Gallery Chronicle

On “Sam Gilliam: Existed Existing” at Pace Gallery, New York, “Martin Puryear” at Matthew Marks Gallery, New York, “Jack Whitten: I Am the Object” at Hauser & Wirth, New York & “Rico Gatson: Ghosts” at Miles McEnery Gallery, New York.

Jennifer Samet sits down with Lisa Corinne Davis.

From Rico Gatson’s mystical investigation of Blackness to Audrey B. Heckler’s prolific collection of Outsider art

By Wallace Ludel and Gabriella Angeleti

Our editors and writers scour the city each week for the most thoughtful, relevant and exciting new exhibitions and artworks on view at galleries, museums and public venues across all five boroughs of New York. This week we recommend:

Miles McEnery Gallery is currently having a group exhibition Sound & Color on view at their 511 West 22nd Street location, and we just couldn't resist its stellar lineup. Curated by Brian Alfred, the host of the renowned Sound & Vision podcast, the exhibition muses with the inseparable connection between the music visual art.

Editors’ Picks: 19 Events for Your Art Calendar This Week, From a Talk With Ruth Asawa’s Children to a Virtual Trip to Manifesta

Here's what to look out for this week.

"Annie Lapin’s paintings are like portals. Step inside, and you find yourself in a disquieting landscape, unfamiliar and yet eerily familiar at the same time. They shimmer with possibilities, almost in a quantum state, to the point that if you look, turn away, and then look again, you could swear that something has moved. In her works, which are basically acrylic on canvas with some mixed media elements, the compositions are discontinuous, so that fragments of landscape are interspersed with passages of pure color and form, so that it’s impossible to categorize the paintings as figurative or abstract."

"Bo Bartlett talks about this week’s cover, inspired by an experience he had in Maine, as well as his new feature film, his family and more."

Mindscapes: Noah Becker Interviews the Cool and Famous Painter Ryan McGinness

"I finally found an opportunity to interview Ryan McGinness, the rather famous New York artist we all know and love. He has a new show called "Mindscapes" featuring 72 paintings on at New York's Miles McEnery Gallery. The exhibition runs from October 15th to November 14th, 2020." 

ON VIEW: American Painter Inka Essenhigh’s Surrealist Scenes Offer a Very Enjoyable Distraction From the News—See Them Here

"Escape from the stress of the day with these luscious, fantastical landscapes."

ArtSeen | Beverly Fishman: I Dream of Sleep

For those of my generation, the first scene of Star Wars: A New Hope is embedded in collective memories. The rebel soldiers, soft, fleshy, and clad in pliable fabric, watch a plasma torch cutting through a bulkhead. Seconds later a stream of imperial stormtroopers emerge, their surfaces shiny, plastic, and impermeable, the clean lines of their armor inviting both fear and admiration. The delineation is clear: messy and flexible is good, while there is something sinister about the hard, shiny, or uniform. Beverly Fishman’s I Dream of Sleep, however, embraces this Imperial aesthetic.

"Arts Magazine reviews Beverly Fishman’s exhibition “I Dream of Sleep” at Miles McEnery Gallery. Fishman’s abstract reliefs and sculptural works take a “heady” psychological approach to abstraction – inspired by pharmacology – rather than obsess over “materiality” of paint and surface in the way men have often done in abstraction’s history."

The National Academy of Design will host a virtual induction of fifteen artists, including gallery artist, Beverly Fishman.

The public induction will take place via Zoom on 28 October at 6pm ET. 

Chelsea Explodes in Color: Inka Essenhigh exhibits new paintings at Miles McEnery Gallery

"A quick trip through the Chelsea show makes it obvious why Essenhigh’s stock is rising. In these colorful, dreamlike images, one can spot influences ranging from comic books to anime. But this isn’t really pop art nor is it completely surreal. Often there are straightforward representations, but the longer one looks the more one notices something’s just a little off in a way that evokes the psychology of the greatest fairytales."

INTERVIEW: ARTIST BEVERLY FISHMAN

"Abstract, alluring pieces populate her current solo exhibition, I Dream of Sleep, at Miles McEnery Gallery."

"Sleek reliefs, composed of precise shapes in a bright neon palette, appear to float, rather than hang, on the walls of Fishman’s superb new exhibition, I Dream of Sleep, at the Miles McEnery Gallery."

"I sat one afternoon investigating the nuances and overall genius of the magical, elementally filled space on some work created by Ryan McGinness. Gloriously charged with color, twisting and turning with hints of shimmer from metal leaf elements sprinkled like silvery scales flickering. It is like a dream when you are someplace you name home, but you are not there."

"A few developments, however, suggest all is not doom and gloom. One of these is Miles McEnery Gallery’s expansion into a new space on West Twenty-second Street, which it is inaugurating with a group show titled “Do You Think It Needs A Cloud?,” after a quotation by Jane Freilicher, who’s represented here by a very large landscape (sans cloud) from 1968."

Photorealism: An interview with Rod Penner

"Rod Penner (b. 1965), originally from Canada but now based in Texas, is a photorealist painter who specialises in depicting scenes of small town America—the buildings often abandoned and showing the ravages of time—in and around his adopted home state. Author, and leading proponent of photo-realism, Louis K. Meisel, has described Penner as being ''...one of the top two or three artists in the world...'' [1] in terms of his ability to create images that demonstrate a near photographic likeness; the technique and level of skill demonstrated far surpassing that of the first generation of artists from the US who sought to portray quotidian aspects of 20th century American life with increasing levels of objectivity on a two-dimensional surface during the late 1960s and into the 70s.

I’ve long been an admirer of Penner’s work and thought I’d pose a series of questions to him about his development as a painter, the technical challenges encountered when creating his pictures, and his views on and the current state of photorealism. He kindly accepted this offer and I am thankful to him for his time and for being my first interviewee in this series of conversations with leading realist artists."

Back to the Future: The Building as Artifact in Daniel Rich's Newest Work

"During this time when office buildings and stadiums, places constructed and designed beholden to capitalism or sport, fall victim to 2020’s Rich’s most recent body of work may be his most sublime and urgent to date."

Join the Moss Arts Center on Thursday, 17 September at 6p.m. as artist Jason Middlebrook takes us through the creative process behind Another World. Moderated by Margo Crutchfield, Curator at Large. Approximately 45 minutes. Pre-registration required, moderated Q&A.

"Artist Rico Gatson (Instagram: @rico_gatson) joins us for New Social Environment #119, hosted by painter and Rail Editor-at-Large Tom McGlynn (Instagram: @tom_mcglynn), for a discussion on Gatson's work, subjective abstraction, transcendental jazz, the use of geometry, rhythm, color, among other subversive political and social underpinnings, and so on leading to his upcoming show of paintings Miles McEnery Gallery (opening November 19th, 2020). Poet Don Yorty (Instagram: @donyorty) closes the event with a reading from his poetry postcards."

Tomory Dodge was born in Denver, Colorado in 1972. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1998 and a Master of Fine Arts from the California Institute of the Arts,Valencia, CA in 2004.

MILES McENERY GALLERY is pleased to announce gallery expansion and fall program.  

Why are so many artists drawn to Maine?

"As the state marks its bicentennial, creative thinkers look to crashing waves, craggy mountains, and colorful seasons for inspiration."

Warren Isensee’s Breakthrough

"Isensee has gone from being a dutiful geometric abstractionist to defining his own trajectory, and gaining a verifiable freedom for himself."

Figurative and Abstract Paintings Brighten NY Galleries

"After being idled for several months during the initial outbreak of the pandemic in New York, the city’s galleries, which are usually closed or merely offering group shows in the month of August, have a fine selection of one-person presentations taking place. With the dwindling likelihood of art fairs coming back to the Big Apple anytime too soon and the city’s museums still under lockdown, its galleries offer the best place to physically see art.

In this round-up of five standout solo shows, we discover three young female figurative painters—Grace Weaver, Rute Merk, and Sojourner Truth Parsons—that every art lover should have on their radar and two seasoned abstractionists—KATSU and Warren Isensee—working in solely original styles."

Four Art Gallery Shows to See Right Now: Warren Isensee

Over the past two or three years,Warren Isensee’s abstract paintings, while always good, have taken a sharp turn for the better. For nearly a decade Mr. Isensee, who has been exhibiting since 1998, cultivated a distinctive geometry of parallel lines whose softened edges and pulsing color contrasts conjured the tubular glow of neon, compartmentalizing them into squares and rectangles with black outlines.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – MILES McENERY GALLERY is delighted to announce its representation of Rico Gatson.

Rico Gatson is a Brooklyn based mixed media artist working across abstraction and figuration. With a multifaceted practice that spans painting, video, sculpture and installation, Gatson considers himself an object-maker inspired by Conceptualism, Afro-Futurism and spirituality.

ARTnews in Brief: Miles McEnery Now Represents Rico Gatson—and More

Mixed media artist Rico Gatson has joined the New York–based Miles McEnery Gallery, where he will have a solo exhibition opening November 19.

We are pleased to congratulate our friends at Vielmetter Los Angeles on their 20th Year Anniversary. 

"Vielmetter Los Angeles is pleased to present a group exhibition on their 20th Year Anniversary. 

Featuring works by Laura Aguilar, Nick Aguayo, Edgar Arceneaux, Math Bass, Whitney Bedford, Andrea Bowers, Sarah Cain, Patty Chang, Kim Dingle, Sean Duffy, Genevieve Gaignard, Liz Glynn, Karl Haendel, Stanya Kahn, Hayv Kahraman, Raffi Kalenderian, Mary Kelly, Dave McKenzie, Rodney McMillian, Shana Lutker, Wangechi Mutu, Ruben Ochoa, Pope.L, Deborah Roberts, Steve Roden, Arlene Shechet, John Sonsini, Amy Sillman, Stephanie Schneider, Monique Van Genderen, Tam Van Tran, Esther Pearl Watson, Patrick Wilson."

Surrealism Reloaded. Images from the Subconscious

Sometimes all you need is a sunrise and a piece of moss: Inka Essenhigh’s works are populated by mythological creatures. While painting, she relies entirely on her inner self.

Phillip Allen's Astonishing Achievement

"I have come to think of Phillip Allen as one of the most wonderfully challenging painters around."

Building a New Sanctuary on Long Island for Culture Lovers

In Sag Harbor,  April Gornik and Eric Fischl are converting a former church into a community arts center.

The Enigmatic Beauty of Painting: A conversation with Isca Greenfield-Sanders

"On the occasion of her new exhibition Shade My Eyes, I spoke to Isca Greenfield-Sanders about her newest body of work which will be on view at Miles McEnery Gallery from 21 May until 11 July 2020. The delicately balanced paintings depict scenes that feel reminiscent of childhood memory. They are distant yet quietly composed, serene and tranquil. We spoke together about her process and upbringing for eazel magazine." 

On April 8, 2020, the Board of Trustees of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation announced the awarding of Guggenheim Fellowships, including artist Suzanne Caporael. 

He played with color, creating scenes both calming and arresting. He said he wanted his colors “to be surprising to people without being offensive.”

The American Academy of Arts and Letters announced today the ten artists who will receive its 2020 Awards in Art, including Amy Bennett. 

Wolf Kahn, celebrated painter of resplendent landscapes, dies at 92. 

"...some of the best works of his career."

It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of Wolf Kahn.

We are delighted to share two additional reviews of April Gornik's current solo exhibition in Painters on Painting and Chelsea News.

April Gornik’s Sunset, 2018—one among the twelve new landscape paintings in her current exhibition at Miles McEnery Gallery—appears as though it might be plugged into an electrical socket. Along the horizon, halfway between a malevolent sky and an inky sea, a stripe of brilliant incandescence worthy of Vermeer lights up storm clouds, choppy waters, and, one would imagine, the entire gallery if it were darkened. Symbolism, Romanticism, Luminism, and feminism have all been cited in regard to Gornik’s work. Indeed, her reimagined versions of natural phenomena are as rich a field for interpretation as the writings of Herman Melville or Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Platform presents group exhibition "Walk the Line"
20 March - 18 April 2020

Paintings, sculptures, video, photographs, and works on paper by 28 contemporary artists will be exhibited in the galleries of the American Academy of Arts and Letters on historic Audubon Terrace (Broadway between 155 and 156 Streets) from Thursday, March 5 through Sunday, April 5, 2020. Exhibiting artists were chosen from over 150 nominees submitted by the members of the Academy, America’s most prestigious honorary society of architects, artists, composers, and writers. The recipients of the Academy’s 2020 Art and Purchase Awards will be selected from this exhibition.

Interior Design features Beverly Fishman's work in the Miles McEnery Gallery Booth at ZONAMACO as a highlight of the fair.

Exhibitors from 26 countries participated in the 2020 edition of ZONAMACO—Latin America’s leading art platform—in Mexico City, from February 5-6. This year, spatial design studio Tom Postma Design from the Netherlands and Mexican architecture, interior, and graphic design firm Salinas Lasheras were in charge of creating the restaurants and lounge areas.  

David Ebony

Known as a consummate colorist in her brilliantly hued painterly abstractions, Emily Mason died on December 10, 2019, age 87, at her home in Vermont after a prolonged battle with cancer. December 10 is the birthday of her favorite poet, Emily Dickinson, and Mason regarded each of her paintings as a visual poem, aiming for the expressive, and—dare I say—spiritual quality that she found in Dickinson’s verse. Mason, however, would never admit such lofty ambitions for her art. Although her artistic ambition was obvious to me and to others around her, in the passion for painting that she exuded, and the monumental body of work she produced, Mason always maintained a consistently sincere degree of modesty—sometimes bordering on unwarranted self-effacement—about her goals and achievements.

Jim Isermann. Copy. Pattern. Repeat is on view at the Palm Springs Art Museum Architecture and Design Center, Edwards Harris Pavilion.

Emily Mason, Who Created Colorful Canvases, Is Dead at 87.

Part of a family of artists, she was known for creating abstract works by a process she liked to call “letting a painting talk to you.”

For more than 50 years, Emily Mason, an abstract painter in a family of painters, would spend winters in Manhattan, where she had a studio in the Flatiron district, and the warmer months in Brattleboro, Vt., where she and her husband, the painter Wolf Kahn, also had a home.

As part of the Murals of La Jolla Project, Monique van Genderen's mural, titled Paintings Are People Too, is currently up at 7661 Girard Ave, La Jolla, California.

Paintings Are People Too, by Monique van Genderen, is a reconsideration of humanity, of what it means to be human in the social climate of today. By utilizing her vertical paintings as stand-ins for people, van Genderen reflects on some of the pressing issues facing our citizenry, the de-humanizing effects of new communication technologies, and the physical displacements happening in urban centers.

NEW YORK – MILES MCENERY GALLERY is delighted to announce its representation of Pia Fries.

Pia Fries reinterprets abstraction by sensationally combining a variety of textures and pigments to create striking and multidimensional gestural compositions. The Swiss-born painter initially studied sculpture in Lucerne, Switzerland, prior to becoming a student of Gerhard Richter at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in Germany. The artist’s background in sculpture is evident in her practice throughout her wide-ranging body of paintings. Working with a sophisticated assortment of mediums, Fries alters the way in which the materials interact on the canvas. Her unique ability to transform pictorial space is conveyed through the textured and intricately layered elements of her paintings. By layering copious amounts of oil paint on top of transferred images and geometric patterns, Fries produces an intensely visual sense of movement for the viewer to follow.

The inaugural edition was a surprisingly big success. As year two kicks off, here's what to look for.

Last year, the fledgling new art fair Taipei Dangdai: Art & Ideas made mincemeat of the commonly held belief that it takes a fair a few years to build a solid art world following. The inaugural edition turned out big-name blue-chip galleries, famed global collectors (and Chinese movie stars), and, most importantly, robust sales. Oh, and yes, the fair even had its very own giant inflatable KAWS sculpture to draw in the crowds. 

We look forward to presenting ten new paintings by Ryan McGinness at the 2020 edition of Taipei Dangdai, running 16 through 19 January in Taiwan.

Ambitiously composed and relentlessly innovative, McGinness's "Taipei Dangdai" paintings seek to explore and evoke the culture and history of Taiwan.