PRE-THANKSGIVING OPENINGS

You have to forgive me---I have fallen horrifically behind in my blog-writing. I've been a bit preoccupied trying to make money, see family, and sweating over my grant proposal for the Graham Foundation.

I checked out several openings on November 20th.

First of all:

JONAS WOOD at Anton Kern Gallery






This show was great. Big, colorful paintings of people, living rooms, animals, all matter of everyday, painted in a style which felt like David Hockney meets Barry McGee. There was an impressive turnout at the opening, including Roberta Smith and Jerry Saltz, among others. Fun stuff.


Also went to see Christopher Gielen's urban landscapes at Dan Cooney Fine Art.








At HASTED HUNT was the neo-fluorescent candy-coated photos of Julian Faulhaber. Photography---especially architectural photography---tends to often take itself a bit too seriously, and these pictures were slick technically but fun otherwise, the colors oversaturated and dizzyingly bright. I prefer more serious stuff, but lighter fare is sometimes necessary, right?


























Along these lines, upcoming at Yossi Milo is the also colorful, architectural work of Josef Schulz. I'm a big fan of Schulz's work. It is elegant, simple, well-executed, and exists at the exciting crossroads between photography and painting and new media. The pared down, abstracted forms bring to mind Serra's gigantic sculptures as well as color field painters like Ellsworth Kelly.