Criticism
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. ...
Thursday, January 23rd, 2020
An exhibition that follows a fashion designer as she channels the spirit of her times ...

Pawel Wojtasik, At the Still Point, 2010, 5-channel video installation with soundscape by Stephen Vitiello. Photo by Etienne Frossard. Image courtesy of Smack Mellon.
Friday, April 16th, 2010

Pawel Wojtasik at Smack Mellon

The size of the projection is matched by the scale of its content.

Shirley Jaffe, The Gray Center, 1969. Oil on canvas, 76¾ x 51¼ inches. Courtesy Tiber de Nagy Gallery.
Friday, April 9th, 2010

Shirley Jaffe: Selected Paintings, 1969 – 2009 at Tibor de Nagy

Jaffe completely jettisoned the stiff grid and strict geometric shapes in favor of a loose, undeniably playful series of rectangles with interior forms.

John Griefen, Untitled (lavender), 2008. Acrylic on canvas, 32 x 103 inches. Courtesy, Gary Snyder/ Project Space
Friday, April 9th, 2010

John Griefen: Recent Paintings at Gary Snyder Project Space

The ensemble represents a series of very carefully thought-out painting decisions — yet never do the results look cold or calculated.

installation shots of the exhibition under review. All images courtesy Casey Kaplan Gallery.
Friday, April 9th, 2010

Liam Gillick at Casey Kaplan Gallery

Gillick’s show is cerebrally engaging and visually interesting, but the visual and cerebral components never coming together to form a layered experience.

Bill Jensen, With Color XXIV, 2009. Egg and oil tempera on paper, 20-1/2 x 14-3/4 inches. Courtesy Cheim & Read, New York
Sunday, April 4th, 2010

Bill Jensen at Cheim & Read

Jensen is in some ways a reticent painter, removing all signs of a brushstroke. His quietness, though, becomes something else when one regards the casual mastery and expressiveness of color in much of his art.

Saturday, April 3rd, 2010

Carl Fudge: Dazzle at Ronald Feldman Gallery

Sometimes Fudge seems to be searching for hidden sweet spots in the harmonics of recognition.

Mercedes Matter, Tabletop Still Life, ca. 1936. Oil on canvas, 43 x 48 inches, Private collection, Florida.
Thursday, April 1st, 2010

Mercedes Matter at the Weisman Gallery, Pepperdine University

There’s an internalized severity to her art; its fierce angularity suggests an appetite for sensual abandon constrained by geometry, argues HEARNE PARDEE

John Himmelfarb, Mesa 2009. Unique bronze, 14 x 42-1/2 x 30 inches. cover MARCH 2010: Knowledge 2010. Unique bronze, 27 x 31 x 22 inches. All images courtesy Luise Ross Gallery.
Sunday, March 21st, 2010

John Himmelfarb at Luise Ross Gallery

February 18 to April 17 511 West 25th Street, between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues (212) 343-2161 The veteran Chicago painter and printmaker John Himmelfarb has recently turned to sculpture in a variety of mediums.  Several delightful examples of his foray into the third dimension are now on view in a rousing show entitled “Geared Up,” … Continued

Louise Belcourt, HedgeLand Painting #9 2009. Oil on canvas over panel, 30 x 41 inches. Courtesy Jeff Bailey Gallery
Sunday, March 21st, 2010

Louise Belcourt at Jeff Bailey Gallery

February 17 to March 27 511 W 25TH Street, Second Floor New York City, 212 989 0156 Clouds and shrubbery, water and air have long been insinuating themselves into Louise Belcourt’s lusciously brushed color fields that otherwise can seem bequeathed from Friedl Dzubas or Helen Frankenthaler.  Belcourt raises the stakes of this mingling of painting … Continued

Jim Nutt, Wishful Thinking, 1978. Graphite and colored pencil on kraft paper, 4-3/8 x 4-3/4 inches. Courtesy of David Nolan Gallery, New York.
Thursday, March 11th, 2010

Seeing Out Louder: Art Criticism 2003-2009 by Jerry Saltz

Jerry Saltz Book Review