Erin Langner
August 13, 2012, 8:30am
Painting the Fourth Wall: Pull at G. Gibson Gallery
The jagged, orange mass of Seattle painter Blake Haygood’s This Only Seems Abnormal that writhes through a fantastical meteor shower exemplifies the theme of G. Gibson Gallery group show Pull. Evoking classic scenes of the Millennium Falcon being overtaken by tractor beams and meteor showers throughout the Star Wars trilogy, the sensory experience of a gravitational pull breaks through the fourth wall of Haygood’s canvas, the center mass so outrageously oversized against the smaller pieces of matter that its heaviness radiates from the canvas.
July 23, 2012, 8:15am
Unrepresented: The Tabloid Scenes of Noah Davis’s Savage Wilds
The six new paintings comprising Savage Wilds by L.A. artist Noah Davis pop wildly with disparate references, ranging from talk show host Maury Povich to Mondrian. Evocative of flat screens with TV show logos in their corners and caption-like titles, such as Crush on Daughter In-law, this new body of work on view at Seattle’s James Harris Gallery (through August 24th) has the feel of an electronics store with screens on every surface.
May 30, 2012, 8:25am
Comingled Encounters: Artist Relationships at SEASON
Artist Robert Yoder’s gallery, known simply as SEASON, resides on a wide thoroughfare between two north Seattle neighborhoods, somewhere between a deli and a city park. One of several residential spaces appearing in disparate corners of the post-recession city as other spaces downsized or faded away, SEASON fills not only a gap in available spaces for artists to show work but also creates a distinct venue for relationships between artists to manifest. - Erin Langner, Seattle Contributor
April 27, 2012, 8:35am
Black and White and Red All Over: Denzil Hurley & Robert Storr
One would not expect to happen upon Robert Storr’s paintings inside a small gallery in a residential neighborhood of Seattle. Finding Storr’s paintings on the Internet is difficult enough, given the visual art behemoth’s repertoire of curatorial projects and writings. For the month of April, however, four modest works titled S.P.
April 19, 2012, 8:30am
See-Through Fantasies: Mirage at James Harris Gallery
The concept of the mirage is one of intrigue, as evidenced by pop culture’s frequent attempts to define its mystery. A floating desert oasis memorably deceives Daffy Duck into inhaling a mouthful of sand (“Aqua Duck,” 1963), while Steve Wynn’s Mirage casino enchants Las Vegas visitors with its lush terrarium and waterfall-lined swimming pools. Within the context of such widely known references, the question of how the mirage can function within a painting is an interesting one posed by James Harris Gallery’s group show focused on this theme. –Erin Langner, Seattle Contributor
March 19, 2012, 8:15am
The Place Between the Layers: Ben Waterman’s Midnight Lullaby
Ben Waterman’s paintings invite extended meditation on seemingly banal objects: a red mosquito net, a brown piano, a vacant fireplace. These highly specific objects float in contrast to their surroundings--disorientingly unidentifiable places painted with inarticulate brushstrokes. Given the Seattle artist’s pronounced affinity for travel to new places, these surreal landscapes prompt questions on the complicated role of inspiration within constructed visual images.
February 10, 2012, 8:15am
Painting in Earnest: The 10th Northwest Biennial
This year marks the 10th annual Northwest Biennial hosted by the Tacoma Art Museum. Famously referred to as a “dusty old jewel” by former resident Neko Case in her song “Thrice All American,” Tacoma, Washington may not be the expected location for a major survey of contemporary work from Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, and, for the first time, British Columbia.
January 19, 2012, 9:09am
The Faces of Our Time: Give Me Head at James Harris Gallery
Give Me Head at Seattle’s James Harris Gallery transpires most literally: as a collection of 21 heads. This group show of paintings and sculptures primarily created within the last five years offers a visual survey of the face. With very limited exceptions, a lack of expression represents the unifying theme of the imagery. Although some eyes meet the viewer dead-on and others gaze outside the confines of their frames, the intimacy affiliated with portraiture is consistently absent among these stoic figures, raising the question: why would the lack of expression define this body of work?
January 02, 2012, 8:15am
Top 10 NAP Posts of 2011
Even though we are looking forward to 2012, it's still fun to look back. We want to take this opportunity to thank all of our blog contributors for making our site a great place to find commentary on relevant contemporary painting. These very talented writers and videographers from all over the country include Ellen Caldwell, Brian Fee, Josh Reames, Erin Langner, Nadiah Fellah, Graham Kolbeins (Future Shipwreck), Hallie Miller, Catherine Wagley, Paul Boshears, Joey Veltkamp, Alex Ebstein, and Matthew Smith.
On that note, after the jump we list the top 10 most viewed posts by our contributors in 2011. If you haven't had a chance to read them, please check them out now! And, it's never too late to comment.
December 22, 2011, 8:15am
Distilling to the Core: Katy Stone’s Myriad
Katy Stone’s Myriad visually reverberates throughout the otherwise silent rooms of Seattle’s Greg Kucera gallery. The artist’s vibrant forms of painted aluminum are known for walking lines, fluctuating between two and three dimensions, between the linear and the organic, between painting and sculpture. In her most recent body of work, these explorations expand to include additional mediums, as the oversized collage titled Myriad (You Are Here) extends across the floor, forming a 15 x 5 ft. centerpiece for the show. - Erin Langner, Seattle Contributor
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