Surf's Up

Last Thursday evening I went to the Faculty Visual Arts Exhibition at The Packer Collegiate Institute from where my firstborn, Axel, is graduating from this June. (So proud.) Two of the faculty members in the show are Axel’s teachers this semester — you guys better give him A’s (just kidding… not really) — and two of them are artists I happen to represent: Mike Miller and Risa Glickman.

Michael Miller

Miller is currently working on a project for the MTA at the Beach 90 Station in Far Rockaway, New York, an area known for its surfing. Five of his gem like paintings have been transformed into faceted glass and will be installed as windows at Beach 90 sometime in the late summer of 2011. Miller’s psychedelic images of surfing and waves is a perfect match for this project, not to mention he is an avid surfer. Go figure!

Glickman is another one of my artists whose landscape drawings have been evolving over the years into a more painterly, looser feel. The introduction of color may have been what freed her. She is looking forward to attending a drawing workshop which she organized next week at Packer.

Ken Rush

I also got a chance to meet and speak with Ken Rush to whom I introduced myself as Axel’s mom. We immediately went to look at his work and I discovered a print that I fell in love with — a beautiful “Solarplate” etching. The process was explained to me but naturally I can’t remember it exactly. It’s basically like intaglio etching without the acid, and with ultraviolet light. (I hope I didn’t butcher that.) Rush said he teaches the process to his students. I wish I could sit in. It sounds so romantic.

If you want to go see this show it’s at The Carol Shen Gallery at Packer Collegiate, 170 Joralemon Street in Brooklyn. The hours are Monday – Friday, 8am – 4pm. The show is up through April 8th.

Pick 6 Review

By Piri Halasz, June 16, 2010, TWO EXTREMES; THREE OTHER PRETTY SHOWS

...We have mdh fine arts, a pocket-sized gallery located at 233 West 19th Street, down the block from where Marlborough Chelsea used to be. 

Its proprietor, Michael Henry, doesn’t trouble himself with explications. His modest announcement for “Pick 6,” an exhibition offered in conjunction with the gallerist Corinne Robbins, says only that it is “A collaborative show featuring the work of Jeffrey Bye, James O. Clark, Risa Glickman, Michael Henry, Michael Miller, Gabriella Mlynarczyk, John-Paul Philippe, Rachel Press, Corinne Robbins, Donna Senger, Jimmy Shack and Ann Walsh” (through June 19, though individual pieces may remain on view longer). 

Actually, after the invite was printed, the artist Kenneth Hayden came in with his provocative little paintings of birds, and Henry was so taken with them that he omitted his own work from the show in order to include Hayden’s. 

No work in this show appears to rely on “chance,” or be more significant for its manner of creation than its results. On the contrary, it is all straightforward and well-crafted painting, sculpture, works on paper and ceramics (with materials & methods ranging from very traditional to very up-to-date, and all created within the past few years). No artwork is large; everything is small (though needless to say, there are degrees of smallness). 

I particularly liked Bye’s sensitive oil painting entitled “FDR,” with its aerial view of small cars trundling alongside the East River and skyscrapers in the background, ceramic bowls by Press, ceramic cubes by Shack, mixed-media constructions by Clark, and the four handsome & good-sized tree studies by Glickman, made with pastel, acrylic, and charcoal on paper. 

However, the star of the show is Walsh, whose brightly colored blocks & free-standing panels, made of vinyl and cast acrylic, are among the smallest works on view, but stand out for their especial verve and vigor. The display in the window facing the street is a still life that easily surpasses anything by Morandi and approaches Cézanne in perfection — a particularly delightful combination of shapes, colors & textures. A white block stands next to a slender vase of white gladioli on their pale green stalks. Atop the white block stands Walsh’s “Button,” a rectilinear, three-dimensional shape measuring only 8” x 7” x 5.5” and combining a mostly-electric-blue surface with one upper corner of the hottest pink in town.

Pick 6 Opening

The PICK 6 opening at mdh fine arts was well attended with a nice flow of people during the 2-hour reception. For those of you who couldn’t make it here are some images from the show.

John-Paul Phillipe

Ann Walsh with Corinne Robbins and Risa Glickman, Michael Miller, and James O. Clark in background

Ann Walsh

Michael Miller

Michael Henry with James O. Clark (L) and Corinne Robbins (R)

Corinne Robbins on wall left,  Risa Glickman on wall right

Risa Glickman

James O. Clark