Modern Painters

108 MODERN PAINTERS JUNE/JULY 2016 BLOUINARTINFO.COMREVIEWS IN BRIEF NEW YORKThis show finds the Polishartist relentlessly circlingthe early 17th-centurypainting Judith SlayingHolofernes, by ArtemisiaGentileschi. A progressionof seven same-sizesmall canvases pushes thesource imagery throughvarying stages of abstraction, using onlyultramarine blue, burnt umber, andshades of gray. (Larger riffs on the samecomposition play with the gender roles in theoriginal work.) A back gallery contains prepa-ratory photomontages in which the artist’splayful train of thought is made visible. —SI``````Saddled by New York Times critic Ken Johnsonwith the questionable moniker of a “semiskilledpainter,” Martin builds on buzz generated byhis recent participation in the Whitney groupshow “Flatlands” with a solo on the LowerEast Side. The compositions are sleek, withobjects and animals floating on monochromaticbackgrounds, and often surrealist, in the “chancemeeting on a dissecting table of a sewingmachine and an umbrella” kind of way. DonBellows, 2016, for instance, resembles aseries of gramophone horns crossbred witheggplants. Works peacock themselves furtherwith coloredframes and slick,sculptural nubsthat subtly echoforms found inthe paintings. —SI Shoe, the Franch, 2016.``````This German painter presents 25 canvasesthat barely seem to have come from the samestudio, with depictions of smashed iPhonescreens and lush lips intermingled with examplesof especially expressive, goopy abstraction.A large-scale painting of ablank television is pairedwith a quartet whose orien-tation suggests the samedimensions as its flatscreen—as if absorbing thecool cerebral buzz of apeach-toned monochrome isno better, or worse, thanvegging out with cable. —SI``````It’s all in the eyebrows. The faces of the youngmen of Bas’s “Bright Young Things” actuallyvary little, with their pursed lips and youthfulbone structure, yet the artist manages tocapture a range of emotion. Consternation,captivation, and malaise play out in thecompressed foregrounds and backgrounds ofvibrant, thickly painted scenes. The bohemian,1920s crowd photographed by Cecil Beaton,which served asinspiration for thisseries, is herereimagined in paintingsthat are as luxuriantand ornate as theparties thrown by thatsocial set werepurported to be. —JH``````This stirring exhibition ofpaintings, works on paper, andnotebooks is Ettinger’s firstsolo in New York since 2001.Also an analyst and theorist,her work deals with trauma,taking a psychoanalyticalapproach to abstraction.Though small and evenunassuming, her striated oilpaintings (in deep, bodily redsand purples) are rewardingand dense—both in theoreticalweight and in composition,her method involving a years-long process of layering. Not to be missed isa beautifully displayed sequence of tiny, richlycolored womblike motifs in watercolor on paper,and notebooks filled with haphazard illustrationsand scrawls of text. —TB``````The Fourth of June (Eton), 2016.``````Hola, B14, 2014.``````Slain Abstraction (1), 2016.``````Hernan BasLehmann Maupin // March 10–April 23``````A member of Colab and anorganizer of 1980’s iconicReal Estate Show, Howlandhere shows works from thatdecade that focus on coalmining. Her scale-model-likesculptures insert a set of oddtopographies into the gallery,facsimiles of man-alteredlandscapes appearing evenmore bizarre and alien in isolation; towering overthem are power line structures. The work—givena general lack of context—doesn’t necessarilysucceed, however, in making the sort ofenvironmental degradation Howland alludes tofeel less abstract. —TB``````Becky Howland247365 // March 18–April 17``````Bracha L. EttingerCallicoon Fine Arts // March 24–April 24``````Eberhard HavekostAnton Kern Gallery // February 25–April 2``````Audra WolowiecStudio 10 // March 11–April 13``````Including sound, textworks, a projection, andeven a scent, Wolowiec’sexhibition at Studio 10is titled with just a spacebetween parentheses.The artist deftly drawsattention to non-verbal aspects of humancommunication. Thisincludes the silence between sounds, the pausesfor breath, and the space between wordson a page. In If not, waves, 2016, a 5-channelsound installation playing from 10 speakershanging from the ceiling, it’s about the texture inthe singular words spoken by several differentorators who intone from varied locations,causing listeners to circle beneath, searching byear for the chime of voices. —JULIET HELMKE``````(h)ear, 2015.``````TOP TO BOTTOM, LEFT TO RIGHT: AUDRA WOLOWIEC AND STUDIO 10; ROSS KNIGHT AND TEAM; BRENDAN FOWLER AND MATHEW; EBERHARD HAVEKOST``````AND ANTON KERN GALLERY; MAX YAWNEY, HERNAN BAS, AND LEHMANN MAUPIN;``````BODEGA; 247365; BRACHA L. ETTINGER AND CALLICOON FINE ARTS; ANNA OSTOYA AND BORTOLAMI``````Artist and musician Fowlershows here a seriesof embroidered portraitsof musicians (includingmembers of Odwalla 88and Purity, whose musicFowler has releasedon his own label) in softlavenders and blues.There’s some tendernessimplicit in an embroidered likeness, but actually,these are industrially produced from digitalimage files, and their inconsistencies speakmore to a machinic miscommunication than anerror of the human hand—a commentaryon image production for cultural workers ofall stripes. —THEA BALLARD``````Brendan FowlerMathew // March 4–April 30``````Orion MartinBodega // February 19–March 27``````The aptly named “HumanStuff” is composedmostly of tiny sculptureson raised plinths, all ofthem suggestive, somemore grossly thanothers. My favorite ofthe group resembles anoversize microscopewith a tongue lolling off of it. Knight’s last exhi-bition at the gallery included sculptures evokinglarge, useless machines. Here, he proves justas adept on an intimate scale. Like Ron Nagle’smodest ceramics, these sculptures manageto be simultaneously sensual, adorable, and dis-turbingly alien. —SCOTT INDRISEK``````Ross KnightTeam // March 3–April 24``````Anna OstoyaBortolami // February 25–April 23``````Suction ( Form, 2015.Foam) (Deodorant)``````Michael, 2016.``````Ophelia and Eurydice no. 1, 2001-09.``````Road Tracks RiverStrip Mining for Coal at , 1982.