SL: I think the Park Paintings are some of the best work you’ve done. I’ve never thought of you as an artist involved with landscape as much as I thought your work was about bearing witness to an experience of the LAND. It may be a difference without a distinction, but in your work I… (read more)
I got into an extended discussion on Facebook today. It mostly came out of the news that former President George W. Bush has been making paintings. For some reason, this was so interesting that a critic as intelligent and insightful as Roberta Smith devoted space in the New York Times to discussion of the works. Among… (read more)
I have a tremendous love for the work of Kerry James Marshall. So I was completely thrilled when I heard that the Harvard Museums had acquired Untitled, his 12-panel woodcut and installed it at the Sackler Museum. The first time I saw this piece was in New York at Jack Shainman. It seemed to big… (read more)
The visible world, I think, is abstract and mysterious enough, I don’t think one needs to depart from it in order to make art. -Philip Guston A lot of times during slide talks, there is this kind of disclaimer for painting, “You have to see it in person to really appreciate it.” I am not… (read more)
There hasn’t been a Susanna Coffey show in Boston in a long time. It’s been long overdue. She continues to be one of my favorite artists since she changed my life in a studio visit in graduate school. Her last solo show at Alpha Gallery was in 2004. Her work has really changed in… (read more)
Ori Gersht: History Repeating is a big show, both in terms of the amount of works presented, the space occupies, and the themes it addresses. It’s always really exciting when a museum decides to give over a lot of space to a living artist. You have the opportunity at these times to see what they… (read more)
My essay on the amazing William Cordova exhibition that was at the Mills Gallery at the Boston Center for the Arts, courtesy of artcore journal, founded and edited by Erin Dziedzic in collaboration with Gregory Eltringham. William Cordova at the Mills Gallery at the Boston Center for the Arts by Steve Locke. artcore journal is an edited online… (read more)
A detail from the glorious “Self-portrait in a Tuxedo” (1927) on view at the Harvard Museums weird ass “greatest hits” installation at the Sackler. Everyone is usually kvelling over his use of black but the joy is the chromatic shadows in the face. You can see this painting and then go look at the Poussin’s… (read more)