Tag: illustration

Emma Kohlmann at Jack Hanley Gallery

The long-armed embrace offered by the central figure says it all in this acrylic on canvas painting by Emma Kohlmann at Jack Hanley Gallery on the Lower East Side.  Kohlmann explains that viewers who venture out to galleries during the pandemic should encounter an oasis, or a place to be distracted from turbulent times.  Caring couples, harmonious relationships between humans and nature, and references to Matisse’s colorful painting abound in a show that will take the mind to happy places.  (On view through Nov 14th).

Emma Kohlmann, When I Found My People, Acrylic on raw canvas, 60 x 60 inches, 2020.

Jeffrey Beebe at Bravin Lee Programs

In Jeffrey Beebe’s richly imagined worlds, he pits ‘the Uncles’ – leaders of the Rover clans – against the ‘Red Soil Boys’ – a bellicose neighboring group who initiated an attack that wiped out many Uncles. In this detail from a grid of lost Uncles, Beebe introduces one of his fantastical creatures – a 21 ft long giant whose horn ‘improved both echolocation and moral indignation.’ (At Bravin Lee Programs in Chelsea through Oct 15th).

Uncles Exterminated During the Tyranny of Manifest Fairnesses, ink, watercolor, gouache on paper, 45 x 72 inches, 2016.
Jeffrey Beebe, detail from ‘Uncles Exterminated During the Tyranny of Manifest Fairnesses,’ ink, watercolor, gouache on paper, 45 x 72 inches, 2016.

Butt Johnson at CRG Gallery

Titled ‘Quaint Abstractions,’ new ball-point and Gelly roll pen drawings by pseudonymous New York artist Butt Johnson are mind bogglingly precise. Now that deskilling has become an art world buzzword, is meticulously rendered artwork quaint? (At CRG Gallery on the Lower East Side through Feb 21st).

 Butt Johnson, Study for Regression Towards the Mean, ballpoint ink on metallic foil paper, 8.5 x 11,” 2013.

Timothy Horn at PPOW Gallery

Inspired by 17th jewelry from the court of ‘Sun King’ Louis XIV and 19th century nature illustrations, Australian/US artist Timothy Horn ups the ante on his brooch-like sculptures by creating them in extra large scale. Here, mirror blown glass ‘pearls’ the size of large eggplants hang among lichen in a piece over five feet tall. (At PPOW Gallery in Chelsea through May 23rd).

Timothy Horn, Tree of Heaven 5 (Lichen), nickel-plated bronze, mirror blown glass, 66 x 45 x 6 inches, 2015.

Ros Chast at Danese Corey

With typical humor, illustrator and New Yorker cartoonist Ros Chast updates the painted egg tradition with a colorful rendition of an anxious Frida Kahlo; in the egg to the left, a giant sign reading ‘buy this’ hints at the commercialism of the holidays. (At Danese Corey in Chelsea through April 18th).

Ros Chast, installation view of ‘Eggs,’ eggshell, dye and polyurethane, approx. 2.25 x 1.625 inches, 2010-13.