contemporary painting – Page 10

April 29, 2019April 29, 2019, by Nina Mdivani

The Bold Women of Elvira Bach

Elvira Bach, Untitled, 1982, Acrylic on paper, 88 x 62 cm | 34 2/3 x 24 1/2 in,

In the context of the global feminist art of today there are a few trailblazers who continue to work and dazzle with their exuberance. Immediacy and mastery of visual resolution signal such fast-paced and intuitive artists. German-born Elvira Bach is one of them. Bach has created a striking painterly style that catches the eye and stimulates further contemplation. For a viewer, Bach’s expressiveness establishes an immediate and deep bond with the traditions of the German Expressionism, embodying in her paintings the Expressionists’ core principle – namely, depicting the artist’s inherent conflicts within the society and within herself. For Elvira Bach urgency of expression, empathy, and visual projection of deep inner strength are important attributes.

April 24, 2019November 15, 2020, by Etty Yaniv

Rachael Wren – Shimmers and Hums

Rachael Wren, Defenders, 2017, oil on linen, 48 x 48 inches. Photo by Bill Orcutt

Rachael Wren’s delicate paintings pulsate with repetitive brush strokes that both allure you to look closely at the elaborate geometric surfaces and at the same time pull you into mysterious psychological interiors or perhaps cosmic fields. Her grid structure serves as an anchor for the paint /space- anchoring facilitates a greater freedom of movement and flow within. The artist shares with Art Spiel her ideas on color, painting, and studio process.

March 30, 2019March 31, 2019, by Danielle Burnham

Lizbeth Mitty & Dana James: The Thread

at M. DAVID & CO. GALLERY extended thru APRIL 21st, 2019 and an artist talk on April 14th at 4PM with Lilly Wei

Lizbeth Mitty in her studio. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Dana James in her studio. Photo courtesy of Drew Reynolds

I met with rising talent artist Dana James and her mother, veteran NYC artist Lizbeth Mitty, prior to their joint exhibition, “The Thread,” which opened March 15th at M. David & Co. Gallery in Bushwick. It was late February, and the artists were trying to answer the lingering question: Which new works should we display?

The debate was an extension of a conversation that had been running for months. Throughout the creative process, alone in their respective studios, the artists had frequently exchanged feedback on works in progress, eschewing criticism for constructive, “technical” suggestions that served to “open the floodgates” and renew the other’s creative energy.

March 1, 2019March 1, 2019, by Etty Yaniv

Galen Cheney: Gritty Beauty

Galen Cheney, Light Falls, textile color, acrylic, and oil pastel on raw canvas, 40 x 36″, 2018, photo courtesy of the artist

In her bold abstracted paintings Galen Cheney often layers multiple media such as textile color, spray paint, oil pastel, acrylic, and collage to create complex images. Her paintings brings to mind a crossing between graffiti and abstract expressionism with a distinct sense of immediacy and gestural mark making. Galen Cheney shares with Art Spiel some of her background, ideas, and process.

December 20, 2018November 15, 2020, by Etty Yaniv

Anne Sherwood Pundyk With Art Spiel – Part 3

AS: What can you tell me about your painting process?

Anne Sherwood Pundyk Mattituck, NY studio exterior
with canvas works in progress summer 2018.

Anne Sherwood Pundyk at work, Mattituck, NY studio spring 2018, photo courtesy The Suffolk Times.

Anne Sherwood Pundyk: To begin, I am alone in my studio out in the country. I clear away the past. I am free. I don’t need to do anything. I have no expectations based on prior work. I wait. An urge eventually calls me toward my materials. My materials are humble drop cloth canvas and house paint. They will be transformed and elevated. I want to make something new. It will affirm a hopeful light. It will hold a dark truth. It will be more than the sum of its parts. It will take whatever size and shape it needs to take. I am there to shepherd its creation. I start by mixing a color that matches my mood. I pour a large quantity of paint onto canvas on the floor of my studio or outside on the lawn. I watch the movement and density of the paint. I pour more paint or water to compose in response to what I see. I work with large heavy pieces of canvas sometimes soaking wet with paint and water, bending, rolling, and pulling. I learn as I go. I extend my body to my materials. The canvas becomes my skin and the paint is a bodily life fluid. Action becomes image.

December 19, 2018December 23, 2018, by Etty Yaniv

Anne Sherwood Pundyk With Art Spiel – Part 2

AS: I am curious why you chose to use the term “manifesto.”

Anne Sherwood Pundyk, “Being Blue,” 2018, 90 x 100 inches, Latex, Acrylic, Colored
Pencil and Stitching on Canvas.

Anne Sherwood Pundyk:I could say, “Artist Statement,” but that feels too passive as a prescription for how and why I paint. I associate the term “Manifesto” with an urgent call to action. Since 2009, my painting has formally become more reductive through three distinct bodies of work each with their own written manifesto . Respectively, each written piece affirms a new order in a different way. Common to all is my concern with the idea of agency taken together with my on-going re-examination of the tradition of the medium. As my thinking and understanding changes, so does my work.

December 18, 2018June 4, 2020, by Etty Yaniv

Anne Sherwood Pundyk With Art Spiel – Part 1

Art Spiel’s Interview with artist and writer Anne Sherwood Pundyk has evolved into a cohesive and richly layered personal essay that will be published in sections over three days – one part a day. Anne Sherwood Pundyk’s essay in three parts seals Art Spiel’s Interview series for 2018, while opening a portal into 2019 with fresh insights and new writing formats.

October 11, 2018November 15, 2020, by Etty Yaniv

Debra Ramsay: Painting Time

Debra Ramsay embraces “beauty” as a core in her work. Throughout her installations and paintings she reflects on the relationship between color, light, time, and place with a minimalist’s impulse and a colorist’s flair. Mara Williams, the curator of “Painting Time”, her recent show at Brattleboro Museum, eloquently describes it as both “reductionist and exuberant.” In this interview for Art Spiel the artist elaborates on her background, ideas, and projects.

Continue reading “Debra Ramsay: Painting Time”

April 16, 2018June 4, 2020, by Etty Yaniv

Liminal Worlds at Trestle Gallery

Anne Polashenski , Aliens in a New Land: Josef & Francziska Podleszański (Great Grandparents), 2015, C-prints, cut paper collage & gouache on paper, 23 x 19 in, photo courtesy of the artist

Curated by Katerina Lanfranco, “Liminal Worlds,” the upcoming show at Trestle features four artists who reflect on the fluid dividing line between the multiple realities we experience as part of the human condition. Anne Polashenski and Greg Thielker examine notions of “self and other” through ethnography, immigrant experiences, and national borders. Ashley Hope and Elizabeth Insogna explore the elusive notions of spirit and afterlife. Altogether, through their artworks, these artists invite us to venture into territories that make us contemplate not only politics, but also the potential for deeper self-awareness. Continue reading “Liminal Worlds at Trestle Gallery”

February 22, 2018May 30, 2020, by Etty Yaniv

Thoreau and the Unibomber at Ess Ef Eff

Joseph Noderer, Neighborly, Paint on canvas, photo courtesy the artist — Joseph Noderer, Neighborly, Paint on canvas, photo courtesy by the artist

“Thoreau and the Unibomber”, David E. Kearns’ and Joe Noderer‘s two person painting exhibition at Ess Ef Eff, raises some current existential questions – What point are we trying to access with our progress? What is the apogee of understanding? Is it all for a cosmic awareness and peaceful co-habitation? The show invites viewers to reflect on a dichotomous view of civil disobedience, of living alone in nature, along with the consequent personal and social fallout or success. Continue reading “Thoreau and the Unibomber at Ess Ef Eff”