News 2011 Ana Cristea Gallery recently presented IVORY, a solo exhibition of new works by Alexander Tinei. Known for his striking portraits of tattooed young subjects derived from magazines, photographs and 'live' sittings with friends, over the past two years Tinei has become increasingly concerned with the phenomenon of instant global visibility and the exposure of people's formerly private moments on the internet through social networking sites. Paul Pagk was recently in the group show A Romance of Many Dimensions at Brooklyn Artists Gym. The artists in this show all work with visual dialects, understanding that line is connected to form, that object is connected to color and line, that our participation informs and blends all this, and the relationships formed hereafter are very much about our connectivity, be-coming aware of another sensual realm that may have no physical location. Josef Bolf was recently in Paralelní linie, a two-person show with Adriena Šimotová, at Prinz Prager Gallery in Prague. Sigalit Landau exhibited at the Israeli Pavillion for “ILLUMInations”, at the 54th International Art Exhibition at La Biennale di Venezia. La Biennale is one of the world’s most important forums for the dissemination and “illumination” about the current developments in international art. The title of the 54th Exhibition, “ILLUMInations” literally draws attention to the importance of such developments in a globalized world. Galerie Karsten Greve, Paris presented Georgia Russell: Difference and Repetition. In this exhibition Georgia Russell has focused especially on the concept of repetition and the energy which results. Distancing herself from figuration and coloration, she emphasizes shape and quick, lively gestures “in the style of Pollock”. Mike Weiss Gallery recently presented Actual/Virtual, a new exhibition of paintings by Brooklyn-based artist Trudy Benson. The show’s title illuminates the dynamic between illusionary space and the physicality of materials as Benson pushes paint into the realm of the viewer both physically and optically, delivering a visceral punch via large-scale electric- hued abstract paintings. Steven Kasher Gallery recently exhibited a new body of work by John Chamberlain. The exhibition, John Chamberlain: Pictures, presented nine monumental photoworks, comprised of multiple eight-foot-high stretched canvas panels, each panel hosting a highly- processed and colorized panoramic photograph by the artist. Created in 2010-11, Pictures is Chamberlain's most candid, autobiographical, and intimate body of work to date. Gideon Rubin recently participated in the group show, A Line Made By Walking at the Haifa Museum of Art. Mike Weiss Gallery recently presented its second solo exhibition with German artist Stefanie Gutheil. The exhibition, Dreckige Katze (Dirty Cat), expands Gutheil’s playful and perverse painterly language and attempts to shine a flashlight in corners of the imagination that are perhaps best kept secret. Her unruly cast of darkly comic characters burst forth from canvases in the form of three dimensional paintings as well as sculptures. Sofi Zezmer participated in Lustwarande 2011, 4th International Exhibition (organized by Fundament Foundation) at De Oude Warande in Tilburg, The Netherlands. Evolving out of a large selection of manmade curiosities, each of Zezmer's works take on an identity and physical body of its own; some remain self-contained in their form while others spread out along the walls like micro organisms. Mana Art Center opened its new lecture series with Figuration in Painting on July 17, 2011. Artist-in-residence Yigal Ozeri lectured about his work as well as offered a historical perspective. Mike Weiss Gallery presented For Lori by Canadian artist Kim Dorland. Over the past decade, Kim Dorland’s wife, Lori, has been the subject and inspiration of countless paintings. Consisting of eight paintings and three works on paper dating from 2008 to present, this show was a mere snapshot of a much larger oeuvre. Olivier Masmonteil was in the group show A Glimpse at French Contemporary Painting at Galeria Tap Seac in Macao as part of Le French May Arts Festival 2011 in Hong Kong & Macao. The show presented eight French artists whose paintings have made a significant contribution to contemporary art. In collaboration with Gallery Delaive in Amsterdam, the Kunsthal Rotterdam presented work by Japanese artist Ayako Rokkaku in an exhibition entitled Colours in My Hand from. The artist moved her studio temporarily into the Kunsthal's daylight hall, and everyday for three weeks she will be working on “live paintings” in a house that she designed and built herself. Zsolt Bodoni, Josef Bolf and Alexander Tinei recently participated in After the Fall at Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art. The exhibition was a collection of contemporary artworks from Eastern and Central Europe produced by artists born at the transitional period between communism and democracy. Graham Gillmore presented new works in his recent solo exhibition Graham Gillmore: Expectations at Monte Clark Gallery in Toronto, Canada. He also recently had a solo show entitled La práctica de la textualidad at Instituto Cultural de León, México. Gillmore’s textually informed work attempts to explore the convolutions and complexities within individual identity and its participation in the larger group. In short, this is an examination of our existence as social beings. GEORGIA RUSSELL: Cutting Through Time, a solo exhibition at England & Co, featured new cut paper constructions by Georgia Russell that primarily explored notions of orientation relating to landscape. Other iconic works incorporate dissected books presented in bell jars or as totemic structures that echo the fetishist tribal objects collected in the 1920s by Surrealists such as André Breton. Garden of the Gods, a solo exhibition by Yigal Ozeri, was recently on view at Mike Weiss Gallery. The exhibition includes more than a dozen near-photorealistic oil paintings varying in size from small intimate works displayed in vitrines to large- scale paintings measuring up to eight feet. This new series reflects Ozeri’s continued interest in capturing the spirit of his subjects – ageless sirens in timeless garb, enveloped in the beauty of a vast landscape. Sofi Zezmer recently opened her first solo exhibition at Metis_NL Gallery in Amsterdam. With an engineer’s precision, Zezmer constructs her works by a gradual additive process dependent on intuitive responses to the materials and objects she uses forming color- saturated assemblages. Bloodlines: Paintings by Hermann Nitsch was at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver. Featuring eight major Schüttbilder (spill paintings) created by Hermann Nitsch between 1990 and 2007, as well as related objects and music, the exhibition introduced viewers to this seasoned artist’s creative practice and how his work is rooted in both the sanctity of religious ritual and the drama of Abstract Expressionist painting. His blood and pigment stained canvases hover between the poles of material decadence and the mystery enacted in the sacrificial/redemptive drama of the Catholic Mass. This exhibition provided an overview of Nitsch’s complex oeuvre as well as a platform for discussion about the possibilities for extreme art in contemporary life. Gideon Rubin presented twenty-two new paintings and his first video animation in Shallow Waters, his second solo show at Hosfelt Gallery in New York. This new body of work--originating from early twentieth-century found photographs--shows figures on the shoreline, capturing private moments of a family on holiday. They are intimate and serene images that belie darker events on the horizon. Rubin's first animated video, To Change Air a Little, was inspired by Chaim Nachman Bialik, Israel's national poet. The work refers to Bialik's fondness for long walks and captures the meditative aspect of this solitary practice. Kadar Brock, Kim Dorland, Paul Pagk were recently showing in Paper A-Z at Sue Scott Gallery. Featuring more than seventy five established, mid-career and emerging artists from around the country, this exhibition showcases multidisciplinary approaches to works on paper that examine and celebrate this basic language of the artistic process. “A-Z” implies linearity, but the heart of the show is a constellation of parts that drifts off the alphabet, a collection of phonemes—gaffs, folds, stutters, perfect pronunciations and alliterations. Exit Art  presented the group show GEOMETRIC DAYS. Curated by Jeanette Ingberman, Papo Colo, and Associate Curator Herb Tam this exhibition featured new paintings by eight artists whose deployment of geometry exposes organizational structures from microscopic, political, and spiritual dimensions. Geometry, abstraction and painting are ingrained in our interpretation of experience—geometry as measurement of space and time, abstraction as poetic expression of the visual, and painting as the manifestation of a will to communicate. The artists included were Rico Gatson, Peter Hildebrand, Charles Koegel, Geoffrey Owen Miller, Driss Ouadahi, Paul Pagk, Nathlie Provosty, and Dannielle Tegeder. The Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art recently presented Daniel Pitín: Garrison Landing, the second solo show in the United States by Czech artist Daniel Pitín. This new body of work was created under the tutelage of HVCCA’s Artist-in-Residence program where the artist lived and worked in Peekskill for three months last year. As a result, the paintings feature Pitín’s trademark fictional settings evocative of theatrical stage sets, but with a resonance of the locale; in works like Psycho House, Victorian architecture looms forlornly amidst a bed of brushstroke and NY Times clippings. The show was recently reviewed in The New York Times. Paul Pagk was in the group show 70 Years of Abstract Painting – Excerpts, presented by Jason McCoy, Inc. The installation presented a wide range of abstract paintings, each of which reflects a distinct style and unique aesthetic. Various movements, including Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism, Op Art, and Neo-Pattern & Decoration for example, will be addressed. Providing excerpts from seven decades worth of work, the exhibition aims to initiate an unusual dialogue between historic and contemporary paintings, as well as between the inherent modern and postmodern concerns. Marina Abramovic was recently in the group exhibition Iles jamais trouvées (Islands never found) at Musée d'Art Moderne de Saint-Étienne. The show featured the works of 35 international artists. _________________________________________________________