Tag: representation

Graham Anderson at Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery

Like an orderly stack of oranges in the supermarket, Graham Anderson’s new paintings at Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery in Tribeca are both organic and curving, arranged with rigid geometry, just one contrast of many that generates visual interest and tempts exploration.  Some paintings feature a sheet of orange spheres – so orderly they appear stamped out – alongside circular forms with green leaves and shading that suggests natural citrus fruits.  Most contain areas of pointillist painting in orange, blue and white color that contrasts flat monochrome orange spheres with no shading.  In this painting, that dotted surface breaks up to reveal a background devoid of natural referents.  Christmas ornaments, planets, fruit, punctuation, billiard balls and more come to mind in a strange space ripe for invention.  (On view through July 29th).

Graham Anderson, Reflected Fortune, oil and acrylic on canvas, 26 x 18 ½ inches, 2023.

Kang Seok Ho at Tina Kim Gallery

The short lag times between reading late artist Kang Seok Ho’s paintings at Tina Kim Gallery as abstractions and then understanding them as representations of the human body generates little thrills of discovery.  In this untitled painting, the energy of the bold floral pattern is overwhelming; a second later, two arms to either side resolve vivid leaf-like shapes into the pattern on a skirt, seen from behind.  Abstraction becomes decoration, fine art becomes fashion, and flatness turns into curving form in just seconds while reading this vibrant and monumental painting.  In selected paintings from c. 20 years at Tina Kim, radical cropping (Kang worked from photos he took or found in mass media sources) allowed the artist to zero in on bodies without faces, the better to put the focus on form over identity.  Inspired by Asian landscape painting, Kang connected his contemporary vision of life with histories of rendering the natural world, rooting observations of the now with enduring imagery from the past.  (On view through July 29th in Chelsea).

Kang Seok Ho, Untitled, oil on canvas, 92 ½ x 80 ¾ inches, 2005.

Hurvin Anderson at Michael Werner Gallery

A tree acts as a pedestal for a climbing figure and as a screen to stop us from seeing him or her in this painting by British artist Hurvin Anderson. To continue the theme of seeing and not seeing, the painting mimics the effect of both a photographic positive and negative, offering an ethereal image that considers the limits of perception. (At Michael Werner Gallery on the Upper East Side through Jan 14th).

Hurvin Anderson, Rootstock, acrylic, oil on canvas, 110 ¼ x 84 ¾ inches, 2016.
Hurvin Anderson, Rootstock, acrylic, oil on canvas, 110 ¼ x 84 ¾ inches, 2016.

Beauford Delaney in ‘It’s Not Your Nature’ at Michael Rosenfeld Gallery

Trees appear to dance and sway at the center of Beauford Delaney’s gorgeously curvy nature scene from c. 1945. As Fauvist colors turn the park into a riot of color, specifics of place or season feel beside the point. (At Michael Rosenfeld Gallery through Aug 5th).

Beauford Delaney, Untitled (Trees), oil on canvas 29 1/8 x 23 1/8 inches, c. 1945.
Beauford Delaney, Untitled (Trees), oil on canvas 29 1/8 x 23 1/8 inches, c. 1945.

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.