Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2022 i American Art Collector

Welcome to our November issue of American Art Collector! I know we often say, “this is the best issue of the year.” We can’t help ourselves—we think this every time we finish an issue and say “that’s a wrap.” It is quite a feat to publish 12 issues a year full of amazing art at the level of excellence we hold ourselves to. But this time we really mean it—this issue is truly the best. It is also our biggest issue of the year at 160 pages. It contains more than 20 gallery previews and our ever-popular Collector’s Focus: Small Works & Miniatures section. We hear from our subscribers that their walls are full of their favorite art and until they get a bigger house buying small works is the…

The Scottsdale Artists’ School Beaux Arts & Champagne returns in a hybrid format that kicks off with an online silent auction November 10 and continues through an in-person gala event on November 12. The auction will showcase approximately 200 paintings, drawings and sculptures donated by leading artists to support the nonprofit’s programming, which provides opportunities for aspiring artists who may not have the means to study at the school otherwise. At the fundraiser celebration, guests will have the chance to mingle with artists amid impressive original artwork, while enjoying live music, libations, light fare and a chance to win festive door prizes. This year’s silent auction will feature travel packages, themed baskets and a variety of artwork from established professional artists, including Douglas Fryer, whose piece July is featured here.…

It is ‘true, without untruth, certain, and most true’ that Julio Reyes is the greatest living master of egg tempera. During the isolation of the pandemic, he was somehow blessed by the curse of Covid-kissed solitude that dragged others down but raised him to the height of excellence, for his recent works are quiet miracles of memory, a bright and innocent world of boys and girls in sunlight, created in his alembic studio, and born from mediation and adaptation. The real magic of his medium is in the finish, which is a uniquely delicate balance of layered strength and softness, and there is something of the alchemist in Reyes’ preparation. The beginning of the work is a metaphor for birth and death, and life and light, and it is a…

Sculptural fragments from antiquity—heads without bodies, torsos without heads, arms or legs—retain their connection to the familiarly corporeal and the skill of their creation. The Musée Rodin in Paris notes, “Convinced of the evocative power of the fragment, Rodin worked the hands or feet of his figures separately. His private collection of antiquities included many archaeological fragments: hands, heads, and torsos…These sculptures influenced his own aesthetic, prompting him to remove the arms or heads from some of his sculptures. The Walking Man, for example, is an enlarged version of St. John the Baptist, without the head and arms which Rodin regarded as superfluous details, liable to detract from the expression of movement he wanted to convey.” Writing about Rodin and his creation of fragmentary sculpture, the poet Rainer Maria Rilke…

French artist Nicolas Martin, who lives and works in Montreal, Canada, will be having his first solo exhibition in the United States this November. His show, Intimacy, is being held at Principle Gallery in Charleston, South Carolina, and features more than 30 of the artist’s shadowy and moody pieces. “Nicolas Martin embraces the beauty and stillness of liminal space that is very familiar to each of our minds. His paintings draw the viewer in and give you a sense of nostalgia. They evoke a warm and comforting feeling of both past and present,” says Principle Gallery director Frank Conrad Russen. “I think it’s the word that best represents my work and the way I paint,” Martin says of the exhibition’s title, Intimacy. “For me, intimacy has long been represented…

33 Contemporary Gallery’s current online Artsy exhibition explores the human body in a state of struggle. The exhibition, entitled Exertion, is curated by noted figurative artist Daniel Maidman. In it, humans strain against themselves, the environment, or one another. Maidman says his impetus for the show started with storytelling. “Conflict is the root of stories, and conflict plays out as struggle,” he says. “To struggle, one must exert—the protagonist and the antagonist exist in a state of exertion. I wanted to see work that embraced exertion, that fore-grounded the human experience of drama.” John Hyland’s painting, Saints Like Us, features Cisco Graciano, former principal dancer with Paul Taylor Dance Company, as Saint Vitus. Vitus is the patron saint of dancers and of epilepsy. In Hyland’s painting, Graciano twists limbs and…

The poet W.H. Auden observed, “It takes little talent to see clearly what lies under one’s nose, a good deal of it to know in which direction to point that organ.” Eric Nash looks and contemplates where we glance, gather information and move on. Commenting on his paintings of iconic Los Angeles signs, Nash notes, “In a city built on hopes and dreams, they stamp the beginning of countless stories and memories of people from all backgrounds and from all places.” A green highway sign indicating the upcoming exit for Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles is celebrated in a finely rendered 38-by-60 inch canvas that invites the viewer to become aware of the sign’s construction and the applied letters with just a hint of potential decay. One wonders if the…

Janet Grissom has been revisiting her youth when she had the desire to create but not the tools she needed to do so. Her latest body of work goes back to that childhood and captures the imagery that inspired her as a young girl. “Frequently, I go back to that daily country journey on that yellow school bus that introduced me to the landscape of the Midwest,” Grissom shares. “It allowed me to move from the individual leaf, flower and tree to the overall ambiance of the season. It was fall that was especially memorable as the seasonal winds blew the brightly colored leaves, drained of their traditional green and replaced with vibrant oranges, reds and yellows glowing through to the world.” It was during those memorable bus journeys, that…

Emma Kalff’s work investigates emotion and the fallible act of remembering. Within each painting she layers multiple scenes together to create a surreal, dream-like feeling. She is a classically-trained oil painter who strives to work with her head, hands, and heart. Kalff now paints mainly in the studio, but spent several years working en plein air. In 2018, she traveled across the U.S. in her car, and created a series of paintings from what she saw along the way. She worked on farms during the day and in the evenings painted her surroundings. This body of work landed her a first solo show at Telluride Arts Headquarters in Telluride, Colorado. Additional recognition followed and, in 2022, Kalff was featured in Southwest Art magazine’s “21 Under 31: Young Artists to Collect…

Selangor, Malaysia • info@taimenglim.com • www.taimenglim.com Malaysian painter TaiMeng Lim is an internationally recognized artist specializing in pastel, oil and acrylic paintings. For Lim, his artwork is about “recognizing the beauty that surrounds us and letting it inspire our life regularly.” His paintings exude a sense of softness and delicate light, from landscapes and wildlife to figures and portraits. A Gentleman and His Notebook is a pastel piece inspired by photos the artist took during a trip to Porto, Portugal, in 2019. “The elderly gentleman had stepped aside to take his notebook out of his sling bag to read something he had written on it. This got me reflecting on the fragility and strength of the human memory and age. I intentionally chose not to paint everything in detail and…

It is said that good things come in small packages. That’s why there are many small artwork exhibitions and sales across the country and why we have this special section. Bigger isn’t always better. There are sites on the internet, however, that dictate the size of a work in relation to the size of a wall and the amount of space to have between small works. Another soothes that if you have fallen in love with small pieces, “don’t fret!” Don’t fret, indeed. Buy what you love, what moves you, hang it alone or with other works, and enjoy it. Leslie Lewis Sigler often paints spoons along with other mass-produced silver serving pieces. Although the pieces don’t vary coast to coast or country to country, their use and the environment…

North Carolina, settled along the Atlantic coast, is known for its gorgeous shorelines, mountains and rivers. The state—bordered by Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and, of course, the Atlantic Ocean—is also known for its vivacious arts and cultural scene. From Charlotte to Asheville to Raleigh and more, collectors will find no shortage of galleries, museums and events throughout the Old North State. Each year in September, Charlotte holds its Festival in the Park at Freedom Park, in which attendees can explore an array of art-work as well as enjoy music, eats and entertainment in the open air. The city is also home to numerous arts institutions in the Uptown district. Among these are Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, Levine Center for the Arts, Mint Museum Uptown and the New Gallery…

Vincent Giarrano grew up in Buffalo, New York, and lived in New York City. He and his wife now live in rural Connecticut. He travels from his home to the city, where he is inspired afresh to paint its grittiness. “I didn’t paint the city when I was in the city,” he says. “It’s an inspiring place. The city affects you. When you live there, you have blinders on. You’re trying to get to your destination and get around all the people. You don’t see it or feel it as much. Now, going there and experiencing the dynamics of people and architecture with fresh eyes, I feel the energy way more than when I lived there. What I love about the city is that it is constantly changing, always evolving,…

Geoffrey Gorman traces his fascination with found objects back to growing up on a sprawling, former horse farm in rural Maryland. Littered with old barns, rusted-out cars, an old fashioned gas pump and falling down cabins, it was all a young boy could wish for. He remembers discovering the caretakers’ shop, the drawers still filled with washers and other bits of hardware. But many years would pass before Gorman would start using discarded odds and ends to create sculptures. After studying photography and working as a furniture craftsman, Gorman became deeply entrenched in the art and gallery world when he moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico. For 20 years he worked in the industry in every imaginable capacity—except making art himself. At the time, he was weary of hearing about…

Artist James Rieck is more interested in the conceptional implications of clothing than he is in fashion, but vibrant vintage designs are front and center in a body of his earlier work. But look again and what is cropped out of the frame—and the nuances of what remains—begin to reveal the compelling psychological underpinnings that inform his artwork. “Clothes cover up our nakedness, but they also reveal our identity,” Rieck explains. “It’s not hard to also see that what we put on also reflects the opposite of us. Clothing hides our insecurities, our psychological nakedness. It’s an attempt to make sure you see me a certain way and not another way.” Rieck’s primary references are illustrated catalogs and annual business reports and pamphlets from the 1950s and ’60s. He’s fascinated…

Ellen Heck’s new body of work for her upcoming show at Wally Workman Gallery seems to take on an almost three-dimensional form. These impasto still lifes make you want to reach out to touch the delightfully textured florals, rendered in bright, harmonious colors. “I am exploring visual metaphor through these paintings, which are the continuation of a project that began five years ago with a series of master studies of Bouguereau’s The Broken Pitcher…a 19th-century French portrait of a girl leaning against a well with a broken water pitcher at her feet.” Paintings in the upcoming exhibition feature abstract vessels that look as though shaped from taffy, filled with heavily textured flowers. “Replacing the pitcher with other vessels, and eventually, other forms entirely, I am interested in seeing how incremental…

John Asaro is among the most masterful figurative creators in North America. Complimenting the human form with broad bright swaths of color drove his passion to express his perspectives on canvas. Rushing in without fear to capture the urgency or delicacy of the moment, his work takes on a modern element through his enlightened sense and awareness of shapes, contrast and diffusion of color. An attraction to movement and the human form led to a fascination with life on the stage. Forming this passion resulted in several series of dancers and bodies in motion. Claggett/Rey Gallery has been privileged to curate and host the debut exhibition of works from Asaro’s Spartacus Ballet series at the May Gallery at The Vilar Performing Arts Center in Beaver Creek, Colorado. Asaro’s love of…

Gregory Newson’s journey started long before he became a Black Panther Party participant in 1970s Harlem, New York, where he gave up painting. “I won a few teen art shows to embrace community rhetoric and victim mentality thinking which destroyed my self-confidence and the gift that the creator gave me,” he says. Today, Newson is busy writing an auto-biography entitled I Get High Watching Painting Dry. “In my opinion what destroyed me as a promising artist and my community was the cherry-picked history fed to us by our government and political figures. History is a political persuasion tool which the winner of wars gets to deliver,” Newson says. “This is why some of the writings of Jesus Christ’s Apostles were left out of the King James version of the Bible.”…

Kasandra McNeil chose the title My Favorite Things for her solo exhibition in 2019, for what was supposed to be an upcoming show. Then Covid happened; the dates were changed but the name of the exhibit remained the same. McNeil kept the title because she had a clear idea of what she wanted to convey in approximately 40 new pieces of work—how random, seemingly disconnected places and subjects can end up having so many similarities. “I have done a number of landscapes featuring the hills and lakes of Kentucky,” says McNeil. “Then I traveled to Europe and watched the clouds hang over the Black Forest region of Germany. I was wowed. I experienced the same exhilarating feeling that I get all the time on my farm in south-central Kentucky. I…

Through December 4 Frank Gonzales & Guy Combes Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum » Tucson, AZ www.desertmuseumarts.com Through December 31 Breaking Up Phoenix Art Museum » Phoenix, AZ www.phxart.org Through January 1, 2023 Symphony No. 3: Altered Landscape Nevada Museum of Art » Reno, NV www.nevadaart.org Through January 2, 2023 We the People: The Radical Notion of Democracy Crystal Bridges of Museum of American Art » Bentonville, AR www.crystalbridges.org Through January 8, 2023 Called to the Camera: B lack American Studio Photographers New Orleans Museum of Art » New Orleans, LA www.noma.org Through January 15, 2023 Pop Smoke: A Veteran Art Exhibition Oceanside Museum of Art » Oceanside, CA www.oma-online.org January 15, 2023 Bo Bartlett: Earthly Matters The Gibbes Museum of Art » Charleston, SC www.gibbesmuseum.org Through January 22, 2023 Collidoscope: de…

There are no secrets to success. It is often a combination of preparation, hard work, perseverance and determination. For the artist Vincent Xeus, it was all of these combined with a vivid imagination and a love of beauty and design that brought him where he is today—a renowned contemporary master of American art. Early Years From his early years growing up in China, Xeus was drawn to shapes and colors in children’s books even before he took his first step. Later, he was enthralled with the set designs and cinematography of foreign films. He started taking after-school art classes in preschool, drawing characters from his favorite cartoons, and soon joined a disciplined art school. The technical training he gained there helped him remove fear and cultivate his curiosity. “One of…

ARDEN GALLERY 129 Newbury Street, Boston, MA 02116, (617) 247-0610, www.ardengallery.com BARBARA FRACCHIA mfracchia@comcast.com www.barbarafracchia.com BARBARA MAULDIN www.barbaramauldinart.com CECILIA BRENDEL (937) 602-3173 cia@ceciliabrendel.com www.ceciliabrendel.com CINDY SORLEY-KEICHINGER (780) 847-2294, goldfarm@telusplanet.net www.goldenkstudio.com GEORGE BILLIS GALLERY LA 2716 S. La Cienega Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90034, (310) 838-3685 www.georgebillis.com JACALYN BEAM (302) 893-1775, www.jacalynbeam.com KEVINBOXSTUDIO (505) 471-4688 www.kevinboxstudio.com www.origamiinthegarden.com KIM VANDERHOEK (949) 510-6921 www.KimVanDerHoek.com LEWALLEN GALLERIES 1613 Paseo De Peralta, Santa Fe, NM 87501, (505) 988-3250 www.lewallengalleries.com LINDA SACKETTI (847) 691-1732 lindasackettiart@gmail.com www.lindasacketti.art LIZ BEECHER (937) 320-9408 www.ebeecherfineart.com REHS CONTEMPORARY Opening 2023 20 W. 55th Street, 5th Floor New York, NY 10019, (212) 355-5710 www.rehs.com SALLY RUDDY info@sallyruddy.com www.sallyruddy.com SOMERVILLE MANNING GALLERY 101 Stone Block Row, 2nd Floor Greenville, DE 19807, (302) 652-0271 www.somervillemanning.com…

Approximately 140 fine art sculptures and paintings of landscapes, urban life, figure, florals, still life and animal-themed work of varying mediums and styles will convene at the McBride Gallery in Annapolis, Maryland. The national juried exhibition and sale, now in its 52nd year, is presented by Women Artists of the West, an organization with 300 members across the United States, Canada and Australia, devoted to uniting women artists, promoting the appreciation of art created by women, and assisting women on their journey to becoming a professional artist. In a time of widespread polarization, this year’s event emphasizes this year’s theme of East Meets West—bringing artists from both coasts, everywhere in between and beyond to celebrate the vast cultural and geographic diversity of the United States and highlight the richness of…

Why donuts? Instead of an ironic response, Denver-based artist Gregory Block shared a rather serious story that gave way to an ever-growing body of work that is not nearly as frivolous as one might initially think. Back in 2018, Block was in a cycling accident and broke nearly every bone on the right side of his body while sustaining other internal injuries. After enduring many surgeries and extensive time in the hospital, Block was having difficulty gaining back the weight he had lost. He was also depressed, having lost the ability to do the athletic activities he loved. Almost two years into his recovery process, his housemate brought home a box of donuts. “Opening that box, it clicked immediately,” Block says. “[I knew] this is what I need to paint;…

Le Voyage, a group show at Vanessa Rothe Fine Art gallery, will feature artwork inspired by travel. Through oil paintings and watercolors, 30 international artists will transport viewers to picturesque locales like the French Riviera, the Tuscan countryside and the Swiss Alps, as well as popular destinations in the U.S. “It has been said that ‘travel is the only thing you can buy that makes you richer,'” says gallery owner and artist Vanessa Rothe. “This could not be more true for all of us that travel and especially for creative writers, photographers, and artists who glean so much from their surroundings.” One of the show’s featured artists, Nicolas Martin, was born and raised in France and feels fortunate to have had several countries within a short distance from his home…

For almost all of November, Gross McCleaf Gallery will host the solo show Out Here on Our Own—a new series of 15 paintings by the talented Ted Walsh. His work explores and illuminates scenes from everyday life, including figure paintings and land-scapes with houses and buildings that are familiar to Walsh’s family who resides in rural New Jersey. Having moved away from city life and therefore “out on their own,” his body of work has also grown to reflect this change to a simpler way. “Ted Walsh has an eye for mysterious compositions that provide just enough information for a slow narrative to unfold,” notes Morgan Hobbs, assistant director of Gross McCleaf Gallery. “Walsh’s limited palette and selective, restrained detail leave space for the imagination to run wild. Applying oil…

From crayons and construction paper to murals on buildings, Amy Lee Lummus has been a visual artist all her life. “Growing up, I realized the power of art, and how my passion for justice could be the power of my art,” she says. “Gender-based discrimination and abuse are my targets. My current paintings are in monochromatic palettes to emphasize understanding of the alarming statistics which name each piece and to release the viewer from distracting feelings created by color." Mettle Martyr Vol. 2, the second iteration of Lummus’ series, will be featured in an exhibition that opens on November 18 at BitFactory Gallery in Denver. “It features female models chosen for their survival stories, some in mid-century modern poses reclaiming humor, beauty, mettle, and most importantly, self,” she explains. “Hands-on…

Andreas Claußen’s series FLOOD sends a lonely astronaut into the vastness of a flooded Earth. Armed with nothing more than an inflatable flamingo, he floats through the water and discovers the remnants of human culture. Claußen captures the zeitgeist with his oil paintings. In the midst of ongoing uncertainty about the actual extent of the global environmental crisis, between naysayers, utopians and conspiracy theorists, between broken supply chains and soaring energy prices, Claußen’s paintings are a welcome change. With a lot of humor and irony, they spread a hopeful mood on this difficult situation and stimulate meaningful conversations about our future challenges. The starting point for this could be, for example, the striking titles: BE PREPARED, PANIC BUY, WE STAY TOGETHER and TAKE WHAT YOU NEED. They read like headlines…