Reviews
dOCUMENTA (13)
By Stephen Truax
One-hundred meters past the end of the platform behind the Hauptbahnhoff-a commuter tram station that used to be the central train station in Kassel, Germany, artist Susan Philipsz positioned her seven-channel sound installation, Study for Strings, (2012). By the same title, Study for Strings is a one-movement work composed by Pavel [...]
Whitney Biennial 2012
Whitney Museum of American Art - New York
The First Rule of the Biennial is You Don‘t Talk About the Biennial
By Stephen Truax
It’s impossible to write a straight review of the 2012 Whitney Biennial when it is being actively picketed. One must consider the political/economic context that may occlude any effective discourse or artistic [...]
Luis Cruz Azaceta: Shifting States
Arthur Roger Gallery - New Orleans
By D. Eric Bookhardt
It has been said, most famously by the 17th-century poet John Donne, that “No man is an island.” And while no doubt true in the philosophical sense that Donne intended, human history has largely been defined by the things that isolate and divide us as [...]
Thomas Scheibitz: A Panoramic View of Basic Events
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery - New York
Paintings Aren’t As They Appear
By Stephen Truax
Thomas Scheibitz appears to be a straightforward Modernist artist resembling the classic painter-sculptor-collage artist model à la Matisse or Picasso. Scheibitz’ presentation is conspicuously simple. The artist’s seventh solo at Tanya Bonakdar consists of modest-sized paintings, (markedly smaller than the oversize work [...]
Matthew Brannon: Gentleman’s Relish
Casey Kaplan - New York
By Stephen Truax
New York-based artist Matthew Brannon continued his development of bewilderingly obtuse fictional narratives (which inform his entire practice) in his latest exhibition at Casey Kaplan, New York. The viewer was led through a noir world of psychologically complex relationships by a group of interrelated works, including handmade [...]
Jason Shawn Alexander: Undertow
101/exhibit - Miami
By Jenifer Mangione Vogt
There is stillness in the work of emotive painter Jason Shawn Alexander that is simultaneously comforting and disturbing. In his exhibition “Undertow” at 101/exhibit, which showcased 20 new paintings, all created in 2011, there was a demonstrated melancholy, and perhaps this is the “undertow” to which the show’s [...]
Vincench vs. Vincench: A Dissident Dialogue from Cuba
ArtSpace/Virginia Miller - Miami
The Artist in Front of the Mirror
(Or Words in a Narrow Room)
By Joaquín Badajoz
With the same seamless gesture of a man devoting himself to a shaving ritual-creating the perfect lather to coat his face, choosing the right blade to slide along his skin, until becoming, with a few [...]
Urbanitas
Pan American Art Projects - Miami
Curated by Irina Leyva-Pérez
By Raisa Clavijo
“Urbanitas” assembled the work of ten artists who have approached the theme of the city from different perspectives. The exhibition included works by Gustavo Acosta, Luis Cruz Azaceta, José Manuel Fors, Tony Berlant, Luis Enrique Camejo, Carlos Estévez, Santiago Porter, Rogelio López Marín (Gory), Magnus [...]
Neo Rauch: Heilstätten
David Zwirner Gallery - New York
By Stephen Knudsen
Neo Rauch got a second wind in New York, recovering from the cramped curation of his exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2007-a show that had his paintings ducking low ceilings both figuratively and literally. In the 2011 show at the David Zwirner Gallery, [...]
Under The Big Black Sun: California Art 1975-1981
Museum of Contemporary Art - Los Angeles
Curated by Paul Schimmel
By Tucker Neel
“MOCA’s Under The Big Black Sun: California Art 1975-1981″ features works by legendary artists like John Baldessari, Chris Burden, Judy Chicago, Mike Kelley, Paul McCarthy, Raymond Pettibon, Martha Rosler and Bette Saar. These artists are well represented in this show, as well as in [...]
