Tag: large-scale painting

Posted on , by Michal Gavish

Zhang Huan: The Ash Paintings, at 125 Newbury Gallery

It has been over ten years since the last New York exhibition of the Chinese artist Zhang Huan, known for his edgy political performance pieces documented at the exhibition. What captured me on this visit was his ash paintings, which extended across the entire front hall of the gallery. It feels entirely appropriate that this social activist artist, who later turned to Buddhism, should exhibit these works in New York at such a tense moment. Ash, as a medium, touches on absolute destruction. It carries deep meaning in Buddhist practice, but these days it also pulls toward something harder to name: the daily accumulation of impure ash on the ground of cities being destroyed.

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Posted on , by Taylor Bielecki

Robert Yarber- Regard and Abandon at Nicodim Gallery

Robert Yarber, Error’s Conquest, 1986, acrylic on canvas, 71 by 130 inches. Photo courtesy of Nicodim Gallery

Neon nights are brought to life within Robert Yarber’s paintings. The large-scale paintings in Nicodim Gallery’s survey of his works bring viewers along for a wild ride. Whether it’s pulling us into a dark hotel room, lit solely by the blue light of a droning, static television set, or throwing us outside, into the life of the party, and possibly, over the balcony and into the air- we are left in suspense of what comes next. It’s as if we were sitting in a dark movie theater, watching someone’s life story unfold.

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Posted on , by Melissa Stern

Lubaina Himid- Street Sellers at Greene Naftali

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Posture Master- 2023. Acrylic on canvas. 96 x 72

Rarely has there been a group of people as uniformly elegant and graceful as those who inhabit Lubaina Himid’s paintings, currently on view at Greene Naftali in Chelsea. Entitled Street Sellers, Himid has created a group of large, figurative paintings that pulse with vibrant color and life. These graceful, solo figures proudly present their wares to us–eggs, birds, musical instruments, and fish, as they move through the landscape.

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Posted on , by Art Spiel

Ashley Garret: Ambrosia at SEPTEMBER

Featured Artist
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Ambrosia installation view. Photo by Pete Mauney


Ashley Garrett: Ambrosia, Garrett’s second solo show at SEPTEMBER in Kinderhook, NY, features a body of work she has made over three years—some evolved over years and others more quickly. Garrett has been working on large-scale 94 x 57-inch paintings on canvas since 2019. Garrett says that the weaving of brushstrokes creates a space that changes perspective between up and down, water and air. The gallery space also offers an experience of movement with sight lines through three distinct rooms. In the installation, small paintings on canvas can be seen from each corner of the rooms to the farthest corners of the gallery.

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Posted on , by Art Spiel

William Norton – Styx & Stones- at The Boiler – ELM Foundation

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“Cop,CodPiece, and Tigger”, “Lurking Cop”, “Cutting the Head Off the Thug”, “in the rain i feel myself swallowed, savored, teased by your tongue”

William Norton’s large-scale paintings at The Boiler – ELM Foundation evoke imagery of oppression and protest through gestural graphic marks and bold color on recycled vinyl advertisements as canvas. “We are always being sold something in this age of hyper-ventilating propaganda. And there is just enough of the advertising image left over to titillate the viewers’ eyeballs,” Norton says.

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Posted on , by Art Spiel

Peter Cvik at Zoya Museum Modra in Slovakia

Featured Artist

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Portrait in Zoya Private Museum Solo Show “semagdniM”. Photocredit: Juraj Fifik


 For the last few years the Slovak painter Peter Cvik has been layering different experiences and stories out of sheer visual memory. Without using photos or any other found imagery, Cvik builds new positions of “synthetic” reality that reminds us of something real or experienced within a flux of time where memories float. His landscapes evoke a sense of collision between opposing worlds without evoking the sense of a specific place. Peter Cvik equates his paintings to a sentence that ends with three dots which viewers can complete on their own.

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Posted on , by Sara Farrell Okamura

Pauline Decarmo: Exit – the Path to New Beginnings at LABspace


Installation view of Pauline Decarmo: Exit at LABspace, 2022, photo courtesy LABspace

Some artists paint stunning abstractions, some artists deftly execute exquisite realistic images, while others ingeniously develop astute conceptual work, but the truly magical art is work that can intelligently create the aura of time, space, and experience. Fortunately Pauline Decarmo, by using any means necessary, does exactly that in her exhibition, Exit, on view at LABspace in Hillsdale NY through May 29.

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Posted on , by Etty Yaniv

Artists on Coping: Alyse Rosner

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


How it looks right now in my studio March 2020 Graphite rubbing on yupo, Works in progress: Graphite and acrylic on raw canvas

Alyse Rosner is known for large scale abstract paintings melding graphite rubbings, gestural brushwork, obsessive mark making and transparent color reflecting her immediate surroundings, personal experience and environmental concerns. A graduate of the University of Michigan and The American University, Rosner received grants from the Connecticut Office of the Arts and The Sustainable Arts Foundation. Rosner has exhibited at the Newcomb Art Museum of Tulane University, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, BravinLee Programs, Odetta and Kathryn Markel Fine Art, as well as Real Art Ways and Artspace in Connecticut, among others. Alyse Rosner is represented by Rick Wester Fine Art.

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Posted on , by Etty Yaniv

Erika Ranee – Wired for Bold

Erika Ranee, You’re Your Own You, 2018, ink and crayon on paper, 12”x 12”

The tension between “inside” and “outside” in Erika Ranee’s paintings draw you into an enclosed space with an explosive and rhythmic internal movement. The vibrant colors, organic shapes, and linear marks that link the forms like veins, altogether resonate with living organisms, body, or microscopic landscapes. The artist shares with Art Spiel what brought her to art, her thought and work processes, as well as her current projects.

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