Summer Salon
Summer Exhibition, Andrew Edlin, NYC
It’s a quiet time in the art world during the summer months. Usually there is a lull in major art fairs and exhibitions before the full swing of fall shows begin. However, if you do a little searching there are still many lovely places to view art. One such example is Recent Works By at Andrew Edlin Gallery in New York’s Lower East Side. With over a dozen artists, this group show is brimming with work that is a pleasing combination of commanding skill with energetic and whimsical style.
One of the first impressions of the works in this exhibition is that they all seem to be permeated by a state of dreaminess. For example, artist Dan Miller scrawls out gestures and words until they form an a visual and psychological abstraction. Work in the show by Tom Duncan is similar to Miller’s in that it mines through personal memory and psyche, although Duncan’s work leans much further towards a child-like, folksy figuration. Whereas the elegant geometric compositions by Karla Knight contain coded language and repetitive imagery that evokes a fantastic and otherworldly quality.
For all of the previously mentioned dreaminess, this show is also wonderfully tactile. Duke Riley’s panels covered with shells are the most obvious and lustrous examples of this. Summer Wheat’s massive painting Adjustments shouts its presence with its frenetic forms and vibrant colors. Similarly scaled Untitled by aforementioned Dan Miller and the nearly neon abstractions of Tom Bronk also dominate with their electric hues.
Recent Works By isn’t a sprawling and academically ambitious survey, and that’s a good thing. This is an exhibition that is not challenging or disturbing, but it is certainly pleasing to behold. In a season when galleries tend to be on hiatus, this summer exhibition is filled with gems by a bounty of truly skilled artists.
