Tag: painter

Raymond Saunders at Andrew Kreps Gallery and David Zwirner Gallery

Thought-provoking and pleasurable as it was, Andrew Kreps Gallery’s 2022 exhibition of iconic west coast painter Raymond Saunders’ work turns out to have been just a taster for the artist’s tour de force three-gallery show now on view at Kreps and David Zwirner Gallery, curated by Ebony L. Haynes.  Known for poetic compilations of text, signage, drawing, and materials from everyday life, Saunders’ paintings – mostly from the 80s and 90s – show him making layered allusions to the act of art making.  In this untitled piece from the mid ‘90s, faint drips, frost-like paint marks and a huge white brushstroke bring to mind an artist’s stylistic options.  A monumental fruit at center seems to nod to still life tradition while a page from a text on how to build a flat human figure drawing model, positioned near a text giving instruction on how to play a game, slyly suggests a calculation of artistic success.  (On view through April 5th/6th).

Raymond Saunders, Untitled, acrylic, spray paint, chalk, collage, and mixed media on canvas, 23 ¼ x 20 5/8 inches, 1995.

Mernet Larsen at James Cohan Gallery

Fascinated for decades by Post-Impressionist artist Paul Cezanne, painter Mernet Larsen applies her own delightfully eccentric perspectival distortions to her French forebear’s iconic imagery in new work at James Cohan Gallery.  Larsen diversifies the cast of characters in ‘The Bathers (after Cezanne)’ adding bikinis to figures more robotic than robust and emphasizing artificiality in the human figures that replace Cezanne’s stabilizing triangle of trees in the original. A diving figure heading into flat waves akin to the slats in Japanese Bunraku puppet theater (which allow figures to move through water) and a woman to the left literally holding up the top of the painting add dynamism and complexity.  By alluding to Cezanne but shifting away from his focus and results, Larsen emphasizes the choices behind a painting’s design and nods to the many iconic painters who have moved beyond inspiration to find their own unique results.  (On view in Tribeca through March 16th).

Mernet Larsen, The Bathers (after Cezanne), acrylic and mixed media on canvas, 59 ¼ x 39 ½ inches, 2023.

Jennifer Carvalho at Helena Anrather Gallery

Derived from art historical textbooks and web sources, Canadian artist Jennifer Carvalho’s painted remakes of medieval and Renaissance imagery now on view on the Lower East Side at Helena Anrather Gallery recontextualize ancient expressions of strong feeling or devotion.  Performing what the gallery calls ‘art historical archaeology,’ Carvalho digs up new meaning by cropping a face to put a focus on an abundance or tears or zeroing in on a hand supported by another person’s hands that foregrounds an emotive or tender moment.  Here, disembodied arms with hands in a pose related to mourning hover over a space featuring decorative gothic architecture and a curtained bed, foregrounding a surreal but expressive gesture in a space that combines both the public and private.  (On view through Dec 22nd).

Jennifer Carvalho, Clasped hands (study of mourning), oil on canvas, 2023.

Dana Schutz at David Zwirner Gallery

The Face, one of the first works in Dana Schutz’s absorbing show of recent paintings and bronzes at David Zwirner Gallery, pictures a surreal scene of figures supporting and hiding under a huge mask.  Barely able to control the giant visage, one character bends over to pick up a rock, perhaps intending to fire it in anonymity at a foe (us?) from behind the face.  Rife with allegory, Schutz’ new work configures various groupings of individuals in unclear yet meaningful interactions – gathering to paint together, sitting on a couch as if on a talk show or clustered together in a circle, arms on shoulders.  Crowded into the picture plane, dynamic and rendered in vibrant colors, the figures recall not only the exaggerated features of Italian Commedia dell’arte masks but theatrical storylines that foreground human folly.  (On view in Chelsea through Dec 16th).

Dana Schutz, The Face, 108 x 138 inches, oil on canvas, 2023.

Katherine Bradford at Canada New York

New York painter Katherine Bradford’s swimmers – a recurring subject – include ephemeral, washy suggestions of submerged figures and bolder, mostly visible individuals standing still in the water.  New work at Canada in Tribeca favors more dominant figures, filling the space of the canvas with their solid forms and often expressionless faces.  ‘In the Lake,’ features individuals who float, walk or stand in dark water perhaps lit by the moon, each in their own space; with their arms outstretched, several figures appear to be relaxing while an orange-topped figure waits and a man starts to exit the scene to the right.  Bradford excels at complex realities, as past shows suggest – e.g. the terror and pleasure of waves in 2016 or the comforting and confining closeness of mothers and children in 2021.  Here, mostly placid faces suggest tranquility but closeness and individual isolation among the swimmers leaves room to wonder.  (On view through Dec 22nd).

Katherine Bradford, In the Lake, acrylic on canvas, diptych: 80 x 136 inches, 2023.