Publisher

March 03, 2014, 10:12am

Things We Think and Do Not Say, or Why the Art World is in Trouble

I let the cat out of the bag a little early with this piece. It was supposed to be released today on the NAP/BLOG and it was posted earlier than expected on The Huffington Post. Over the weekend I received dozens of emails, calls and Facebook comments - I am going to respond to all of them in good time – and the piece was viewed by more than 25,000 individuals on the Huff Po. A heartfelt thanks for all the great feedback. The response demonstrates that the issues addressed in the article/rant are on the minds of a lot of people. I look forward to continuing the dialog. - Steven Zevitas, Publisher

I had a Jerry Maguire moment last night. I couldn’t sleep, so I decided to write. The following thoughts are a bit of a ramble – a sketch really – and I leave it to others to expand on the dialogue. If I had a business manager, I’d probably be told that for someone who makes part of their living as an art dealer, putting these words “out there” is not a particularly bright move. If I had a boss, he might fire me. Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, I don’t have either.

January 30, 2014, 9:50am

MUST SEE PAINTING SHOWS: FEBRUARY

There are more than two-dozen New American Paintings’ alumni on view this month, and some of our favorites are among them. Molly Zuckerman-Hartung opens a show of new work at Corbett vs. Dempsey in Chicago on February 7^th, just two months before she appears in the 2014 Whitney Biennial. Four extremely talented Los Angeles-based artists will have exhibitions in New York City this month: Sarah Cain at Galerie Lelong; Iva Gueorguieva at Ameringer|McEnery|Yohe; Frohawk Two Feathers at Morgan Lehman; and Lisa Sanditz at CRG Gallery (I should add that all four of these artists were featured in NAP early in their careers…yes, it pays to subscribe). If you are on the West Coast, then be sure to check out James Sterling Pitt at Gallery Paule Anglim in San Francisco and Patrick Wilson at Susanne Vielmetter in LA.

Frohawk Two Feathers. Courtesy of Morgan Lehman, New York City.

It sounds like an obvious statement, but there is a lot going on in New York City in February, especially for emerging painters.  I am particularly excited about the following exhibitions: Julia Rommel at Bureau, Katherine Bernhardt at Canada, Gabriel Hartley at Foxy Production, Davina Semo at Marlborough Chelsea, Whitney Claflin at Real Fine Arts, Ted Gahl at Dodge Gallery and Holly Coulis at Sardine. Our old friend, Eddie Martinez, has once again put on his curator’s hat and cooked up a must see group show titled Bad Fog at Martos Gallery that closes on February 15^th.

A number of galleries around the country are giving shows to deceased artists who are just starting to become better recognized. One of the truly great “realist” painters, of the twentieth-century Gregory Gillespie, will be on view at Forum Gallery in New York City. Also in New York, be sure to see Mitchell-Innes and Nash’s show of work by the Croatian painter, Julije Knifer, and Michel Majerus at Matthew Marks Gallery. In Santa Fe, overlooked abstractionist Oli Sihvonen will have eleven paintings from his last, and largely unseen, body of work on view at David Richard Gallery. - Steven Zevitas, Publisher 

December 19, 2013, 3:59pm

14 Artists (+2) to Watch in 2014

Artists kept making paintings in 2013, and they did so in ever more inventive ways. If any single word can sum up the overriding concern of many younger artists over the past few years it is process. As of late, many painters have defined themselves not so much with a specific image or style, but with the way in which they go about “producing” their work. Fire extinguishers, bleach, the sun, printing technologies and even spaghetti have all been employed in the quest for aesthetic advancement. For these artists, the way in which an artwork is made becomes deeply embedded in the meaning of their work. The results of such technical explorations can occasionally come of as gimmicky, but, when successful, they can lead to extraordinary art and new ways of thinking about the medium of paint.

What does painting hold for 2014? If a quick survey of upcoming museum shows, including the 2014 Whitney Biennial is any indication, it will be more widely exhibited and talked about than ever, and mature artists such as Dona Nelson (a 2012 Painters to Watch pick) and Suzanne McClelland will, more and more, have their long overdue day. I will also go out on a limb and say that, after several years where abstraction has been the dominant language of painting, representational work will start to mount a comeback. Among the hundreds of artists I consider each year while publishing New American Paintings, I have noticed a considerable uptick in the number of young painters working with recognizable imagery, some in, dare I say it, almost traditional modes. (And yes, I am aware that representational painting never left, but the institutions that make up the so-called art world have been preoccupied with other things in recent years.)

Dona Nelson. Courtesy of Thomas Erben Gallery, New York, NY.  

Over the past year I conducted dozens of studio visits, traveled to numerous art fairs, and saw hundreds of gallery and museum shows. The list of Painters to Watch in 2014 is made up of some new discoveries, a few artists who, in my mind, presented breakout work this year, and a few old favorites who deserve wider attention. For the purposes of this list, I am defining the activity of painting as broadly as possible. Traditional definitions of media have become less and less important for emerging artists, and, no doubt, some of the listed artists would not consider themselves to be painters per se. - Steven Zevitas, Publisher

Who is on your list?

November 12, 2013, 7:19pm

MUST SEE PAINTING SHOWS: NOVEMBER

There are more than two-dozen exhibitions by New American Paintings’ alumni on view this month. Among them are the always environmentally conscious Alexis Rockman at Baldwin Gallery in Aspen, hot Chicago export Scott Reeder at Lisa Cooley in New York City, and the extraordinary Sarah McEneaney at Locks Gallery in Philadelphia. 

I am not overstating it when I say that Sarah is one of my favorite painters working today. Her ability to construct space intuitively gives her intimately-scaled egg tempera paintings a shocking immediacy. It might be tempting to lump Sarah in with the widespread trend of “faux-naïve” that has been pervasive in the last decade, but there is nothing “faux” about her paintings. My sense is that there is no strategic impulse at work at all. Sarah’s pictorial language simply is what it is and can be no other way

Sarah McEneaney. Courtesy of Locks Gallery.