criticismExhibitions
Tuesday, April 21st, 2020
The American artist Kara Walker poses questions about slavery’s history and legacy with a major UK commission. ...
Wednesday, April 8th, 2020
The work of earlier artists can be found in scenes from this expat Russian painter’s adolescence. ...
Sunday, March 3rd, 2019
A derangement of the senses is arrived at via multifarious stimuli ...

Friday, June 6th, 2008

Nicolas Carone: Recent Paintings

The author celebrates the audacious, austere, muscular canvases by the 90 year old veteran of Abstract Expressionism.

Wednesday, June 4th, 2008

Eduardo Santiere: Draw In

Much of the imagery seems star-struck; viewers have the feeling that they are looking at a kind of intimate astronomy, in which planets and galaxies move about as they build centers of energy. Scratches on the paper add the slightest sense of relief, giving the picture its hard-to-recognize yet palpable sense of depth.

Sunday, June 1st, 2008

Peter Heinemann: Bluebird

Heinemann’s intensity, always apparent in his incisive, schematized shapes and hues, now describe with awkward purposefulness the trappings of rustic life: still lifes of dry good scales, vases, and lawn ornaments, and outdoor scenes populated by bird feeders and flower gardens – and, most notably, by the cats which by turns resemble inert, furry spheres or rocketing pillows with lethal teeth.

Sunday, June 1st, 2008

Earning His Stripes: Kenneth Noland in the ‘60s

The forms in Noland’s paintings are usually dismissed as mere devices to enable him to explore color, but the lines and shapes of these paintings have a basis in the natural world as well. They add to the feelings of harmony and serenity that these paintings project, while titles like “Via Light” and “Via Shimmer” suggest Roman roads and air mail stickers, thus ideas of travel and motion and speed.

Sunday, June 1st, 2008

Take your Time: Olafur Eliasson

The waterfalls promise to be impressive and quite the sensation, but they will also reveal Eliasson’s main strength – the skill to turn a generous gesture into a subjective experience, which even in a city of millions can be as personal as it will be communal.

Sunday, June 1st, 2008

Delia Brown: Precious at D’Amelio Terras, Hilary Harness at Mary Boone

Hilary Harkness shares with Sade not just the pathology to which the Marquis lent his name but also an essential element of style — endless variation, at once exhilerating and enervating, upon an obsessive theme.

Sunday, June 1st, 2008

Walton Ford at Paul Kasmin Gallery and Neo Rauch at David Zwirner Gallery

Neo Rauch is a prodigious talent. His canvases are lush with painterly dexterity, compelling characterization, and compositional intrigue. But, as with Walton Ford’s animal portraits, there is more about these costume dramas that transports viewers back to the amalgamated past they never knew — the very definition of nostalgia — than truly puts them in touch with a sense of being here and now.

Sunday, May 25th, 2008

Frank Selby: We Weren’t Never Here

Uncovering a sense of presence through an implied absence, these drawings and paintings explore a peculiar, discontinuous narrative.

Norman Bluhm, Untitled Drawing #3, 1984. Acrylic and pastel on paper, 49-1/2 x 60 inches. Courtesy James Graham & Sons.
Thursday, May 1st, 2008

Norman Bluhm: Large Scale Works on Paper

Norman Bluhm at James Graham & Sons

Wednesday, April 16th, 2008

Thomas Nozkowski at PaceWildenstein

Even an astute connoisseur would be hard pressed to locate specific Nozkowskian tropes. There are some recurring motifs, but internal scale, texture, and mood present themselves in different coordinates. This is the more remarkable because Mr. Nozkowski’s modus operandi is so prescribed in terms of scale, medium, taste, and authentic touch.