Three MUST See Shows

Heat Waves in a Swamp: The Paintings of Charles Burchfield
June 24–October 17, 2010
@ The Whitney Museum of American Art

Charles Burchfield was nothing to me a year ago, but after seeing this exhibition I am an apostle. Imagine Hopper on acid. Creepy and fantastic landscapes all or mostly all in watercolor. This guy was doing large scale water color in the 1940-50;s. Imagine that? Abstract Expressionism is all over the place, Pollock is changing the way we consider painting and Burchfield is focusing entirely on a medium considered fragile, secondary and for Sunday Painters. Burchfield proves otehrwise with work so strong, powerful and psychologically moving that it really stands toe to toe with the best of the New York School of that era.

This show closes on the 17th so there is plenty of time to get to the Whitney and see it. Highlights are the room of wallpaper and the gallery of doodles.

http://whitney.org/Exhibitions/CharlesBurchfield


Matisse: Radical Invention, 1913–1917

July 18–October 11, 2010
MEMBER PREVIEWS ON NOW
@ MOMA sixth floor

Not much I can say about Matisse that wouldn't just be balls out praise. He is easily my favorite painter of all time because he was always a painter's painter. it was always really just about the painting in a pure sense. This shows is almost overwhelming in its breadth, but it really tries to take apart his working method which I found very revealing. Get there in the next week before it goes down. Big shows of masters like this don't come around all that often.

http://moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/969

Coming Soon:

Abstract Expressionist New York

October 3, 2010–April 25, 2011

There will be plenty of time to queue up and see this show between now and April, and queue up you will. ABEX:NY promises to be a block buster exhibition and I already have my tickets for Monday. The review in the NYTIMES was not over the moon, but I am not really expecting huge jumps on ABEX theory from the curators at MoMA. What I am looking forward to is seeing all this work installed in those beautiful galleries all at one time. It really needs to be see that way so you can take in the scale and the art historical movement for what it was as Roberta Smith wrote, "art movements are really messy, edgeless things that should only become more so with age..." People think they know ABEX and that it is all figured out. i am looking forward to this exhibition because i always find new inspiration and new ways of looking at these paintings. This work is so fresh still and has so much room to become even messier and expansive as more people are exposed to it.

http://moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1098

The Great South Bay PROJECT

Working with Ghost Bird on a project to get at source material mined from The Great South Bay of Long Island. To start we took a sail and made a list:

Amityville Cut
anchor
Atlantic Ocean
barnacle
bay snail
beach glass
buoy
Canadian geese
Captree Island
Cedar Beach
channel
clam
cormorant
Cow Island
crab
cumulus
dragon fly
driftwood
ducks
dunes
Elder Island
engine
Fire Island
Fox Creek
Garbage Cove
Gilgo Beach
green fly
hawk
Hemlock's Cove
hermit crab
heron
high / low tide
horizon line
horse shoe crab
hot sand
inlet
Japanese Pine
jellyfish
laughing gull
lighthouse
Lion's Mane
mast
mosquito
mussels
nimbus
No Wake!
North / South Wind
oar
Ocean Parkway
Old Sol
oyster
piping plover
poison ivy
razor clam
Red Boat
reeds
rip-tide
Robert Moses Bridge
sailboat
Sailor's Haven
sand bar
sandpipers
sea weed
shoal
Snake Channel
stratus
string ray egg
tern
tide mark
under-tow
Watch Hill
waves
weather -eye

Beach Grass
Blue Claw
Bay Side/Ocean Side
Clam Digger
Cherrystone
Chowder Clam
Keel
Mermaid's Purse
Red Right Return
Red Boat
Squaw Island
The Four Corners
Tanner Park
Tick
ToBay
West Gilgo

Check out the original posted at Ghost Bird

Local Color: Four Fordham Alumnae

I am curating a show of Alumni work at Fordham University:

Local Color: Four Fordham Alumnae.
June 10th, to August 9th, 2010

The Center Gallery
Fordham University
Lincoln Center Campus
113 Columbus Ave



The featured artists are Teresa Baker, FCLC ’08, Martha Clippinger, FCRH ’05, Amie Cunat, FCLC ’08, and Lauren Portada, FCLC ‘00

Bill Jensen: New Work

Bill Jensen: New Work
Feb 18th-March 27th, 2010
@ Cheim & Read
547 West 25th Street
NY, NY

Bill Jensen was the first contemporary abstract painter that really made me re-think painting. His approach, color and process opened up new ways of thinking for me and really helped me understand the psychological content of abstraction.

A great part of the show that I revisited many times was a small front room of drawings. Done mostly on antique paper with ink, water and brush these drawings open up a world of beautiful value, mark making and direct experience. His "Drunken Brush" series from a few years ago is also worth looking at. An excellent catalog and introduction essay by David Hinton adds not to the "understanding" of Jensen's work but to the appreciation of his source material and working method.





Images of a Floating World
LUOHAN (RED PIE), 2008
Time After Time
PASSARE DA BERNARDO XXXVIII, 2009

It is an absolute shame that I posted this so late and now the show is down. I would love to tell everyone to go see this show, but unfortunately it is down. Go to the website to see some decent images of the installation.

*All images from Cheim & Read Website

Continuing Color Abstraction

Hello Everyone,

I will have work in a group show opening on Thursday night at The Painting Center in Chelsea. I am very excited about it and I am proud to hang in such good company. The details and invitation are posted as well.

The Painting Center
547 West 27th Street
5th Floor
New York, NY 10001

Opening Reception

Thursday April 15th, 2010

6-8PM