Barnaby Furnas at Marianne Boesky Gallery

In his latest show at Marianne Boesky Gallery, Barnaby Furnas morphs Grant Woods’ iconic American Gothic (now on view at the Whitney) into an eerie portrait of pitchfork-clutching quadruplet sisters defined by their flatness and conformity.  Other paintings feature charging bison and Mt Rushmore, summoning iconic ‘American’ imagery to question what that means now.  Even Furnas’ new experiments in painting technique – he has worked with the research group ARTMATR to digitally replicate his labor-intensive paint application techniques – align with the sense that these robotic characters lack a human element.  (On view in Chelsea through April 14th).

Barnaby Furnas, The Quartet, dispersed pigments, acrylic, colored pencil, pencil on linen, 51 x 38 ½ inches, 2018.

Barnaby Furnas at Marianne Boesky Gallery

From 17th century Dutch paintings of the countryside to sublime Hudson River views by mid 19th century Americans, landscapes unspoiled by development have been a favorite subject in art. Barnaby Furnas’s new paintings at Chelsea’s Marianne Boesky Gallery go back further in time, imagining the drama of a planet at the moment of creation, here on ‘The First Morning.’ (Through Oct 10th).

Barnaby Furnas, The First Morning (Fire Toads), acrylic, dispersing pigment, pencil, colored pencil on prepared linen, 99 1/8 x 104 inches, 2015.

Barnaby Furnas at Marianne Boesky Gallery

Barnaby Furnas, Jonah and the Whale #2, water-based pigment, color pencil and acrylic on linen, 2012.
Barnaby Furnas, Jonah and the Whale #2, water-based pigment, color pencil and acrylic on linen, 2012.

Whale-lovers beware at Barnaby Furnas’ latest solo show at Marianne Boesky Gallery in Chelsea – riffing on Herman Melville’s ‘Moby Dick’ and Jonah’s cetacean misadventure, Furnas’s new paintings picture whalers in total, gory triumph.  Inspired by the fact that whale oil provided light for lamps, Furnas bathes a tattered Jonah in celestial light as he reaches shore, prepared to follow a new path.  (Through Dec 21st).