Alison's Art Reviews

Hope Gangloff is presenting a collection of acrylic paintings for a show at the Susan Inglett Gallery. The works serve as a personal diary of sorts and include still-lifes, landscapes, and portraiture. The atmosphere is relaxed in Gangloff’s portrayals of friends and acquaintances such as Arnold (Lehman-Richter) featuring a man comfortably seated near a lakefront gazing at distant mountains in soothing tones of blue, purple and green. Waggie and James shows a man lounging on a sofa with his dog at his side; in another, titled James Case-Leal , the same character is shown braiding his hair while casually balancing a cigarette in his mouth. A large painting of a meadow hangs on the wall, with varying shades of reds and blues making it stand out. Other notable works include Brook at Dusk which offers an alluring array of soft and bright colors, the simple Bittersweet Barn with the bright, red subject taking over most of the canvas and Spring Porch capturing a night during a t...

The Bowery Gallery in Chelsea is currently presenting a collection of work by Dena Schutzer for the show Agitation and Retreat . For this show, Schutzer, who’s based in the New York City area, unveils several oil paintings completed over the last two years that include cityscapes, rural scenes, still-lifes, and portraits of people and animals as they go about their daily lives in varying environments. Regarding the title, Schutzer explains that “Agitation” refers to the hustle-and-bustle feeling of scenarios she observes while “Retreat” refers to quieter and more personal moments she experiences. Some of the works depicting “Agitation” include Four Men Working that shows a group of construction workers diligently and fervently opening up a city street with clouds of steam rising. Other works in “Agitation” include the energy felt in Sparring showing a boy and his father in a boxing match in a park; Cables and Green Sky depicts a chaotic arrangement of power lines and thick, cur...