Thursday, April 16, 2015

Hank Willis Thomas looks back on 100 years of white women

The Jack Shainman Gallery in Chelsea is currently presenting a collection of work by Hank Willis Thomas for the exhibition Unbranded: A Century of White Women, 1915—2015. For his fifth solo show at the gallery, Thomas unveils 101 photographs relating to different generations of white women and how they’ve portrayed in popular culture over the past century. Thomas chooses images that represent each individual year between 1915 and 2015 where explores notions of virtue, power, beauty, privilege, and desire that many of these women possess.

One of the earliest images in this show No Anxious Moments (1918) perfectly captures the charm of mother and child bonding as it illustrates a woman in her kitchen kneeling down in front of her oven to take out a tray of muffins as her young daughter stands next to her beaming with her rosy cheeks and wearing a long apron. The girl very much resembles the iconic Little Debbie, the namesake of brand of desserts whose products include cupcakes and brownies.

"No Anxious Moments" (1918)


Similarly, Give Your Daughter a Daughter (1971) also highlights notions family bonding as it depicts three generations of women. A woman sits in a large wicker chair as her young daughter with pigtail braids sits on her lap as a baby doll with curly blonde hair, blue eyes, and wearing a light pink dress sits on the child’s lap.

Another theme that’s examined in the show is that of women being allowed to embrace their sexuality. The Taming of the Shrewd (1966) symbolizes the suppression of desires features a beautiful blonde woman wearing a leopard skin swimsuit trapped inside a cage in a jungle as though she were an actual live animal being locked up as her male companion leans his back against the cage and looking over his shoulder in amusement. On the other hand, The Natives Will Get Restless (1976) depicts a woman swinging on a rope in the jungle, wearing a bikini, as though she’s finally breaking free from societal constraints.


The most recent image in the show Just As Our Forefathers Intended, (2015) pays homage to Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze’s iconic Washington Crossing the Delaware painting with two groups of women standing on a wooden board in the place of George Washington’s army as they make their journey across the Delaware River. The first group of women are standing in front of a red flatbed truck pulling another group of women piled onto a boat.


At the Jack Shainman Gallery, 524 W. 24th St., and 513 W. 20th St., through May 23. The gallery is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m.

Friday, April 10, 2015

Philemona Williamson explores adventures of adolescence at Soho gallery show

The June Kelly Gallery in Soho is presenting a collection of recent work by Philemona Williamson for the exhibition Black & Colored. For this show, Williamson unveils several intriguing oil paintings where she lets her imagination run wild, as her subjects include girls and women often in playful or dramatic situations. She also effectively captures the anxiety and curiosity that most young girls feel as they go through the transition from childhood to adulthood.

For instance, Round About Midnight depicts a girl about 12 or 13 years old in an awkward position as she is half-squatting, with her right foot as she presses her left foot against a small door, and both of her feet appear to be caught in a red web. She holds a pink stuffed bunny rabbit in one hand that she that she raises out in front of her, as she thrusts her other arm behind her which is bent as she carries a mysterious red sea creature in her hand. The girl’s head is turned toward the viewer with an intense expression on her face as dark blue skies can be seen behind her.


"Round About Midnight" (2015)



A similar painting titled Golden Afternoon also features a young girl in between two older women with all of them wearing bright, yellow dresses. The girl appears to be in the midst of a tug-of-war as the two women are clutching her dress, with one of them trying to pull her back, as the other tries to pull her forward. Another intriguing piece Invisible Run illustrates a tan-skinned girl with blonde pigtails running away as she tosses a stuffed animal behind her. The background is pitch black and the swift pace at which the girl is running is shown with swift brushstrokes that shadow the girl’s body including a faint shadow of one of her legs.

Williamson is a native New Yorker who received a bachelor's degree from Bennington College and a master’s degree in painting from New York University.  She is the recipient of numerous awards and her work has been shown in many one-person and group exhibitions across the country and around the world. Additionally, Williamson’s designs were included in Seasons, 18 fused-glass panels for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Art in Transit program at the Livonia Subway Station in Brooklyn, and Folktales from Around the World, which are four glass mosaic murals for the New York City Board of Education at the Glen Oaks Campus School in Queens.




At The June Kelly Gallery, 166 Mercer St., through May 12. The gallery is open Tues.—Sat. from 11 a.m.—6 p.m.

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Rose Wylie's perceptions of people and animals at Chelsea gallery show

 The Thomas Erben Gallery in Chelsea is currently presenting a collection of work by British painter Rose Wylie for the exhibition Girl and Spiders. For her second solo show at the gallery, Wylie unveils paintings and collages of people and animals, which she creates mostly from memory. The ideas for her subjects come from a variety of sources such as things she sees in the news, in movies, on television, and things she’s learned about while studying art history. She’s also inspired by different eras in art history and people she meets or comes across in her life.

One notable image that evokes joy and childhood fantasies is Blue Horse With Girl depicting a black and blue horse leaping into the air with a teenage girl dancing on its back as though trying to capture the carefree innocence of when she was a young child. Other works that Wylie offers include portraits such as Danser (Dark Eyes) and Zelda. Danser (Dark Eyes) evokes lighthearted humor as it’s caricature of an entertainer whose head is shaped like a heart that balances on top of his skinny neck. The figure has well-combed hair and chiseled cheekbones, but has a mischievous expression on his face as he glances to his left, with his left eye being larger than his right. Zelda is the portrait of a woman with bold, black brushstrokes going through her short, curly hair with a somewhat stern expression on her face.

"Blue Horse With Girl" (2013) by Rose Wylie

 Rose Wylie studied at Folkestone & Dover School of Art and the Royal College of Art in London where she earned her M.A. Wylie’s first show at the Thomas Erben Gallery in 2010 led to wide recognition by the U.S. audience.  In 2014, she won the John Moores Painting Prize, which is a high honor in the United Kingdom.

Wylie’s work has been featured in numerous solo exhibitions at institutions all throughout Europe, and her works are also included in many permanent collections including Tate Britain, and The National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington D.C.


At the Thomas Erben Gallery, 526 W. 26th St. through May 9. The gallery is open Tues.—Sat. from 10 a.m.—6 p.m.

Thursday, April 2, 2015

Alma Thomas' Earthly drawings and paintings on view at Chelsea gallery

“Man’s highest inspirations come from nature. A world without color would seem dead. Color is life. Light is the mother of color. Light reveals to us the spirit and the living soul of the world through colors.” That was the philosophy of Alma Thomas, the late Abstract Expressionist painter whose works will be on view at the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery in Chelsea in an exhibit titled Alma Thomas: Moving Heaven and Earth, Paintings and Works on Paper, 1958—1978

Alma W. Thomas was born in Columbus, Georgia in 1891. When Thomas was a teenager, her family moved to Washington D.C. to escape the racial violence that was prevalent in their hometown. Thomas began studying at Howard University in 1921 where she earned her BS in Fine Arts three years later. She then became an art teacher at Shaw Junior High School where she founded a community art program to introduce her students to the world of fine art. In 1958, two years before she retired from teaching, Thomas began her career as an artist and had her first exhibition in 1966 at Howard University’s Gallery of Art, followed a few years later with exhibitions at the Whitney Museum and Corcoran Gallery of Art. Thomas passed away in 1978 at age 86 and this exhibit at the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery includes more than 40 drawings and paintings she did during the last 20 years of her life when she decided to become a full-time artist. 

"Oriental Sunset" (1973)
Thomas’ works consist of rhythmic patterns that are bursting with energy with their vibrant colors. She had an appreciation for nature and her keen observations come through in all of her works. For instance End of Autumn depicts the Earth with a blue center representing the winter that will soon be approaching as the typical red, yellow, and orange colors are pushed to the side. Contrarily, Spring No. 1 features a group of bright colors on the right side starting to dominate and push to the side cooler colors to mark the emergence of springtime.


Thomas also recognizes the importance of yin and yang elements in two similar paintings that both feature swift black paint strokes dancing across the canvas. One of them titled Fire Flies has hot colors like red to represent yang, while the other titled Tales of the Vienna Woods has cooler colors like blue to represent yin. Thomas has also done many paintings of several different shapes clustered together on the canvas giving them the appearance of a stained glass window. Such paintings include Jonquils, Oriental Sunset, Red Scarlet Sage, Scarlet Sage, and Dancing a Whirling Dervish.


At the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, 100 Eleventh Ave., through May 16. The gallery is open Tues.—Sat. from 10 a.m.—6 p.m.