March 05, 2014, 8:51am

MUST SEE PAINTING SHOWS: MARCH

It is a big week in the New York art world as six art fairs come to town, including The Armory Show and The ADAA Art Show, and the 2014 installment of the Whitney Biennial opens. Art dealers know an opportunity when they see one, so don’t be surprised to see a number of Biennial artists well represented in the various art fairs. I want to congratulate two New American Paintings’ alumni, past cover artist Keith Mayerson and Chicago-based Molly Zuckerman-Hartung, on their inclusion in this very painter friendly Biennial. Both are also currently featured in commercial gallery shows at Derek Eller Gallery in New York City and Corbett vs. Dempsey, respectively.

There are close to three-dozen NAP alumni on view around the country. In Los Angeles, Ben Weiner continues to impress with his painterly chops. His just opened show at Mark Moore Gallery includes stunning examples of his large-scale photorealist/abstract images, as well as a new series of small-scale works made with some interesting materials. Right nearby in Culver City are Brian Porray’s show at Western Project, and a soon-to-open solo of work by 2013 MFA Annual artist and Yale grad, Evan Nesbit. Four extremely talented LA-based NAP alumni are currently having solo shows in New York City, including Lisa Sanditz at CRG Gallery, Iva Gueorguieva at Ameringer | McEnery| Yohe, Sarah Cain at Galerie Lelong, and the young and already in demand Brenna Youngblood at Jack Tilton Gallery (Youngblood will be the focus of an exhibition at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis later this year).

Some months seem to favor mid-career and established artists, but emerging talent is on view everywhere in March. In Chicago, William J. O’Brien, who works in a range of media, from ceramics to painting, opens a show of new work at Shane Campbell Gallery (the artist is currently having his first comprehensive museum survey at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago). In San Francisco, Altman Sigel is presenting the delicate paintings of the Japanese artist, Shinpei Kusanagi. In Minneapolis, the young and on-the-move David Petersen Gallery is exhibiting new paintings by hometown emerging artist, Scott Nedrelow.

Jordan Kantor. Courtesy of Churner and Churner, New York City.

I don’t even know where to begin with New York City. Shows by emerging artists that I am excited about include: Ethan Cook at American Contemporary, Jordan Kantor at Churner and Churner, Mika Tajima at Eleven Rivington, Rose Marcus at Eli Ping, Gabriel Hartley at Foxy Production, Liam Everett at On Stellar Rays, Donelle Woolford at Wallspace, and Lauren Silva at Zieher Smith. One of our favorites at NAP, Summer Wheat, opens a show at the Lower East Side space, Pocket Utopia, on March 16^th, and will also be the focus of a solo booth presentation with Samson at the Nada New York art fair in May. - Steven Zevitas, Publisher

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 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

February 25, 2014, 9:46am

40 Galleries You Should Know if You Love Paint: Redux

I put together my first selection of Forty Galleries You Should Know if You Love Paint in 2012. As with everything in life, a lot has changed in the art world over the past two years. Some of my favorite galleries have closed, including Harris Lieberman in New York City and the legendary Daniel Weinberg Gallery in Los Angeles, while some younger galleries have either suddenly appeared or have developed their programming in truly noteworthy ways.

Of all the changes since 2012, the most difficult has been the recent loss of the visionary and beloved New York art dealer who simply went by the name Hudson. His gallery, Feature, Inc., has been a critical part of the city’s frenetic art scene since the mid-1980s. Hudson brought early exposure to dozens of important artists, including Alexander Ross and Tom Friedman. In the past few years, his championing of mid-career artists such as Andrew Masullo and David Deutsch helped bring their work much-deserved attention. While Hudson will long be remembered for his impact on the art world, it is his quiet intelligence and gentle spirit that I will miss the most. There is no word yet as to what will become of Feature, Inc. – Steven Zevitas, Publisher

Elijah Burgher. Courtesy of Western Exhibitions (aka Scott Speh Gallery), Chicago.