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11.21.2012

Viva Chelsea, Part 3

 
While Chelsea begins to stir back into something approaching normalcy, I'm continuing to show you exhibitions that took place throughout the fall. (There's never enough time to show everything when it's actually up.) These are painterly abstractions marked by transparency and strong, if lighthanded, brushwork. Color is mostly saturated, sometimes subtle. I'm doing my best to show you as much as possible before I go to Miami, because December will be all about the art fairs.
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Carolanna Parlato, Behind the Sun, Elizabeth Harris Gallery

September 6 - October 6
 
 High Summer, 2012, acrylic on canvas, 64.25 x 78 inches
Image from the Elizabeth Harris Gallery website
 
 
Carolanna Parlato's new body of abstract paintings, so different from the layers of opaque poured pigment in an earlier (and equally splendid) series, deals with light and transformation in nature. Her brushwork is gestural and expressive, marked by the occasional and initially unexpected introduction of spray paint. I respond to the palette, to the way the surface is built up through layers and then worked into without feeling labored. These are physical paintings that push, hover, clash, demand. I like the demand part. Acquiesce to the work.


Installation view of Parlato's show, with High Summer, right. Two of the three small works on the far wall are shown below
 
 
Above: July, 2012, acrylic and spray paint on canvas
Below: Sea Wall, 2012, acrylic and spray paint on canvas
 
 

Turning clockwise, HIgh Summer and Side Streaming
 
 
Side Streaming, 2012, acrylic ansd spray paint
Image from the Elizabeth Harris Gallery website
 

Continuing clockwise, Side Streaming and Wet Spring
Read Rachel Youens's interview with Parlato in NY Arts magazine
  
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Monique van Genderen at D'Amelio Gallery

September 6 - October 20


 
Untitled, 2012, oil and pigment on canvas, 84 x 78 inches
 
 
I was not familiar with Monique van Genderen's work (she lives and works in Los Angeles), but I liked them--and I like posting them here, right after Carolanna Parlato's work, because the two artists share some formal and compositional elements. Van Genderen is the more graphic of the two, and her individual elements are more large scale, but there's a spatial sense, and a compositional quirkiness that relates the two.
 
 
Installation view at D'Amelio Gallery with two Untitled works


Turning clockwise. All the paintings are Untitled
 

Untitled, 2012, oil and pigment on canvas, 72 x 48 inches
 
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Sarah Hinckley, Everywhere Tomorrow, DM Contemporary

 September 19 - November 17

 Installation view, seen from the gallery entrance
 
 
DM Contemporary is far enough east on 29th Street that the surge came nowhere near the gallery. Like most of the area, however, it lost power for almost a week. Fortunately the gallery extended Sarah Hinckley's solo show. I hope you got to see it, because the subtlety of her paintings is hard to capture, especially for my little camera which struggles to integrate the gallery lighting with the natural light coming in from a bank of windows opposite the exhibition walls. (Disclaimer: I am represented by the gallery.)
 
An ever-present horizontal suggests that Hinckley's reference is landscape. In fact is is the sea and sky of her childhood (she grew up on Cape Cod) which informs the work. The subtle washes--often overlaid onto much brighter underpainting--recall the  nuances of fog and mist or the changes in light at different times of day. Botanical references are sometimes forthright, sometimes all but imperceptible. The gorgeousness of Hinckley's work is balanced with the traces of her process--paint drips, rivulets of wash, tantalizing gimpses of what she has painted over.
 
Somewhere Over, 2012, oil on canvas, 52 x 48 inches
Image from the DM Contemporary website
 
 
 
I love this panoramic view from the second gallery looking back into the first. To the right of the doorway: Open Your Arms to the Sun, 2011, oil on canvas, 48 x 52 inches.
 


Below: A roughly 180 turn clockwise with Find a Better Dream,  Another Place You Can Go, and Everywhere Tomorrow, which imspired the title of the show
Image from the DM Contemporary website
 
 
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William Willis, Recent Paintings, Howard Scott Gallery

October 11 - November 24
 
Pale Presence, 2012, oil on canvas, 41 x 40 inches
 
 
William Willis's work draws from landscape, but not so much from the vast expanse as from the elements within it. The gallery press release cites "branch and antlers . . . streams and creeks . . .rocky landscapes." I respond to the formal geometry of the work, the way curve meets angle, or an arabesque rubs up against a jagged line. These are easel-size paintings, each with a rich and subtle palette.
 
The show is up through Saturday. If you're in town for the holiday, go--but call first, because on holiday weekends you just never know.
 
Installation view of William Willis's solo show at Howard Scott Gallery
 
 
Not Too Dense, 2012, oil on panel

Look for the last installment, Part 4, next week

3 comments:

annell4 said...

Wonderful Post! I enjoyed seeing everything!

Nancy Natale said...

Thanks for posting these vibrant works, Joanne. You are keeping Chelsea at the forefront in a good way!

Ruth Andre said...

Fabulous post and beautiful work.