Brian Fee

May 16, 2014, 4:19pm

Color Pollination: Leigh Anne Lester at grayDUCK Gallery

If your produce shopping is limited to sustainable farmers markets rather than the neighborhood big-box — or if you haven't followed decades of GMC developments — you may be unaware of genetically modified crops' tenacious pervasiveness in the global community. In Venomous Cabbage and other demands satisfied, the inaugural show at grayDUCK Gallery's new eastside location in Austin, Leigh Anne Lester wields graphite and rich color as her magnifying glass to this agricultural reality. — Brian Fee, Austin contributor

Leigh Anne Lester | Deviant Pollination, 2014, graphite and color pencil on drafting film, 29 x 24 inches. Image courtesy the artist and grayDUCK Gallery, Austin.

April 09, 2014, 9:39am

Lasting Impressions: Miguel A. Aragón at Tiny Park

Trauma permeates Miguel A. Aragón's very physical printmaking, both in subject matter (victims of Mexico's drug wars) and in process (depending on the intended result, he burns, abrades, or hand-drills the works). Aragón's return to Austin — his first solo here following the critically-lauded exhibition Fractured Memories, Assembled Trauma at Mexic-Arte Museum in 2012 — is both potent and bittersweet, as while the artist's bracing techniques continue to advance the compositional potential of paper, it also coincides with the final outing at eastside gallery Tiny Park. — Brian Fee, Austin contributor

Miguel A. Aragón | De brazos abiertos, 2014, hand-drilled paper with layered Xerox, 72 x 192 inches. Image courtesy the artist and Tiny Park, Austin.

March 04, 2014, 9:05am

Past Featured NAP Artists at VOLTA NY 2014

One of the privileges of working for a contemporary art fair whose focus is solo-artist projects is the opportunity to see a range of works by artists from all over, be they from Bushwick or Berlin. This could mean their newest series or a multiyear survey of their oeuvre, sort of like a mini retrospective staged within their exhibiting gallery's booth. 

View more shots from VOLTA NY 2013 by clicking here.

As in years past, VOLTA NY features a plethora of artists working with paint. The range is fantastic, and I think indicative of contemporary trends within the medium: angular figures and aggressively colorful compositions in a New Objectivity vein from very young, non-German artists including Anna Navasardian (Armenian but New York-based, showing with Galerie Andreas Binder, Munich) and Pawel Sliwinski (Polish, showing with Beers Contemporary, London); representational works in thick, gestural impasto, both in Kim Dorland's grand, en plein air style (Angell Gallery, Toronto), and in Bobby Mathieson's intimately scaled portraiture (Lyons Wier Gallery, New York); and abstraction both super-reductive (like Clare Grill, showing with FRED.GIAMPIETRO, New Haven) and cosmically colorful (Jennifer Lefort, showing with Patrick Mikhail Contemporary, Ottawa); plus every conceivable style in between. - Brian Fee, Austin Contributor

February 06, 2014, 3:21pm

Soul Seeking: Alexandra Grant at Lora Reynolds Gallery

Have you ever Google'd yourself? (Is it profane even, to use 'Google' as a verb?) As we leave digital footprints over multiple social media platforms, like a slightly exaggerated profile on an online dating site or a carefully composed Instagram shot (to one-up our friend's idyllic beach photo), we may ask ourselves 'how much of me is there?' And how much of that factors into our presence in and understanding of the greater physical world? In Century of the Self, organized by independent curator Sarah C. Bancroft at Lora Reynolds Gallery, artist Alexandra Grant dives into feverishly detailed compositions that embrace language as both quotable texts and visual tools. — Brian Fee, Austin contributor

Alexandra Grant | Alexandra Grant: Century of the Self installation view, January 18 – March 15, 2014. Courtesy the artist and Lora Reynolds Gallery, Austin.