Fresh from her summer residency in Georgia, Abby Goldstein is back in New York City with a beautiful body of new work! Influenced by maps and the rhythms and patterns of nature, Goldstein's work has taken on a natural color palette with references to biology and flora intertwined with her characteristically lyrical line. In the words of Paul Klee "a line is a dot that went for a walk" and Abby's works are a mass of wandering dots spreading across the paper, intertwining and overlapping each other to create an abstract web of line and color. Perhaps in an effort to contain her roaming line, Abby often marks out a pencil drawn border within the page. This imposed perimeter however seems no match for her line and it's boundaries are often breached by the wandering dots. The edge of the page is more definite and not so forgiving and an interesting tension is created between the surface of the paper and the markings of Goldstein. The masses of lines have no option in this case but to bounce around the interior of the page, twisting back from the edge to reconnect with the central mass as if encased by the 2 dimensional format. We are thrilled to add a selection of Abby's summer portfolio to TWFineArt's New Art in Print. Visit Abby's PAGE to see the new selection of work in limited edition print. Small prints start at $85.00 and we ship world wide.

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It is quite a big month of exhibitions for some of TWFineArt's artists, with Max Greis, Emily Silver and Margarita Dittborn Valle all having exhibitions opening this month. To learn more about these exhibitions follow the links below and visit their page at TWFINEART.COM to see the artists work in limited edition print! MAX GREIS - The Garage Door Video Series at BRIC Contemporary Art.

"The Garage Door Video Series, Between Now and Then, is a look at landscapes in the process of change. Whether material or ethereal, these videos explore cycles of decay and rebirth. Artists in this series locate changes within broad thematic spectrums that range from the natural environment to human history. While some address visions of progress, others comment on acts of deliberate destruction. Most of the videos apply a specific technique of cut-out collage animation, which super-imposes moving images upon two-dimensional planes. This technique helps achieve unexpected optical delights, which, at times resemble moving paintings. Through the visual juxtaposition of stillness and movement, the marks of transformation over time become apparent." Exhibition curated by: Shireen Abrishamian and Banyi Huang

 

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EMILY SILVER - Savage Mentality at Cerritos College Art Gallery.

"Savage Sentimentality presents a group show of artists of unique backgrounds and interests connected by a tenuous relationship to sentiment. The artists included allude to and/or embrace sentiment while simultaneously ravaging it, either with a brutish material response or vice versa - a subject matter that contradicts the sensitivity of material handling." Guest curated by Steven Hampton.

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MARGARITA DITTBORN VALLE - Retrospective at Parque Arauco 

"Like the artists of yesteryear, Margarita Dittborn Valle's (Born: 1981 ) pure ambition is to create a sublime visual experience.... We love the subtle nostalgic and fanciful themes ever-present in the work of this photographer and winner of a transcendent self-taught artist in the national and international space."

[caption id="attachment_8959" align="alignleft" width="700"] Santa Lucía, 2006. Print by Margarita Dittborn Valle[/caption]

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TW: We’ve known each other for some time now, but it has been a while since I saw your work in person. There seems to have been a gradual departure away from the type of work you were making when we lived in New York. I once got a verbal scolding when I said to Mike Goldberg that the paintings he made on the Italian Coast during the summer had a different quality about them to the work he made in New York City - I still believe it to be true despite what he said ;-).  I’m therefore hesitant to ask, but how much has the environment in Israel influenced the evolution of your work? KP: I believe that the geographical and political environment we live and work in has a great influential force on the work, as well as the personal and psychological dispositions of the artist. By geographical I mean both natural and architectural scenery as well as a specific quality of light. if you look at the classical northern European paintings you find a unique  quality of light you won't find elsewhere, and the reason to that is the natural light that these great painters knew. Mike Goldberg was part of the New York school of abstract expressionists, who were very much influenced by the writings of Clement Greenberg. One of these painters' endeavors was to create an arena of painting that is exclusive, in which subject matter can only be painting itself, with regard to its history alone. Personally I think that painting cannot release itself from pre knowledge of vision. however, that ideology may explain the verbal scolding coming from Mike... TW: Absolutely, Mike was a purist in that sense but I totally agree with you. The environment around is inescapable, how could it not influence both his perception and use of space and color. I think in retrospect he might look down and agree. Was that a clap of thunder? KP: A few months after I moved back to Tel Aviv, I felt I had to find new approaches to my work, to come up with a different technique than the one I was developing in NY. I decided to put paint aside for a while and was only drawing for a few months, until I felt that one of the drawings needed a space [see painting below]. That space was very much derived by the seascape seen from my studio window, and the beginning of a long painting period which led to the work you are about to show in your gallery. TW: Your earlier paintings were quite process based, with a lot of spontaneous gestural drawing and layering, where you would scrape away the paint with a large pallet knife or squeegee to build the surface. The resulting abstractions had visual references to the photograph or negative. It looks as through the paint brush has returned in your more recent works. Would you say that the content, or subject matter of your later work has driven the type of materials and tools that you use? That being said, has the content of the work become more interesting to you than the process? KP: It is true that the process or the technique was much more evident and extroverted in the older work, and that the decisions that were made while working were more spontaneous because of the rapid nature of the work. However, the full content always reveals itself through the work, and I never know where the work on a painting would lead me to. It is always the process that really creates the work for me, not so much an idea or prevision, even though every painting begins with one. I think that along my evolution as a painter what mainly changed is the temper or tempo. I would say that the Temper of the older work had more to do with hysteria and hunger whereas now it is stiller. Also, the older work was more physical and it's substance more evident, almost like sculpture, the new work is lighter in substance and tends to the gaze more than to the body. TW: I know your art vocabulary is very extensive. Who have you been looking at recently? Who have you found interesting and/or inspirational? KP: Last June I took part in a project by Gilad Ratman that represented Israel at the Venice Biennale and thus was able to look at the fabulous work of a Belgium painter named Thierry de Cordier  that was shown there. His dark seascapes stayed with me ever since. also, a few years back i saw Peter Doig at the British Museum, which i found very interesting and I believe had touched my work. [caption id="attachment_10455" align="aligncenter" width="577"] Seascape - Thierry de Cordier[/caption] [caption id="attachment_10454" align="aligncenter" width="587"] The Milky Way - Peter Doig[/caption] TW: The horizon has always been a part of your work in some form or another, plastically and or conceptually. I remember a beautiful piece that you did a long time ago (during the more process driven period) where the canvas was seamed together to create an horizon. The horizon has become much more a part of these later paintings. What is it about the horizon that interests you? KP: Wow i really can't believe you remember that, it's fantastic! You are right, the horizon carries a great metaphorical meaning for me thanks to its liminal quality. To me It represents the meeting place and conciliation of endless dichotomies such as mind and matter, knowledge and faith, catastrophe and salvation, etc etc. I think that the clash of such dichotomies lies at the root of our being and is a source of great wonder as well as deep agony and frustration. TW: Your newer paintings have a darker, more brooding color pallet in contrast to the lighter, quite joyous paintings from Series 1. Has this been conscious and where do you feel the work is heading? KP: True, the work has lately become less joyous and more dramatic. The conscious decision, which of course is only part of the full picture, was to examine the roll of color in my work. I wanted to see to what extent the work relied on color, and if I only painted monochromes, when or if  the use of color became a necessity. Also, to me there is something very strong about the vast white fields. They carry the quality of a silent and ambiguous desire craved to be fulfilled, and this is also a good metaphor to end with regarding where the work is heading; It is an ambiguity that I desire to reveal. [caption id="attachment_10476" align="aligncenter" width="708"] Untitled 2014 - Keren Paz[/caption] We are thrilled to be exhibiting Keren's work. For a great art experience, be sure to visit the TWFineArt Gallery in September and see it in person!

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WARNING - ADULT CONTENT In high school I painted my first female nude. I was a young kid in a conservative catholic school celebrating the female form whist also exploring my own sexual desire and identity. My art teacher put that painting front and center at our end of year exhibition, I'm sure she did it to create a bit of a stir and to challenge the schools more conservative agenda. I loved that she did! Recently there has been press associated with the ‘scandalous’ work of Milo Moire and her performance art. Moire stands on elevated planks and drops paint filled eggs from her vagina to 'give birth' to her splat paintings. Whether or not the work is good is another debate, what's intriguing is that thousands of years since the first nudes in art, we as a culture still have issues with art that explores sex, sexual organs and sexual identity. Why do we find sexual imagery in art so confronting? Perhaps it's art's rawness that has the power to confront us with our own mortality - after all, we owe our existence to sexual arousal and desire. Always one for a bit of controversy, I thought I’d revisit some notoriously sexual artworks that have caused a major scandal throughout history. [divider] [caption id="attachment_8075" align="aligncenter" width="400"] The Origin of the World, Gustav Corbet 1866[/caption] [caption id="attachment_8071" align="aligncenter" width="514"] Olympia, Edouard Manet 1865[/caption] [caption id="attachment_8074" align="aligncenter" width="350"] Self Portrait Masturbating, Egon Schiele 1911[/caption] [caption id="attachment_8076" align="aligncenter" width="424"] The Visit, Willem DeKooning 1966[/caption] [caption id="attachment_8072" align="aligncenter" width="260"] Artforum Add, Lynda Benglis 1974[/caption] [caption id="attachment_8073" align="aligncenter" width="346"] Man in Polyester Suit, Robert Mapplethorpe 1980[/caption] [caption id="attachment_8078" align="aligncenter" width="262"] Big Blonde Jerking Off, Lisa Yuskavage 1995[/caption]    

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                [divider] Infamous New York Street artist Tony DePew has created an exclusive limited edition series of prints in collaboration with TWFineArt. DePew creates unique, personal portraits of iconic creative figures including artists Kenny Scharf & Chuck Close, costume designer Rebecca Weinberg and New York's reigning cake diva Sylvia Weinstock.  

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