Abstract Expressionist fans won’t want to miss Cheim & Read Gallery’s summer exhibition of work by the late painter Joan Mitchell. It includes this thirteen-foot wide interpretation of trees, which pits aggressive forms against an elegantly cream-colored, muted background. (In Chelsea through August 29th).
Joan Mitchell, Trees, oil on canvas diptych, 94 ½ x 157 ½ inches, 1990-91.
Just when he thinks he’s had enough of painting trees, Benjamin Butler – a Brooklynite transplanted to Vienna – finds a fresh approach to take or problem to solve as with ‘Green Forest,’ for which the merest suggestion of branches turns a pattern of stripes into a dense copse of trees. (At Klaus von Nichtssagend on the Lower East Side through June 8th).
Benjamin Butler, Green Forest, oil on linen, 23.6 x 19.7 inches 2013.
