is one half of Slip at Overlap (with Olivia Baldwin*). She is particularly drawn to and work within the themes of landscape, femininity, and beauty.
*Two Coats published a conversation between Barbara and Olivia in the context of their exhibit
#barbaraowens
UPDATE apologies to Barbara for initially publishing a post with an image incorrectly attributed to her
Ben Godward says, in the context of Lim’s show “Yard” (Madang) at Shin Gallery, that they don’t paint their sculptures but rather find the color in the city. Ben also notes that while Western artists look to use Western aesthetics to illuminate Eastern philosophy, Choong does the reverse.
More (from Yau)
#choongsuplim
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).
More
#rodneymcmillian
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
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
was one of three artists in Triple Hits at Barbara Davis. Philip at Burnaway has words noting that Mellor’s digitally and hand-worked photographic distortion challenges straightforward communication.
#jademellor
Danielle at Artsy ranks the 10 best public art works installed in 2025 (international version in case you were wondering) and points at Shaikha’s Deliberate Pauses. Mazrou’s practice is anchored in history of art, borrowing formally from minimalism and intellectually from conceptual art. Influenced by artists from the Modernist and Bauhaus Movements – such as Paul Klee, Carle Andre and Wassily Kandinsky – Al Mazrou uses the formal aspects of minimalism to engage in a current fascination with materiality in art.
#shaikhaalmazrou
Tara Escolin visits the Atlanta-based studio of Jackson Markovic to discuss his practice of analogue photography and documenting Atlanta’s dance scene. I certainly don’t think he would call himself an abstractionist, and some of this work is definitely nonfigurative. I’m guessing most readers are also familiar with Jeffrey Gibson, another queer artist whose work ties into dance music. Jackson also did a review himself recently of Ross Landberger, another photographer pushing materials. And yeah I do love some photography, with a bent that won’t be surprising.
More
#jacksonmarkovic
I have a full-time job in clean energy. In a prior manifestation of this career, I used to travel a lot, many times to Biloxi Mississippi to call on the local utility. I’ve vividly remember the “Hurricane Katrina high watermark” line painted on the wall in the lobby of the Holiday Inn on the waterfront, 400 yards from the ocean that previously had viciously swallowed this small City.
So when I saw that Merin McDivitt had reviewed Molly Sawyer: Through the Light, a material response to the aftermath of Tropical Storm Helene, at the Spartanburg Art Museum, I immediately read it, and so should you
#mollysawyer
Nnena is the 2025 winner of the Turner Prize. She is the first learning-disabled artist to win. Born in Glasgow in 1966 to Nigerian parents, Kalu is known for sculptures resembling cocoon-like forms that she strews with videotape, cellophane, and other unconventional materials.
#nnenakalu
Painting After Art is Dead 