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The New Contemporary Art Magazine
Figurative artist Malcolm Liepke paints expressive images of men and women with increasing sensuality and range of emotions. The gestural quality of his oil paintings (previously covered here) lends to his concepts that explore sexual freedom and inhibition. It’s a technique he borrows from those of his favorite artists which includes Diego Velázquez and John Singer Sargent. Closing today at Arcadia Gallery in New York city, his new series “All That We Might Become” builds upon the layers of the complex psychology found in his art.
Painter Brad Kunkle (featured in HF Vol. 25) delves further into his exploration of spirituality and ritual with his latest solo show, "The Belonging," opening at Arcadia Contemporary in New York on December 11. The artist combines oil paint with gold and silver leaf to create ethereal visions of women traversing windy fields. They seem to be on spiritual quests. We see them being lifted off the ground, their expressions knowing yet still enraptured, as glistening gusts of leaves and feathers sweep them away into the heavens.
Modern day mermaids, Victor Grasso's subjects are painted with accoutrements culled from the deep. One model sits in a graceful yet slouchy pose that evokes the dramatic posturing of both Renaissance portraiture and fashion editorials. A shark's jaw bones frame her face like a couture accessory that complements her ruffled gown and sheer veil. In other pieces, shiny, sinewy squid bodies make headdresses and stoles for women who, bafflingly, seem to wear them with confidence and ease. Grasso (who is self-taught, by the way) paints these characters with a photorealist quality, creating stark contrasts that evoke the reflections a bright flash causes on skin. The artist will have two new pieces featured in the group show "Size Matters," opening at New York's Arcadia Contemporary on October 16, and is currently working on a painting that will be shown at Hashimoto Contemporary in San Francisco for the "LAX/SFO" group show curated by Thinkspace, opening on October 31.
Beautifully-rendered and atmospheric, Aron Wiesenfeld’s latest body of paintings reminds us how adept the artist is at creating scenes of suspenseful distinction. With the precedent of following the artist’s work set in Hi-Fructose Vol.14, Vol. 22 and online, we were invited into his studio to gaze into Wiesenfeld’s progressively mysterious world. His latest suite of paintings, titled "Solstice" will be shown at Arcadia Contemporary in NYC from September 18 through October 3.