Articles from December 2024

Gabriela Ruiz: Valley Girl

Gabriela Ruiz: Valley Girl
When entering the downtown Los Angeles studio of artist Gabriela Ruiz, I was struck by a painting of an eye. Not just any eye, but a puffy, surreal orb that turned out to be inspired by a horrific ocular infection, which resulted in an obsession for looking at eyes and how constrained and odd they could be. It’s her gift, thinking beyond, designing an opening and pushing the idea into strange places. She brings these concepts to life through zany Postmodern painting, sculpture, video, installation and performance.

Shyama Golden: Mirrors and Windows

Shyama Golden: Mirrors and Windows
Shyama Golden is a surrealist storyteller, weaving together a multiplex of references to envision her own lyrical journey of endless rebirth. Los Angeles, Golden’s home, is a primary character in her work, as she merges her internal and external landscapes, mining the mystical to conjure reflections. Allegories abound in her richly detailed paintings. Our story begins with the artist falling down a gopher hole…

Christian Quin Newell: A Dream Sequence

Christian Quin Newell: A Dream Sequence
As soon as I first read about the practice of London-based Christian Quin Newell, I knew I wanted to interview him. His show there this past summer at Public Gallery was a collection of—and I directly quote—“Cosmological paintings opening up portals to an internal realm informed by Buddhist philosophy, mysticism, meditation, and the dream.” See what I’m talking about?

Tim Conlon the Freight Painter

Tim Conlon the Freight Painter
We have a longstanding romance with the American train, a slow and poetic vision that crosses rivers, slices through mountains and connects towns, cities and new frontiers. The railroad has been the subject of songs, novels, paintings and film, but the train car itself has an intimate and unique relationship to graffiti. The American folk history of hobo and rail worker graffiti is steeped in our culture, from the Beatniks to the contemporary graffiti movement that has stretched from Colossus of Roads to the likes of Jason REVOK, Barry McGee and the late Margaret Kilgallen. Los Angeles-based Tim Conlon has documented, painted on, and now recreated trains, from canvases to models in his studio practice. It is a style that…

De-Generations of London Graffiti: A Story of 10FOOT, TOX and FUME

De-Generations of London Graffiti: A Story of 10FOOT, TOX and FUME
Right off the bat, the guy on the other end of the encrypted conversation tells me, “If I state something, it’s really just a question.” He goes by the name 10FOOT, not because he’s the most prolific writer in London but because he’s that tall, or seems that way, like it’s a childhood nickname, and judging from the response I’m getting from people in England when I tell them I will be talking to 10FOOT, he’s a legendary reprobate. So I guess he wants to make certain I know his uncertainty, that he and the rest of his mates are agnostics. That’s a good place to start.

“Soft/Cover” Celebrates Experimental Fabric Design @ The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia

The Fabric Workshop and Museum (FWM) is pleased to present Soft/Cover, a major exhibition spanning three galleries that will be on view from now through  August 17, 2025. Soft/Cover surveys the many surprising ways artists have used fabric and screenprinting to create objects that relate to the body. Focusing on the connection between textiles, fashion, and architecture, the exhibition includes new and rarely-shown works from The Fabric Workshop and Museum’s collection—each created by Artists-in-Residence in collaboration with FWM’s Studio team.

Anthony Cudahy: The Inflections of Somebody

Anthony Cudahy: The Inflections of Somebody
It begins with a space. The original, creaking floors of GRIMM’s Tribeca space brings out something special in the viewing of Anthony Cudahy’s paintings, a show I wanted to see before speaking with the artist on the brink of another show, his museum show, Spinneret, opening at the Green Family Art Foundation this fall. Cudahy paints emotion and something quite moody, and when you circle the gallery, the timeworn floorboards enhance the intimacy of the works on view, evoking an intimate sigh as you find yourself quietly trying not to disturb the characters, not quite sure if you should be privy to what is happening in the scenes around you.