The insistent art works in Beyond Emancipation at Kennedy Heights Arts Center demand attention. “Look at me,” they seem to cry out. “Look at me now. WHAT DO YOU THINK I’M SAYING?”
Rather poetically, the announcement card for “Winter Solace” says the two-woman show of Kim Flora’s paintings and Trina Feldhake’s ceramic baskets “reflects the quiet, the surprise, and the texture of the winter season.” It does. At least in part. To start, a group of Flora’s haunting encaustic-and-oil-over-digital-transfer panels immediately captured my attention as I mounted the graceful stair to the second floor gallery at...
This is the second in a series of a quarterly letters, which will cover painting shows in greater New York.
“From the top of the arched opening – as it gradually widens – pours forth a sparkling flow of jewels, a pattering rain of diamonds, and, directly following, a tumble of gems of every color, steeped in light…”
Flesh. It gleams and swells in Samson and Delilah, giving us the whole story before we can recall the details. It shows us her allure and his weakness. It gives life to this picture, but it is made from paint brushed across a wooden panel. In Rubens’ hands, paint and flesh transform a morality tale into an erotic tour de force.
A stratified structure of litter (constructed of packaging that once housed Cheez-Its, cans of Bud Light and Diet Coke, and Pop-Secret microwavable bags of popcorn) rests precariously atop an old-school reel-to-reel tape recorder in Keith Benjamin’s “the weight,” a sculpture that teeters toward absurdity while evoking the loneliness and exactitude of a hoarder’s consciousness. Nothing is wasted in this work of art. You can...
Justine Ludwig, Assistant Curator of the Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art, never had to confront the question: “What will I do when I grow up?” Her grandmother was an eclectic collector of art she loved, with no specific period but from all over the world, and her parents trundled her through countless museums on her little girl’s legs. “I used to make paintings and try to sell them to the neighbors,”...
The B. Deemer Gallery in Louisville presents a partial retrospective of the work of artist and educator Robert Knipschild (1927-2004). Paintings include works dating from the 1960s (a little over a decade after he was selected for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s renowned exhibition “American Painting Today”) through the 1990s. His style in this extensive period was varied, from some early works that reveal the influence of...
The Marta Hewitt Gallery always looks fresh. There’s something about the bling effect of glass and the space implied and manipulated by that medium. But Hewitt is taking this a giant step forward, lately, pulling in less famous, but equally good artists in other mediums. Currently three multi-dimensional artists, dealing in work-intensive materials are well described in the title: “ Devotion to Detail.” More than just pretty...
