Anti chromophobia and pure decadence: The paintings of Eric Hibit. In David Batchelor’s book, chromophobia – he writes about the fear of color in western philosophy and art criticism. Bright colors, he asserts have been viewed as primitive and not civilized – even wild and dangerous. Color he writes, also speaks of the cosmetic, the…
Being an artist affords opportunities for social engagement that can be utilized, rejected, or exploited in the worst case. Timo Fahler (b. Tulsa, Oklahoma) is an artist who believes that artists are cultural reporters, in that there is a certain level of responsibility inherent in the practice of art making to identify and transmit meaning…
For many years, Ellen Altfest has held a position in my mind as a hero – or more accurately, an anti-hero – of painting. The power in her work comes from its ability to grab attention without using any of the attention-grabbing tricks: they are modestly sized, contain no hot colors, and the subject matter…
When you meet Joshua Bienko – it does not take more than a few seconds to realize he is ready. Josh is ready to talk, ready to listen and ready to show you what he has. Bienko, an Associate Professor of Art at UT Knoxville and Founder and Director of C for Courtside is all…
At best, when I’m drawing clouds, I feel like I’m moving air vapor around, not just moving my pencil. – Barry Nemett on his work “View from Montecastello” I first met Barry when we both taught together several years ago. We had many conversations over the course of the semester and have since gotten to…
Benjamin Reiss’s work is intense and fun. Generally, his work looks like a schematic come to life, or a cross section and a “how it works” diagram. Machines interiors are treated like guts or dreamscapes. Items and objects of symbolism taken from larger societal narratives, as well as personal connections stack, float, flow, mutate, and…
Theodore Sefcik’s What Comes Through – Trailer Watching Theodore Sefcik’s eerily naturalistic videos often seems like we are spying on an artificial intelligence. As it learns and corrects itself in front of our eyes, crudely, yet sufficiently animated simulations come across as struggling animals and human figures. But more so than often, basic shapes or…
Cynthia Carlson was one of the star players in the Pattern and Decoration movement in New York City during the 1970s. For the un-initiated, the “P&D” movement was a reaction to the abstract schools in art of the 1960s – minimalism, late abstract expressionism, conceptual art, schools the P&D artists felt tended towards austerity, seriousness,…
Alicia Adamerovich is an artist based in Brooklyn, New York. She received her BA in Graphic Design from Penn State in 2013. Alicia’s drawings and paintings reference beauty and function in peculiar ways that constantly peak my attention. I first came across Alicia’s work this spring in the New York City Crit Club, which I…
Matt makes intensely engaging paintings that grapple with the relationship between architectural spatiality and painterly flatness. Their color, gradations, and undulating, isometric patterns reveal shallow spaces that appear to both open and close simultaneously. Subtle shifts in the color and direction of his oil stick stripes and marks can make a wall seem to be…