Tag: freight and volume

Paul Gagner at Freight and Volume

Brooklyn painter Paul Gagner takes personal care to a new and hilarious extreme with this image of an intricate landscape created via shaved hair.  Gagner’s self-conscious art practice sends up the quest for originality and artistic greatness in paintings of self-help books for struggling artists and pictures like one featuring a giant meteorite that has crashed through a studio window and crushed an easel.  ‘Hairscaping’ continues the self-questioning with its tongue-in-cheek pondering of what a truly dedicated artist will do for an art-led life.  (On view at Freight and Volume on the Lower East Side through Jan 13th).

Paul Gagner, Hairscaping, oil on canvas, 26 h x 30 w, 2015.

Peter Schenck at Freight and Volume

“Stand-up comedy and painting are both performative acts,” explains Brooklyn painter Peter Schenck, who has first-hand-experience of both.  Titling his latest show at Freight and Volume ‘Comedy Cellar,’ after the West Village club, Schenck creates colorful but tense scenarios in which various characters must make good under the spotlight.  Here, a wide-eyed, robed painter grins wildly next to a giant scull and floating paint brushes.  (On view on the Lower East Side through July 8th).

Peter Schenck, Down in the Cellar, acrylic, charcoal, oil on canvas, 54 x 54 inches, 2017 – 2018.

Kelley Johnson at Freight and Volume Gallery

Miami-based artist Kelley Johnson’s latest solo show opens with 2-D paintings and advances to artworks that literally fly off the wall thanks to PVC rods zinging outward. This piece, titled ‘Wall Kite,’ is grounded at the moment, but appears to be ready to launch upward. (On view at Freight and Volume Gallery on the Lower East Side through Feb 4th).

Kelley Johnson, Wall Kite, flash and acrylic on panel with PVC rods, 77h x 64w x 34d inches, 2017.

Jennifer Coates at Freight and Volume Gallery

New York painter Jennifer Coates conflates consumption of art and food in new paintings featuring donuts, bagels, TV dinners and more. At center, this towering stack of pasta, cheese and sauce melts into an abstract painting evoking bubbling lava or a swirling face, playfully signaling the fetishistic power of food. (At Freight and Volume Gallery through April 16th).

Jennifer Coates, Lasagna, acrylic on canvas, 16 x 20 inches, 2016.

Cristina de Miguel at Freight & Volume

Spanish artist Cristina de Miguel offers an update on Picasso’s 1905-6 Boy Leading a Horse with a version that crops the boy (as if shot on film) and adds expressionist patches of color reminiscent of the post-war CoBrA group. The horse’s expression – he’s in on the joke? – adds humor. (At Freight and Volume on the Lower East Side through July 10th).

Cristina de Miguel, Boy Leading a Horse, mixed media, 74 x 60 inches.
Cristina de Miguel, Boy Leading a Horse, mixed media, 74 x 60 inches.