Louise Fishman at Cheim and Read

Louise Fishman exhibits new paintings at the Cheim and Read Gallery from March 26 through May 2, 2009.

Louise has been painting for awhile and her works reflect it. I want to reintroduce a word into the vernacular for describing paintings, and that word is "tough."

Louise Fishman makes "tough paintings" in a period when most painters don't have a clue what this means. Ms. Fishman's paintings are direct, raw expressions of the action and thinking process of the making of a painting. There is no bullshit, just paint, laid on directly, with a forceful intent.

When one is willing to accept this premise, a premise that we are vicariously experiencing the process of making the painting and accepting it as a metaphor for affecting the world in which we live. This process, this process of making a mark, a mark made so deliberately and with intent, is a metaphor for all our of illusions we harbor about a life which we do not control.

The painting Telling, dark to the point of being nearly almost all black, touches on that point where we do not want to go. It sits silently, a testament to a specific point in psychological time.

Within all this bravado, using this forcefully directed implement which leaves its shadow as a mark, lies a hidden sensitivity to truths which lie obliquely to apparent events. These marks which have a history coincident with the object, the painting, itself. These marks, furrows in the paint, scratching, colliding or smearing towards some temporal truth, a point of stoppage.

Tough painting.

Louise Fishman
GEOGRAPHY 2007
Acrylic on canvas
72 x 65 inches
182.9 x 165.1 cm.

Louise Fishman
SLIPPERY SLOPE 2006
Oil on linen
88 x 65 inches
223.5 x 165.1 cm.

Louise Fishman
ARCTIC SEA 2007
Acrylic on canvas
72 x 65 inches
182.9 x 165.1 cm.

Louise Fishman
HEART ON FIRE 2007
Acrylic on canvas
66 x 39 inches
167.6 x 99.1 cm.

Louise Fishman
SWARM OF DREAMS 2007
Acrylic on canvas
66 x 39 inches
167.6 x 99.1 cm.

Louise Fishman
COOKED AND BURNT 2007
Oil on linen
66 x 39 inches
167.6 x 99.1 cm.

Louise Fishman
FIRE AND ICE 2009
Oil on jute
66 1/4 x 38 3/4 inches
168.3 x 98.4 cm.

Louise Fishman
TELLING 007
Oil on linen
70 x 56 inches
177.8 x 142.2 cm

Martin Borowski at Stellan Holm Gallery

Martin Borowski exhibition of new paintings at Stellan Holm Gallery March 7, through April 30, 2009.

Martin Borowski was born in Hoyerswerd, East Germany in 1970 and studied at the Dresden Academy of Fine Art. Somehow this seemed relevant to me in retrospect, an awareness of an artists roots in place and time,

My first impression of Mr Borowski's paintings evoked memories of Edward Hopper, not so much in their stylistic appearance, but in their quiet melancholy and stillness. The gallery press release uses the German word Sehnsucht, "that literally means "longing" or in a wider sense a kind of "intensely missing"

The photograph has changed representational painting, shifting it's focus towards a visual semiotic by allowing ones attention to subtly shift away from the capturing of a constantly shifting image. The image may be the same but the painter has the option to explore other structures and associations.

At the same time, the photograph is a cruel taskmaster with its insistent focus on "the correct detail of a single point reality." Painters know this isn't true and that they must "own" the photograph, if not, why bother?

I spoke with Martin Borowski at the exhibition opening, and he works with the painting images in Photoshop as a guide for the paintings. I do a similar thing, in a different way, and this "preprocessing" provides a visualization structure of the final image which leaves the painter free to just paint.

In this respect, Martin Borowski's paintings are deceptive. They are masterfully understated, with an attention to what detail is necessary and what is not, thus simplifying the image and honing its focus. This process of simplification abstracts the image creating a tension between the abstract structure and the representational space in the image, the paintings flicker between the two, shifting ones experiential focus.

However he starts on the paintings, they feel willed into existence using a brush masterfully guided with an absolute minimum of corrections. Again this is deceptive, it looks so right one accepts the painting as inevitable in its final state. There is a sense of Germanic 'control' in its execution, but it is as offhand as Velasquez in its directness of depiction.

Painting as Poetry

Borowski's paintings create their own world, a distillation of the artists memories and feelings at some point in time, hence my earlier reference to his youth in the GDR. His paintings have what I've always considered a Northern Germanic light, a cool grayish light, even in the summer. This chromatic paradigm establishes a certain psychological state, a distanced melancholy we pretend does not exist.

Each painting evokes a particular emotional or psychological state, one which is frequently incomplete in its resolution. It is ones sense of this missing element which evokes an inner response that longs for completion within the viewer.

There is a certain generic quality to Borowski's images, duplication of images, as well as extensive series such as Museum 11. In a way it is this generic quality which helps make his images universal, a brick is a brick. This creates a stage setting, Borowski's world, which the viewer can explor his own experience from the same stimulus. This is a form of poetry, this evoking of a psychological experience through images.

After some tens of thousands of years, we must ask ourselves why is it that man still makes paintings?

Martin Borowski
Landscape with Tent 2009
Oil on canvas
64" x 85.5" 168 x 217 cm

Martin Borowski
Oekohof 2009
Oil on canvas
77.5" x 161.5" 197 x 410 cm

Martin Borowski
American Academy 2 2008
Oil on canvas
51.25" x 74.75" 130 x 190 cm

Martin Borowski
Museum 11 2008
Oil on canvas
77.5" x 161.5" 197 x 410 cm

Martin Borowski
Abgrund 2008
Oil on canvas
51.25" x 74.75" 130 x 190 cm

Martin Borowski
Provence 2008
Oil on canvas
59" x 39.75" 150 x 100 cm

Martin Borowski
Pool 2008
Oil on canvas
77.5" x 119" 197 x 302 cm

Martin Borowski
Still Life 1 2008
Oil on canvas
18.75" x 23.75" 48 x 68 cm

7Eleven Gallery Opens

This was the event of the season.   The exhibition "Better History" opened amid ageless fanfare last night at the 7ELEVEN Gallery in Chelsea. The exhibition was curated by Nick Poe & 7Eleven Gallery. The gallery is located at 169 10th Avenue at West 20th street and the exhibition runs through April 11th 2009.

Artists featured: Tim Barber, Sebastian Bear-McClard, Sebastian Black, Maximilian Bode, Sarah Charlesworth, Francesco Clemente, Billy Copley, Patricia Cronin, Lance De Los Reyes, India Donaldson, Lena Dunham, Judith Hudson, Fab 5 Freddy, Fancesco Galetto, Alex Kalman, Maira Kalman, Tibor Kalman, Mel Kendrick, Victor Kerlow, Barney Kulok, Eva LeWitt, Troy Lumpkin, Alex Massouras, Michael McClard, Thomas McDonell, Harry McNally, Casey Neistat, Van Neistat, Deniz Ozuygur, Peter Passuntino, Grear Patterson, Paolo Pelosini, Nick Poe, Nico Ponce De Leon Dios, Paula Poons, Steve Powers, Alex Rickard, Alexis Rockman, Theo Rosenblum, Ed Ruscha, Tom Sachs, Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie, Kenny Scharf, Laurie Simmons, Gordon Stevenson, Billy Sullivan, Jonathan Waite & Robert Waltzer
Produced by 7Eleven Gallery & Claire Distenfeld.

As we move through the inflection point of the nodal moment in time leading us into the new future, the 7ELEVEN Gallery's opening last night stands out as a pivotal moment in the new history.

7ELEVEN Gallery was envisioned by native New Yorkers and friends Genevieve Hudson-Price, Sabrina Blaichman, and Caroline Copley. It is impressive how these three twenty-somethings managed to organize and produce an exhibition filling the cavernous space on 10th avenue. In the underbelly of the art world, behind all the clamor and jostling designed to promote and sell art as a token of success to the wealthy, these three young women have turned the table back to play in we may have forgotten.

From sixteen to sixty, the artists filled the space with the serious and the silly. But it is all done with an intensity and spirit that symbolizes the artists taking back their freedom from the raw financial engineering of the last decade. The power in the exhibition, and of the opening as an event, is in a new generation symbolically pointing their way into a new future. Much is left to be resolved but the optimistic excitement is what is needed in these troubled times.
Congratulations to Genevieve, Sabrina and Caroline.

Party pictures, some people I know, many I don't, some I just met, and everyone having a good time.