Jean Hélion at Schroeder Romero & Shredder

Jean Hélion, Nu Accoudé (Oil on canvas 32 x 24 inches, 1949)

James writes:

Walk past the edgy group show in the front room of Schroeder Romero & Shredder, and you’d be forgiven for thinking there’s another multiartist exhibition in the back. Here are abstractions, doodles, illustrations, representational paintings, and just about everything in between. That Jean Hélion (1904-1987) created them all speaks to the range of this influential French-American artist.

Jean Hélion, Equilibre (Oil on canvas 44 7/8 x 57 7/8 inches, 1936)

Mr. Hélion was often out of step with the styles of the day. He was abstract in the 1930s, representational in the 1950s. Now these shifts demonstrate his independence of vision. This compact survey, a joint effort of the gallery and Deborah Rosenthal, lets us see the connections between wide-ranging works. The sculptural shapes of “Abstraction” (1939) reappear in the wrinkled bed sheets and folded arms of “Nu Accoudé” (1949)—an exquisite example of the artist’s representational abilities.

Jean Hélion, L'Abstraction, Le Peintre et le Modele (Acrylic on canvas, 44 7/8 x 64 inches, 1979-80)

Mr. Hélion drew “from daily experience as well as from culture, from the experience of others,” as he once told the artist George L.K. Morris. He excelled in his powers of observation, even if the execution did not always equal the vision (as in the overcooked “Remake” from 1983).

Jean Hélion, Remake (Oil on canvas 57 1/2 x 38 1/2 inches, 1983)

Mr. Hélion lived an impressive life. After being captured as a French soldier in 1940, he spent two years as a POW before escaping from a Nazi prison ship. Ms. Rosenthal has written the foreword to a reissue of his book about this ordeal. A bestseller when published in 1943, “They Shall Not Have Me” is a manifesto of freedom from an artist who refused to stand still or look away.

Details:
Jean Hélion: ‘Five Decades’
Schroeder Romero & Shredder
531 W. 26th St., (212) 630-0722
Through June 30

--adapted from The Wall Street Journal, June 23, 2012

Abdolreza Aminlari and Drew Shiflett at Storefront Bushwick

Abdolreza Aminlari, Untitled (gold thread on paper, 11" X 8.5,"  2011) 

James writes:

Storefront gallery, now called Storefront Bushwick, has been at the center of Bushwick’s burgeoning arts scene since opening 2½ years ago. Now under the sole directorship of the painter Deborah Brown, the gallery has a knack for exhibiting the neighborhood’s best young talent alongside midcareer artists who largely came of age in Williamsburg.

Drew Shiflett, Easel Sculpture #2 (paper, fabric, glue, cardboard, wood, polyester stuffing, styrofoam, wire, 54" x 43" x 24", 2000)

The gallery’s program shows the continuity of what is sometimes called DIY (for Do It Yourself) art—work that is unslick, irony-free and made by living, breathing artists rather than studio assistants. The latest exhibition of art by Abdolreza Aminlari (b. 1979) and Drew Shiflett (b. 1951) demonstrates how impeccable the gallery’s cross-generational pairings can be. Mr. Aminlari “draws” abstractions with string stitched through paper. Ms. Shiflett creates abstract sculptures of paper, fabric, cardboard and other materials. Both artists match the ideal and the homespun, the ethereal and the craft-based in ways that seem indicative of an outer-borough aesthetic.

 Abdolreza Aminlari, Composition 5 (black thread on paper, 22" x 30", 2011) 

It’s hard not to see golden carpets flying through the intricate work of the Iranian-born Mr. Aminlari—and, in Ms. Shiflett’s sculpture, the magical loom that created them. With an intense pencil-drawing by Lauren Seiden (b. 1981) peeking out from the gallery’s project space, this delicate show lifted me up and had me floating down Flushing Avenue.

Details:

Abdolreza Aminlari and Drew Shiflett
Storefront Bushwick
16 Wilson Ave., Brooklyn
(917) 714-3813
Through July 1

--adapted from An Improv of Color And Threads of Hope, The Wall Street Journal, June 23, 2012

Julie Torres at Taller Boricua

Julie Torres, My 12 Hours With Austin Thomas (Acrylic on 55 Sheets of 9 x 12 Inch Paper, 2011) & Another 12 Hours With Austin (Acrylic on 3 sheets of 38 x 48 Inch Paper, 2011)

James writes:

Every schoolkid knows that painting can be fun. Julie Torres (b. 1971) does not let us forget it. This Brooklyn-based artist is an evangelist for the radiant line and the colorful schmear. Much of her work is the result of marathon studio sessions that are part performance and part product. By painting a wall of works in a single day, often in the company of other artists, she tweaks what an abstract artist is supposed to be. Rather than labored, secretive and solitary, her work is ad hoc, transparent and communal.

Julie Torres, Assorted Paintings and Drawings. Gouache, Acrylic, Watercolor on Paper and Sketchbooks, 2011- 2012. courtesy Paul Behnke/Structure and Imagery

Taller Boricua, a nonprofit gallery in the Julia de Burgos Latino Cultural Center in Spanish Harlem, captures this exuberance. The show also demonstrates how New York’s alternative arts scene now includes Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and northern Manhattan. Here, Ms. Torres carries her improvisational style to the carefree placement of work. Paintings of bright shapes and bold colors bend around corners, appear at ceiling height and floor level, and on two doors hidden in the gallery. Mounted with pushpins, these works on paper in acrylic, gouache and watercolor are all left unframed.

Julie Torres, Assorted Paintings and Drawings, Acrylic on Paper, 2011 - 2012. courtesy Paul Behnke/Structure and Imagery

Not everything performs at grade level. A few too many rainbows are scattered about. But underlying the apparent simplicity is smart paint handling. Ms. Torres’s most resonant work is “My 12 Hours With Austin Thomas” (2011). More than 8 feet tall, composed of 55 individual paper sheets, this is abstract art in mural form. The painting has a message, and the message is to paint.

Julie Torres, My 15 Hours With Geddes Levenson, Acrylic on 42 Sheets of 9 x 12 Paper, 2011

Details:

Julie Torres: Bold As Love
Taller Boricua
1680 Lexington Ave.
(212) 831-4333
Through July 14

Julie Torres will next show at Storefront Bushwick, opening July 6

--adapted from An Improv of Color And Threads of Hope, The Wall Street Journal, June 23, 2012

Julie Torres, Assorted Paintings and Drawings. Gouache, Acrylic, Watercolor on Paper and Sketchbooks, 2011- 2012

Julie Torres, Assorted Paintings and Drawings. Gouache, Acrylic, Watercolor on Paper, Sketchbooks and Playing Cards, 2011- 2012