ArtSeen
Well Read
By Shane McAdamsWell Read, curated by Christopher Howard and currently showing at Nurture Art in Brooklyn, aims to explore “the cognition and understanding of visual signs.”
Sean Hemmerle
By Thomas MicchelliOn the face of it, a series of formally rigorous, symmetrically composed and impeccably printed architectural photographs wouldn’t ordinarily be described as heartbreaking.
100 words on Mike Cockrill
By Ben La RoccoMike Cockrill’s current exhibition of paintings at 31 Grand is entitled Over the Garden Wall. One part John Currin, two parts Balthus, Cockrill’s garden is a place where childhood play meets adult sexuality in an elixir equally suggestive and nostalgic.
Jennifer and Kevin McCoy
By William PowhidaCreating art of great intellectual and emotional complexity is often the result of manipulating received ideas to provoke an unanticipated response.
Possibly Being
By Roger WhiteIn light of so many group shows with clunky, overdetermined themes, it’s refreshing to find one as resolutely vague as Possibly Being.
Sebastiaan Bremer
By Shane McAdamsSome speak of the ambling “figure eight,” a disinterested gallerygoer makes when entering an exhibition en route to quickly exiting.
Videodyssey
By Thomas MicchelliParker’s Box provides a glimpse of very recent European video (all from 2005) with Videodyssey, an exhibition also staged at the PULSE art fair and, in a different version, at Galerie Anne Barrault in Paris.
Lynda Abraham
By Thomas MicchelliThe first thing you notice is the choking. Step inside the bright, narrow antechamber of Lynda Abraham’s installation at Dam, Stuhltrager, and you’ll encounter a bank of black-and-white video monitors running a tape of two women jammed inside a simple but diabolical machine.
All’s Fair
By James KalmFirst a disclaimer: I had works presented (under an alias) at both the Scope and Fountain shows, but I won’t review myself; however, I did get to see the backstage action and hear some juicy gossip.
Made in Palestine
By James Kalm“There is no one here, there is nothing left, there is nothing left after war, only other wars.” —Nathalie Handal
Dan Devine and Ward Shelley
By James KalmYeah, I’m a car guy, or at least I was in my youth until I got hooked on bicycling. But in my book, anyone who likes to roll in style is cool.
Judith Linhares
By Jennifer RileyOver the past three decades, Judith Linhares has practically invented the genre of imaginative figurative painting largely populated by confident young women engaged in activities ranging from the banal to the idiosyncratic, thus paving the way for artists such as Amy Cutler, Hillary Harkness, and Dana Schutz.
Mind Mandala: The Art of James Harrison
By Peter AchesonJames Harrison’s first body of New York work resembles the collage and scribble drawing style of Rauschenberg and Twombly.
Fairfield Porter
By Ben La RoccoThe survey of paintings by Fairfield Porter (1907–1975) at Betty Cuningham comes as a welcome corrective. Under-championed in his own time, Porter is due full acknowledgement for the scope of his contribution to painting.
Fluxus: To George With Love
By Jill ConnerCurrently on view at the Maya Stendhal Gallery until April 15th, Fluxus: To George With Love, From the Personal Collection of Jonas Mekas is brilliantly curated by Liutauras Psibilskis. One is at once reminded of George Maciunas’s radical and inventive spirit.
