LOOK INTO MY OWL

An exhibit of eighteen paintings from Dawn Frasch opens tonight at Haas & Fischer in Zurich. The first international solo show for the artist will be on display through April 3rd.

Dawn Frasch, X-Mas Special Featuring Ratty, oil on panel, 2010.

Frasch has invited the viewer into a familiar world recalling the imagined horrors that shift through the safe confines of a child’s bedroom after dark. Her approach to this content strikes at the root of the creative mind. It’s a sad slide when, on the verge of sleep, the boogie man transforms into the mundane trepidations that arise with maturity. These paintings can take us all back to the waking dream.

Dawn Frasch, Armchair Anarchist, oil on canvas, 2010.

The explosive application of paint mates well with the recurring theme of uncontrollable creation. Large brushstrokes work against minute details to develop these intriguing spaces. A sense of time is instantly felt in the frenetic arrangements. Speculations concerning before and after the evidenced moment serve as a nice corollary to the artist’s video and performance work. Have a look for yourself here.

Dawn Frasch, Pussy Pizza Party, oil on canvas, 2010.

Dawn Frasch
18 February – 3 April 2010
Haas & Fischer
Zurich

“The Antidote,” a group painting show at Claire Oliver in NYC is up now and will hang through the first week of March. The exhibit features work by Rina Banerjee, Herb Jackson, Aaron Johnson, Jesse McCloskey, Ulf Puder, Tom Sanford and William T. Wiley.

Aaron Johnson, Bleeding Heart, acrylic on polyester knit mesh, 2010.

Over the past two centuries, the cry that “painting is dead” has been issued to exhaustion by the critical and just plain cranky. The goal of “Antidote” is proof of pulse despite the incessant mutterings of lazy, tabloid-styled art journalists. Perhaps the time has come to smother the platitude with an addendum. Painting is dead, long live painting!

Ulf Puder, Kreidefelsen, oil on linen, 2010.

Diversity of approach is on stage for this group showing. A wide array of methods and motives are showcased standing as evidence that as long as life perseveres there will be painters that can keep up.

Tom Sanford, The Salahis, oil on canvas, 2010.

The Antidote
28 January – 6 March 2010
Claire Oliver Gallery
NYC

These “leaked” candid photos just in showing some of the work in progress from David Choe’s latest exhibit. “Character Assassination,” opens this Friday and runs through the last week of March at the FIFTY24SF Gallery in San Francisco. If you are on the left coast, this is one not to miss.

David Choe, Rosie, mixed media, 2010.

David Choe, Always Hungry, mixed media, 2010.

David Choe, Head Study, mixed media, 2010.

David Choe, Fat Ugly Girls, mixed media, 2010.

David Choe
Character Assassination
5 February – 24 March 2010
FIFTY24SF Gallery
San Francisco

This just in from the David Lynch Foundation. Scroll down to watch the new video they put together for, “David Lynch: New Paintings,” an exhibition held during the last part of 2009 at the William Griffin Gallery in Santa Monica, California. The video contains segments of interviews with Laura Dern and Roger Corman among others. Lynch himself discusses the core foundation of the creative mind.

David Lynch, Change the Fuckin’ Channel Fuckface, mixed media, 2009.

David Lynch, I Burn Pinecone Throw in Your House, mixed media, 2009.

David Lynch, painting detail, mixed media, 2009.

“Kopftheater” or “Theater of the Mind” is an exhibition of recent paintings by Stefanie Gutheil at the Mike Weiss Gallery. This is the first solo show in NYC for the artist.

Stefanie Gutheil, Labyrinth, oil and mixed media on canvas, 2009.

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, Germany has undergone a cultural renaissance. The new found freedom has opened doors for the creative minded that in past have not even existed.

Stefanie Gutheil, Hasen, oil and mixed media on canvas, 2009.

Gutheil draws inspiration from this new spirit of independence. The people she sees and meets are all part of the world that she exaggerates to canvas. This volition extends beyond the content of the work into unusual choices in medium. Found textiles, aluminum foil and spray paint converge to advance the artist’s insubordinate views.

Stefanie Gutheil, Berg III, oil and mixed media on canvas, 2009.

Stefanie Gutheil
Kopftheater
14 January – 20 February 2010
Mike Weiss Gallery
NYC

An exhibition of paintings, drawings, photography, video and prints from Terry Rodgers is the current show at Aeroplastics Contemporary in Brussels. “Radical Continuity” runs through the end of February.

Terry Rodgers, The Palace of Automorphic Delights, oil on linen, 2009.

When confronted with the large scale paintings of Terry Rodgers, the viewer is struck with compositions that overwhelm the picture plane. Rodgers enlists people that he meets in public to pose for his photographic studies. The resulting images are used to formulate these lavish fabrications.

Terry Rodgers, The Sacrificial Penumbra, oil on linen, 2010.

Not unlike the 1958 classic horror film, “The Blob,” victims in this universe are ensnared in a domineering residue of commerce. The frivolous privilege illustrated recalls lessons from an earlier Empire. Instances when emotion is displayed in this world are often greeted with a severely passive eye.

Terry Rodgers, Falling from Grace, oil on linen, 2010.

Terry Rodgers
Radical Continuity
15 January – 27 February 2010
Aeroplastics Contemporary
Brussels, Belgium

“Youth Parade”, mixed media paintings by Michael Mararian is currently on view at the Corey Helford Gallery in Culver City. The show runs concurrent to a mini solo show from Miso in the loft.

Michael Mararian, Ancestry Breakdown, ink and acrylic on paper, 2009.

The exhibit marks Mararian’s second solo show with the gallery. The inclusion of acrylic in these recent paintings has unlocked a new level of richness that was not available to the previously displayed ink works. The antagonistic collisions of tonality and vibrant color builds a visual framework for the antithetical content.

Michael Mararian, Meat is Murder, ink and acrylic on paper, 2009.

The arresting imagery brims with harmonized innocence and critical rebellion. People that engage in extended cooing at the children of strangers in public will not be divided on these paintings. The west coast gallery visitor, however, will relish the juxtapositions and possible message that the acceptance of alternative cultures may conclude in individuals better prepared for the new realities of a hyper-media life.

Michael Mararian, Jonbennet Halloween Costume – Postmortem Masque #1, ink and acrylic on paper, 2009.

Michael Mararian
Youth Parade
16 January – 6 February 2010
Corey Helford Gallery
Culver City, CA

An abundance of recent work in a variety of media from Ulrich Lamsfuss make up his current show, “Birdie”, at Lombard-Freid Projects in NYC.

Ulrich Lamsfuss, Olivier Portrait, Zebco Sports Europe (Calendar September 2008), oil on canvas, 2009.

Ulrich Lamsfuss maintains a database of images culled from popular culture. This visual dossier is curated based on the collector’s personal connection to the content. The oil paintings are worked and reworked in an effort to distance the product from the source.

Ulrich Lamsfuss, Michael Douglas – No Nukes, oil on canvas, 2009.

Lamsfuss sifts through the world of advertising and entertainment with a hopeful eye. It is his search for reality, his quest for a credible identity in a virtual space that invigorates the content. Reclaiming the visual cortex from image overload is an important contemporary movement and this artist is gaining some ground for the cause.

Ulrich Lamsfuss, Xavier Zimbardo. Kataragama, Sri Lanka 1992 (India Holy Song), watercolor on paper, 2009.

Ulrich Lamsfuss
Birdie
20 November 2009 – 9 January 2010
Lombard-Freid Projects
NYC