Category: Exhibition Review

Posted on , by Etty Yaniv

Wild World closing at Cross Contemporary Art

Wild World: Ashley GARRETT, Catherine HOWE and Lily PRINCE, the current painting exhibition at at Cross Contemporary Art  opened on Sat. September 8th. On Sunday, September 30th Richard Klin will be reading from his novel, Petroleum Transfer Engineer, at the Cross Contemporary Gallery in Saugerties, NY  at 4:00 PM. Klin is also the author of two nonfiction books.  Klin’s work–fiction and nonfiction–has been featured on Public Radio International’s Studio 360 and has appeared in the Brooklyn Rail, the Atlantic, the Forward, Flyover Country Review, Adelaide, NPR’s All Things Considered and others.

Ashley Garrett, Sossusvlei,  2017,  oil on canvas

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Posted on , by Etty Yaniv

Size Matters

Chris Ketchie, “WEST”1000 Paintings of Then, 2015-2017 Ink and Acrylic on Wood, 130” x 275” x 2.5”, photo courtesy of the artist

In Size Matters artist and curator William Norton brings together seventeen visual artists and four performance artists from Japan, China, the USA, and the UAE, for whom the notion of scale is central.  The curator questions in what ways does scale impact form? How does it affect meaning? And more specifically, how is our perception of scale affected by cultural differences between Asian and Western cultures? Continue reading “Size Matters”

Posted on , by Etty Yaniv

Shari Mendelson: The Beauty of Objects Left Behind

First Look: Shari Mendelson: Glasslike at UrbanGlass

Shari Mendelson, Walking Animal with Vessel in Net, 12″ x 6″ x 9″, Repurposed plastic, hot glue, acrylic polymer, metal, resin, paint, mica, 2018, photo credit: Polite Photographic

The glasslike sculptures in Shari Mendelson’s current exhibition at UrbanGlass conjure mythical narrative with an urgent sense of the present. Based on rigorous study, the artist draws upon primarily glass artifacts from ancient Rome and early Islam, to form imaginative, witty, and playful sculptures made of throwaway plastic bottles. While avoiding simple mimicking of ancient artifacts, Mendelson’s vases, urns, animals, and figures alike create forms and forge narratives that link present to past in fresh and multilayered ways, as the show curator Elizabeth Essner puts it – “the previous lives of her [Mendelson’s] materials emerge: the bottoms of bottles are reborn as faceted ornament, a milk jug becomes an animal, the visage of a figure appears, formed from the tiniest bits of plastic.” Continue reading “Shari Mendelson: The Beauty of Objects Left Behind”

Posted on , by Etty Yaniv

Alienation and Elation at Art During the Occupation

FIRST LOOK  at Sharilyn Neidhardt’s solo exhibition

Opening later this week

Sharilyn Neidhardt , If I Can’t Find You There, I Don’t Care, 2017
oil on unframed canvas, approx 54 x 70 in, photo courtesy of the artist

Sharilyn Neidhardt’s vivid paintings in SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE, at Art During the Occupation Gallery resonate with the zeitgeist of late-stage capitalism, when human connections are strained by a barrage of information and convenience. The fractured urban landscapes she portrays bring to mind reflective surfaces and fragmentation, altogether projecting a simultaneous sense of alienation and elation that are associated with any big city life. Continue reading “Alienation and Elation at Art During the Occupation”

Posted on , by Sharilyn Neidhardt

David Wojnarowicz – The Fire Still Burns

By Sharilyn Neidhardt

David Wojnarowicz , Untitled (Face in Dirt), 1991 (printed 1993). Gelatin silver print, 19 × 23 in. (48.3 × 58.4 cm). Collection of Ted and Maryanne Ellison Simmons. Image courtesy the Estate of David Wojnarowicz and P.P.O.W, New York
Like a gut-punch for the eyes, The David Wojnarowicz show History Keeps Me Awake at Night at the Whitney Museum of American Art hits the viewer with a visceral, almost-physical jolt of emotion. Bodies are veiled in photographic shadow and light, primary colors leap off large canvases stuffed with collage, lighted globes and spoken words combine to map out the passion and rage experienced by the artist in his relatively short life. There is such variety in the exhibition that my friend and I almost missed a whole gallery, mistaking it for a different artist’s work.

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Posted on , by Etty Yaniv

Get Loose at Rick Wester Fine Art

Get Loose, installation view, photo courtesy Rick Wester Fine Art

Get Loose, the three person show Curated by Tracy McKenna at Rick Wester Fine Art, features work by Cat Balco, Ben Godward, and Jason Rohlf, who all show a knack for unexpected twists of material resulting in exuberant abstracted forms and unorthodox color across the board. The  abstract paintings and sculptures in the show prompt loose  interpretations of Geometric Abstraction, where the hand is rigorously present. Continue reading “Get Loose at Rick Wester Fine Art”

Posted on , by Etty Yaniv

Visual Arts Center of New Jersey – Global Angst

“Containment”, partial Installation view at Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, (right wall: Erin Diebboll,  center front: Linda Ganjian,  left: david Packer), photo by Etienne Frossard
The  group of international artists throughout the two exhibitions at the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey – “Containment” and “Oh what a world! What a world!” are altogether reflecting on social, political, and cultural changes in recent history.  “Oh what a world! What a world!”,  located in the Main Gallery, addresses a wide array of issues related to immigration, gender equality, civil rights, policing, protest, and the state of our Democracy. “Containment”, at the Eisenberg and Strolling Gallery, addresses specifically  hot trade issues –  how the use of shipping containers affects our ability to trade and ship goods globally, coming to the forefront with Trump’s attempts to remove the country from existing trade deals. Both shows were curated by  Mary Birmingham. The following preview on the two shows is largely based on text provided by the NJ Visual Arts Center.

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Studio Immersion Project Annual Exhibitions

Installation view, (Christina Massey), courtesy of efa Project Space Program

Studio Immersion Project (SIP) is an intensive 3 month studio fellowship designed to immerse artists in the world of printmaking. Throughout the fellowship period SIP Fellows build upon existing skills and acquire new techniques. Through a selective application process the SIP invites artists from all media who are interested in exploring printmaking as an integral part of their art making.  Continue reading “Studio Immersion Project Annual Exhibitions”

Posted on , by Etty Yaniv

Amulets Ethereal at Barney Savage

Amulets Ethereal, partial installation view, photo courtesy of Barney Savage gallery

“Amulets Ethereal,” the thought provoking group exhibition curated by Jenny Mushkin Goldman at Barney Savage features works by Kharis Kennedy, Adam Krueger & Tableaux Vivants, Victoria Manganiello & Julian Goldman, Qinza Najm, Cheryl R. Riley, and Ashley Zelinskie. The artworks in this show run the gamut from manipulated found objects, like Cheryl Riley’s old farm tools and Qinza Najm’s carpet, to fabricated sculptures like Ashley Zelinskie’s 3-d printed futuristic cyborgs and Victoria Manganiello / Julian Goldman’s computerized weaving; from wearable art like the sewn tattooed silicon mask by the duo  Adam Krueger and Tableaux Vivants to Kharis Kennedy’s mysterious painting of a masked figure with a goat. Collectively the artworks are recontextualized as open-ended ritualized objects and images endowed with the questionable power to shield the viewer from the most tenuous of perceived dangers. Continue reading “Amulets Ethereal at Barney Savage”

Posted on , by Etty Yaniv

Perfected Scene at John Doe

Jeff Liao, Coney Island from Steeplechase Pier, pigmented print, 2011, image courtesy of LYK Art Projects

Curated by LYK Art Projects,”Perfected Scene” the upcoming show at John Doe Gallery features work by Jeff Liao, Jaye Rhee and Jason River, whose photographic works share a sense of manipulated stage-like worlds.  Jeff Liao creates  cityscapes with Utopian undercurrents, Jaye Rhee questions authenticity  in making art, and Jason River creates enigmatic spaces with bare bodies and everyday objects. Continue reading “Perfected Scene at John Doe”