Art
Unless you live in Utica or Clinton, New York, there’s a decent chance you haven’t heard of the Wellin Museum. Opened last fall on the campus of Hamilton College, the Wellin comes on the heels of some two decades of planning for the school’s first art museum. Luckily, it seems to have been worth the
Interview
I met Julie Heffernan this past fall at a party she hosted celebrating the wedding of another painter, and was taken by her, the community of (women) artists who were gathered, and her painting over the dining table. It was the fierceness of the vision that attracted me, and the individuality of her
Books
With summer almost upon us, we note the arrival on these shores of Mary Heilmann: Good Vibrations, published last year by Walther König, Cologne, to accompany the artist’s reception of the prestigious Biennial Award for Contemporary Art (BACA) and its related exhibition.
Art
Artist and editor Robert Motherwell proclaimed that of all the painters of his generation, Fritz Bultman was "the one [most] drastically and shockingly underrated." A survey of his paintings is now on view.
Art
Three months ago I attended a discussion at Hunter College called towards meaning in a plural painting world. The panel sought to examine today’s multiplicity of painting styles and determine if this is a positive or dilutive development for painting's meaning as a whole. Last Wednesday, the Pratt I
Art
It was 2005. I had gone to an opening of works by Sarah Plimpton at the June Kelly Gallery [http://junekellygallery.com/] on Mercer Street. Around me on the walls was art I could only address in a frame of mind rare here in the bustle and buzz of NewYork. Around us, on the walls, were great shapes,
Interview
After a recent trip to Key West, I realized why most contemporary art in naturally beautiful places tends to suck. It's because the viewer has access to the real thing — a magnificent sunset, a flock of pelicans, a sailboat on turquoise seas. So depictions of what look better out a car window never
Art
Roger Brown (1941–1997) died a decade after his retrospective opened at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. (August 13, 1987–October 18, 1987), and traveled to three other museums, none of which were on the East Coast or in a densely populated urban center. More surprising, t
Interview
Susanna Coffey, who was born in New London, Connecticut, studied at Yale, teaches at the Art Institute of Chicago, and lives and works in New York, is best known for her self-portraits. These frontal heads set against backdrops of world locales and events are rigorous, unrelenting penetrations of th
Performance
Despite cold, rainy weather, a large audience turned out for “… towards meaning in a plural painting world,” a panel discussion moderated by Katy Siegel at Hunter College’s MFA building. The room was filled with young artists and MFA candidates eager to participate, and the place swelled to standing
Interview
I visited Mary Heilmann recently in her Bridgehampton studio. At the end of our time together, she took a small painting of a wave, and turned it upside-down. It was the perfect gesture to sum up our conversation and the themes of her work — an offhand reminder of its yin-yang quality. Heilmann’s wo
Interview
BERKELEY, California — Hugh Leeman’s work didn’t immediately impress me. It had a distinct Bay Area style, which is not my personal favorite — his paintings are loose, colorful, street art–influenced, and have some realistic surrealism mixed in — but what caught my attention in Leeman’s practice was