New York Studio School 8 West 8th Street New York NY 10011 212 673 6466 February 17 to May 7, 2005 The New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting, and Sculpture is housed in a nationally land marked building on 8th Street – a maze-like architectural wonder that combines four Victorian townhouses, mews carriage houses, … Continued

The Dalí centenary and an American acolyte

Can video become the new painting? Not just in the art scene, where video takes an ever larger slice of the exhibition pie, but in the aesthetic sense as well. “Autumn Almanac,” a recent show by Jeremy Blake at Feigen in Chelsea has me wondering.

Emotional intent is often ascribed to a sensitively rendered line, but to what extent can we say other information – intellect, curiosity, politics – are being transmitted in that same line? Put another way, how much of the spectrum can touch occupy in imparting content to a work of art? The question comes to mind thinking about “Global Networks”, the Independent Curators International exhibition of Mark Lombardi’s work at The Drawing Center in Soho, where twenty-five major drawings by the late artist are currently on display.

Ellen Berkenblit has been one of my favorite artists for years. I visited her studio once in the mid-nineties, and have done my best to see her shows whenever possible. A painter of expressionist, hermetic narratives, Berkenblit’s work can be simultaneously colorful, dark, moody, and humorous. With her recurring cast of characters – that include … Continued

Whatever it says in “The Wasteland,” from an art critic’s point of view, August is the cruelest month. Even the lingering group shows, the staple summer fare, peter out in the weeks before Labor Day. After Labor Day, la deluge, but when New York newspapers that usually don’t venture north of 90th Street start to … Continued

Karin Davie at Mary Boone Gallery, New York

The Shape of Color: Joan Miró Painted Sculpture
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC, September 21, 2002-January 6, 2003; Salvador Dali Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida, February 1-May 4, 2003. Catalogue by Laura Coyle, William Jeffett, Joan Punyet Miró, published by Scala and Corcoran

Yale professors are telling their students that John Currin paints as well as Botticelli. I heard this yesterday from a young painter who was sent my way for career advice. Yale has probably the most illustrious art school in America. Its alumni litter the firmament; Currin (who was born in 1962 and is the hottest ticket this season) is only the most recent ascendant star.

Ethical issues surrounding the depiction of death in art, considering Stalker 3, the recent video installation by Sergei Bugaev, aka Afrika, at I-20 Gallery.
November 2 – December 14, 2002