Atmospheric

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Dan Flavin, Alternating Pink and Gold, at David Zwirner Gallery

There’s a lot of atmosphere in Chelsea right now. Not air, which is a given, but ethereal presence. Light and space.
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The David Zwirner Gallery is just pulsing atmosphere over on 19th Street in that block long building complex of his. First there’s the Dan Flavin sculpture that’s been up for a while, glowing yellow, pink and white in a semi-darkened space the size of a small airplane hangar. The effect is at once quietly grand and oddly intimate.
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In the gallery proper there’s Primary Atmospheres: Works from California 1960-1970. This is beautifully rendered minimalism. Much of it is etheric, though there’s a strong sense of surface (now there's an oxymoron). The cool white exhibition spaces allow the work to appear to levitate. Don’t make me talk about it any more. I’m going to show you pictures. It’s up until February 6, so go see it for yourself.

But Zwirner’s California boys (and one girl) are not the only luminous game in town. In its Abstract Ensemble show, ACA Gallery on 20th Street has a lovely chromatic mirage of a painting by Leon Berkowitz. On 22nd Street, Ameringer/McEnery/Yohe’s Helen Frankenthaler show has a couple of small acrylic paintings on paper that fairly float.
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While everything I've just mentioned is from decades past, I have recent work to show you, too. At Kathryn Markel on 20th, there's Will 'O the Wisp, a show of paintings by Julian Jackson so softly diffuse and radiant they seem to be lit from within, as was his intention. And at Cynthia-Reeves Gallery on 24th Street, there are beautiful large-scale graphite drawings by Anne Lindberg whose striations pull you deep into their finely rendered fog. These two shows are also up through February 6. Go.

Doug Wheeler, Untitled, 1969; acrylic, neon tubing, and wood; 91.5 x91.5 x 7.5 inches. The work was set into it's own little space within the gallery

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Robert Irwin, Untitled, 1969, acrylic lacquer on formed acrylic plastic, 52 inches diameter. That large disc is barely visible even in person

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The side view, below, may help you understand what you're seeing

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From left: Peter Alexander polyester resin sculpture ; Larry Bell glass and metal sculptures (on pedestals); Robert Irwin painting
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Below: Helen Pashgian, Untitled, 1968-69, resin and acrylic sphere, 8 inches diameter

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In the large gallery, from left: Craig Kauffman hanging, Larry Bell "levitating" cube of moneral-coated glass, two of Kauffman's Untitled Wall Relief works, acrylic and lacquer on vacuum-formed plexi

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Below: a closer view of Kauffman's Untitled, 1969, acrylic and lacquer on plastic
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Leon Berkowitz, At ACA Galleries: Up Green, 1983-84, oil on canvas
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Julian Jackson at Kathryn Markel: Quadrant (Shimmer), oil on wood, 42 x 38 inches; the diptych Thanka, oil on wood, 56 x 96 inches

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Helen Frankenthaler at Ameringer/McEnery/Yohe: Untitled, acrylic on paper, 22 x 30 inches

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Anne Lindbergh at Cynthia-Reeves : Title unknown, 2009, graphite on cotton board