Corbett vs. Dempsey

February 25, 2018, 8:45am

About the Shape of It: Magalie Guérin at Corbett vs Dempsey

God, let's just start with a list, right?, and if it seems a bit daunting, just imagine poor fucking Linnaeus, setting forth to categorize sundry and all living things, whereas this is but a brief run-down and accounting for of some of the shapes-a sampling of the vast geographic ecosystem-of Magalie Guérin's (NAP #119) worlds, shapes anatomical/biological-flesh-colored trash bags, barred teeth, raw nails, conch snail shells-shapes mechanical-vintage car grills and taillights and doors and bench seats, mid-century modern chairs, shafts of lamp light from a noir gumshoe's desk, perfume bottles, awl handles, backsplash tiles, famished walls with studs showing, the glowing jukebox flanks of a sci-fi set, the curled remnants of a high school art class pastel set's cover paper, the ribs of rent cardboard-all nestled up amongst each other in the cool colors of pallid death or the never-living, enamel and sclera and cream and subcutaneous fat, contractor wall color and brutalist concrete and refrigerator light … and the paintings are none of those things, not really; well, they are all of those things, but only to me, on a Sunday morning in February, aided/impeded by time, distance, memory, an exercise in form until the very end … - B. David Zarley, Chicago Contributor


Magalie Guérin | Untitled, 2017. Oil on canvas on panel. 20 x 16 inches. Image courtesy of the artist and Corbett vs Dempsey, Chicago.

Listed under: Review

December 28, 2016, 10:20am

Rebecca Morris: On Blood and Abstraction

Here we have presented, in a perfect circle, as if in a petri dish or memorial china plate or a porthole—which, by the way, is the vanguard of windows, the aperture we gaze at when we want to be kept safely, securely, hermetically safe from whatever is on the other end of the thin pane we slick with the heat of our faces—the kind of pleasing gridded surface, so straight!, so soothing!, so perfectly correct and uniform!, bone white squares cut by aurelian lines ostensibly lineal but in actually imperfect, bulging a bit, a bit sloppy, like a military garrison on parade—so close to perfect, but still (for now) human!—or the grout lines in your bathroom … yes!, it's a bathroom floor, encircled in the petri dish, viewed through the porthole, bathroom tiles gridded out with gold, surrounded by marble (of course!), perfect save a pox, the red of dried blood—it's the brightest color in the whole room, really, this dried-deoxygenated-but-still-too-fresh blood, each splock with its own idiosyncratic hair style, pili radiating as is from the weakest sun, clumping into constellations, gentle parabolic forms like arched eyebrows, carrying in them a sense of ad-hoc exigency, the kinetic beautiful violence requisite for their application demonstrated in their forms, an abstract take on a passage from a Bret Easton Ellis novel—The bathroom reeks of bleach and disinfectant and the floor is wet and gleaming even though the maid hasn't started cleaning in here yet; Glamorama, pg. 256—a form of silent violence, an echo of a moment captured in all of its chaos atop a bone white grid, gleaming with gold, surrounded by marble, a porthole into God's own bathroom…- B. David Zarley, Chicago Contributor


Rebecca Morris | Untitled (#01-16), 2016. Oil and spray paint on canvas, 68 x 69 inches. Photo courtesy of the artist and Corbett vs Dempsey, Chicago

Listed under: Review

February 26, 2015, 7:39am

Joy of Flighty: Rebecca Shore at Corbett vs Dempsey

Now here is a piece of art with a burlesque sensibility: Rebecca Shore's 20, whose Cambridge blue undercarriage, gartered in a lascivious claret, is thrust out to the viewer in come-hither sharp angles with a celerity that implies confidence and a bit of coquettish teasing rather than desperation—note that this brazen display of usually subdued dimensions will not be readily apparent if one comes up off the stairs into Corbett vs Dempsey running along the wall whisker-bound like a house mouse; abstract art favors the brave—and invites the viewer up its ascending staircase—a second set of stairs!—into an exhibition comprised of familiar motifs and vibes and colors and sensations predominantly sans any mimetic analog, which, yes, abstract art is meant to do, albeit not always so adroitly. – B. David Zarley, Chicago Contributor


Rebecca Shore | 20, 2014, acrylic on linen on panel, 14 x 16 inches. Photo by Tom Van Eynde, courtesy of the artist and Corbett vs. Dempsey

Listed under: Review

November 17, 2013, 6:23pm

Tableau vs. Still Image – Jonathan Gardner, “Nudes” at Corbett vs. Dempsey

The image of the female nude is arguably the closest thing the subject of painting has to a readymade. The recent exhibition on view in the West Wing at Corbett vs. Dempsey by Jonathan Gardner, Nudes, consists of just three paintings installed in the corner of the main space, otherwise occupied by an exhibition of Konrad Klapheck’s charcoal drawings. The images recall twentieth century favorites – namely Picabia, with hints of Magritte and Balthus, currently featured in a similarly titled exhibition Cats and Girls, on view at the Met. In each of the three images, Gardner sets up simple parameters that allow for an immediate read, but not a simple one. In an off-the-cuff throwback to an antiquated genre, it appears that the approach of artist as stylist, or rather painter as the painter of styles, presents surprisingly interesting challenge for Gardner. Of course the depiction is nothing new – we’ve seen a million of paintings on the subject – but these three hold strong. Undiluted by any satirical content, the paintings are direct, yet comic and complex; for this reason they are different. Walking a fine line between representation of a subject, and representation of a style, the three tableaus are not quite sexualized enough to be perverse, nor awkward enough to be sympathetic. Instead, the nudes represent a removed and distant caricature of painterly female representation of the teens and twenties, in particular – though sans personality, and without any symbolic content; purposefully emptied of any recognizable trait that would tie them to that context. Nude or otherwise, the figures are somehow ontological – in the sense that despite their seemingly forward appearance, they are a material that serves themselves. Just as the physicality of paint serves the formalist, the image of the girl Gardner paints is the subject of that painting. – Stephanie Cristello, Chicago Contributor

Jonathan Gardner | Nude with Lemons, 2013. Oil on linen. 40 x 46 inches. Image courtesy of Corbett vs. Dempsey.

Listed under: Review

September 17, 2013, 8:00am

Don’t Blow Your Cool – Rebecca Morris, Party Cut at Corbett vs. Dempsey

Not very often does an abstract painting exhibition keep a level head – but the casual, unruffled discretion of Party Cut, a collection of new work by Rebecca Morris currently on view at Corbett vs. Dempsey, is refreshing in more ways than one. The quick, and perhaps even preparatory nature of the paintings holds a certain degree of immediacy –however, all too often, a discussion surrounding paintings like these is fixated on the idea of a formal language. Acutely focused on gesture, the use of line, the myriad of descriptives used for compositional devices, and other criteria that certainly applies to this work – strictly formal terms like these kill conversation if not applied correctly (let’s pretend that there is such a thing); which is to say, if they explain the medium, but miss the affect. Morris’ paintings avoid this pit fall. The repetitive forms and all-over fields of high-keyed color are charmingly typical of midcentury patterns and decoration; yet remain distanced from an ornamental context, at once attractive and idiosyncratic. And while I was admittedly surprised by the dry, stained surfaces of the works on canvas with their more moderate and measured treatment, and less brazen tactile qualities, it would be partial to say that those material qualities were the only ones driving away the initial Pop impression of the work. - Stephanie Cristello, Chicago Contributor

Left: Rebecca Morris, Untitled (#06-13), 2013, oil on canvas, 87 x 80”. Right: Rebecca Morris, Untitled (#09-13), 2013, oil and spray paint on canvas, 67 x 65”. Courtesy of Corbett vs. Dempsey.

Listed under: Review

June 29, 2012, 8:15am

40 Galleries You Should Know if You Love Paint

It is a simple truth that in any given month, if you added up all of the available space in commercial galleries around the country, the amount dedicated to painting would dwarf that of all other media. The list that I have compiled consists of 40 United States’ based galleries that have a proclivity for painting. That is not to say that painting is the only medium that these galleries show; indeed, most represent artists producing work in a range of media. All of them, however, have shown a particular interest in the medium over an extended period of time, and all have stables of artists that are at least 50% painters.

Listed under: Art Market, Art World, Features
Tagged as: Aaron Parazette, ACME, Adam Sorensen, Ala Ebtekar, Alexis Stamatiou, Ali Smith, Allison Schulnik, American Contemporary, Andrew Guenther, Andrew Schoultz, Angela Dufresne, Angela Fraleigh, Angles Gallery, Anna Conway, Anthony Meier Fine Arts, Ben Snead, Ben Weiner, Benjamin Degen, Brett Reichman, Brian Zink, CANADA, Carlos Vega, Cary Smith, Catherine Kehoe, Corbett vs. Dempsey, CRG Gallery, Daniel Heidkamp, Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Daniela Rivera, Danielle Tegeder, David Kordansky Gallery, Devening Projects + Editions, Dimitri Kozyrev, Domingo Barreres, Don Voisine, Echo Eggebrecht, Elaine Spatz-Rabinowitz, Eleven Rivington, Emily Eveleth, Erik Den Breejen, Feature Inc., Feodor Voronov, Franklin Evans, Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Freight + Volume Gallery, Friedrich Petzel Gallery, Gregory Lind Gallery, Hannah Barrett, Harris Lieberman Gallery, Heyd Fontenot, Holly Coulis, Horton Gallery, Howard Yezerksi Gallery, Inman Gallery, International Art Objects Galleries, Jack Balas, Jake Longstreth, James Fuentes, James Gobel, James Harris Gallery, James Kelly Contemporary, James Siena, Jeff Bailey Gallery, Jered Sprecher, Jill Moser, Jim Gaylord, Joe Wardwell, John Sparagana, John Zurier, Jon Rappleye, Joshua Abelow, Jovi Schnell, Judie Bamber, Karla Wozniak, Kate Shepherd, Katherine Sherwood, Kelly McLane, Kent Dorn, Kiel Johnson, Kirk Hayes, Kristen Schiele, LaMontagne Gallery, Laurel Sparks, Leo Koenig Inc., Libby Black, Lisa Cooley, Lisa Sanditz, Liz Markus, Louise Belcourt, Mark Flood, Mark Moore Gallery, Marx & Zavattero, Matthew McClune, Melora Kuhn, Michael Scoggins, Mitchell-Innes & Nash, Molly Zuckerman-Hartung, Morgan Bulkeley, Nina Bovasso, Nuno de Campos, Paolo Arao, Patrick Wilson, Paul Shakespear, Paule Anglim, Pierogi, Robert Buck, Robert Kelly, Ryan Mrozowski, Sarah Awad, Sarah Cain, Sarah Walker, Shane Campbell Gallery, Shara Hughes, Shaun O’Dell, Sigrid Sandström, Sikkema Jenkins & Co, Siobhan Liddell, Steven Zevitas, Stuart Arends, Sue Scott Gallery, Susan Jane Belton, Susan Vielmetter Los Angeles Art Projects, Texas Gallery, Tim Bavington, Tommy Fitzpatrick, Wendy White, William Cordova, William Swanson, Xiaoze Xie, Yoon Lee, Zach Feuer, Zieher Smith

May 02, 2012, 8:15am

ALL IN ONE: PAINTINGS BY REBECCA SHORE

In conjunction with an exhibition at Corbett vs. Dempsey in Chicago, Eight Modern Gallery (Santa Fe, New Mexico), will show the paintings of Rebecca Shore (NAP #41) until May 5. This two-gallery exhibit, titled All in One, features about 50 paintings, 23 of which are at Eight Modern. - Read more by Jenni Higginbotham, Sante Fe Contributor, after the jump!

Listed under: Review, Santa Fe

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