Posts By alison mcmenamin

Painting abstraction in three different ways at Bridgette Mayer

The current three-some of painters at Bridgette Mayer Gallery ask how many ways a painting can be abstract. Works in the large galleries pair Leslie Wayne’s small sculptural paintings and Neil Anderson’s large lyrical topographies. While Wayne is interested in using paint as a sculptural material, Anderson’s work reinforces paint’s flatness. Matthew Fischer, in the Vault, presents work that is between these two extremes. Wayne’s “One Big Love #50” from 2010 encapsulates many of the ideas that are central to the artist’s work. The poured field of paint is a nod to Helen Frankenthaler and the history of Abstract Expressionism, but ... More » »

Emma Wilcox’s dialog with the city of Newark at The Print Center

Although Emma Wilcox photographs urban decay, the photographer’s work is more than nostalgic yearning for the past. Her silver gelatin prints at the Print Center highlight her engagement with photography’s historic and contemporary applications — as well as her ongoing engagement with Newark, NJ where she lives. Working within the tradition of street photography, Forensic Landscapes is an ongoing series of Newark’s deterioration. In the more contemporary body of work, Where It Falls, photography is used to document her text-based interventions on rooftops in Newark. A third group of works, Promesas, selected by the artist, shows historical documents and art relating ... More » »

Digital sublime – Jennifer Steinkamp at the Fabric Workshop and Museum

Projected outside the Fabric Workshop and Museum’s first floor gallery, “Fly to Mars” serves as an introduction to Jennifer Steinkamp’s interest in the digital sublime. In the computer-generated animation, a tree transitions through all four seasons as its branches undulate. The movement of the branches is unnatural, spreading and recoiling in a fashion that reveals the mechanical underpinnings of the artist’s process. The tree’s seeming other-worldliness is highlighted by the work’s title, “Fly to Mars.” The work does not try to mimic the movements of a wind-blown tree. Instead, its attempt to uproot and fly to Mars recognizes the promise ... More » »

Albatross – Rebecca Saylor Sack at Seraphin Gallery

In the “Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” the albatross is an omen of both good and bad luck. Taking the seafaring bird as its title, Rebecca Saylor Sack’s latest body of work also revels in ambiguity. On view at Seraphin Gallery until March 25, the paintings in Albatross suggest creation and destruction. While these themes are evident in the artist’s large, titled works, the show also includes small, untitled, material studies using oil bar and spray paint. In the studies, the oil bar is used to add shine and dimensionality to the flat spray paint. These studies are primarily concerned ... More » »

Bambi’s Lovely Things pop up at Projects Gallery

Bambi Gallery closed its doors last spring, but its four person show, Lovely Things, popped up this month at Projects Gallery (through January 28). The show’s artists, Matthew Osborn, Stacy Lee Webber, Bonnie Brenda Scott, and Jim Garvey, have disparate practices, from drawing to installation to finely-crafted objects.

Marie Antoinette returns to Gallery Joe

Further Tales of Young Marie Antoinette at Gallery Joe continues Marilyn Holsing’s fascination with the notorious French queen. The exhibition generally avoids presenting an overly sympathetic view of the royal, who may or may not be deserving of her disgraced reputation. Instead, in the imagined scenes, young Marie’s identity serves as a jumping off point for the artist. Meticulously detailed, Holsing’s works on paper resemble tapestries from a distance, complete with toile illustrations.

art thoughtz – Hennessy Youngman shares some at PAFA

Jayson Musson’s alter ego Hennessy Youngman dubs himself “The Pharaoh Hennessy,” “The Rowhouse Raconteur,” and now with his cell phone audio tour of PAFA’s collections, “Mr. Museum.” In The Grand Manner, Youngman shares his own perspective on twenty-two works of early American art. In a collection that prides itself on its number of masterpieces, Youngman both literally and figuratively becomes the voice inside your head, validating the opinion of the non-expert with his unpretentious and witty commentary.

Unsettled and unsettling at the UDel Gallery at the Crane

According to the curators of The Unsettled, a 15-person theme show at University of Delaware’s Crane Arts’ gallery, the exhibit explores “notions of duality, hybridism, and transformation.” Patrick Koziol and Michael Merry, two second-year MFA students at the University of Delaware, admit this premise is broad, but their show introduces you to a lot of interesting works.

Words and images – Rob Wynne’s IN COG NITO and Neysa Grassi’s Rose Gatherer at Locks

Two solo exhibitions take over Locks Gallery now through Oct. 8. Neysa Grassi ‘s Rose Gatherer on the third floor showcases the last ten years of paintings by the Philadelphia artist.  The abstract paintings reveal the artist’s attention to mark-making and to the physicality of her process. Rob Wynne’s IN COG NITO on the first floor shows the New York artist’s fascination with the relationship between art and language. From his first explorations in the 1970s to his most recent work, IN COG NITO provides a survey of Wynne’s interest in text-based art.

Shock Waves at sundown – Daniel Oliva’s window installation at Pentimenti

Only visible at sundown, Shock Waves from artist Daniel Oliva is a memorial to the victims of the tsunami that devastated Japan last spring. While the inside of Pentimenti Gallery is currently empty, the installation in the gallery’s front windows is visible from its sidewalk through August 24.

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