Newest Features
GUY DE COINTET @ GREENE NAFTALI GALLERY, NYC By Alan Reid To confess, Guy de Cointet is an artist whose work I’ve unabashedly loved since first viewing. His is an easy-breezy theatrical stance, an art so seemingly light one is unlikely to find correlation in the art of the west. Therefore, I greet the current show of drawings from ‘70s and early-‘80s at Greene Naftali with opens arms. And this is a handsome show, despite minor pangs in seeing his paper sag, under-cared for, in several frames. De Cointet is first and foremost…
EXHIBITION BY PHOTOGRAPHER BRIAN DOAN SPARKS PROTEST By Jason Landry A few weeks ago, an exhibition in Santa Ana, California at the VAALA (Vietnamese American Arts & Letters Association) Center sparked protests from the Vietnamese community. The group show, F.OB. II: Art Speaks drew some controversy with an image by photographer Brian Doan. Doan’s image depicted a Vietnamese girl wearing a red tank top with a yellow star on it (referring to the communist flag of Vietnam) while sitting next to a bust of former communist leader Ho Chi Minh. Doan’s photograph was…
LAUREL SPARKS: PLEASURE DOME @ HOWARD YEZERSKI By David O. Avruch The studied madness suffusing the paintings in “Pleasure Dome,” Laurel Sparks’s new show at the Howard Yezerski Gallery, was clearly a labor of love. Dystopian and engag-ing, the works exhibit multiple levels of dynamism and a commitment to craftspersonship that make admiring them a rewarding experience. Color and line twist and spar in deca-dent, convoluted layers that constitute an edgy funhouse, fascinating the eye with neons, sparkle paint and other fabulous media. Neither pretty nor grotesque, they are deep and distinctive…
By James Nadeau I had the opportunity to sit down with Nicole Cherubini and Taylor Davis as they installed their show Davis/Cherubini, In Contentionat the List Visual Arts Center at MIT. The work is truly a collaboration between the two, which makes the title of the show somewhat unsuitable. I didn’t get the sense that there was any disharmony between the two artists, and was amazed at the ease with which they worked together. The freedom and security that their working partnership gave them was really great to see at play – JN.…
WHAT ARE LEE WALTON’S FRIENDS DOING ON F’BOOK? By Matthew Nash For the past several decades, artists have been embracing new forms of digital media in the creation of their work, and challenging the notion of creative experience in diverse ways. With the Boston Cyberarts Festival just around the corner, I have been immersed in a variety of media-based projects and I have become totally enamored with Lee Walton’s F’Book: What My Friends Are Doing On Facebook. Walton first garnered attention online for two of his early projects, Lee Walton vs. Shaquille O’Neill:…
MEG AUBREY @ GALLERY STOKES, ATLANTA By Laura Ann Meyers In her current exhibition I Just Live Here, Savannah College of Art and Design alum Meg Aubrey explores the environment and psychology of contemporary suburbia. The show reeks of the political and sociological implications of the suburb and its stereotypes Both the characters and the landscape in Aubrey’s paintings create an eerie, Stepford-like scene in which something is not quite right. Elements of typical suburban neighborhoods are isolated against bland backgrounds. Lonely trashcans and mailboxes go beyond ironic icons of our envisioned cookie-cutter…
A REPORT FROM THE PHANTOM ZONE By Steve Aishman So I’ve almost stopped reading articles. In print, on-line… whatever. All I look for is how many comments have been made. The comment section of an article says far more about an event and the ideas that surround it than any article can ever articulate. The best example I have seen of this recently is Shepard Fairey’s arrest that has made for something I did not expect, more people commenting about art than I’ve ever seen. Boston.com’s article had 173 comments in one day,…
ON THE INTANGIBLE: SHEILA GALLAGHER & DARREN FOOTE By Matthew Nash Darren Foote is a very calm guy. He speaks in measured tones and never gets too excited. Sheila Gallagher is an energetic flurry of ideas and excitement. The pairing of their work for the two-person exhibition “ASTRA CASTRA” at Judi Rotenberg Gallery is a powerful blending of their individual explorations of spirituality and notions of the intangible. We sat down for dinner and conversation at Audubon to discuss the intangible, the spiritual, and capital letters. MN: Darren, let’s start with you and…