Matthew Smith

May 08, 2013, 8:30am

Painting as Shorthand: the lawn chair sculptures of Patrick McDonough

Patrick McDonough’s lawn chairs are not meant for sitting. And if they begin to seem functional, well, it’s all pretend. The sculptures offer the formal concepts of lawn chairs without actually closing the deal -- legs and armrests have gone missing, for starters, and the works themselves are decidedly non functional. Instead of functionality McDonough is interested in their allusions to an American iconography of leisure. Take a look at them and it’s not difficult to imagine the smell of freshly cut grass or the skyward boom of summertime fireworks. It’s part of what the artist describes as his overarching interest in the aesthetics of free time.

Listed under: Features

March 26, 2013, 8:30am

Matthew Smith's Concrete Abstract at Heiner Contemporary

Our DC Blog Contributor, Matthew Smith, has curated a fantastic group exhibition at Heiner Contemporary called, Concrete Abstract, which runs through April 20th. In the show, which includes artists Seth Adelsberger, Lisa Dillin, Jeremy Flick, Steven Frost, Sue Johnson, Becca Kallem, Patrick McDonough, Danielle Mysliwiec, and Matthew Smith, the curator "...explores the confluence of abstraction with the everyday" As the press release continues, "The works in the show cultivate a non-representational visual language that emerges from familiar ready-made objects, whether th

Listed under: DC

March 14, 2013, 8:30am

Dead Zone: Alex Da Corte at Nudashank

Technically speaking, Dead Zone (at Nudashank through March 17) is a group show curated by Philly-based artist Alex Da Corte. But this description isn’t really accurate. Rather than playing the role of curator, Da Corte is bringing in works by other artists and using them as additional materials in his sculptural assemblages.

Listed under: Review

February 01, 2013, 8:30am

NAP Contributor Tribute

In case you haven't noticed, we have the best art writers in the world. Seriously, it's true. Our blog contributors are stationed all over the country, scoping out shows, visiting studios, and interviewing the best contemporary painters in the art world. Recently we asked our most prolific bloggers to answer a few questions about themselves and their thoughts on 2012. It's your chance to get to know a handful of the talented individuals that bring you the New American Paintings/Blog! There are many more writers, and we hope to feature them soon.

Thanks to everyone that contributes to our blog, helping us bring our readers rich and exciting content on a daily basis!

Listed under: Features

January 24, 2013, 8:30am

The Unf**kable Frontier: Q&A with Felipe Pereira Goncalves

The limits of the human mind have something to do with really big numbers. There’s no insight into knowing that Earth is one hundred million miles away from the Sun, for example -- it’s just real far. Partly, it’s a matter of scale. Cornell mathematician Steve Strogatz tries to rein in this vastness in his description of the Sagan Planet Walk, a scaled replica of the solar system in Ithaca, NY. There, Earth is the size of a pea and just a couple of steps away from the sun, itself the size of a serving plate.

Listed under: Q&A

November 20, 2012, 8:28am

Social Practice: A Q&A with Laura Hudson

Laura Hudson (NAP #99) has been getting out of the studio. The Baltimore-based painter organizes participatory events, documents them on video, then culls her compositions from the nuanced moments hidden in the hours of footage. For her latest project Laura organized a sleepover at the Arlington Arts Center in suburban Washington, DC. The event was meant to be a sentimental throwback to the days of slumber parties -- the artist and 15 of her friends ate junk food, chatted, and played cards all night before nodding off into sleeping bags.

Listed under: Q&A

October 31, 2012, 8:27am

Modular Abstraction: A Q&A with Judy Rushin

Practical necessity is Judy Rushin’s (NAP #64, #76, #100) muse. Well, not exactly. Her Modular series of sculptural paintings are made to be disassembled and reconfigured again; site-specific works that can travel well. Individual modules are aggregated into compositions for new exhibition layouts, then stacked and shipped. They’re spatially and geographically untethered -- mobile paintings for a mobile economy.

Listed under: Q&A

October 11, 2012, 8:00am

Emerging Again: D.C.’s (e)merge Goes Into Its Second Year

Last year’s preview night at (e)merge was a big, ruckus party. Amidst the large crowds it was often difficult to navigate the hallways between exhibitors, and the wait for the elevators always seemed impossibly long. While it may have been loads of fun for those of us sipping PBRs by the pool, perusing and buying artwork that evening seemed to require a bit more resolve and determination.

Listed under: Art Fairs, Art Market, Art World

October 08, 2012, 8:20am

Chromatic Archive: Lisa Ruyter at Connersmith

There’s a seemingly direct line between Lisa Ruyter’s work and pop art. Like pop art, Ruyter’s paintings are guided by photography and mass media, her appropriation strategies a central crux of her compositions. But her artistic concerns are decidedly unwarholian. Rather than revisiting pop art’s critique of commodity culture, Ruyter is more interested in reframing the conceptual meeting point between image and color, obliterating photographic affect and repurposing meaning along the way. Indeed, much of the photographs’ original “truth” is lost when viewed through Ruyter’s decadently neon prism, nearly as abstract as it is figurative.

Listed under: DC, Review

August 29, 2012, 8:25am

From Print to Painting to Print: CTRL+P at Arlington Arts Center

Brian Chippendale came to prominence as a leading figure in the underground art and music scene that blossomed in Providence, RI during the 1990s. At the center of this creative explosion was Fort Thunder, an expansive live-work space co-founded by Chippendale in 1995 that occupied the second floor of an historic mill. Part performance space, part printshop, part residence, Fort Thunder was ultimately purchased by a developer and demolished in 2002, giving way to a supermarket and office supply store.

Listed under: DC, Review

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