Artsy notes galleries and museums are featuring shows of exceptional Black artists who are tackling complex subjects from housing policy to interpersonal relationships. Vielmetter in LA gets a nod for their exhibit Some Lives in the Sunshine featuring Rodney (Suzanne also gets flowers, once again).
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#rodneymcmillian
was interviewed recently by Noah Becker, founder and writer at Whitehot Magazine, in the context of his newest in London at Massimo de Carlo.
#peterschuyff
No one who regularly reads this blog will be surprised to see Sharon’s name, but perhaps surprised for me to blog about her. I have of course (before today), originally in 2020, as I was first discovering my favorite blogazine, when she juried/curated The Daily. The second image below is from a series of paintings that she was making at the time based on very quick sketches she was doing on her phone. The work for me was a step beyond provisional painting, and had a sincerity and love for materials that is lacking in that group. As a creative focused on the active faith it takes to produce in a time after Art has died, while holding the contradiction that it is likely a pointless activity, really resonated, and still does.
Sharon has started off 2026 with a couple of very interesting projects-one at McBride Dillman* and another at CLEA RSKY – so I wanted to update my flowers for her.
*from the gallery- “Sharon Butler’s “new casualism” takes up the incomplete, the provisional, and the unfinished as meaningful categories. Her paintings challenge the authority of polish and perfection, foregrounding process as a form of truth-telling.”
#sharonbutler
had an amazing show overlapping the turn of the year: Cutting Room at Anchorlight. Not all of it was abstraction of course, and her interest in non-representational forms (like Sabrina) relates to optics- to be clear her main interests are in film and the history of women’s labor. Fascinating stuff- oh did I mention these are made on a loom?
#katenartker
Mostly posting this for local folks who, like me, fell in love with Kate Nartker’s work because of her recent exhibition at Anchorlight (yes I’ll do a blog about Kate tomorrow). And! Yes, there are images embedded in these patterns- opticality and film are part of a Venn diagram that overlaps many concepts with which abstraction is concerned.
#sabrinagschwandtner
I was surprised to find I’ve never noted Peter, probably because he’s often the source of a good Two Coats article rather than the subject (Jonathan covers his newest at Nancy Hoffman calling them “portals and vortexes”).
#peterplagens
Painters on Painting looks at Under the Sky, Above the Sea, a solo exhibition by Leila at the Visual Art Center of New Jersey in Summit.
#leilaseyedzadeh
I first became aware of Tillyer’s work when I stepped into Bernard Jacobson’s booth at the 2020 iteration of the Armory Show, which is also when I learned that Jon Yau called William the most adventurous artist of our time. That’s high praise indeed considering he’s a contemporary of David Hokney, Howard Hodgkin and Richard Hamilton. Yes that’s means this blog is year another refresh.
Grace Palmer did a nice review of The Watering Place at Jacobson last Fall about “the Art world’s misunderstood beauty.”
#williamtillyer
catches the eye of Jacob at Two Coats for her newest with Lucas Blalock (not an abstractionist) at Bureau, including below (which is collaged, and also quite different from the rest of her works in the show).
#juliarommel
I first blogged about Hedda in early 2020 because I was so over the moon to see MOMA give Hedda her due in their (at the time) new gallery reconfiguration. Hedda has a prominent place in Art History as the only woman Artist featured in Nina Leen’s iconic Life Magazine photograph of the New York Abstract Expressionist group’s “membership” (below).
Jason at Two Coats has words about the recent Dreamscapes at Van Doren Wexter.
I am continually in awe of the #9thstreetwomen* and their truly Modernist commitment to artistic practice- they always made work, even as their male counterparts (and spouses!) stole the limelight. *Speaking of the now well known tome, enjoy this interview (YouTube video in link) with author Mary Gabriel (I know I will).
#heddasterne
My favorite Art critic is at it again. John Yau recently visited a (posthumous) exhibit of Edward’s work.
(If you like below check out Susanna)
#edwardzutrau
Isensee is an NC-born painter. Riad at Whitehot notes his newest at Miles McEniry.
I first blogged about their work early on (2018!), and att I made a note about how Neo-Geo almost ruined abstract painting (Warren has been making work since the 80’s- here is something from 2001) and that to my eye their practice is committed to formalism (writing that his work is too insistent on being seen to be a sign for some conceptual “agenda”).
#warrenisensee
