Review
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.
April 08, 2014, 11:14am
Dan Gluibizzi and the World Wide Archive
Combing Tumblr for inspirational sources, painter Dan Gluibizzi pairs scenes of friends, porn, swingers, and bongs to form groupings of perfect strangers in his watercolor compositions. In his show "Between Friends" at the Kopeikin Gallery, Gluibizzi explores and questions the social media bonds and the ties of voyeuristic “friendship” in this digital age. – Ellen C. Caldwell, Los Angeles Contributor
Dan Gluibizzi | Story Sisters, 2014, 33" x 40," Watercolor on Paper. Courtesy of Kopeikin Gallery.
March 30, 2014, 8:32pm
Painting Backwards: Evan Nesbit at Roberts & Tilton
Painters and paint-lovers should flock to Evan Nesbit’s (NAP #99) current show /ˈkaɪˑæzəm/. Entering Roberts & Tilton, visitors are met by a group of large and brightly colored burlap canvases. The combination of acrylic paints and dye on brown burlap and of Nesbit’s painting on the opposite side of the burlap than the one facing outward has a contradictory effect on the colors: they are muted bolds and conversely, they are bright pastels.
The very act of painting backwards, though, is what interested me most—visually, aesthetically, physically, and quite psychically. – Ellen C. Caldwell, Los Angeles Contributor
Evan Nesbit | /ˈkaɪˑæzəm/ Installation View. Courtesy of Roberts & Tilton.
March 27, 2014, 10:17pm
Mission Schooled: Jason Jägel at Gallery 16
If you’re a fan of underground hip hop then you’ve probably seen Jason Jägel’s (NAP #25) work. He’s produced album cover art for the likes of Dudley Perkins, Madlib, and MF Doom, including the cover of the 2011 reissue of Operation: Doomsday (originally released in 1999), a classic in underground hip hop. If you’re unfamiliar with any of these names then you’re more likely to be impressed by the twenty years exhibiting that Jason has under his belt, half of those coming after he completed his MFA at Stanford University in 2002. His current exhibition, From the Sky, Rivers Look Like Snakes (through March 31), marks his first show in the expansive loft space of Gallery 16. It offers a glimpse at the narrative line drawings that have become Jason’s signature style. And it includes oil paintings -- a first for the artist since 1997 -- that seem to hint at the influences guiding his work. - Matt Smith Chavez, San Francisco Contributor
Jason Jägel | Hand/Eye, 2012. Gouache on paper. 81.5” x 60.5”. Courtesy of the artist and Gallery 16
March 25, 2014, 9:25am
Ecstasy and Eye Candy: Ben Weiner at Mark Moore Gallery
Ben Weiner’s (NAP #56, 68, 80, 98) solo show “MaximumStrengthAgeDefy” at Mark Moore Gallery is eye candy for the soul and soulful drugs for your eyes. The gallery space greets you with bright and tasty looking colors, alluring and welcoming you in. – Ellen C. Caldwell
Ben Weiner | installation view of “MaximumStrengthAgeDefy.” Image courtesy of Mark Moore Gallery.
March 25, 2014, 9:20pm
PDX Road Trip: New Work from Ellen Lesperance, Jessica Jackson Hutchins and Wes Mills
Driving to Portland from Seattle is such an easy thing to do, most of the time I find myself there on a whim, without any concrete plans, experiencing the city in a choose-your-own-adventure style, with one experience leading into the next. When I arrived in such circumstances again last week, I ended up happening upon a survey of some of the city’s stalwart artists. While the PORTLAND2014 biennial organized by Disjecta in a selection of discreet art venues across the city helped ensure a steady selection of shows, straying off the biennial track at times also yielded the most resonant works, with exhibitions by seasoned Portland artists Ellen Lesperance (NAP #97), Jessica Jackson Hutchins and Wes Mills representing some of the most exciting pursuits at the moment and reinforcing these artists’ positions as some of the city’s strongest voices. – Erin Langner, Seattle contributor
Ellen Lesperance, Do you know that one day you lost your way, man?, installation view. Image courtesy of Upfor Gallery.
March 23, 2014, 3:01pm
Homage to Exploration: Katia Santibañez at Morgan Lehman Gallery
As winter segues slowly into spring in New York City, Katia Santibañez's (NAP #104) latest suite of hypnotic investigations into the natural world instill warmth into our gray worldview and chilled bodies. Docere, Delectare, Movere, her fourth exhibition at Morgan Lehman Gallery, follows several months in Rome and a residency at the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, imbuing this series with vitality and fearlessness in contrasting colors. — Brian Fee, Austin contributor
Katia Santibañez | Interlude, 2013-14, acrylic on panel, 16 x 12”, image courtesy the artist and Morgan Lehman Gallery, New York.
March 19, 2014, 8:38am
Guest Stars and Sci Fi: Brian Porray at Western Project
Brian Porray’s (NAP #84 & 2010 MFA Annual) second solo exhibition at Western Project is quite simply a must see and must feel. He fills the large, open gallery space with his signature bright and bold explosions of color, movement, and energy. In his last show, he focused on capturing the essence of his hometown Vegas and the complex power of the Luxor Hotel, and in this show, he moves to something else just as unsettling and unnerving as sin city can be to some – the ever-changing and impermanent night sky and the sci fi terrors and wonder it can bring to us mortals. – Ellen C. Caldwell
Brian Porray | installation view at Western Project, 2014. Image courtesy of Western Project.
March 11, 2014, 1:50pm
Pat Steir’s Fluid Reality
There is a notable heaviness present in the galleries of Cheim & Read’s Pat Steir show currently on view in New York. The weightiness is evoked not by any darkness, but by the unique paint application the artist employs in her large-scale canvases, in which she lets gravity dictate the way paint falls, spills, and spatters across the expansive surfaces. Sidestepping any didactic elements in her particular style of feminist practice, Steir instead employs an approach to painting that makes metaphoric references to the leaks, seepages and flows of the female body, seeking to draw out allusions to something that is more random, intuitive, and created by chance circumstances. Rejecting the traditional use of a brush to apply paint, Steir also stands against the myth of the male-artist-as-genius in her choice to abstain from the decisive action of placing paint on surface. Instead, the artist has devised a non-traditional approach, choosing to pour thinned paint from the top of her canvases while they’re vertically mounted on the wall.
Pat Steir installation view, Cheim & Read, New York.
February 27, 2014, 4:17pm
Closer Encounters: Josephine Halvorson at Sikkema Jenkins & Co.
In her 2011 exhibition What Looks Back at New York gallery Sikkema Jenkins & Co., Josephine Halvorson enlivened inanimate industrial objects and surfaces, spellbinding this art-lover and writer. Now that she's got our attention, Halvorson returns with a tightly cropped and edited grouping of eleven canvases, each thrusting its subject up close and personal. Her structures are no longer content to be ignored or forgotten: in Facings, they assert themselves. — Brian Fee, Austin contributor
Josephine Halvorson | Heat 1, 2013, Oil on linen, 10 x 15 inches. Image courtesy of Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York
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