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.
3RD SPACE installation image. Image by Yasmeen Abdallah
We visited SPRING/BREAK Art Show in its new location in lower Manhattan on Varick St. We went independently, and then got together afterward to discuss our impressions of the fair, and the highlights we came away with. We have ruminated on possible trends and strong impressions that stayed with us long after the fair. Even though it has been almost a month past Spring Break Art Fair, the highlights resonated with us.
In Until the Sun Goes Dark, Taylor Davis’s second solo show with SEPTEMBER gallery at Kinderhook, NY, the Boston-based artist takes on the question of why we exist in a violent, volatile universe. She offers no answers, but through sculpture, painting, and works on paper, elicits inquiries into the nature of brutality by researching texts ranging from 2000-year-old biblical scriptures (Job 27:13- 23, Ecclesiastics 12: 5-8 and Psalm 57: 4-5) to modern writings by Ethnographer, Edward Linnaeus Keithahn and literature by William Gass, InThe Heart of the Heart of the Country. Davis does not merely execute a plan to create work but relies on systems of chance and logic. She does not force her materials to bend to her intent but defers to the inherent nature of the materials she is using. Working in a similar manner to a call-and-response practice, her final pieces sometimes challenge the viewers’ initial comprehension of what they are actually seeing.
Rebecca Rutstein at Bridgette Mayer Gallery, Photograph courtesy of the artist
As the Philadelphia gallery season ramps up, we explore unseen worlds in three very distinct shows. If you are a science or color enthusiast, be sure to see Rebecca Rutstein’s large abstract paintings at Bridgette Mayer Gallery. She uses bold designs and bright colors to tap into the sublime, examining hidden ecosystems fundamental to life on Earth. Delving into the veiled depths of the subconscious, Elena Drozdova’s Riding Fear at PII Galley presents dream-like paintings with powerful symbolic imagery. Across town at InLiquid Gallery, Brotherly Lens: A Portrait of Philadelphia places three exceptional photographers in conversation, inspiring introspection and creating a striking narrative of Philadelphia’s unknown history and communities.
June 2015- Seth Shostak. Pen and ink on Bristol board 161/2 x 171/8
Martin Wilner’s compelling new show at BravinLee Projects is both conceptually and visually complex, the work of an intellect working on several intersecting planes. Wilner is a practicing Freudian psychoanalyst, a scholar, and mentor to analysts in training. He is a self-taught artist whose work reflects his involvement with the human psyche, popular culture, and comic strip art. His artistic practice is intertwined deeply with his psychoanalytic work and comes with an interesting twist; Wilner the therapist invites the public to engage deeply with the world of Wilner the artist via social media.
Kumi Yasmashita, “Strings”, 2016. Wood panel, brads, seven colored threads, 16x12x1 in. Photo by Paul Takeuchi
The Flinn Gallery’s 2024-25 season kicks off on September 19 with the solo exhibition The Elusive Art of Kumi Yamashita, curated by Leslee Asch. Situated on the second floor of the Greenwich Library, the Flinn Gallery is known for its commitment to high-quality contemporary art, offering a space for both emerging and established artists. The Flinn Gallery’s 2024-25 season opens on September 19 with the solo show The Elusive Art of Kumi Yamashita, curated by Leslee Asch.
Dario Mohr’s Don’t Forget to Check. Image by Yasmeen Abdallah
Themes of searching and connection to ancestors through practice, ritual, and persistence are intertwined through work that depicts aspects of migration, objecthood, and the complexities of humanity itself. The winds moving across the island dictate the mood as we bow and sway through graceful installations in deeply resonant forms at LMCC Art Center and Artcrawl Harlem.
Anna Berenice Garner, installation view of exhibition titled, Topografías y otras ficciones, image courtesy of Lateral gallery
For a few months now, Anna and I have been discussing her practice in preparation for her most recent solo show in Mexico City titled Topografías y otras ficciones. As we have been navigating concepts around the notions of landscape and the role of the image in the construction of truth, our exchanges included topics such as the body and its relationship with space, methods of reshaping space through photography, as well as the potential of merging sculpture and photography to rethink the environments that construct the unquestionable truths under which we guide our existence. This interview compiles key points from our face-to-face and written exchanges while capturing insights into the artist’s current approach to her work.
Diane Burko, Amazon 7, Diptych A, 2022, mixed media on canvas, 20×20 inches, In the collection of Joseph and Pamela Yohlin
This is part of a series of articles for the upcoming exhibition, The Greatest Emergency at the Circulo de Bellas Artes of Madrid. The exhibition is based on Santiago Zabala’s book, Why Only Art Can Save Us: Aesthetics and the Absence of Emergency. In this exhibition, ten contemporary artists rescue us into our greatest emergencies, that is, those we do not confront as we should. Each article in the series will contextualize these artists’ practices and explore how they are linked to Zabala’s aesthetic theory and the exhibition’s themes. The third article in this series highlights the work of American artist Diane Burko.
Kejoo Park is a Korean-American artist, landscape artist and architect. In her works, Park focuses on the duality of the internal and external worlds and her paintings, objects and installations manifest the alienation between man and nature; they address external nature, which is revealed in what man did not create himself. However, its potential and uniqueness lie in its creative ideas and actions, which develop through the influence of external structures and the engagement with culture and society.
