Wednesday, December 5, 2018

Joseph Montgomery at Dürst Britt & Mayhew







Joseph Montgomery:  Joe
until December 23rd


Dürst Britt & Mayhew
Van Limburg Stirumstraat 47
2515 PB Den Haag
The Netherlands                                    durstbrittmayhew.com














Sunday, December 2, 2018

Thornton Willis at Elizabeth Harris


Swing Low, 2018, acrylic on canvas, 20 x 18 inches




Thornton Willis:  Improvisational Structures
until December 22, 2018


Elizabeth Harris Gallery
529 West 20th Street
NYC  10011                                         ehgallery.com














Sunday, November 11, 2018

Hiding in Plain Sight at FreedmanArt


Nicola Ginzel, Transitional Fragment: Utz Composite with Embroidered Frottage from Moroccan Soap Box, 2014-16
wrapper embroidered with thread by hand, collaged with embroidered frottage backed by fabric, pencil, oil pastel, ink; 11 x 18 x .125 inches




Hiding in Plain Sight
Objects Common & Curious
September 27, 2018—December 29, 2018


FreedmanArt
25 East 73rd Street
New York NY 10021                    freedmanart.com


















Sunday, September 16, 2018

Adrianne Rubenstein at The Pit


Game of Life, 2018, Oil on panel, 56 x 47 inches






Adrianne Rubenstein: I Love Worms
On view through October 21, 2018


The Pit
918 Ruberta Avenue
Glendale, CA 91201                      the-pit.la














Monday, September 3, 2018

Matthew Craven at Asya Geisberg






MATTHEW CRAVEN
EMPIRE(s)
September 6 - October 20, 2018

Opening reception and book signing: Thursday, September 6th, 6:00 - 8:00pm
Matthew Craven will be signing copies of PRIMER, by Anthology Editions


ASYA GEISBERG GALLERY
537B West 23rd Street
New York, NY 10011                              asyageisberggallery.com














Saturday, July 7, 2018

Ewelina Bochenska | Interview


Untitled, 2017, oil on linen 7 x 5 in













Moonrock, 2017, oil on linen 10 x 8 in
















Ewelina Bochenska in her studio














∞ , 2017, foam, plaster, fabric, glitter, 10 x 15 x 5 in













Untitled, 2017, plaster & soap, 14 x 13 x 7 in















Na Skrzydlach Aniola, 2018, oil, yarn on rug, 10 x 7.5 in















Pole Rozowo Blekitne, 2018, oil, yarn on rug, 12 x 8 in






The work of Ewelina Bochenska is charged with feeling and purpose. Painting in a smaller format with oil on canvas, her works take on a devotional quality as they are clearly loaded with references to the lore of older, native cultures, along with nature and the elements. 

In her paintings, there's a masterful dichotomy between pastel and earth-tone color which sets up a sort of chromostereopsis with the background receding into depth to let the foreground marks stay in front and punchy. The subject matter, which often references the spiritual, is rendered in a manner reminiscent of native american glyph or mystical cypher, things felt yet unseen. Other pieces employ the addition of rope-like yarn around the perimeter of the canvas, an embellishment that seems to outline the work as a sacrosanct space.

Bochenska has also crossed into sculptural territory and has used a variety of material to get there. One of her more successful pieces, titled: , the symbol for infinity, has a blend of intuition in its execution as it appears to have been gathered and arranged in a makeshift manner, with genuine intention and meaning as it's basis. The strength of her art is found in her inclination to look back to and connect with other cultures in order to introduce a new vein of work that vibrates with possibility and relevance.




PB: What motivates you to make artwork?


Painting is a living phenomenon, just like color. Just like I am, life living itself out, so is painting. It is not a fixed entity, and perhaps that is why it is hard to talk about it. Trying to describe what motivates me to make work is like trying to describe the weather that is constantly changing. It is a question that cannot be easily answered. And if I try, there is no one answer to it. It is almost the same as ‘why am I alive?’ What motivates me to be alive?

I am really curious about the relationship between consciousness and matter, that which cannot be grasped and that which can, that which can be perceived and that which cannot. Exploring that threshold is what motivates me. But I am also open to the idea that this is not the case, that what motivates me is something else entirely. Hawaiian shamans believe that our reality is like a dream, which can be molded and changed according to our perspective, that it is very fluid and not as solid as we assume it to be, including space-time and our past and future, which can be bent and changed.

Painting is the most difficult thing there is, yet it is so magical and mysterious, almost miraculous. It is about liberation, freedom. Freedom from oneself and freedom from the known. It reminds me of a book by Jiddu Krishnamurti of the same title ‘Freedom from the Known’. Krishnamurti was a great thinker and philosopher. He talked a lot about the nature of mind and ‘the tyranny of the expected’. Such an important theme in life and painting.

Maybe painting for me is a way to explore those questions. Steiner said that color is the soul of the world. Working with color and materiality of paint, all those elements are the means to explore my curiosity about the world.



PB: How are things going in the studio and what’s informing or influencing your work lately?

I’m currently staying in Lodz, Poland, where I was born and grew up. My dad died a few months ago and I decided to move back to be with my family. I left Lodz in 2003 to live in Dublin, London and then New York. It has been fifteen years since I lived here, a lot has changed. 

I’m re-connecting with the place that I thought I would never come back to, and all the initial thoughts I had when I started painting. It makes me dive even deeper into the questions and existing in time-space as a physical being and what it entails, the whole emotional component and the things appearing and disappearing in your life, sometimes permanently. I’m revisiting my roots and my first inspirations such as fairy tales, folk music/art, Polish poetry, film and theater, my relationship to color, to nature.



PB: How about other artists? Whose work do you consider remarkable or challenging, and how far back into art history are you delving as you go about your personal study of art?

There are too many artists to mention. I have also noticed that sometimes I would be obsessed with one or two paintings by a particular artist, such as at ‘Don Quixote and Sancho Panza’ by Honore Daumier, at the National Gallery in London. But my inspiration goes as far back as the earliest cave paintings and petroglyphs. They are the purest form of art, they are timeless.

Recently I have been looking a lot at Frank Walter, an Antiguan painter and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, a German expressionist painter, one of the founders of the artist group Die Brücke.



PB: What's on your reading/looking/listening list lately?

The first book I came across when I got to Lodz that sparked my interest was 'Tomek Na Wojennej Sciezce' (Tomek On The War Path, 1959) by Alfred Szklarski. It is about a young man’s adventures in the South-West, and his great friendship with the Native Americans, in particular the Zuni tribe. The funny thing is that I just made a trip the South-West, and the Zuni pueblo was one of the last stops on my journey.

I’m also blown away by this book I found in my dad’s garage ‘Dar Rzeki Fly’ (The Gift of River Fly, 1957) by Maria Kruger. It is a collection of legends and fairy tales from different cultures around the world, African, Asian, Australian. Kruger was inspired by the stories collected by famous Polish travelers and ethnologists from the XIX and XX century, including her father.

I also found a bunch of vinyl records from my childhood that I used to listen to, such as Gypsy fairytales, ‘Mother Sun’, ‘Enchanted trunk’. The illustrations on the covers are so magical. It feels great to remember what you loved so much but totally forgot.

I also love reading poetry, I’m reconnecting with a lot of Polish poets such as Zbigniew Herbert, Wieslawa Szymborska, Stanislaw Baranczak, Julian Przybos.


PB: What’s coming up for your work in the near future?

I’m doing a residency in Salem, Germany which is part this artist exchange program run by Salem Art Works in Salem, NY. I’m also very honored to be part of the group show ‘X Marks the Spot: Women of the New York Studio School’, curated by Malado Baldwin and Maia Ibar, which opens July 25th at the New York Studio School, 8 West 8th Street, New York City.

















Sunday, April 15, 2018

Southeast Iowa Invitational


Painting by Brad Covington

















Mark McWhorter, pottery

















Matt Kargol, sculpture
















Sarah Kargol, collage
















print by Ann Klingensmith

















Michael Rutherford, painting



Southeast Iowa Invitational at ICON
through May 19th


ICON, Iowa Contemporary Art
58 North Main Street
Fairfield, IA  52556                      icon-art.org














Sunday, February 11, 2018

Carrie Moyer at DC Moore


Sassafras and Magma, 2017, acrylic and glitter on canvas, 60 x 54 inches




Carrie Moyer
February 8 – March 22, 2018

DC Moore Gallery                            dcmooregallery.com
535 West 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011














Sunday, February 4, 2018

Giorgio Griffa at Casey Kaplan


Campo Azzurro, 1986, acrylic on canvas, 112.2  x  95.7 in, 285 x 243 cm













Installation View




Giorgio Griffa: The 1980s
January 11 - February 17
                                                   
Casey Kaplan
121 West 27th Street
New York, NY  10001                            caseykaplangallery.com














Sunday, January 7, 2018

Jim Lee at Nicelle Beauchene






Jim Lee:  Half Off
January 5 - February 4, 2018               nicellebeauchene.com


Nicelle Beauchene Gallery
327 Broome Street (between Bowery & Chrystie)
New York, NY 10002