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).
Concrete embraces nature in this painting of a ‘disprized’ location by New York artist Rackstraw Downes at Betty Cuningham Gallery. From a seemingly unremarkable spot under a u-turn ramp, Downes considers what and how the eye really sees and how a ‘forgotten’ place might yield a bit of wonder. (On view on the Lower East Side through Oct 14th).
Whether he’s building up a support from layers of paper or putting down thick strokes of paint, American painter Stanley Lewis constructs heavily considered, highly absorbing scenes from the world around him. (At Betty Cuningham Gallery, now located on the Lower East Side, through October 25th).
Stanley Lewis, (detail from) Boat on the Beach, Lake Chautauqua, oil on canvas, 2013.
