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Fran Shalom: Everyday Improvisations at Kathryn Markel

Installation view

Fran Shalom’s paintings reduce form to its essentials while preserving the marks of revision and doubt. The surface becomes a record of both decision and hesitation, clarity and its undoing. Her compositions are direct yet ambivalent. Airy lines float within vivid color fields, their edges both firm and uncertain, altogether suggesting a state of being through color, motion, and gesture rather than representation. They obstinately remain abstract, teasing recognition without granting it.  

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Art Spiel Picks: Chelsea Exhibitions in October 2024

HIGHLIGHTS
Tim Kent, Edges Off a Model, Courtesy of Hollis Taggart Gallery

The fall season opened strong with some very exciting painting shows in Chelsea and its outskirts. The not to be missed stand alone Monya Rowe Gallery is featuring work by two innovative female painters, while in the heart of Chelsea, Hollis Taggart is featuring Tim Kent’s captivating works in his second solo show with the gallery. Right across the street, Fergus McCaffrey Gallery is showcasing fresh work by a seasoned German painter Reinhard Pods.

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Peter Gynd: 10989 Dunlop Road

In Dialogue
Peter Gynd, Figures which do not behave within the structure of a Story, 2023, oil on linen, 48 x 36 inches

10989 Dunlop Road features Peter Gynd’s recent oil paintings, inspired by the tranquil garden of his mother’s home in kwekwenis (Lang Bay), British Columbia. This series captures the shifting essence of cedar and fir trees that stand at the garden’s entrance, embodying themes of rebirth and spiritual renewal. Each painting serves as a reflection of Gynd’s connection to this place of refuge during a pivotal time.

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Cross-Continental dialogue: Marie-Chloé Duval and Yulia Bas

In Conversation
Yulia Bas, Barcelona 2023 and Marie-Chloé Duval, NYC 2022, credit: Keith Selby

Art’s ability to transcend borders becomes evident as two distinct artists engage in a cross-continental dialogue. Yulia Bas, hailing from the sun-soaked landscapes of Spain, and Marie-Chloé Duval, an artistic force from Canada, come together to delve into the intricacies of their creative processes. This exchange goes beyond cultural distinctions, bridging the gap between mediums. Through their conversation, Bas and Duval explore inspirations, techniques, and the universal language that connects artists worldwide.

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Test Kitchen: Carolyn Case at Reynolds Gallery


Shadow Sink, 2021 oil on panel 42 x 50 inches

Test Kitchen, Carolyn Case’s show at Reynolds Gallery in Richmond, Virginia, consisted of 4 oil paintings on panel along with 8 pastel drawings. Hefty brush strokes fill the surface area of the oil paintings. The painterly process involves a buildup of incremental adjustments, the layers of paint applied one by one until the shapes solidify into a kaleidoscopic arrangement; one nudge and the elements will shift accordingly, morphing the image into an entirely new pattern. Each of the paintings gives the impression of a specific time of day, indicated by the character of light and color playing across the space. Monet’s Water Lilies come to mind. But in place of Monet’s serene refuge, Case’s light lingers over a sink full of dirty dishes.

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Artists on Coping: Diane Drescher

During the Coronavirus pandemic, Art Spiel is reaching out to artists to learn how they are coping.

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Highline Hotel, 2018

Diane Drescher‘s light filled landscapes straddle the line between traditional and modern. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and continued her art training at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Art Student’s League, and the National Academy in New York. A 10-year period of traveling to Europe to research design trends for fashion projects provided the opportunity to study the tradition of landscape painting in the museums of Paris and London. Inspired, she began refining her style using vivid colors, thick application of paint, and distinctive brushstrokes.

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Surface and Sky: Jeffrey Morabito at SFA Projects

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Monstera Deliciosa Vase, 2019

Jeffrey Morabito’s show “Birds and Flowers, Vases and Windows” is beautiful and lush and draws you in. There are vibrant colors and wandering lines, rich passages that feel like small works unto themselves–secret gardens waiting to be discovered within each larger piece. But if there are elements that delight the eye, there are ideas that tease the mind. For running through his art and practice is a sense of duality and contradiction where opposites collide and play, posing gentle questions as they merge into new concepts and forms.

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