Autumn in New York, Part 7: Stitched, Stapled, and Tacked

Part 1: Fiction (With only Daylight Between Us) 

Part 2: Louise Bourgeois at MoMA  

Part 3: Soft Shapes, Sharp Angles 

Part 4: Shape, Gesture, Surface 

Part 5: Blanc et Noir 

Part 6: Eccentric Domesticity  

Panorama of Howardena Pindell: Recent Paintings at the Garth Greenan Gallery, Chelsea,

extended through December 21

Like a Polaroid photo, this post developed on its own. As I viewed the handwork and hardware that formed a number of works, text and images became visible in my mind's eye. From Howardena Pindell’s splendid stitched canvases, I spent some time with Lance Letscher’s relatively small-scale stapled collages, the staples functioning much like Pindell’s stitches. Up in Western Massachusetts, Nancy Natale was showing a group of constructions whose painted strips are tacked in place. Back in Manhattan, Liza Lou's subtly striped color field revealed itself on closer inspection to be made of tiny glass beads stitched by hand.

 HOWARDENA PINDELL
 Nautilus #1,  2014-2015, mixed media on canvas, 68 x 70 inches

Detail below

.
Long known for her process-intensive work, Pindell cuts and then reassembles canvas into organic shapes that spiral or meander. Tiny cut circles, perhaps made by a hole puncher, have long been a feature of the topographical surface of Pindell's paintings, and in these new works we can see additional elements: glitter, sequins, and larger round or ovoid shapes. The paintings are shown unstretched, which underscores the organic nature of her abstraction. A veteran painter, Pindell was a founding member of A.I. R. Gallery and has shown widely. Press material notes that a retrospective, Howardena Pindell: What Remains to Be Seen, will take place at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago in the early part of 2018.

 HOWARDENA PINDELL
 Songlines: Labyrinth (Versailles), 2017, mixed media on canvas, 40.50 x 80 inches

Detail below

HOWARDENA PINDELL 

Night Flight, 2015-2016, mixed media on canvas, 75 x 63 inches

 HOWARDENA PINDELL
Carnival: Bahia, Brazil, 2017, mixed media on canvas, 74 x 84 inches

Detail below

 HOWARDENA PINDELL
Songlines: Cosmos, 2017, mixed media on canvas, 57 x 81 inches

Image from Garth Greenan Gallery website

Detail below

. . . . .

LANCE LETSCHER

Installation view of one wall of  Cut and Staple: New Work by Lance Letscher at Pavel Zoubok Gallery, Chelsea, through December 23

Image from Pavel Zoubok Gallery website

LANCE LETSCHER

Elephant Study #1, 2017, metal collage, 9 x 7 inches (shown framed at far right in installation shot above)

There are two bodies of work on exhibition: conventional collage in a riot of color and biologic forms, and the works I'm showing you here: cut-metal constructions held together with industrial staples, which give a rhythm and texture to the surface.

LANCE LETSCHER
Installation view, with Elephan Study, left, and Ampersand, right

LANCE LETSCHER

Elephant Study, 2017, metal and staples, 27.75 x 24.25

Detail below

LANCE LETSCHER

Ampersand, 2017, metal collage, 27.75 x 32.50 inches

Detail below

LANCE LETSCHER

Another installation view, with Fox and Rabbit on far wall

Image from Pavel Zoubok Gallery website

LANCE LETSCHER

Fox and Rabbit, 2017, metal collage, 18.75 x 10.50 inches

Detail below

. . . . .

NANCY NATALE
Fall Back, 2017, encaustic with mixed media on panel,  24 x 24 inches

Nancy Natale's grid-based, mixed-media constructions consist of strips of created or found materials laid horizontally, typically secured with tacks applied in a vertical orientation. The result is the visual equivalent of jazz or salsa: a 4/4 or 6/8 rhythm overlaid with the pop of syncopation and marked by improvisation that rides the highs and lows of the notes on the page. Color heightens the effect, but a new achromatic series depends on relief for its impact.

NANCY NATALE

Installation view of Pursuing Geometry at Elusie Gallery, Easthampton, Mass. (through December 2)

NANCY NATALE

Dark Foursome, 2017, mixed media, each 10 x 10 inches

NANCY NATALE
Above: Dark Time 1
Below: High Contrast

. . . . .

LIZA LOU

Title and date unavailable, stitched glass beads, app. 78 x 78 inches

Seen at Lehman Maupin Gallery, Chelsea. This gorgeous work--so subtle from a distance, so rich from up close--was not in an exhibition but simply on one of the inner-room walls when I saw it. 

You can see a similar such work here.

Detail below

. . . . .

If you've enjoyed this series--and there are two more installments coming--please consider a donation to this blog. Info is on the sidebar. Your donation is not tax deductible, as I am not affiliated with any organization, however, your donation need not be large. As you can imagine photographing, editing, Photoshopping, researching, and writing each blog post requires hours away from my studio practice. Thanking you in advance.