November 25, 2016, 10:17am

Considering Painting’s Shelf Life with Boris Osterov

Since painting began to migrate from church walls to stretched linen, a painter’s niche within the art market had been carved. Not only was canvas friendlier to 16^th century Venice’s damp boulevards, it also fit snugly on the walls of those with a few florins to spare, as it still does today. While contemporary speculators of our global art market are often praised for the integral role they play in driving new ideas and experimentation, the fact remains that painting makes up nearly three quarters of art sales today. And so those looking to make a florin for themselves often find extra incentive to take up the brush and canvas. - Brad Fiore, Chicago Contributor

Boris Osterov | Untitled, 2014, Oil on Canvas, 18 x 17.5 x 4.5

November 01, 2016, 10:23am

Kristen Dodge: Back in the Game at September

Kristen Dodge is not just one of my favorite art world people, she is one of my favorite people, period. In a business replete with elusive characters, Dodge is a rare straight shooter. (She is also rare in that she combines a deep knowledge of art with deadly business acumen.) In late 2010, after a number of years in Boston, she opened Dodge Gallery in New York’s Lower East Side and did what she does best: aggressively advocated for the artists and ideas that she passionately believes in. The gallery was open for four years, at which point Dodge decided she needed a break from the art world’s frenetic pace and rapidly shifting landscape. She and her husband, artist Darren Foote, moved to Upstate New York where they embraced a very different lifestyle.

Now, just over two years later, Dodge is back, and I think the art world is the better for it. Her recently opened space in Hudson, NY, September, has already gained a lot of attention. I wanted to know what brought her back into the “game.” – Steven Zevitas, Publisher

September 12, 2016, 8:51am

Deb Sokolow’s thoughts on Men

Those unfamiliar with the work of Deb Sokolow (NAP #41, 107, 119) might be surprised to find studio walls plastered with images of Kim Jong-un, conspicuously undetailed renderings of David Copperfield’s brain, paper models of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings, as well as diagrams dissecting the psychological motivations of our country’s most notorious politicians. And over the past decade she has found excuses to cook up an impressive collection of home-brewed conspiracy theories that cover everything from subterranean pirate tunnels to coded messages in your McRib. Though while she has earned a reputation for drawing on eclectic source material, the most surprising thing about her work is its ability to synthesize all of it into something that’s not only visually cohesive, but as immediately compelling as anything in the National Enquirer.

Between exhibitions in Washington DC, Indianapolis, as well as New American Painting’s Midwest Edition show and another coming up at Chicago’s Western Exhibitions on September 17^th, she has certainly kept herself busy in 2016, making it the perfect time to check and learn a bit more about what goes into her work. – Brad Fiore, Chicago Contributor

Deb Sokolow | Various notes and studies, 2016

September 06, 2016, 9:02am

Light, Letting Go, and the LA River with Debra Scacco

Debra Scacco creates rich, multimedia pieces that play with light, reflections, shadows, walls, and borders. Her 2015-2016 solo show The Letting Go at Klowden Mann was full of works on paper, paintings, and more sculptural installation pieces that reference and play off of nature and geography in aesthetically pleasing and deeply profound ways. – Ellen Caldwell, Los Angeles Contributor

Debra Scacco, Installation view of “The Letting Go” at Klowden Mann, 2015.