Art
Intimate Distances: Kris Graves’ Cold Comfort
The Icelandic landscapes in Kris Graves’ photographs are not pristine, not all of them. There’s a road here, a guardrail there, the lights of a distant town beneath a neon-green aurora borealis.
Reviews
Art
Making Gestures: Land Art's Moment in the UK
LONDON — Land art is having a moment in the UK. It was building last year with two shows, in Margate and Birmingham, by perambulatory artist Hamish Fulton. More ‘walking art’ is afoot in Sunderland. April found Nancy Holt on show in Manchester. And in maritime city Southampton, we have not one but t
Art
In Pursuit of the Glittering Point
The title of Shanti Grumbine’s current exhibition at A.I.R. Gallery, The Glittering Point, comes from the phrase “glittering generalities,” which, according to the artist, became popular in the mid-nineteenth century. The term describes propaganda that champions vagueness to evoke positive feelings
Art
Remaking the City with Architectural Collage
From a standpoint of cohesion, the architecture of the 20th century was a mess. Brutalist monoliths were constructed alongside shimmering aluminum waves, while some architects clung to scraps of classicism like life preservers in a swelling sea of modernism. However, it was this mishmash of styles a
Books
Five Decades of Tough Love and Leather
In Nancy Grossman: Tough Life Diary (Prestel, 2012), performer Elizabeth Streb relays an anecdote about artist Nancy Grossman startling her by wearing a monkey fur jacket. It's one of those images that has an unsettling, visceral nature to it, like striding through life in a skin ripped from another
Art
What Did Jorge Luis Borges See in Xul Solar?
The writer Jorge Luis Borges once referred to his friend the artist Xul Solar as “one of the most singular events of our era.” Those in New York have the opportunity to see an important selection of works by the two friends in an exhibition at the Americas Society. Curated by Gabriela Rangel, the sh
Art
A Painter’s Retreat: Georgia O’Keeffe and Lake George
Glen Falls, NY — An ambitious exhibition on view this summer at the Hyde Collection is the first of its kind to explore the formative influence of Lake George on the art and life of Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986). O’Keeffe, the great Maiden of American Modernism, is celebrated most for the existential
Art
Waste Not, Want Not: Phillip Allen’s Recent Paintings
DUBLIN — Phillip Allen is an English abstract painter in his mid-forties, whose interest in the material possibilities of his medium — ranging from felt tip pens to oil paint and enamel — informs nearly everything else. He would finish a felt tip pen drawing in one sitting, and then, using the drawi
Art
Hearing the Rhythm of Mass: Nicolas Carone in Jackson Pollock's House
THE SPRINGS, NY — Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning so dominate the creation story of Abstract Expressionism in New York that these two hard-drinking celebrities continue to busy biographers, often crowding out other artists who had the mixed fortune of painting during their twin ascendancy.
Art
Spinning a Web: When Art Addresses the Infinite
Every so often the idea behind an exhibition comes across as so pertinent and expansive that it makes you wonder why it hasn’t already become part of the conversation. This appears to be the case with Reticulate, a group show at McKenzie Fine Art on the Lower East Side, which explores the concept of
Art
#withoutwords: The Existential and Profound in Syria's Emerging Art Scene
LONDON — News from Syria suggests the pen, the paintbrush, the camera, and even needle and thread may be mightier than the sword after all. For what other reason would the government have broken the hands of a political cartoonist. But the fully recovered cartoonist, Ali Ferzat, is back at his desk,
Art
California's Triumphant Triennial
LOS ANGELES — In a world where art seems to consist primarily of hyper-conceptual art school verbiage, it’s a relief to go to a museum show and actually have something to see. The California-Pacific Triennial, now on view at the Orange County Museum of Art in Newport Beach, Calif., definitely offers