Contemporary Art and Culture
Entering the fourth floor of the Guggenheim, you are met with fields, mountains, lakes of the Bavarian Alps, daily objects, and people—bright, saturated colors held together by dark edges. The exhibition brings together landscapes, portraits, and still lifes, with a focus on Münter’s early Expressionist years alongside later paintings.
Continue reading “Gabriele Münter – Contouring a World”
Eric Wolf’s works at Abri Mars take us through misty, expansive landscapes. Their ethereality and tranquility pull viewers into new places to explore and settle into. Within Two Waters, Wolf recreates the landscapes he observes directly, using a limited ink palette to bring the pieces to life. Through a combination of controlled and reactive strokes, Wolf uses hard and soft edges to render his figures of nature. While the figures are more abstract- mountains, bodies of water, trees, etc, these works are expanding on the process of plein air, bringing the environment into the works directly. With the gallery’s natural light from the front windows, the darkness of the ink becomes velvety, drawing you in, while the light of the paper glows beneath, pushing outward. This push and pull makes the work feel dynamic and lively.
Continue reading “Eric Wolf’s Two Waters: Nature, Observation, and Exploration at Abri Mars”
In Cynthia Daighnault’s exhibition at Olney Gleason, the walls are covered with different versions of the same subject: Denali, the tallest mountain in North America. A natural wonder and a national treasure at risk, Denali has lost over 60 percent of its glacier mass, and rising temperatures have accelerated permafrost thaw and disrupted local ecosystems, directly affecting the wildlife that depend on it. The paintings in this exhibition preserve their likelihood like the sculpture of the last three rhinos (by Gillie and Marc, now installed at 441 Ninth Avenue), but this documentation of endangered species contains an underlying criticism of American megalomania, without escaping the artist’s own American identity and ambitions. A big, beautiful white thing, Denali’s demise mirrors the nation’s uncertain future and the accumulative effect of its past.
Continue reading “Call Of The Mountain”
Getting to see the works of Frank Lind in person gives you an experience of a moment, the capture of a motion, and the building up of an atmosphere. Lind works “en plein air” within nature. Capturing immediate impressions and moments that captivate him, he then carries sketches to canvas. Stemming from the on-site sketches, the larger studio works take on a glow. Using traditional oil painting processes and many old master methods, both of Lind’s series displayed in this exhibition show the end result of a painter’s process.
Continue reading “Frank Lind: Time and Tide, Homage and Seascapes at Georges Berges”
This autumn in the Philadelphia area, we are spotlighting three painting exhibitions which explore intricate connections between people, places, memories, and dreams. In Passing Through. at Gross McCleaf Gallery, Maren Less creates vibrant paintings that blend human and animal forms into unexpected, symbolic narratives. At Arcadia University, Hiro Sakaguchi’s Landscapes of a Restless Mind is a collection of muted neon paintings with intricate line work in which daydreams and global issues swirl together. Finally, in Los De Aqui, Henry Morales’ solo show at Tiger Strikes Asteroid Philadelphia, offers a tender look at everyday life, using unified colors, collected soil, and newspaper clippings to emphasize the deep bond between people and their places. Check out these lively shows exploring empathy and the human experience through three distinctive styles and voices.
Continue reading “Art Spiel Picks: Philly Exhibitions in September 2025”
With the excitement of the art fairs behind us it’s time to take one look back at The Armory Show and note a couple artists to watch this year who clearly stood out in the whirlwind of that weekend.
Continue reading “Painters to Watch: The Armory Show 2025 Recap”
Landscapes, Ronit Goldschmidt‘s solo exhibition at Gordon Gallery, is as unpretentious and straightforward as its title. This group of paintings ranges from 6×4 to 23×27-inch panels—tiny but mighty. Their strength derives from the apparent skill of the painter to transport the viewer to a place so specific that it feels familiar. She successfully translates the full spectrum of a real moment by simple means of acrylic or gouache.
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Julia S. Powell, Kitchen Morning, 2024. Oil on canvas
MFA Boston Curator of Painting Katie Hanson visited the studio of the landscape painter Julia S. Powell. The resulting interview gives us an insight into Powell’s artistic process and her concept of a “fiction painter,” one that creates work at the intersection of abstraction and realism. Besides references to contemporary Impressionism, the interview addresses creating thickly-layered artworks that inspire introspection and acceptance of previous experiences—especially the unwanted ones. These layers serve as metaphors for embracing past struggles without regret. Powell’s work also provides an emotional refuge as a response to a chaotic and increasingly anxious life.
On April 26th and 27th, from 1 to 6 pm, artists in DUMBO will open their doors to the public as part of DUMBO Open Studios, offering a rare look inside the art studios along the Brooklyn waterfront. Since the 1970s, DUMBO has been shaped by its vibrant art community. This interview series highlights a handful of participating artists in 2025. Each response offers a glimpse of what’s waiting behind the studio door. Platform Project Space has been in DUMBO since 2018 at 20 Jay Street #319.
Continue reading “DUMBO Open Studios 2025 with Tessa Greene O’Brien curating at Platform Project Space”
Night Shades, a new exhibition presented by daphne:art Gallery and Advisory in collaboration with ODETTA, brings together three artists—Nancy Baker, Claire Seidl, and Geoffrey Parker—whose paintings and photographs explore the uneasy edge between perception and memory, hinting at alternative realities, and brushing against dystopia.
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