Brian Fee

November 22, 2011, 8:20am

Excavating the figure with Bianca Beck

It is remarkable what a single gestural stroke or gouged marking can do towards turning a murkily colored abstract painting into something uncannily figurative, erotic, mortal even. In a long New York weekend, I knew I had to see Bianca Beck's solo exhibition, the appropriately titled Body, at Rachel Uffner Gallery.

Listed under: New York, Review

November 17, 2011, 8:20am

Looking Closer with Josephine Halvorson

Josephine Halvorson breathes life into marginalized and utilitarian surfaces and objects that most of us don't just disregard on a daily basis, we're even oblivious to their very existences. How often have you regarded a steam valve so closely that you could draw it from memory? Does your flat even have steam valves?

Listed under: Review

November 14, 2011, 8:15am

Dissecting Environments with Josh Keyes

I was pleasantly taken aback by Portland-based artist Josh Keyes' (NAP #49 & #67) vividly photo-realistic renderings of fauna in cleaved terrain in Fragment, his debut solo exhibition at Jonathan LeVine Gallery last winter. In one fell swoop, Keyes juxtaposed Audobon-precise animals interacting with textbook-style bisected and angled landscapes overrun with premonitions of global warming, a mix of heady surrealism and acute future reality.

Listed under: Portland, Review

November 10, 2011, 8:15am

Celebrating with Joanne Greenbaum

Hopefully this burst of intimately scaled creativity by Joanne Greenbaum — as 1612, her first iteration of small-size abstract paintings at D'Amelio Terras (on exhibit through November 12th) — is just the beginning. Greenbaum's masterful grasp of structure and fluidity and her daring, saturated color palette are not stymied by the canvases' decreased dimensions, but rather revel in it, amplifying their intensities. Her performative methodology and resulting salon-style hanging of the 48 works, sprinkled like neon-emitting raindrops about the front gallery's four walls, indeed induces a celebratory vibe. Let's get to reveling.

Listed under: New York

October 13, 2011, 9:00am

Heart to Art: Jill Schroeder of grayDUCK Gallery

When I relocated to Austin from New York City this summer, I became inextricably attracted to grayDUCK Gallery and its consummate Austin vibe. Its location south of Town Lake puts the gallery in walking distance from "Keep Austin Weird" South Congress, and it shares a Zip Code with Torchy's Tacos and indie record store End of an Ear — i.e. Austin all the way. Then there is grayDUCK's rigorous monthly exhibition schedule and its strong roster of local artists. I met with Jill Schroeder, owner and director of grayDUCK, to discuss the gallery's unique presence and her goals for the future. — Brian Fee, Austin Contributor

Listed under: Art World, Behind the Scenes, Q&A

September 19, 2011, 9:24am

Jim Torok: Walton at Lora Reynolds Gallery

I keep thinking of Caroline. I have never met this Caroline in person, nor have I visited Walton, the town nestled in the Western Catskill Mountains in upstate New York where she resides. And yet, when regarding her portrait — the middle image of seven same-sized, intimately scaled paintings in Jim Torok's Walton exhibition at Austin's Lora Reynolds Gallery — I feel as though I "could" know her. Like I've seen that faintly sun-streaked brown hair, those indescribably blue-grey eyes somewhere before.

Listed under: Review

September 13, 2011, 9:30am

Wild Beasts at Champion Contemporary

An oasis of kicked-up color blooms in the Hill Country, focused in the Wild Beasts exhibition at Champion Contemporary. While New York City's museums have, of late, treated "painterly" and "young" as extreme opposites — the recently closed video-imbued exhibitions by Cory Arcangel (Pro Tools at the Whitney) and Ryan Trecartin (Any Ever at PS1) come to mind — some of the city's talent prove otherwise.

Listed under: Austin, New York, Review, Sneak Peeks

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