EXHIBITION REVIEW ..read more

Opening this dispatch with recommended exhibitions, some soon to close (and not to be missed!), some about about to open, and some recently opened, all over town. I plan to pop around and see shows to consider for review whenever possible. Anthony Cairns “PXL City” at Sous Les Etoiles, 16 East 71st Street, On view thru June 8. **Last Chance** Stefanie Heinze “MORTAR (the cute ones shouldn’t go unnoticed)” at Petzel Gallery, 520 West 25th Street, On view thru June 8 **Last Chance** Hollis Heichemer “Tumbling Through Space” at Hollis Taggart Gallery, 521 West 26th Street, Opens May 30, thru Jun ..read more

Karl Gerstner “Color Sound” at Meredith Rosen Gallery, February 16-March 23, 2024 Karl Gerstner, Color Sound, ca. 1970s, acrylic on cardboard Peering into these very introspective works by Karl Gerstner, one has the distinct experience of having an encounter simultaneously on different levels of perception. Gerstner was known primarily as a celebrated typographer. Yet clearly he understood and was able to make a specific contribution to Op Art, as evidenced by his inclusion in the Museum of Modern Art’s “Responsive Eye” exhibition of 1965. For the purpose of this series, Gerstner developed a ..read more

CALIFORNIA LOCOS : RENAISSANCE AND REBELLION. Produced by Dave Tourjé with texts by Shana Nys Dambrot, Michelle Deziel-Hernandez, Chaz Bojórquez and Lauren Over. Intro and Forward by Paulo Von Vacano and Dave Tourjé. Art direction by Nano Nobrega. Published in Rome, Italy: Drago Publisher, 2023. Hardcover with slipcase, 432 pages, with numerous color photographs.  America is a broad expanse filled with cultural melting pots as varied as they are unique. Though it may be difficult to judge scenes as diverse as they are geographically alienated from one another, the view from inside can ..read more

Spring has sprung and it’s leaking all over the place. A true spring gets plenty of leaves and flowers only after torrential rains. But a little torrent never stopped the artfully intrepid. Here are a few recommended exhibitions for them. Lower East BITFORMS 131 Allen Street: Auriea Harvey | April 4 to May 25 Noho MARINARO, 678 Broadway, 3rd Floor: Cait Porter | ends May 4 Tribeca 47 CANAL Michael Marman | ends April 27 Tribeca KLAUS VON NICHTSSAGEND 87 Franklin Street: Joy Curtis + Nancy Brooks Brody | April 5 to May 11 **Highly Recommended** Upper East SPANIERMAN MODERN 958 Madison Avenue ..read more

NOLAN PREECE The photographs of Nolan Preece are unlike any others that normally come under the name. They possess a strong quality of material accomplishment, show evidence of specific formal mastery and technical virtuosity in a manner both consistent and intense. They are for the most part abstract, although Preece can achieve narratives in his process, and has been able to achieve a mutability that anchors itself in the genre of landscape imagery. Overall, his process diverges from the mainstream methods and critical approaches to creativity that have come to be associated with photograp ..read more

FIRST CONTACT, 2023 [#374]. Acrylic latex and spray paint on wood panel 32 x 48 inches The photographer can discover a wealth of detail through his pictures, but only what’s on the surface. The painter can look deeper into reality because appearances are less constrictive to someone who creates the world with every stroke of their brush. Such has become the purview, in very certain terms, of Steve Simpson, a painter whose working life as a photographer left huge gaps in the world to fill. Simpson expresses the hidden structures that underlay reality. His new solo exhibition “Maximum Microbia ..read more

Gregory de la Haba, In The Know Mural, 2023 Appropriation is an instinct rather than a discipline, though it can be developed like one. It involves a consideration of objects, images, and experiences in a range of circumstances that is intellectual and sensible yet issues from a desire to manifest new ways of thinking about art. The term itself didn’t come into popular use until the 1980’s, when artists like Sherrie Levine, Jeff Koons, and many others were manifesting separate models of the movement called Neo-Geo. Yet the standard by which these artists gleaned their attitudes had been surf ..read more

It wasn’t until I started this Substack in January 2021 that I realized what is meant by the question “Who is your ideal reader?” I want to take this opportunity to thank all my previous and new subscribers. You are my audience. I am very happy to keep sending you posts on sources of inspiration and the life of the mind. I am beginning three new sections. ART MOMENTS takes me back through a lifetime of looking at art, from galleries, to art fairs, to studios. The point of them is that the experience of art, from a critical standpoint, is inherently personal, and not just a function of the bus ..read more

What I like about art fairs when they are good, is how they can act as an incubator for myriad new encounters with artists and galleries never before glimpsed. I had this experience on several occasions that day, and seeing Nicole Wilson’s work at Photofairs with Praise Shadows Gallery from Brookline, Massachusetts left a lasting impression. The work on view was called ÖTZI, and it comprised a series of 15 framed photographs upon chest high metal shelves, each showing an unremarkable area of the artist’s own body upon which were displayed little red marks that resembled runes. These marks w ..read more