Steven Charles, High Score, acrylic on wood, 2012.

Charles does not plan his abstract canvasses. The forms are arrived at by reducing shapes to fine points. The shapes within shapes within shapes allude to the very essence of painting. Stepping in toward something unknowable is the mystery that keeps this painter dedicated to his craft.

Steven Charles, Thhipahapo, acrylic on canvas on wood, 2011.

The typical viewing distance for the larger works does not completely reveal the level of saturated color that plays on the surface. Between the heavily marked picture plane and the eye, a visual mixing occurs resulting in a sparkling shade of empyrean squant.

Steven Charles, Thhipahapo (detail), acrylic on canvas on wood, 2011.

Steven Charles is extremely nearsighted. It is the sort of thing that would seem to preclude involvement in the visual arts but there is a long history of poor eyesight in the field. Without correction, his eyes receive the world as a beautiful blur. This perspective paired with an innate desire to compensate for a natural shortcoming has left exquisite evidence of the struggle.

Steven Charles, Eyloafyo, acrylic and canvas on wood, 2011.

Steven Charles
I Don’t Know What My Life To Do With
10 May – 30 June 2012
Stux Gallery
NYC

Images courtesy of Stux Gallery.

“(RE)PURPOSE: Parsons MFA Thesis Show” curated by Jane Panetta, Veronica Roberts at The Kitchen
19 street: 512 W 19 street, 7-9pm

Maria Jose Algora “Recent Works” at CATM chelsea
22 street: 500 W 22 street, 6-8pm

Marco Breuer “Condition” at Von Lintel Gallery
23 street: 520 W 23 street, 6-8pm

Carlos Estrada-Vega “Building a Painting” at Margaret Thatcher Projects
23 street: 539 W 23 street, ground floor, 6-8pm

Evelyn Hofer at Danziger Projects
23 street: 527 W 23rd Street, 6-8pm

Billy Sullivan at Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery
24 street: 532 W 24 street, 6-8pm

Augustus Goertz, GanU, Lee, Tom Evans “Journey of Time” at Able Fine Art Gallery
25 street: 511 W 25 street, suite 507, 6-8pm

Akikazu Iwamoto “Works on Paper and Paintings”
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Steven Charles “I Don’t Know What My Life To Do With” at Stux Gallery
25 street: 530 W 25 street, 6-8pm

Ari Marcopoulos “Wherever you go” at Marlborough Gallery
25 street: 545 W 25 street, second floor, 6-8pm

Open Studio: Donghee Koo, MeeNa Park, Siyeon Kim “DOOSAN Residency Open Studio” at Doosan Residency
25 street: 511 West 25th street, 7th floor, 4-8pm

“Suggestivism NYC” curated by Nathan Spoor at Bold Hype
27 street: 547 W 27 street, floor 5, 6-9pm

Lynn Boggess “Recent Paintings” presented by Haen Gallery at Leigh Wen Fine Art
27 street: 547 W 27th St, suite 504, 6-8pm

Agni Zotis, Paul Seftel, Scott Cousins, Stephan Fowlkes “Traveling Light” at PSPS (Paul Seftel Project Space)
28 street: 548 W 28 street, floor 3, 6-9pm

Aaron Johnson, Rabid Fox, acrylic on polyester knit mesh, 2012.

Days before the paintings were set to leave for Denmark, Aaron threw a very well attended studio party for his friends to see them before crating. I got in real close and took the following detail photographs from his densely layered compositions. Head over to the Poulsen Gallery website to get the big picture.

Aaron Johnson
Liberty Chomp
11 May – 9 June 2012
Gallery Poulsen
Copenhagen

Photographs: Scott Lickstein.

Kenny Scharf, Elroy Vision, acrylic on canvas, 2012.

Another chapter of the ’50s future that never happened has been added to the ongoing pursuits of this artist. It’s a hyper colored account that leaves the viewer inundated in all the right ways.

Kenny Scharf, Hodgepodge, installation view, 2012.

Magnificent sculptures have been set adrift in the neutral environment. A fully customized Cadillac and grinning mushroom cloud picnic table complete the experience that Scharf establishes on the walls.

Kenny Scharf, Spamarama, oil, acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas, 2012.

The recurrence of marketing symbols and familiar characters comes from the artist’s childhood spent “just inches away” from the then newly established glow of American television. The persistent images overlapped in his young mind and are now recalled in an effluvium of brilliantly collaged compositions.

Kenny Scharf, Spicy, found objects and acrylic, 2012.

Kenny Scharf maintains studios in New York, Los Angeles and Brazil. When in South America, he combs the beaches collecting garbage that has been weathered by the elements. The sun-bleached detritus is known as “lixo” and is also the title of this body of wall hanging sculptures. Great artists are known for working with raw material that are most readily available. Scharf collects his imagery as it washes ashore or gently laps against his retinas.

Kenny Scharf, Cosmic Cavern, mixed media installation, 2012.

Visitors to the gallery will enjoy the black-lit experience of the “Cosmic Cavern.” The first incarnation of the piece dates back to 1981. Known then as the “Cosmic Closet” it was installed in a New York apartment that Scharf shared with Keith Haring. It is a transformative experience that temporarily recalibrates the eyes and forces a magical distortion in perception.

Kenny Scharf, Blablobs, oil on canvas, 2012.

“Hodgepodge” is a journey that is felt strongly when the viewer exits the gallery. Emerging from the space sets a comfort point of nostalgia that leaves an impression akin to homesickness.

Kenny Scharf
Hodgepodge
14 April – 19 May 2012
Honor Fraser
Los Angeles

Images courtesy of Honor Fraser.

We spent more than five hours getting to know DM the person and the artist. It was delightful to realize that they are one in the same. Simons, as man and creator exists in a flow of thought and emotion. It’s as though he feels the oneness of the universe in an instinctive yet carefully conscious way.

The sheer size of the pastel drawings require an adjustment of the viewer to the scale. Heavily saturated areas edge against wispy details with a confidence that stems from a comfort with the material and a sure sense of purpose. These works aspire to evoke an array of promising conclusions and this is the source of their potency.

DM Simons gleans his ideas from his voracious journal keeping in connection with imagery he collects from print media. These elements homogenize on the surface with stunning continuity. Efforts to solve the riddle lead directly to metaphor. DM is not interested in segregating apples from oranges, he just wants to enjoy the fruit.

DM Simons in his Manhattan studio, 2012.

Photos: Scott Lickstein

To learn more about DM Simons please see this recent interview.

Gino Rubert, The Pianist, mixed media on canvas, 2012.

There is a visual hum that resonates through each of these intriguing depictions. The shifting frequencies arise from the mind trying to categorize the media in the compositions. The keen viewer, upon close inspection begins to break down the structural points. As the eye roams, a list is populated from discoveries of magnificent painting next to seamless photographic collage and yes, even that lenticular tiger bikini.

Gino Rubert, Ma Feline, mixed media on canvas, 2012.

The show has been titled, “True Love,” referring to the three points of balance that are achieved between the artist, his passion and our perception. There is truth here but it is not always decidedly pretty. In each tableau there is the comfort of a familiar face but the amenities remain delightfully out of reach.

Gino Rubert, The Inheritor, mixed media on canvas, 2012.

Gino Rubert
True Love
29 March – 28 April 2012
Claire Oliver Gallery
NYC

Images courtesy of Claire Oliver Gallery.

Click through to see the rest.

Photos: Scott Lickstein

Paul Housley, My Difficult Jazzhead, oil on canvas, 2012.

The heavily textured surfaces immediately demand that the viewer understand that they have happened upon painting in the modernist sense. All the power of the dynamic struggle that enlivened the era is present in these pieces. Light, form and color have collided repeatedly leaving the tastiest morsels for the visual appetite. The works have been set beautifully into box frames that present the wonderful buildup that weathers each edge.

Paul Housley, Big Mudpusher, oil on canvas, 2012.

Housley is on record as claiming that each of his paintings are just a part of one large work. He also believes the characters that he depicts are all self portraits. It is a brilliant premise, one that is difficult to argue against. Nearly all artists can see themselves in their creations. We each get to know our own faces pretty well; it is natural to have the majority of figurative perception be biased by the gaze in the mirror. These pieces do not wallow in vanity for their producer is master and slave in this world.

Paul Housley, Snoopwoody, oil on canvas, 2012.

Paul Housley
Mudpusher Blues
22 March – 21 April 2012
ZieherSmith
NYC

Images courtesy of ZieherSmith.

Paul Humphrey, Inversions, still from video, 2011.

Paul Humphrey has been producing amazing film and video work for nearly two decades. Personal experience couples with new observations in charming ways that consistently acquaint his audience with vast areas of possibility.

Paul Humphrey, Inversions, still from video, 2011.

Since the sundering of the Pangaen supercontinent, countless civilizations have risen and vanished. The ruins of these people stand as constant reminders that that we are all connected. Technology has succeeded in reuinting our natural boundaries but largely, where we have been remains as much a mystery as where we may be headed. Present time floats in conundrum and yet most human endeavor begins in the luxurious state of certainty.

Paul Humphrey, Inversions, still from video, 2011.

Humphrey accepts our prime failure and embraces it as keystone for new enterprise. There is a freedom to his approach that saturates each frame with a hegemony that saddles truth.

Paul Humphrey, Inversions, still from video, 2011.

Themes in this video fold in and out resulting in a fourth dimensional mandala that envelops a virtual place behind the eyes. The resulting creases reunite time and space in a veritable display of the nonlinear physics of the universe. We are brilliantly led into this remote state with flashes from the color spectrum and retrieved similarly at the conclusion.

Paul Humphrey, Inversions, still from video, 2011.

During the experience, an innate human sense kicks in that forces the audience to participate in the video in the same way that they are in the near past, ancient time and potential futures. The body fuses connections that the mind ignores. Stand in the sand and look around. Become the mountain, recall the Chaco and ride the contrail.

Paul Humphrey
Inversions, 2011
High Definition Video
Shot in Chaco Canyon, NM
Camera, Editing, Graphics by Paul Humphrey
Sounds culled from archive.org
Quotes taken from the television program “Max Headroom” (1988-1989)

Images and video courtesy Paul Humphrey.

David Lynch, Boy Lights Fire, 2012.

The large mixed media works still ring in the same tone as his previous show in California from 2009. They begin as simple stories that unfold through brilliant consideration of materials and quality craftsmanship. I was nowhere near the Pacific Coast for his last show but viewed the works as you are now, online. Examining the pieces directly in New York exponentially increased the respect that I already had for his fine art. David Lynch is not a film guy pretending to be an artist. There may be room in this world for that sort of thing but that is not what is going on here.

David Lynch, Distorted Nude 20, 2012.

There are few descriptors used to convey the attitude of his art in its many forms. Darkness, anger and pain are all simplifications that do not offer any real understanding. We meet David Lynch on the surface but the man and boy remain behind the curtain, wizarding their own Oz.

David Lynch, I See My Love, 2012.

The secret to his success as an artist lies in a fantastic misunderstanding that occurs between his intent and the perception of the viewer. The screen that connects us shimmers with context. Behind the black paint and bold distortions there is light. If you trust that it is there you see it with every blink.

David Lynch, New York City, 2012. (photo: Scott Lickstein)

David Lynch
6 March – 14 April 2012
Tilton Gallery
NYC

Images of artwork courtesy David Lynch.