Courtesy of the New Museum

George Condo was born in 1957, meaning he is 53, the same age as my mother.

The artist’s newly opened retrospective “Mental States” at the New Museum, was exceptional in part for this reason. It was refreshing to see an exhibition of this weight and vitality at the New Museum. It was especially exciting considering the artist is not “younger than Jesus” but 4 decades into his mature career.

At the risk of seeming vague or trite, or both, there is something timeless about George Condo’s Work. During the 1980s, while friends like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring and Mary Heilmann were developing their own signature styles, Condo wasn’t. Rather, he was constructing his toolbox. The artist has become a master of appropriation, not of material but of style. He has an uncanny ability to pull inspiration and support from across art history. An avid museum visitor, the artist constantly footnotes artists as disparate as, Picasso, Bacon and Fragonard. Continue Reading More »

Excavations Non Objective, Michael Filan’s solo show of abstract paintings are on exhibit as part of the Intercultural Church’s 50^th anniversary celebration through the end of August, 2010.  Filan uses brilliant enamel paints, which he refers to as light, the intensity of color serving as his “mystical guide”.  Dripped, poured and sprayed on recycled monoprints, with paper pulled away in some areas, exposing the work beneath it, a new genre of painting is brought forward, fueled by curiosity and impulse.

These handsome “pictures of nothing,” Kirk Varnedoe’s coinage for abstract art, are brushless and daringly drippy inventions which have been skillfully curated by Frank DeGregorio on free-standing, staggered walls with negative space above and below the paintings, allowing viewers to mix’n’match paintings in groupings from a variety of angles with great affect.

Enthusiasts of abstraction will see the influences of de Kooning, Frankenthaler and the lesser known Morris Louis, and more importantly, the quiddity of the art form in the delightfully, joyful gallery space known as the Treasure Room.