Are you ready for some strong color? Go west, young paintaholic, to Chelsea for the two most ecstatically chromatic shows in New York. Both feature artists using acrylic (nothing gives the bounce of hue, value and chroma like it) who were bold-faced names by the 1970s: Larry Poons at Danese/Corey, and Syd Solomon at Berry Campbell. Syd Solomon was a fixture on the Hamptons scene beginning in the glory days when giants roamed the beaches, including his friends Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Alfonso Ossorio. It was Syd Solomon who hosted the first artists vs. writers softball game in 1966.

The Whitney Museum of American Art opens to the public on May 1st

You Can’t Get There From Here: The 2015 Portland Museum of Art Biennial highlights Maine’s artistic legacies in the making. Curated by Alison Ferris, this year’s Biennial provides a comprehensive overview of the many facets of Maine’s contemporary art scene. The exhibition will be on view through January 3, 2016

Ken Greenleaf was chosen for a large acrylic-on-canvas geometric painting with shaped supports. When hung, the piece, which is six-feet across, appears to float over the surface of the wall. “I’m happy to be in the Biennial,” Greenleaf said via email. “There hasn’t been much of my new work shown in Maine for a few years, so it will be good to have a good-sized piece in that show.”

Ann Purcell's Hopscotch #1 (1978) will be featured in the group show “Art in the Making: A New Adaption” exhibiting in the Luther W. Brady Art Gallery at George Washington University. Purcell's painting will be displayed alongside work by Lee Bontecou, Helen Frankenthaler, Charles Pollock, Jackson Pollock, Gene Davis, Georgia Deal, Andrew Hudson, Jules Olitski, Dennis O’Neil and Berthold Josef Schmutzhart. 

The exhibition is on view to the public from Wednesday, May 6, 2015 to Friday, July 17, 2015

Structure and Imagey
A Contemporary Art Blog by Paul Behnke
Syd Solomon @ Berry Campbell

Altoon Sultan blogs about Walter Darby Bannard: Minimal Color Field Paintings, 1958-1965 at Berry Campbell Gallery, New York, through April 18, 2015.

Sultan writes: "Bannard's color is unique and surprising. In the exhibition ... there are pinks and warm reds and cool greens, and all colors confound expectations with their pleasurable seriousness. After all...pink? When I think of a great painter using pink, Philip Guston comes to mind; in his works pink becomes a subversive color. Bannard's pink isn't brash and saturated, but subtle; it looks like a mixed hue. The circle sits solidly in its field, perfectly balanced, slightly above the midpoint of a rectangle slightly taller than square. The pink becomes transcendent."

ART HAPS Exhibition

Syd Solomon

Swingscape | Paintings from the 1970s

CHELSEA

Opening from Thu Apr 23, From 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM

On view Thu Apr 23 - Sat May 23

Berry Campbell Gallery | 530 W 24th Street

Curated by Christine Berry, Martha Campbell

Christine Berry and Martha Campbell started their gallery 18 months ago after working for several years at Spanierman Modern; both moved on around the time of Ira Spainierman’s retirement. As they pursued other opportunities, they realized they had many connections in the art world in common.

When I think of minimalist painting, colors that come to mind are primaries and black, as in Mondrian, red/blue/green as in Ellsworth Kelly, white in Robert Ryman: simple clear colors. Robert Mangold uses some offbeat hues, grays and oranges and lemon yellows. But Walter Darby Bannard's color is unique and surprising. In the exhibition at Berry Campbell Gallery "Walter Darby Bannard: Minimal Color Field Paintings, 1958-1965" there are pinks and warm reds and cool greens, and all colors confound expectations with their pleasurable seriousness.