Wednesday, April 29, 2009

DUMBO: The Marie Walsh Sharpe Open Studios

The Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation, one of the most competitive and prestigious free studio space programs in the country, had their open studios last weekend, and I wanted to share some of the highlights.

Franklin Evans


Entering Franklin Evans studio felt like you were actually stepping into one of his intensely detailed paintings. The ambitious space was covered in strips/pieces of vibrantly painted tape, wall drawings, works on paper; and the floor was tiled with art journal and press release printouts. Evans talked about using his time in the program to create and document a working space that would push his work in new and unexpected directions.





Eric Sall



Eric Sall had some new large paintings on display in his studio that push abstraction’s ability to continually re-invent itself. The background surfaces of these new works were reminiscent of Helen Frankenthaler or Morris Louis, injected with his varied application of surface and texture. He also had an entire wall dedicated to drawings, photographs, skateboard decks and assemblages that serves as a revolving salon of visual prototypes.





Erik Benson



Erik Benson had a nice mixture of his signature building and landscape paintings, layering pieces of acrylic of re-imagined parks, high-rises, and perhaps as a nod to Ed Ruscha, the Ikea in Red Hook, billowing black smoke. The new paintings, with their gentle washes of white and sophisticated color decisions, have a mature simplicity to them, achieving a deeper psychological space.





Kristine Moran



Kristine Moran uses representational imagery as a jumping off point for her fleshy, loose oil painting. Playing around with editing and masking her subjects with bold gestures, Moran develops her surfaces with a direct application and earthy palette, which gives the paintings a classic aura. The spaces in the paintings have a real physical force about them—projecting a movement and intensity comparable to Francis Bacon.




Frank Webster



The focused paintings of Frank Webster appear to capture fleeting moments at the beginning or end of a day. His most recent work has developed the subtle color shifts with careful precision that give the images a quiet, powerful authority. Webster glazes layers of detailed brushstrokes to render the light of the sky against hulking urban structures or delicate pieces of debris caught in the branches of a tree.



4 comments:

Travis Collinson said...

Thanks for all of the images. I totally dig your blog!

Cheers,

Travis Collinson

Barnaby said...

aaargh! I am so upset I missed it.. great post.

Anonymous said...

What? Is this all only painting?

Anonymous said...

What a great blog posting. I was there too. I thought it was an important
evening. I found Irving Sandler's speech introducing Barbara Hoffman's
book on the Visual Artists Guide to Estate Planning quite valuable. My
favorite studio that night was the artist Colette's. She had an
interesting mix of people from last centuries art world and this one that we are in now. Her installation was great both romantic and edgy. She  simplifying her technique while maintaining her artistic integrity, originality and magic.