The first exhibition of paintings by Ciaran Murphy at Kavi Gupta gallery features twelve paintings on canvas, all small or medium in size. They’re painted in a style that’s become all the rage of late– that low key, often monochromatic rendering of disparate objects and interiors, you know the one. The one Luc Tuymans made famous; the one that brought back small painting from the bombastic Eighties. We’ve all learned to appreciate a little meditative, personally scaled rumination on delicate palettes and sensitive brushwork. I know I have.
Ciaran’s paintings do just what this brand of painting aims to do. Well, some of them. The idea is really lovely; what at first seems simply under-described, gives way to a transcendent moment of reverie. That by flinging off all sorts of extra baggage, the paintings may, if done well, describe ever so much more than the ones that contain excessive information. In the case of this exhibition, the effect is achieved so well in a few of the works. “Frozen Tree” is a superb painting. Barely breathing through the flat gray field of color is a vibrant, odd fleshy tone of under painting. The fallen tree and its exposed root clump are rendered just enough, and not too much. The root clump, like an explosion on the otherwise quiet composition, makes the work a succinct beauty. “Storm Damage” and “Circular Cloud Formation” achieve the same thing- calligraphic gestures doled out in minimum, and with confidence. Like a good haiku, if I dare say. Continue reading »
The Guardian has done what every critic of both art & sports has both feared and mocked since time eternal…. They let their reporters cover the events of the other side. Art Critics reporting on the “Pastoral” qualities of the football stadium & Sports Reporters covering the lack of score keeping in contemporary interpretive dance.
To be honest the coverage is pretty trite and limited but the idea is pretty fun and if it was seriously embraced for longer then 1 day it could be a very interesting and culturally “bridging” activity.
Saddly it is only one day and like that episode of M.A.S.H Klinger goes back to company clerk the next day only to have nightmares of the life he had as Hospital Unit Command.
The intro and outro are extra creepy this week. Highlights(?) include Duncan talking about some fantasy involving wearing tight short shorts and Teena McClelland!!! Tom Burtonwood interrupts the recording by shooting rubber bands. Chaos!
After Richard and Duncan are done making a mess of things, the real pros come in and present a fantastic report from Basel.
Lamis El Farra, emerging artist, and the EuroShark Mark Staff Brandl, seemingly perennially emerging black sheep artist, traverse and discuss the entirety of the King of Art Fairs, Art Basel. Yes: the Fair Itself, Art Statements, Art Unlimited, Scope, and the Solo Project. They only missed Liste and Print Basel. Sorry, but all the rest was already enough. Of course they were at the VIP opening (ahem) and managed to talk to more people than you can shake a stick at: artists, gallerists, museum directors, curators, critics, art magazine editors, fair organizers, all the hangers-on, …er…, important elements of the international artworld. Continue reading »
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Sorry. We were a little slow due to power outages and the mediocre AT&T.
Art Critic Greg Cook (The Boston Globe, The Boston Phoenix) joins Matt Nash, James Nadeau and Christian Holland of Big RED & Shiny to discuss
the 2008 AICA New England Awards.
Using the list of winners as a starting point, they discuss the state of the arts in New England and what they thought was great, mediocre and terrible. Disappointment in the new Institute of Contemporary Art is expressed; AICA is scrutinized; and conclusions are elusive.
The New York Times recently posted selections of this years Whitney Biennial as interactive 360 panoramic installation shots. It’s pretty similar to Google’s street view but without the zoom feature. Check it out here.
The first exhibition of paintings by Ciaran Murphy at Kavi Gupta gallery features twelve paintings on canvas, all small or medium in size. They’re painted in a style that’s become all the rage of late– that low key, often monochromatic rendering of disparate objects and interiors, you know the one. The one Luc Tuymans made famous; the one that brought back small painting from the bombastic Eighties. We’ve all learned to appreciate a little meditative, personally scaled rumination on delicate palettes and sensitive brushwork. I know I have.
Continue reading »
