Category: Exhibitions

Posted on , by Melissa Stern

Chromotherapy at Jack Hanley Gallery

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(little) Pink Studio. Oil and acrylic on canvas. 32 x 40. 2023

Stepping into the bright and warmly lit Jack Hanley Gallery in Tribeca, I was struck by the brilliant swirl of color in Sophie Treppendahl’s exhibition of new work. The pieces seem ready to pop right off of the walls. The show exists in two connected parts, encompassing both floors of the gallery. Vibrant paintings of domestic scenes on the ground floor and small dioramas of similar domestic spaces in the downstairs gallery.

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Posted on , by Etty Yaniv

Reef Avni – This Was My Home

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Reef Avni, This was my home

For 18-year-old photographer Reef Avni, photography became a way to speak at 14 when words were hard to find, a tool against his social anxiety. His father, Hagi, was not only a strong supporter but also a frequent face in his photos, becoming an integral part of the narrative Reef was creating with his camera. The other constant in Avni’s work is documenting daily life in his Kibbutz. As a fourth-generation member of Kibbutz Be’eri, his roots were as embedded in the kibbutz as the farmlands and community his great-grandfather founded in the arid Negev in the south of Israel on the night of October 6, 1946. His grandfather was among its first newborns.

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Posted on , by Etty Yaniv

John Avelluto: Impasta Handbags at Stand4 Gallery

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Cannoli Ultrasound | Acrylic paint on panel | 9” x12” | 2023

The details in John Avelluto’s delightful paintings—thin strands of hair, tiny droplets of perspiration, chunky gold chains, or hyperreal food items—are uncanny in their realism. Avulluto is a trickster. Through all the paintings featured in his third solo show at Stand4 Gallery he convinces us that we are looking at the “real” thing, but in fact, each piece in Impasta Handbags is made solely of acrylic paint. Curator Paul D’Agostino says in his essay that “no matter what viewers think they’re looking at in Impasta Handbags—marble, paper, wood, or gold; skin, hair, sweat, or jewelry; cookies, cakes, fritters, cannoli, or sprinkles; ravioli, penne, ziti, parsley, pizza, pomodorini, mozzarella, mortadella, salsiccia, soppressata–what they’re actually looking at is paint. In turn, since the objects at hand, however sculptural, are crafted from paint, then all these things viewers are looking at are, simply put, paintings.”

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Posted on , by Melissa Stern

A Stage Within a Stage- Ye Qin Zhu at Dimin

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A Stage Within a Stage-mixed media on eight fitted panels. 5 x 27 feet. 2022-2023

There’s a riot going on. That’s what I thought as I stood in front of Ye Qin Zhu’s large-scale installation piece at Dimin in Tribeca. The gallery space painted a matte black that seems to absorb all the light in the room, is dominated by one wall-mounted assemblage that is 27 feet long and five feet tall. There is a bench placed in front so that the viewer can take a few minutes to absorb the full volume of information and energy radiating from this piece.

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Posted on , by Etty Yaniv

Noa Charuvi: Gal’Ed at York College Arts Gallery

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Noa Charuvi, Cairn, 2023, oil on canvas, 36×72 inches

45 Jacob took a stone and erected it as a pillar. 46 He instructed his kin, “Collect some stones.” They gathered stones, formed a heap, and shared a meal beside it. 47 Laban named it Jegar Sahadutha, while Jacob named it Galeed. 48 Laban declared, “This heap stands as a witness between us today.” Hence, it became known as Galeed.

Genesis, Chapter 31, Verse 45

A Gal’Ed symbolizes a location marked by significant events—deathly moments or sacrifices. As it appears in the Old Testament, it signifies a covenant. In Hebrew, ‘Gal’ is a heap of stones, and it is the same word for ‘wave.’ ‘Ed’ means a witness. This heap of stones becomes an emblem of the pact between Jacob and his father-in-law: their agreement not to harm each other’s possessions or families. Serving as a symbol of shared promises, Jacob sanctifies it, offering to God on this stone.

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Posted on , by Sara Farrell Okamura

Myth Maker: Laleh Khorramian at SEPTEMBER Gallery

Installation view. Photo courtesy of Alon Koppol

Finally! What a joy to meander through a show that is not just a formulaic scaffolding rendered to execute a marketing plan rather than make art. Walking into the building that houses September Gallery’s new space in Kinderhook, NY, The first thing you see is not a wall or architectural ornamentation but a monumental scroll that immediately hints you might be here for a while. This colossal collage introduces Myth Maker, the second exhibition at September Gallery by Laleh Khorramian.

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Posted on , by Xuezhu Jenny Wang

The Art of Getting It Together

Jesse Benson, Packaging, 2003/2023. Ephemera from all projects completed in grad school, vacuum-formed plastic, plexiglass, silkscreen on board. Installation dimensions variable, individual dimensions 21 x 28.8 x 3 in. Photo by Jeff McLane. Courtesy As-Is LA.

In Organizer, Jesse Benson’s first solo gallery show since 2017, the Los Angeles artist unpacks the “dialectic of order and chaos” by introducing heterogeneity to organizing systems.

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Posted on , by Melissa Stern

Here Now: Contemporary Photographers of the Hudson Valley

Phyllis Galembo  Photographer, Carnival Mexico. Fujiflex print. 30 x 30 2017.

The Kleinart James Center in Woodstock, New York, is currently presenting a very ambitious and interesting photography exhibition. Entitled Here Now: Contemporary Photographers of the Hudson Valley, the show presents 17 artists representing a portion of the many photographers working in this geography. Organized by curator Jane Hart, the show offers a wide range of aesthetic visions and techniques.

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Posted on , by Meg Hitchcock

Martha Bone and Janice Caswell: Two Solo Shows at Garrison Art Center

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Martha Bone, Mapping the Invisible #3, 2020, acrylic, aluminum enamel, charcoal, joint compound, pastel on pieced paper, 63 x 88 in., photo courtesy of the artist.

Two artists currently showing at Garrison Art Center use scale, structure, and geometry to examine and reinterpret their respective environments. Martha Bone’s large-scale paintings and assemblages express a sweeping view of the cosmos, bringing the macrocosm within our reach, while Janice Caswell’s small-scale sculptures find the infinite within the microcosm, showing us the vast potential in all forms. Both Bone and Caswell photograph their natural and man-made landscapes, later referring to these images when creating their works. And both artists construct their forms as improvisations inspired by their observations, although neither artist is interested in a literal interpretation of nature. But this is where the similarities end, their distinctive styles diverging toward an expansive contemplation of form and space and an intimate exploration of the fabricated structures that inhabit our lives.

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