#Bienvenu Steinberg & J

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Elena del Rivero, Wound Construction Wounded, (gouache on Japanese paper, over gampi paper and tarlatan with thread and ink), 2014 [Bienvenu Steinberg & J, New York, NY. © Elena del Rivero]

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“Valentine”, 2022, oil on linen

(“Braid”, 2022, oil on linen and detail shot)

The two colorful paintings above are from Andrea Belag’s 2023 solo exhibition, Currents, at Bienvenu Steinberg & J in New York.

From the gallery’s press release-

Since the 1990s, Belag has constantly modified her approach to abstraction through various transitions and mutations. Her internal genealogy matters as much as her relationship to a tradition of abstraction. In the words of artist and critic Julian Kreimer: “it’s not hard to metaphorize those traces, lines left behind by larger swaths of paint that were wiped away, lines whose own shifting colors reveal how they are made by what they’ve touched and changed. But as with so many of Belag’s paintings, the point isn’t to nail down the metaphors (…) Belag’s work becomes an edge condition for painting without flirting with minimalist near-nothingness; it tests out where beauty can emerge, and what we can get to work. It opens up from a few wiped shapes into a sophisticated object able to transport one into a reverie about slippage, slipping away, the here and not hereness of life, death, and the varieties of love”.

Geometry and order have progressively given place to swirling swaths of color, solidity replaced by suspended motion. Painting is an all consuming action. She paints standing up, leaning over and often walking around the canvas placed horizontally. It starts with the arm and as she walks around the canvas her whole body gets involved. Transparent colors on the surface are not fixed and can create form or dissolve into light. She rubs, smudges, and scraps to create translucent, softly luminous surfaces where the brushwork is strikingly visible. “My paintings are contemporary because I paint in the here and now. It’s unavoidable. The artists I feel indebted to are Henri Matisse, Mary Heilmann, Joan Mitchell, Gerhard Richter, Bill Traylor, and Japanese Zen gardens. Style is a dead-end, but I have a point of view. I love transparency and the touch of materials, so I have created a way of painting where I make this possible. I use mostly transparent pigments and fine linen, and I paint wet into wet. The marks are on one layer of the painted surface with very little overlap or pentimento. Color makes space and light come through the paint and emotion comes through as well. There is fear and desire in painting, and that’s addictive. Haptics are the touchstones.” (Andrea Belag, 2023)

Her current solo exhibition, Twombly’s Green, opened this week at Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects.

From their press release-

This grouping of work is, as the title suggests, inspired by Belag’s recollection of Cy Twombly’s use of the color Hooker’s green in his “Pond Paintings.” She writes-

These paintings are inspired by my memory of Twombly’s green and white paintings that I first saw in the Menil Collection in Houston in 2015. I was stunned by his paint handling and his use of Hooker’s Green. Since then, I learned he painted quickly and directly with his hands. Discovering the “Pond Paintings” was unexpected and I kept thinking about them. Hooker’s green is opaque and dark. But the dark value doesn’t overwhelm the hue. Instead, there is richness and depth without a trace of yellow. When I identified the pigment and started to paint with it, I felt a vibration. There was a time when painting with green was taboo and now it is ubiquitous. Is green in the zeitgeist?

All painted within the last twelve months, these works are a continuation of the artist’s practice of lush, energetic abstraction. Playing with circularity in an ongoing attempt to “get away from the grid,” Belag uses color as forms in space, bodies set in motion. Citing foundational inspirations in Matisse and Guston, who she later studied with at the New York Studio School, Belag’s work can also be related to vanguard practitioners of 80s abstraction such as Bill Jensen, David Reed and Mary Heilmann. Her immediate peers Christopher Wool and Joyce Pensato are also compass points in the stripped down dedication to raw painterly brio they share.

This exhibition is on view until 4/13/24.

[mtaartsdesign]

Liliana Porter and Ana Tiscornia’s “Untitled with Sky” (2010) at MNR Scarborough station explores illusion and truth, depicting a sky in faceted glass panels and sculptural seats clad in mosaic, all the while set on an outdoor platform surrounded by sky. The swirling, curved shapes in blues, purples, and rose serve as an expressive extension of the actual sky as it changes from morning to evening.

Porter’s continued exploration into fiction versus reality is on view in her solo show “Untitled with Her” at Bienvenu Steinberg & J through October 14.

Photos: MTA A&D/Rob Wilson

[citylifeorg]

Djamel Tatah First US Exhibit

Djamel Tatah, Untitled, 2021, oil and wax on canvas, 78 3/4 x 118 1/8 inches (200 x 300 cm) Solitary Figures, Franco-Algerian artist Djamel Tatah’s first solo exhibition in the United States, will be on view at Bienvenu Steinberg & J, from June 8 to July 15, 2023. Curated by Richard Vine, the exhibition will showcase eleven of Tatah’s full-size figurative paintings, produced between 2011 and…

[garadinervi]

Elena del Rivero, Wound Construction, (gold leaf on abaca paper, fake pearls on torn Japanese paper over gampi paper and thread and ink), 2014 [Bienvenu Steinberg & J, New York, NY. © Elena del Rivero]

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Elena del Rivero, AF Klint L2, (23K gold leaf on hand made abaca paper, oil paint, and thread), 2016 [Bienvenu Steinberg & J, New York, NY. © Elena del Rivero]

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Elena del Rivero, AF Klint L3, (23K gold leaf on hand made abaca paper and oil paint), (2015-)2016 [Bienvenu Steinberg & J, New York, NY. © Elena del Rivero]

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Elena del Rivero, AF Klint L1, (23K gold leaf on hand made abaca paper, oil paint, thread, needle), 2016 [Bienvenu Steinberg & J, New York, NY. © Elena del Rivero]

[mtaartsdesign]

Andrea Belag’s "Brooklyn Transitions" (2018) at Avenue U (F) station celebrates the energy and movement of New Yorkers across 30 glass panels installed on the northbound and southbound platforms. Her gestural mark-making mirrors the movement of the human body in space, while her vibrant palette pulls colors from the surrounding neighborhood.

Bold brushstrokes and a continued investigation of abstraction prevail in Belag’s recent work, on view in her solo exhibition at Bienvenu Steinberg & J in Manhattan. “Currents” is on view through March 23. Photos: Farzad Owrang