Monday, July 2, 2012

new on newtown


Matt Rich, Ampersand, 2012, acrylic on cut paper with linen tape, 54 x 48 1/2 inches

Matt Rich, Patriot and Hatchet
Halsey McKay

Cambridge-based artist Matt Rich exhibits wall-hugging paper paintings at Halsey McKay through July 17. Painterly, economical, and scrappy at the same time, Rich's works seem to defy painting conventions. Incidents of color and structured slices of cut paper weave into delicate geometric abstractions. 

Aspects of the works feel as though they've been sampled from a larger network of found imagery, like splices of graffiti or other paintings. They command the wall with remarkable clarity, but if you find yourself in a jam you can easily slip one under a door.


Matt Rich, Six, 2012, acrylic on cut paper with linen tape, 40 x 24 inches

Hilary Pecis, In Accordance

Upstairs at Halsey McKay, the San Francisco artist Hilary Pecis weds psychedelia, mass media, and assemblage in a body of work that is as crisp as broken glass. 

Hilary Pecis, Ice, 2012, archival inkjet print, edition of 5, 20 x 24 inches

In her current show, In Accordance, Pecis slices and dices into images of natural phenomena torquing space with kaleidoscopic results. Dissonant and apocalyptic, the image field suggests a rejiggering of contemporary vision.

 
Hilary Pecis, Beach, 2012, cut paper collage, 11 x 15 inches



  Reed Krakoff, One Chair   
at Harper's Books



Designer Reed Krakoff, known for his collections in structural, post-modern women's wear, is stretching out. First exhibited earlier this year at Salon 94, on view at Harper's are one hundred chairs, identical except for the color of felt sheathing, designed by the artist's wife, Delphine. 

A somewhat Beuysian experience, here Krakoff poised the simple geometry of the chair with the sensuousness of felt, arranging each unit in distinctly non-utilitarian fashion. The chairs range in scale and color -- from real life to Barbie sized, and from simple grey to eye-popping pinks and acid green. 





Paula Hayes at Glenn Horowitz




Currently at Glenn Horowitz Bookseller, the New York artist and acclaimed landscape designer, Paula Hayes exhibits hand-blown glass terrariums, rarely seen large scale drawings, and an intriguing sound installation.



Hayes, whose 2010 exhibit of gigantic terrariums at MoMA, Nocturne of the Limax Maximus, brought the natural world inside the venerated halls of that institution, creates delicate, often life-sustaining environments filled with exotic plants, gems and minerals, and other intrigues. 






Donald Sultan at The Drawing Room

Donald Sultan, Rouge Poppies April 25 2012, conte on paper, 22 1/2 x 30 1/4 inches


On view at The Drawing Room, works on paper by Donald Sultan that range from toothy explorations in charcoal and velvet flocking to buoyant gouaches that celebrate the flowers he cultivates in his Sag Harbor garden.

Skyflowers Blue Green May 31 1997, tempera on Somerset


Sultan, whose iconic images have been a part of the contemporary art vernacular for some four decades, here articulates poppies, oranges, mimosa in a variety of media, and in his series, Wallflowers, the rich botanical imagery of blossoming wisteria, bluebells, and other species spill across white backgrounds with poetic elegance.

As Sultan handily ricochets between the industrial and the bucolic, dazzling color and effervescent blacks and whites, he traverses a language all his own, redefining the traditional still-life, botanical painting, and nature's plenty.


  
Andrew Schoultz at Eric Firestone Gallery

detail, Andrew Schoultz, Ex Uno Plura

And just up the street, on view at Eric Firestone Gallery -- don't miss Andrew Schoultz, Ex Uno Plura, an eye-popping installation of painted vintage flags along with the artist's signature wall painting, on view through July 7th. 


Schoultz's paintings and site-specific works draw on cultural themes and an appreciation of civic, military, and world history. The show, which sparked a bit of controversy among East Hampton's locals, is more of an ode to the American flag than an indictment of it. The installation, an extravaganza of dizzying proportion, absolutely reflects the restlessness and clamor of contemporary living.

Summer in East Hampton is happening on Newtown Lane.










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