Tag: beach

Matthew Fisher at Shrine Gallery

Matthew Fisher’s graphically pared down beach scenes at Shrine Gallery are as carefully arranged as a store-front display, puffy clouds even resembling cut-out, stage-set backgrounds.  Although the paintings suggest precise arrangements by an unseen hand, Fisher’s perspective is shaped by the understanding that nature predates and will survive humanity.  Here, ‘The Subject of a Dream’ features a dark void, presumably representing the earth, in which a fish and shell have been extracted from their natural context and offered as symbols for place.  Floating in space and outlined in a white border that further sets them apart, Fisher’s apparition makes the beach and its inhabitants strange, forcing a reevaluation of their existence in time and place. (On view in Tribeca through Aug 4th).

Matthew Fisher, The Subject of a Dream, acrylic on canvas, 2023.

Woomin Kim in ‘Beach’ at Nino Meier Gallery

Curious crustaceans, a creepy-cute sea creature in the form of a cat and plenty of sandy beach landscapes feature in Nino Meier’s two-gallery summer group show ‘Beach,’ but Woomin Kim’s textile is a standout for its texture and color, a reference to the Korean markets that inspire her fabric collage.  Places for shopping, meeting friends and, here, enjoying seafood, Kim’s market scenes celebrate a beloved institution. (On view through Aug 5th).

Woomin Kim, Shijang: SusanMul (seafood), fabric, 2022.

Isca Greenfield-Sanders at Miles McEnery Gallery

Isca Greenfield-Sanders’ landscape paintings at Miles McEnery Gallery point out the filters through which we see scenery; here, a pinkish cast to this beach scene recalls aged film, but the artist’s paintings also suggest layers of time and distance. Painting from found vintage photographs of places she’s never been, Greenfield-Sanders singles out scenes that have a familiarity that many in her audience will recognize from their own experience.  After making several versions of an image, tinkering with placement of details and doing preparatory watercolors, Greenfield-Sanders creates a final version of the painting which embodies the transitory, ‘captured’ images of a photo in the more labor-intensive medium of painting.  (On view in Chelsea through July 23rd).

Isca Greenfield-Sanders, Silver Beach, mixed media oil on canvas, 51 x 51 inches, 2022.

Benjamin Degen at Susan Inglett Gallery

A body melts and a blanket rises into colorful foothills in this painting celebrating the pleasures of the senses and the outdoors by Benjamin Degen at Susan Inglett Gallery.  In other works, bathers visit the beach at night to watch the moon while nature creates fabulous patterns in the movement of stars, rain and ocean water.  (On view by appointment in Chelsea through through July 24th).

Benjamin Degen, Rise, oil and spray enamel on canvas, 30 x 24 inches, 2019.

Graham Nickson in ‘Summer!’ at Betty Cuningham Gallery

New York Studio School dean Graham Nickson’s beach paintings have been described as “extreme, impenetrable, and haunting” for their isolated figures inhabiting landscapes pared down to horizontal bands of color.  Here, a lone figure’s ambiguous activity (Is she shielding her face from the sun?  Reading a giant book?) lends mystery and import to a leisure activity that might otherwise be overlooked.  (On view in ‘Summer!’ at Betty Cuningham Gallery on the Lower East Side through August 2nd).

Graham Nickson, Untitled from Bather Series, acrylic on canvas in artist’s frame, 48 x 48 inches, c. 1980.