Anne Finkelstein

The House, hard-edge architecture painting

2020

Lori Larusso makes paintings and installations that explore issues of class and gender and how both reflect and shape culture. She has exhibited her work widely in the US and abroad ...

For Alan Bray's Nest in a Nest (also known as Rebuilt Nest), this painting captures the delicate, yet powerful theme of renewal and resilience in nature. The bird's nest, constructed...

"Strengths and Weaknesses" is a portrait exploring several elements and strategies that fascinate the artist – notably the performance anxiety induced by simply being an artist, staring down the freight train of art history as it hurtles toward you every time you pick up a brush. Luck? Talent? Maybe. There are signposts and guides in this painting, of course (Cubism! Surrealism! Brancusi! Guston!), but they can clobber you too if you're not careful. Even the phrase "strengths and weaknesses" smacks of compromises and rationalization – deadly to an artist looking to construct their own integral world. "Strengths and Weaknesses" is an acrylic and charcoal on canvas measuring 54" tall by 54" wide. It was included in the artist's solo show "Comedy Cellar" at Freight + Volume Gallery, New York City in July 2018. (See last photograph for an installation view.) From Daniel Gerwin – "Schenck’s color is vibrant, wild, saturated to the point of overheating, and altogether brilliant in the balancing of hues, temperatures, shapes, and color quantities. The paintings have a remarkable coherence for their dizzying juxtaposition of so many small chromatic passages." (Essay: The Anxiety and the Ecstasy) Peter Schenck...

Mat Tomezko's latest series of abstract mixed media paintings are constructed from traditional acrylic painting and the incorporation of ash into a hand-mixed paint of his own creation. This piece is part of a body of work that uses evocative materials and imagery of fire, flowers, food, newspapers, asphalt, and ash to illuminate the interconnectedness of destructive and creative forces. "Ash" is a traditional still-life and landscape composition interrupted by broad black geometric chevron lines or "arrows" that divide the composition symmetrically in a geometric balance. This painting is signed and dated on the back. It includes all hanging hardware and is ready to install -- no need for additional framing. Tomezsko is an artist from Philadelphia who creates abstract paintings, public art installations, and community art projects based around participation and everyday visual language. His approach to composition is informed by mid-century formalism and conceptualism. His work was recognized by the 2017 Americans for the Arts Public Art Network Year in Review for outstanding public art. Tomezsko’s work has been exhibited at numerous art spaces regionally and nationally, including the Crane Arts, Woodmere Art Museum, the Center For Emerging Visual Artists (CFEVA), and Wexler Gallery in Philadelphia; Lillstreet Art Center in Chicago, IL; the Delaware Contemporary in Wilmington, DE; and Thomas Hunter Projects in New York, NY. He has created several notable public art projects including "14 Movements: A Symphony in Color and Words," a mile-long temporary mural installed in downtown Philadelphia during the 2016 Democratic National Convention; "Look Long and Look Good," a series of 30 paintings currently installed along Main Street in Manayunk; and "Flowering Axes," a mural in the 5th Street Vehicular Tunnel underneath the Ben Franklin Bridge. His work is in the collection of The Wharton...