Marc Straus Gallery nods to Mark Rothko’s hovering, painted rectangles of color and Josef Alber’s nests of colored squares on canvas, but the real attraction to Spain-born, New York-based artist Antonio Santin’s paintings is the fact that they’re painted at all. Resembling tapestries, Santin’s amazing abstract paintings are made with oil paint in a variety of patterns that suggest a 3D surface with something hidden beneath. (On view on the Lower East Side through Oct 16th).
Tag: rug
Francesca DiMattio at Salon94 Bowery
How would a rag rug inspire a ceramic sculpture? Francesca DiMattio’s huge porcelain and stoneware sculptures mimic the shaggy surface of a Moroccan boucherouite rug, a technique aided by her use of a garlic press to extrude clay. Mixing references to art history and decorative arts, DiMattio’s new work is a riotous assertion of history’s continued presence in today’s art and design. (On view on the Lower East Side at Salon94 Bowery through April 21st).
Anna Betbeze in ‘Body/Image’ group show at Susan Inglett
Anna Betbeze’s process of cutting, tearing and burning Flokati rugs while coloring them with acid dyes leaves a textile that both attracts and repulses. Hanging from the wall like a sagging pelt in Susan Inglett Gallery’s summer group show ‘Body/Image,’ this piece looks as if it could once have been alive. (Through July 31st).
Anna Betbeze, Playtime, acid dyes, ash on wool, 144 x 118 inches, 2015.