Tag: miles mcenery

Beverly Fishman at Miles McEnery Gallery

The simple geometry, reflective surfaces and day-glo colors of Beverly Fishman’s new paintings at Miles McEnery Gallery are an immediate draw.  Despite the allure, however, they were inspired by shiny marketing techniques used by pharmaceutical companies and colors that signal warning.  Fishman’s abstraction, rooted in real world references and resembling portals nods to the various mental and physical states we pass through in life.  (On view in Chelsea through Oct 10th.  Appointments are not necessary but masks and social distancing are required.)

Beverly Fishman, Untitled (Pain, Diabetes, Depression, Depression, Depression), urethane paint on wood, 52 ½ x 100 ¼ x 2 inches, 2019.

Warren Isensee at Miles McEnery Gallery

In a recent review, New York Times critic Robera Smith praised Warren Isensee’s new abstract paintings at Miles McEnery Gallery for having ‘taken a sharp turn for the better’ citing a new energy that almost transcends paint on canvas.  Isensee’s ‘Skin and Bones,’ pictured here, leaps off the wall, turning color and shape into subject matter and sending the viewer’s eye bouncing around the picture’s lively geometry. (On view in Chelsea through Aug 28th.  Appointments are not necessary but masks and social distancing are required.)

Warren Isensee, Skin & Bones, oil on canvas, 50 x 50 inches, 2020.

Brian Alfred at Miles McEnery Gallery

Would New York be better without the people?  An empty subway entrance at West 4th Street, Rockefeller Center buried by snow and a deserted Coney Island beach – all scenes included in Brooklyn-based painter Brian Alfred’s latest show at Miles McEnery Gallery – suggest that if the city’s human inhabits would step aside, the views would improve.  Here, two city bridges silhouetted by a gorgeous sunrise or sunset may or may not be busy with traffic, but they appear as tranquil as the country-side.  (On view in Chelsea through Oct 5th).

Brian Alfred, Two Bridge(s), acrylic on canvas, 60 x 72 inches, 2019.

Amy Bennett at Miles McEnery Gallery

Amy Bennett’s meticulously rendered oil on panel paintings catalogue disfunction in the suburbs, from a distant couple in ‘Anniversary’ sitting on two different sides of a wrap-around porch to the deeply sad images of kids in ‘Drills’ who practice hiding in school.  Privy to moments that are both tense and personal for each painting’s isolated characters, our remove from them (sometimes aided by a bird’s eye perspective) adds alienation and intrigue.  Here, ‘Floating Lessons’ parallels and seem to prefigure another of the show’s best and most alarming images in which a body (alive?) floats in an above-ground pool.  Bennett’s disturbing but fascinating vision stops viewers from conflating comfortable surroundings with happiness or family life with security. (On view through August 16th at Miles McEnery Gallery in Chelsea.)

Amy Bennett, Floating Lessons, oil on panel, 22 x 22 inches, 2018.

Judy Pfaff at Miles McEnery Gallery

From melted plastics to acrylic paint on paper from old Indian ledgers, Judy Pfaff’s use of traditional and non-traditional art materials continues to set her exuberantly colored new assemblages apart.  Now on view at Miles McEnery Gallery, her new riotous new creations are dominated by circular and organic forms. Part of a series of pieces title ‘Quartet,’ they find harmony in difference.  (On view through March 9th in Chelsea).

Judy Pfaff, detail of ‘Quartet + 1, photographic inspired digital image, aluminum disks, acrylic, melted plastic, 102 x 120 x 26 inches, 2018.