Posted inArt

The Water Gardens of Otherworldly Modernism

FORT WORTH, Texas —Some Modernist landscapes are so futuristic, so weirdly alien in their urban surroundings, they look like sets for a sci-fi movie. In the case of the “Fort Worth Water Gardens” designed by Philip Johnson with partner John Burgee, the immense shapes of concrete that rise up topographically into a mountain and descend into a watery vortex are both a 1970s vision of public space and the setting for one of the era’s dystopian films.

Posted inArt

The Beauty of a Sculpted Experience at Storm King

The Hudson Valley has a special kind of light and soaring nature, with its elevations and valleys illuminated with sun, starlight, and storm. At the Storm King Art Center with its installations of giant metal sculptures that seem alien on the meadows, or land art that warps the earth, the most interesting aspect is perhaps how this nature is made unnatural while still celebrating the beauty of the terrain.

Posted inArt

Map Paintings: An Interview with Loren Munk

I’ve been following the work of Loren Munk for years and had the pleasure of seeing the work currently on display at Lesley Heller in his studio years ago before most people even knew they existed. Today, Munk has been exhibiting regularly and developing a following for his map works that document art world scenes in New York and elsewhere. There is a frenzy of color in his paintings and the choices are obviously subjective (and rife with personal politics) but they are intense explosions of information carefully organized and constructed like a spider web in paint. I spoke to Munk about his latest show, Location, Location, Location, Mapping the New York Art World, on the Lower East Side that continues until this Sunday, October 16.