Renewal and Resistance “Where are all the beautiful women?” a lady asks R.B. Kitaj during the packed opening of his recent show at L.A. Louver, a leading gallery in Venice, California. “What?”, he replies, incredulously. Mr. Kitaj has battled deafness for many years, but even so would have had difficulty comprehending this question. The lady … Continued

If Paul Klee could famously “take line for a walk,” then James Siena has taken it to the wild side.

Lisa Yuskavage at Marianne Boesky, through June 27 535 W 22nd Street 212-680-9889 Kara Walker: Drawings, at Brent Sikkema, through July 25 530 W 22nd Street- 212-929-2262 Kara Walker and Lisa Yuskavage are showing right on the same block (West 22nd Street). Are they a chip off the same block, too? They both take postmodern … Continued

Ellsworth Kelly: Matrix, Matthew Marks Gallery, 523 West 24 Street and 522 West 22nd Street Ellsworth Kelly: Self-Portrait Drawings 1944-1992 at Matthew Marks Gallery, 529 West 21 Street, through June 28, 212-243-0200 Frank Stella: Recent Work, Paul Kasmin Gallery, 293 Tenth Avenue, through June 28, 212-563-4474 Suzan Frecon Paintings, Lawrence Markey Gallery, 42 East 76th … Continued

“High & Inside” at Marlborough Chelsea until June 7 (211 W 19th Street, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, 212-463-8634) Bruce Pearson: Paintings & Drawings” at Ronald Feldman Fine Arts until June 14 (31 Mercer Street, at Grand Street, 212-226-3232) It takes a real pro to pull together a group exhibition that identifies a significant trend … Continued

Galerie Lelong 528 West 26th Street, New York (212) 315-0470 May 9 to June 21, 2003 Part-creature, part-tomb, Pod Pacha is at once endearing and menacing, like a Precolumbian dog, or like Alfred Jarry’s pitiable buffoon Ubu Roi. A mechanized lid heaves and wobbles, its thudding and pounding reverberating around the gallery. Is the strange … Continued

On view at Tower 29 through July 2003 and by appointment at M.Y. Art Prospects 547 West 27th Street New York NY 10001 BORN IN OKINAWA AND RAISED IN TOKYO, Shigeno Ichimura has lived and worked in New York since 1989. His small, delicate abstract canvases opened M.Y. Art Prospects’ inaugural show in its new … Continued

Untitled (ellipses) II Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects 5363 Wilshire Boulevard Los Angeles CA 90036 323.933-2117 May 31 – June 28, 2003 Rodney McMillian’s work limns absence as an unmitigated presence. His take on absence is more sensuous than cerebral. He doesn’t deconstruct the idea of absence and then rebuild it as a dialectical opposition, … Continued

This is the first publication of an essay written on the occasion of Craig Fisher’s recent exhibitions at Florence Lynch in October 2002 and Galerie Corinne Caminade, Paris, in March/April 2003 The conflicts and antagonisms that impinge on the place of painting in contemporary culture are innumerable, and they’ve been with us for generations. In … Continued

Jo Baer: The Minimalist Years, 1960-1975, DIA, Chelsea through June 15, 2003 Richard Serra’s initial reaction upon seeing Jo Baer’s orchid-inspired “Wraparound” paintings, Baer has recalled, was to ask, “How does it feel to do revolutionary work?” [quoted in Stein, see below]. Moreover, the first important art-world article on Baer’s work — a cover article by … Continued