Tag: ppow

Chris “Daze” Ellis at PPOW Gallery

Chris “Daze” Ellis started painting train cars as a teen in the mid-70s and within a few years was showing his work indoors in shows at The Mudd Club and the renowned gallery Fashion Moda. Decades later, he reflects on contemporaries who’ve passed, including Cliff 3YB, Billy 167, Stan 153 and others in this recent painting in his current solo show at PPOW Gallery.  Above their names on the subway walls and cars, an expressionist composition of greens, pinks and yellow colors glows like a celestial phenomenon honoring the lives and memory of street art pioneers.  (On view through Feb 12th in Tribeca.  Masks and social distancing required).

Chris “Daze” Ellis, A Memorial, acrylic, oil, spray paint, respirator on canvas, 60 x 54 inches, 2020.

Robin F. Williams at PPOW Gallery

Women have been pictured as merging with the natural world throughout art history, but not quite in the subversive and sometimes sinister way that Robin F. Williams pictures the spritely athletes that populate her latest paintings at PPOW Gallery.  Using oil, airbrush, poured paint, marbling and staining, Williams creates bodies that both compliment and stand out from their environments.  Here, in a piece titled ‘Speak of the Devil,’ two characters with glowing, inhuman eyes reveal hands with flattened fingertips that match the tone of nearby leaves suggesting intriguing hybrid identities.  (On view in Tribeca through Nov 13th.  Masks required.)

Robin F. Williams, Speak of the Devil, acrylic on canvas, 57 x 57 inches, 2021.

Ann Agee at PPOW Gallery

Inspired by Florentine salt cellars depicting religious imagery, Ann Agee’s contemporary Madonna and child sculptures rethink traditional devotional objects.  After an online taster exhibition featuring mother and child sculpture in summer ‘20, Agee rewards an in-person visit to PPOW Gallery with dozens of sculptures in wonderfully bold patterns and styles that range from detailed to abstract.  Occupying one huge pedestal at the center of the gallery, Agee’s homage to mothers and – in this case female – children is a celebration of variety and invention. (On view in Tribeca through July 23rd.)

Ann Agee, installation view of ‘Madonnas and Handwarmers,’ July 2021.

Aaron Gilbert at PPOW Gallery

Even in moments of tenderness and connection, Aaron Gilbert’s dead-eyed characters are shaped by the difficulty of their circumstances.  In this painting titled ‘Conspirators,’ currently on view at PPOW Gallery, these men’s tired expressions suggest they’re not just sharing a story or chatting but hatching a desperate plan.  The scene recalls Charles White’s 1942 painting of two working men in close conversation that was recently on view in the Whitney’s Mexican muralist show. But while White’s men engage with feeling about the news or activism; Gilbert’s operate with little conviction and less hope. (On view through May 1st with work by Martin Wong in Tribeca.  Masks and social distancing required.)

Aaron Gilbert, Conspirators, oil on canvas, 38 x 40 inches, 2020.

Gerald Lovell at PPOW Gallery

Gerald Lovell’s grandmother’s photo albums were a key inspiration in the young Atlanta painter’s motivation to create portraits of family and friends.  Calling such source photos of family and person history ‘saving moments,’ Lovell sets out to make depoliticized, ‘honest depictions of the people I’m around.’ (On view at PPOW Gallery’s new Tribeca location through Feb 20th.  Masks and social distancing are required).

Gerald Lovell, Quil, oil on wood, 48 x 36 inches, 2020.