Behind The Veil, 65" x 72," Acrylic on Canvass, 2011

We perceive the world through edges. Edges give boundary and shape to our universe. Lines punctuate one object in space from another. The horizon line keeps us in balance. Lines communicate tones like calmness or frenzy. Lines can be hard. Lines can be soft. Lines can be wispy and firm, energetic and rhythmic. Everyday we experience a sea of mechanical lines– Maps, letters, signs, text messages, stock scrolls, wires, highways, spreadsheets, skyscrapers, and of course representational art. Our typical experience with the drawn line is swamped by representational and symbolic uses.

I want to get past line just looking like something or literally saying something.

The emotional quality, the essence of the line, the compositional relationships of line – is what my work is about.

Artist Statement, John Borys, American Contemporary Artist: http://www.johnborys.com/ With upcoming shows in Dallas at Illume GALLERIE: http://www.ilumegallerie.com/ and Authenticity: http://authenticitygallery.com/index.php Austin Texas this spring.

This is the first major museum exhibition devoted to the full scope of the career of Willem de Kooning, widely considered to be among the most important and prolific artists of the 20th century. The exhibition, which will only be seen at MoMA, presents an unparalleled opportunity to study the artist’s development over nearly seven decades, beginning with his early academic works, made in Holland before he moved to the United States in 1926, and concluding with his final, sparely abstract paintings of the late 1980s. Bringing together more than 200 works from public and private collections, the exhibition is the first to occupy the Museum’s entire sixth-floor gallery space, totaling approximately 17,000 square feet.

Representing nearly every type of work de Kooning made, in both technique and subject matter, this retrospective includes paintings, sculptures, drawings, and prints. Among these are the artist’s most famous, landmark paintings—among them Pink Angels (1945), Excavation (1950), and the celebrated third Woman series (1950–53)—plus in-depth presentations of all his most important series, ranging from his figurative paintings of the early 1940s to the breakthrough black-and-white compositions of 1948–49, and from the urban abstractions of the mid 1950s to the artist’s return to figuration in the 1960s, and the large gestural abstractions of the following decade. Also included is de Kooning’s famous yet largely unseen theatrical backdrop, the 17-foot-square Labyrinth (1946).

[Image: Willem de Kooning "Woman" (1950) Oil, cut and pasted paper on cardboard, 14 3/4 x 11 5/8" The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. From the Collection of Thomas B. Hess, Gift of the heirs of Thomas B. Hess, 1984. © 2011 The Willem de Kooning Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York] http://www.moma.org  Photo and review courtesy of NY ART BEAT.  http://www.nyartbeat.com/event/2011/4C69

In 1959, Mitchell moved to Paris, France. She relocated to Vétheuil (outside of Paris) in 1967, and it was there that she spent the last few decades of her life. The French countryside was a strong influence on her work. Mitchell translated its natural beauty into radiating lines and abstract knots of color-her compositions reference water, trees, and floral motifs, and channel the area’s unique quality of light and atmosphere. Mitchell’s late paintings are especially emblematic of her relationship to her environment-her physical surroundings were linked to an emotional landscape, as if her observations of nature were filtered through an internal sieve. As she said, “My paintings [are]…about a feeling that comes to me from the outside, from landscape…My paintings have to do with feelings.”

Though Mitchell abstracted nature, gleaning only its essence, her advocacy for the natural world as a subject finds precedence in the plein air and Impressionist painters a century before. As Marshall elucidates in his essay, Mitchell admired Cézanne, Monet and Van Gogh; their interpretations of the same landscape originated from similarly sensitive perceptions of their surroundings. Non-traditional palettes, and, especially in Monet’s case, a decisive deconstruction of the image, brought attention to brushstrokes and paint itself, a concern that was to be paramount for Mitchell and her contemporaries. Van Gogh’s sunflowers were also an inspiration. The motif (represented by two paintings in this show) is linked not only to Van Gogh, but also to an allegory of mortality. As in Sunflowers, 1990-91, she chose to paint the flowers in a state of decay, reinforcing her desire for the work to “convey the feeling of a dying sunflower.”

The last years of Mitchell’s life were marked by the deaths of friends and family. Her own health struggles began in the early 80s with the appearance of cancer. Painting became a refuge and an ally. While the late work still evinces a distinct confidence of gesture and mark-making, it is further characterized by an increased sense of freedom. In his essay, Marshall notes a loss of “restraint,” an “abandon,” a “paring down.” Often presented in diptych format, Mitchell’s expansive late canvases remain evocative of the landscape, but also provide room to explore a more liberated mark. Brushstrokes are energetic and colors vivid. Punctuated by airy, unpainted areas of canvas, the paintings express a sensation of urgency and immediacy, as if in rejection, denial and resistence to her failing health. Through her late work, she strived for immortality, for a merging with the timelessness and formlessness of nature: “I become the sunflower, the lake, the tree. I no longer exist.” http://www.cheimread.com Photo and review courtesy of NY ART BEAT. http://www.nyartbeat.com/event/2011/2199

John Borys, Popsicle, 24.5” X 44.25,” acrylic on canvass, 2011

The opening party on the 14^thwas a great success with over 400 people attending – part of the proceeds went to The Resource Center and Belvedere Vodka was kind enough to pour for the evening. Illume GALLERIE hosted the event and the artists that make up the ModART Show are Marilyn Biles, John Borys, Robert Diago, Frankie Garcia, John Knott, Bonnie Liebowitz, Carmen Menza, Michelle de Metz, Christina Neuser, Gary Perrone, Nan Phillips, Steve Prachyl, Elle Schuster, Jerry Skibell and Ron Radwanski. The flow within the gallery was spectacular, and Ron Radwanski did a great job of combining all of the fifteen very different artists works to somehow complement each other and look great next to one another. The ModART concept is Jeff Levine’s idea, publisher of Mod Media, Inc. http://www.modmedia.net/ Jeff wants to showcase the artistic talent from the various cities that his e-magazine focuses on. Currently Mod Media, Inc. is in Dallas, Houston, and Austin. The different websites focus on all things contemporary for that given city. Real estate, architects, art, calendar of events, furniture, home, interior design, lighting and outdoor are categories that one can search and find the best in contemporary offerings. The ModART show is destined to travel to Houston, and Austin and will donate part of the proceeds to a worthy cause for that particular city. The energy from this recent show, the artistic bonds that have formed between the ModART artists, and the upcoming city dates to Austin and Houston will make this new venue worth keeping an eye out for. The show in Dallas runs from October 7^th thru the 28.^th Jeff Levine’s Contemporary insights for Dallas can be found at: http://moderndallas.net/ in Houston at:http://modernhouston.net/ and in Austin at: http://modaustin.net/ The works of John Borys can be found at: http://www.johnborys.com/

]]> http://johnborys.wordpress.com/2011/11/03/the-modart-show-opens-in-dallas-2/feed/ 0 johnborys John Borys, Popsicle http://johnborys.wordpress.com/2011/11/01/melville-price-paintings-1960s/ http://johnborys.wordpress.com/2011/11/01/melville-price-paintings-1960s/#comments Tue, 01 Nov 2011 04:42:03 +0000 johnborys http://johnborys.wordpress.com/?p=305 ]]> Featuring works in which Price combined Abstract Expressionist methods with a Pop Art sensibility, this exhibition reveals the artist’s astute awareness of contemporary experience during a tumultuous decade, while demonstrating his considerable skill as both an abstract and representational painter.[Image: Melville Price “Holiday” (1964) oil and mixed media on canvas 51 x 41in.

http://www.spaniermanmodern.com/11-Melville-Price/11-Melvill… Photo and review Courtsey of NY ART BEAT. http://www.nyartbeat.com/event/2011/B598

Presenting a group of paintings reflective of the period when Abstract Expressionism was in its formative years. This was a time when American artists faced existential dilemmas in the aftermath of World War II and the escalating Cold War arms race. The works evoke the artists’ belief in action painting as a means of embodying freedom. In this manner, they reacted against totalitarianism, old rules, and the devastations of the atomic bomb and the recent war. Taking risks in their work, artists sought to step into the unknown, giving rise to a new idiom. As the noted critic Harold Rosenberg wrote in Artnews in December 1952: “The big moment came when it was decided to paint . . . Just to paint. The gesture on the canvas was a gesture of liberation, from Value—political, aesthetic, moral.” [Image: John Little "Phobos" (1958) oil on canvas 48 x 36 in.]

http://www.spaniermanmodern.com/11-Abstract-Expressionism-Le… Photo and review courtesy of NY ART BEAT http://www.nyartbeat.com/event/2011/55E4

Soapbox Gallery presents The Retrospective Project – An exhibition with artist Dorothy Krakovsky. At 88 years old, Krakovsky has been working for 50 years with few opportunities to exhibit her paintings. The Retrospective Project encourages people in communities around the world to support artists who have worked a lifetime with little or no opportunities to share their work by offering a retrospective in a traditional or non-traditional art space. This first exhibition is a project model for future exhibitions. This model can flourish accordingly based on the generosity, support and enlightenment of community members willing to encourage and celebrate an individual’s lifelong engagement in their art practice, as Jimmy Greenfield, founder of Soapbox Gallery has generously done.

This exhibition honors the commitment and dedication of an artist whose body of work encompasses a lifetime of creativity with many decades of investigation, passion and vision. The Retrospective Project is a performative art work by Chere Krakovsky.

Statement from the artist:

In my University of Iowa Master’s thesis, 1970, I stated that my objective in painting was to eliminate all representational images from my work. The name of my Master’s thesis was “Metaphysical-scapes” in which elements of landscapes appeared. Through the years landscape and other representational imagery kept surfacing. As time went on my painting became less and less representational. I think I achieved my goal in the large non-objective paintings that are some of my most recent works. I am 88 years old and have realized that the distance between “Metaphysical-scapes” and complete non-objectivity is the leap of faith from the material to the non-material, in fact to the spiritual. Dorothy Krakovsky http://www.soapboxgallery.org/ Photo and review courtesy of NY ART BEAT. http://www.nyartbeat.com/event/2011/8645

Watts’ abstract, collaged paintings integrate everyday recycled materials, his passion for music, and exploration of his heritage in the modern world. He draws from external influences using emerging forms and juxtaposes varying patterns, cultural references, and numbers in an undefined space. Schimert works in a variety of media, including sculpture, painting, drawing, film, and installation. Her works on paper use overlapping, colorful forms creating a cohesive image. These forms project various emotions piecing together Schimert’s explorations of internal conflict.

The selection of work emphasizes their harmonious amalgamation of form, color, and contour. Each artist’s exploration of abstract form exposes emotion with familiar objects stressing their dialogue, where Schimert delineates the subject, Watts compounds it with signs and representations.

Ouattara Watts has had solo exhibitions at the Hess Art Collection, Maggazzino d’Arte Moderna, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, and Gagosian Gallery, among others. His work has also been featured in Documenta 11, the 2002 Whitney Biennial, the 1993 Venice Biennial, New Museum, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center. Watts currently lives and works in New York.

Katy Schimert has had solo exhibitions at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, and The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago. Schimert’s work is included in public collections such as the The Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Norton Family Foundation, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Walker Art Center. Her work was included in the 1997 Whitney Biennial, and the 23rd São Paulo Biennale. She currently lives and works in New York. http://www.bdgny.com/ Photo and review courtesy of NY ART BEAT.  http://www.nyartbeat.com/event/2011/67DD