August 2016
#139

In what has become an annual event Border Crossings has just published a big issue on PAINTING where the medium is the message: varied, rich and bold, historic and absolutely contemporary.

Jonathan Lasker’s work is a master class of desire and control where the eye is the tactile, seeking organ and his astute knowledge is the agent. Neil Jenney is the consummate, beguiling story-teller. Bad Painting has never looked this good. Joanne Tod’s persuasive skill as a painter has us doubling back to confirm what we’re seeing as she moves from canvas, to architecture, to porcelain, but all of it painting.

With Natalka Husar’s new work, in part a tribute to her mother’s fine skills as a seamstress, we see recto/verso — the same and different and diptych panels become seamless wholes with the aid of a zipper.

Two promising young artists are introduced in this issue: Ambera Wellmann – look at her paintings and you’ll find yourself “sunk.” She’s on this year’s RBC Painting short list as is Brian Hunter who does his best to box us up and keep things open.

David Elliott’s interview is a compelling story of a life of commitment to work at the highest level. Michael Merrill’s painterly dedication to working a subject through is engaging in its consistency and Joan Jonas has been guiding viewers through her relevant spaces for decades. The Met opened its new museum at the Breuer on Madison Avenue with an ambitious exhibition titled “Unfinished.” Painter and writer John Kissick has cleverly selected three significant painters to stand in for the whole.

No one paints the state of events in contemporary America better than Eric Fischl. We take a look at his recent and astute assessment on canvas from his exhibition Rift/Raft at Skarstedt in New York. Arlene Shechet’s engagement and collaborations with the Arnhold Collection of Meissen porcelains at The Frick Collection incorporate her own porcelain sculptures in a small, seismic, heartbreakingly beautiful intervention.

And of course, there is a broad-ranging section of current reviews…

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