Grids and Lattices

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Grids viewed through a grid: Mary Heilmann's Two Lane Blacktop, up through February 21, at 303 Gallery (the gallery has a no-photo policy, but that doesn't extend to the sidewalk). This exhibition follows her fabulous show at The New Museum

If you read this blog even ocasionally, you know I go looking for geometry and grid-based abstraction. But sometimes even I’m astonished by the synchronous appearance of so many really good exhibitions on one theme. I'm a bit late with this post; between Marketing Mondays and Blogpix (see sidebar also) my posting time has been tight. While some of the shows are down, many live on in the galleries' respective websites. Let me connect some dots for you:

Robert Irwin's Red Drawing, White Drawing, Black Painting installation at Pace Wildenstein, up through February 28.

"What I'm trying to do is eliminate the frame . . and put you in direct relationship to the real power, which is your ability to perceive, " Irwin has said

Irwin's work, fluorescent lights in a non-repeating grid installed on large walls, is shown above and below

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Light without the electricity: Susie Rosmarin at Danese.
The show ended February 7, but the wattage is undiminished. Rosmarin's meticulously crafted paintings draw on op art, hard-edge abstraction and even textile pattern

Above: detail of the acrylic painting shown below



Installation view: Susie Rosmarin at Danese

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Thornton Willis at Elizabeth Harris. This is a peek at Willis's upcoming show, March 19-April 18

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Imi Knoebel at Mary Boone Gallery, Chelsea. The show ended February 14.

Knoebel makes dimensional paintings, or planar sculpture, whose inviting hues and slight dimension create an almost cinematic viewing experience.

And how perfect is that architectural echo?

All the works are wall size except these three below:

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Unexpected:

On the way top MoMA, I saw the grid, above, in the subway.

When I got to the museum and looked down into the atrium, there was the grid in progress below. Sol Lewitt channeling Agnes Martin?

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Painting: Linearity, Angularity, Materiality, Color

Other posts about the New York art fairs:

. Big Black Objects

. Quirky

Armory: Sarah Morris, Rings, 2007, household gloss on canvas; Gabriel Orozco sculpture, plaster and acrylic, at White Cube, London

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I went into the New York fairs knowing that I couldn’t do the same kind of reporting I’d done in Miami. In fact, I really wanted to view rather than report. But as I started to see work that interested me, the camera came out. Perhaps not surprisingly, some of the same artists whose work I've liked in the past were the ones whose work I was liking at these fairs, and at the same galleries. I may never get to Dublin, for instance, but I've come to expect that the Rubicon Gallery will have something geometric by Ronnie Hughes, whom I've never met and whose work I know only through the art fairs, and that I will find it appealing. I also looked for Sarah Morris at White Cube, London; Imi Knoebel at Galerie Nacht St. Stephan, Vienna; and my new favorite, Mindy Shapero at Breeder, Athens, and was not disappointed.

If you follow this blog, you know my predilections are for geometry, materiality and color. Here’s some of what I saw and liked, organized for the flow of images.

Armory: Imi Knoebel, kreuz und quer 1 and kreuz und quer 8, both 2007, acrylic on aluminum at Galerie Nacht St. Stephan/Rosemarie Schwartzwalder, Vienna

Armory: Linda Besemer, acrylic over dowel, at Angles Gallery, Santa Monica

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Armory: Bridget Riley painting, Sol Lewitt sculpture foreground at Pace Wildenstein, New York City

Armory: Heimo Zobernig (I think) at Friedrich Petzel, New York City

Pulse: Beat Zoderer, Negativraster No. 2/07, 2007, PVC in lacquer on wood, at Fiedler Contemporary, Cologne




Pulse: Ronnie Hughes, Plexus, 2007, acrylic on linen, at Rubicon Gallery, Dublin

Pulse: Jennifer Coates, Folding Sky, 2004, acrylic on canvas, at Kinz, Tillou & Feigen, New York City

Pulse: Jason Young, cast resin painting at Margaret Thatcher Projects, New York City

Pulse: Ryan Wallace, The Singularity is Near, 2007, oil, acrylic on canvas, at Envoy, New York City

Pulse: Tobias Lehner at Union Gallery, London

Armory: Rebecca Morris, Untitled (#06-06), 2006, oil on canvas, at Galerie Barbara Weiss, Berlin

Armory: Joanne Greenbaum, left, and Pae White at Greengrassi, London




Mindy Shapero, Breeder Gallery, Athens.

Detail, above, of this oddly appealing, easel-size work:

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