecstasy in oil, nothing in Chelsea surpasses “Joan Mitchell: Paintings from the Middle of the Last Century,...
ART REVIEW: “With Abstract Certainty” Presents Beauty in Sweeping Motions in Painting & Sculpture
Those who doubt contemporary abstraction can emotionally move viewers should be sure to stop into The White Room Gallery in...
ART REVIEW: Liminality & Mind-State Journeys Explored at The Border
The word “liminality” is an anthropological term, referring to a halfway existence in which a ritual participant hasn’t quite...
ART REVIEW: Elizabeth Osborne Solves Riddle of Abstract/Figurative Balance
Elizabeth Osborne’s Self Portrait in Studio (1965), at the season-opening exhibition at Danese Corey Gallery in Chelsea, does not...
ART REVIEW: A Rich Harvest Reaped from Ellsworth Kelly’s Visits to East End
When artist Ellsworth Kelly drove out to the East End for the first time in 1960, he was escaping the city in pursuit of a little...
ART REVIEW: Hamptons Art History Celebrated through Legendary Abstract Expressionists
Redemption was the reward the moment I crossed the threshold from the hubbub of East Hampton Village into the superb “Montauk...
ESSAY: Bettina WitteVeen’s Searing Poetics Mingled with Metamorphosis Continues in Berlin in “Whiteout”
Resonance can seem like too much to ask of an art exhibition in these parlous times of so-called “Insta” critique. Because the...
ART REVIEW: Artist Collaborative Spirit Infuses All Female Show on the North Fork
At Castello di Borghese Vineyard on the North Fork, a large window divides the entryway of the tasting room from a barn-like rear...
Art Review: Fay Lansner Weaves Beauty from Charm of Color and Confident Line
Long live the tradition of the figure in abstract painting! For a classic example, consider the seamless way that Fay Lansner...
ART REVIEW: Sparks of Abstract Expressionism Illuminate Bertschmann Paintings
A rapid glance at the flickering colors and fast black gestures of the labyrinthine Subway Series by the front window of the Quogue...
ART REVIEW: An Energizing Exploration of Sea and Sky at VSOP Projects
It’s exciting to see a contemporary art gallery on the North Fork embrace the idiosyncrasies of its adopted historic home. This is...
ART REVIEW: Jill Nathanson Explores Deep Commitment to Color Interaction
As the exhibition title “Cadence” implies, there is a cyclical pattern to Jill Nathanson’s paintings. In the artist’s current...
Larger Than Life: A Journey through Shimon Okshteyn’s Art that Skewers and Reveals
It is already dark when I turn down the long, dark driveway leading up to the Southampton, NY studio of Shimon Okshteyn. Though the...
ART REVIEW: Carnality and Culture, Part II: Jenny Saville at Gagosian
Two of the most important painters of the human figure working today are currently exhibiting new works at two of New York City’s...