Tag: vito schnabel

Thomas Woodruff at Vito Schnabel Gallery

As the magnolia start to bloom in New York this week, Thomas Woodruff’s painting of dinosaurs as the Three Graces from Botticelli’s Primavera seems perfectly timed for the season.  One of several paintings in Woodruff’s solo show at Vito Schnabel Gallery that feature dinosaurs, the creatures enjoy their Edenic surroundings apparently unaware of their impending destruction.  Exploding volcanos and incoming meteorites appear in most of the show’s works, announcing an extinction event designed to excite fears about our own fate as the climate changes.  Coming a few years after Woodruff’s retirement from his long-term teaching career at the School of the Visual Arts, the artist explains that his subject matter also alludes to his own aging and suggests that he intends to go out with a bang.  (On view through March 30th).

Thomas Woodruff, The Three Graces, acrylic on canvas, 96 x 78 inches, 2022.

Ariana Papademetropoulos at Vito Schnabel Gallery

Taking inspiration from medieval tapestries including ‘The Hunt of the Unicorn’ at the Met Museum’s Cloisters, Ariana Papademetropoulos’ new paintings at Vito Schnabel’s Chelsea gallery feature a unicorn that struggles towards its own unique experience of freedom.  Here, set in a Renaissance-era wood paneled room, the mythical creature – who the artist sees as an alter-ego – rests on a bed that is simultaneously a watery landscape.  This glimpse into a parallel world and the mirror with an emerging face on the left of the painting suggest that the unicorn may have escape portals that will allow it to slip its confines. (On view in Chelsea through Jan 7th.  Note holiday closures this week.)

Ariana Papademetropoulos, Horror Vacui, oil on canvas, 91 ¾ x 108 ¼ inches, 2022.