Luke Reich, aka Weird Luke, is into provocation. The 22-year-old Gowanus native has a special interest in toxic waste, having been situated so close to a river full of it since childhood and all. Perhaps he saw real-life versions of the Man-Thing or Toxic Avenger trudging around in dark corners growing up. Or maybe they were...
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KATE SHARKEY
Here’s a name that just came across my radar. Actually, I saw Kate’s work while walking through the art department at Brooklyn College and snapped a few cell phone pics that didn’t turn out, because the paintings were behind glass panel (and because I’m not a great photographer). Regardless, the images above and below are...
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ALESSANDRO KEEGAN
From the view of contemporary art, which revolves around movements and historical groupings, Alessandro Keegan‘s seraphitic paintings belong to the past. Read any review on painting or painters these days and it is sure to include some sort of declaimer on the obsolescence of the medium itself. And yet we keep writing about it. Buyers keep...
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KEEGAN MCHARGUE
No doubt about it: young people love the word “meta.” Just like we Nineties folk used to apply the suffix “esque” to everything. For instance, were it 1997 and Keegan McHargue‘s new show Topical just opened at the Fredericks and Freiser Gallery in Chelsea, I might say: “The paintings evoke post-WWI colorists like Matisse, employing figural...
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MSHINDO KUUMBA
Depending on who you talk to, afrofuturism has either arrived full-force in the last few years, or is experiencing something of a second wave. Early progenitors include space-jazz guru Sun Ra, ’70s soul-hippies Funkadelic, ’80s graffiti visionary Rammellzee, and electro-funk pioneers the Jonzun Crew. In the ’90s, culture critic Mark Dery put an umbrella over...
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TOM BURCKHARDT
In honor of this week’s Art Book Fair at MOMA PS1, I thought I’d direct your attention to an artist who has done paintings on discarded book covers. A whole series, in fact. His name is Tom Burckhardt and my favorite of his is titled The Church at Home (see below). The painting transforms an old book...
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