Continuing: Joan Mitchell | Paintings, 1979-1985 at Zwirner

This exhibition of works from public and private collections, as well as from the Joan Mitchell Foundation, is presented in conjunction with the career retrospective that opened at SFMOMA, traveled to the Baltimore Museum of Art, and is now on view at Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris—concurrent with the exhibition Claude Monet—Joan Mitchell.

Mitchell established a singular visual vocabulary over the course of her more than four-decade career. While rooted in the conventions of abstraction, Mitchell’s inventive reinterpretation of the traditional figure-ground relationship and remarkable adeptness with color set her apart from her peers, and resulted in intuitively constructed and emotionally charged compositions that alternately conjure individuals, observations, places, and points in time. Her prodigious oeuvre encompasses not only the large-scale abstract canvases for which she is best known, but also smaller paintings, drawings, and prints.

The earliest painting in this exhibition, Wood, Wind, No Tuba (1979; The Museum of Modern Art, New York) marks Mitchell’s triumphant reimmersion in her Vétheuil studio following the departure of Jean Paul Riopelle, her companion of more than two decades, earlier that year. Dominated by a palette of radiant orange—one of the bright and vivid hues that recurs throughout Mitchell’s canvases of the early 1980s—the short, staccato brushstrokes that nearly fill the large-scale diptych suggest a renewed sense of confidence that would carry through the remainder of the artist’s career. 

Through December 17 at David Zwirner. 537 West 20th Street, New York, NY Photo © Peggy Roalf Info

Friday , November 18, 6:00-8:00 pm: Thomas Barger | Wholesome at Salon 94 Design

Thomas Barger likes to play with holes. Some holes come in rows on the backs and bottoms of his paper pulp, plywood, and polyurethane chairs. Other holes burrow neatly through coffee tables and shelf assemblages. Still others are spread high up to the pointed ends of his Tall Pulpit Chair. On a few occasions, the holes are heart-shaped cut-outs from found antique furniture. But mostly, they are exact circles, approximately 3 inches in diameter. They are ideal cavities to slide a few fingers through or, with a little patience and tenacity, a whole wrist. Pillories for our slippery hands and distracted appetites.

Wholesome takes its name from a recurring triangulation of hole motifs–functional lightening holes, peepholes, and wicker baskets–dispersed throughout this work. Trained as an architect and landscape designer at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Barger has a keen awareness for interlacement and intention. The absence of matter in the design of an object–from a hole, for instance–alleviates logistical hurdles such as bulkiness or fragility.  Included in the show are Barger’s Shaker-inspired pulpit chairs, a few cloudy coffee tables and petite side chairs, animalesque objects, vintage chair assemblages, and new large-scale wall works, such as Innie or outie Interruption and Scattered Interruption

Salon 94 Design, 1 Freeman Alley, New York, NY Info

Wednesday, November 30, 7:00 pm: Seeing Music, live online at New York Artists Circle

Being nurtured or sustained by music; making art that shares the characteristics of the music being played; embodying the rhythm, harmony and passion of music visually—these are some of the experiences of the 30 artists represented in Seeing Music.

Artists were invited to switch on the playlist of their lives and consider the music that indelibly marks significant moments—or music that can always be counted on to change up their mood. Many have found that certain composers or musical artists exemplify the manner in which their art shares a similar process, such as improvisation or meditation. They selected recent works of art, in all mediums (except for video) to share along with the music in the space of this online presentation, curated by Yvonne Lamar-Rogers and Cheryl Aden.

Artists  
Ellen Alt, Bascove, Lois Bender, Karin Bruckner, Kit Callahan, Irene Christensen, 
Hilda Green Demsky, Elaine Forrest, David Alon Friedman, Barbara Groh, Susan Grucci, 
Monroe Hodder, Sandra Indig, Sheryl Intrator, Suejin Jo, Diana Kurz, Barbara McDougall, 
Janet Morgan, Suzanne Pemberton, Ellen Pliskin, Leah Poller, Jacqueline Sferra Rada, 
Kristin Reed, Barbara Swanson Sherman, Regina Silvers, Barbara Slitkin, Linda Stillman,
Sandra Taggart, Nicholas Wolfson, Alice Zinnes 

Selected quotes from the artists’ statements:
Responding to the pulse, repeated themes and dramatic flourishes of Schubert's Symphony No. 59 ...Suzanne, by Leonard Cohen, knows where to merge with the all within me ...Love at First Sound! The desert's sweeping panoramic romance, shimmering in Cacophonous Beauty! ... Jehan Kamal’s energy is primal, her skills divine; her ride from control to ecstatic release informs my art ...The rhythm of juxtaposing the shapes was like the riff of a jazz musician ...Polyphonic chant dating from the Renaissance...voices without instruments, create a timeless space in which my creative energy is freed ...

Seeing Music Info Visit the New York Artists Circle website, here Full disclosure: Peggy Roalf is a member of NYAC

November 17 and December 1, 12 – 6 pm: Fall Preview | The Alpha Workshps

The Alpha Workshops Studio School came to my attention through a conversation with Richard Zimmer, an artist I met at El Barrio’s PS109, who works in this program dedicated to providing decorative arts education and employment to adults with visible or invisible disabilities/vulnerabilities. Dedicated to creating beauty and changing lives, The Alpha Workshops is the nation’s first nonprofit organization providing decorative arts education and employment to this significant--and growing--sector. Above: Batiks [studio view] by Richard Zimmer; below left: sculpture by Edward Farrell, batik by Richard Zimmer.

It was founded in 1995 in the Chelsea area of Manhattan and modeled on the famed Omega Workshops, the Wiener Werkstätte, the Bauhaus, and the American Arts & Crafts movement. This multi-faceted organization encompasses  the Alpha Workshops (AWSS), a vocational school licensed by the New York State Department of Education, and The Alpha Workshops Studios, an award-winning professional design and decorative arts atelier staffed exclusively by AWSS graduates.

In accordance with its original mission “to provide a new model of economic development for people living with HIV+/AIDS or other disabilities,” The Alpha Workshops is part of a growing movement to establish unique ways of working, teaching, and doing business with benefits for all: a do-no-harm approach to education and enterprise.

An exhibition of works by students and faculty is currently on view at the Alpha Workshops Gallery, 245 West 29^th Street, ground floor, New York, NY Info RSVP gallery@alphaworkshops.org