Cathy Nan Quinlan and Kurt Hoffman at Valentine

Cathy Nan Quinlan, Simple Still Life (2011)

James writes:

Valentine is an apartment gallery in the Ridgewood section of Queens, a vital little venue at the eastern edge of the arts wave that has washed over Williamsburg and now inundates Bushwick, Brooklyn. Fred Valentine, the gallery's owner, is a refugee from Williamsburg with an eye for off-the-grid art. His exhibition of still-life paintings by Cathy Nan Quinlan (b. 1953) and ink landscapes by Kurt Hoffman (b. 1957) demonstrates how alternative the alternative can be.

Cathy Nan Quinlan, Sunset (2011)

Ms. Quinlan starts with Giorgio Morandi's iconic etchings and recasts them in oil, painting her own hatch-marks. The work has an intimate, cool feel, with unexpected colors in place of Morandi's black and white. Ms. Quinlan once ran her own Williamsburg space called the "'temporary Museum" that, she writes on her website, prized the "compact, intense stillness" of oil on canvas.

Cathy Nan Quinlan, Optimism (2011)

At Valentine, her most intense statements are the ones that are the most compact and still, like "Optimism" (2011) and "Sunset" (2011).

Kurt Hoffman, Ramble, NYC, Jan 1, 2012 (2012)

Over the past decade Mr. Hoffman has gone from drawing lewd little pictures to serene large landscapes. Examples of both are now on view. In 2010 the Eastern tradition of ink brushed on paper compelled him to turn off the cartoons and head to Central Park to draw en plein air.

Kurt Hoffman, Japanese Maple (2010)

The resulting landscapes might border on chinoiserie, but the spare beauty of "Japanese Maple" (2010) rises above pastiche with its simple beauty.

Details:
Cathy Nan Quinlan and Kurt Hoffman
Valentine Gallery
464 Seneca Ave., Ridgewood, N.Y.
(718) 381-2962
Through June 24

--adapted from "Course of Nature and Faust," The Wall Street Journal, June 8, 2012

A Guide to Bushwick Open Studios 2012

James writes:

If there was any doubt about the vitality of the outer-borough scene, just go to artsinbushwick.org and scan through the more than 500 venues now participating in Bushwick Open Studios, to take place June 1 through June 3.

This year BOS will include the neighborhood’s first art fair, cheekily called “Bushwick Basel” (with several participants from Ridgewood).

Here's also what I'm looking forward to:

• the final weekend for the Vander Ende-Onderdonk House installation.
• The shows at The Active Space. 
• The works of Dana Gordon (more here).
• My colleague Rebecca Litt
• The 1980s Bushwick photographer Meryl Meisler (whose work I first saw in Steve Malanga's history of Bushwick for City Journal)
• Cathy Nan Quinlan and Kurt Hoffman at Valentine Gallery (more here)
• Amy Lincoln and Kevin Curran
• Maps and Mimosas at Norte Maar
• Group painting organized by Julie Torres at The Coin Locker
• And a show at Sharon Butler’s studio honoring the blog Two Coats of Paint curated by Austin Thomas (whose pioneer Bushwick gallery Pocket Utopia has recently reopened on the Lower East Side).

Bushwick is the place to be for its sixth and biggest open studios this coming weekend. Visit artsinbushwick.org to make your own list.   

Deborah Brown, Freewheeling II (2012) at The Active Space

Meryl Meisler, Vanessa Mártir, Patricia O'Brien, Defying Devastation: Bushwick in the 80s, at The Living Gallery

Rebecca Litt, Elsewhere in the City (2011)

Dana Gordon, Untitled (2011)

Amy Lincoln, Breakfast Table

BOS2012 : Be sure to wear your walking shoes! Here's a map of the shows

 --adapted from "Gallery Chronicle," The New Criterion, June 2012

Burrata in the Bronx

Arthur & Crescent Avenues, Bronx in 1940

James and Dara write:

It helps to bring a grandmother to Arthur Avenue in the Belmont section of the Bronx. The real "Little Italy" of New York City is a multi-generational family affair. Girl Scouts sell cookies on the streets, the proprietors boast about how far back in the bloodlines their businesses go, and the low prices are out of another era.

This is no Italian-American toy town. Every day, a dense assembly of specialty purveyors offers up some of the highest quality meats, cheeses, breads, and pastas found anywhere in New York, even as the neighborhood has yet to make it on every foodie map (their loss). With Brooklyn getting all the culinary attention these days, now is the right time to venture up to this epicure's eden in the Bronx. 

Driving to Arthur Avenue is the easiest way to get there. We've never had a problem with street parking. The district is close to the Bronx Zoo and Fordham University, and the closest train station is the Fordham stop on Metro North, about eight blocks away.

The shopping district runs in an L up Arthur Avenue to 187th Street and then heads east for several blocks. We like to start at Terranova Bakery at 691 East 187th Street. An unassuming storefront masks an original coal-fired oven, where some of the best bread in the city is baked every day and now delivered by special truck to many of Manhattan's top restaurants. The wonderful owner, Pietro, led us into the back to see the bakery in action. (All photographs below by James Panero)

 Next up is Joe's Deli for fresh mozzarella and burrata--mozzarella filed with cream.

Another block west is Borgatti's Ravioli and Egg Noodles. The pasta is cut to order and the ravioli comes in sleeves wrapped in paper. 

Above, two essential stops: Vincent's Meat Market and Teitel. At Vincent's, the aromatic broccoli rabe sausage spiraled in a circle and held together by wooden sticks is a favorite. Cosenza's Fish Market one block south sells raw oysters and clams on the street. For lunch there's Zero Otto Nove, one of chef Roberto Paciullo's three New York restaurants and named for the telephone code in his childhood home of Salerno. And for desert: can't beat the cookies at Madonia Brothers Bakery.