Tag: abstract painting

Pat Steir at Hauser & Wirth Gallery

A record number of monumental paintings are dominating Chelsea galleries this month; at just over thirty-seven feet long, Pat Steir’s ‘Blue River’ at Hauser & Wirth Gallery is one of the largest and most absorbing.  Painted in 2005 and hung along more recent work, the gallery explains that the piece is intended to point viewers’ minds toward the vastness and power of the universe.  Washes of blue and white running down the canvas suggest a waterfall while a red border to one side evokes a stage curtain, nodding to the fact that this extremely large rendition of a natural scene is filtered through human imagination.  (On view through Dec 17th.)

Pat Steir, installation view of Blue River, Hauser and Wirth Gallery, Nov 2022. Blue River, oil on canvas, 135 ¼ x 447 inches, 2005.

Ragna Bley at Downs and Ross Gallery

Color pools and flows in Oslo-based artist Ragna Bley’s acrylic on sailcloth paintings at Downs and Ross, offering a lushly colored alternative to drab, late-winter New York.  Inspired by marine biology and the endlessly fascinating shallows and depths of the sea, each painting complicates the reference to water with its dynamism and color.  (On view on the Lower East Side through March 6th).

Ragna Bley, Undertow (Heat), 2020. Acrylic on sailcloth, 59 × 37 1/2 inches

Sean Scully at Cheim & Read

This monumental, eight-part painting may be an abstraction, but it was inspired by the winter colors of southern Bavaria, where artist Sean Scully spends time. (At Chelsea’s Cheim & Read Gallery through Jan 11th).  

Sean Scully, Night and Day, oil on aluminum, 110 x 320 inches, 2012.

Chip Hughes at Kerry Schuss Gallery

Chip Hughes’ meticulously rendered abstract painting, ‘Drinks’, on view at Lower East Side gallery Kerry Schuss, recalls quilting with its grid and wavy lines like piping.  But amoeba-like organic shapes, cool colors and a slick of washed out color suggest watery worlds or blown-up microbiology.  (Through Oct 20th).  

Chip Hughes, Drinks, oil on canvas, 48 x 60 inches, 2012.

Barbara Takenaga at DC Moore Gallery

Barbara Takenaga’s latest abstract paintings continue to evoke the natural world in bold colors and mesmerizing patterns; here, a piece titled ‘Funnel’ suggests the strange lights and form of a deep sea creature crossed with a swing carousel at night.  (At Chelsea’s DC Moore Gallery through Oct 5th).  

Barbara Takenaga, Red Funnel, acrylic on linen, 2013.