Contemporary Art: Empire of the Senseless @ Gallery Friedman Benda, New York

 

(Drivebycuriosity) - I like to explore contemporary art and to get surprised and entertained. Yesterday I visited the gallery Friedman Benda, one of the classy art dealers in Chelsea (515 W 26th Street New York friedman). The place has an exhibition called "Kathy Acker Empire of the Senseless" (through March 28).

The title of the show refers to the Punk author Kathy Acker and her 1988 novel "Empire of the Senseless" (exhibitions). The curators describe  this book as a "dark, grotesquely candid, screaming requiem to the romanticism of the patriarchy". The gallery invited six artists "to use painting to reflect on their unique explorations of reality".

Anyway. I enjoyed the selection, senseless or not. This posts starts with Natalie Frank`s painting "Women in Interior" (2015, Oil canvas, 60 x 72 inches, 152.4 x 182.9 cm). I indulge into the warm colors and into the inviting character of the composition.

 

Unfortunately the gallery didn`t care to tag the paintings. Even the website wasn`t very helpful. But the painting above also belongs to Natalie Frank.

This is another work by Natalie Frank - certainly not the usual chicken wings.

This is a painting by the Swedish artist Kristina Jansson I suppose.

Above you can see more works by Kristina Jansson (segments clockwise).

Kristina Jansson named the work above "Cut 2" (2015, Oil on canvas, 100.39 x 65.75 inches, 255 x 167 cm)


                                Cold Heat

The lady before the green window (?) is a work by the Swedish artist Sara Vide‐Ericson (saravide). The painting is titled "The Obvious" (Oil on canvas, 130x160 cm, 2014).

The painting above is called "Cold Heat", again by Sara Vide‐Ericson (Oil on canvas, 130x160 cm, 2014).

Above you can see Sara Vide‐Ericson`s "The Rapture" (2014,
Oil on canvas, 63 x 47 inches, 160 x 120 cm).

This one is "Appliqué" by Francesca DiMattio 
(2014
, Oil, acrylic and collage on canvas
, 90 x 76 inches
, 228.6 x 193 cm).

                             Female Answer

I guess that the 3 works above are all created by the German artist Rosa Loy. Her style looks like the female answer to Neo Rauch, another German (in December I reported about his show @ David Zwirner driveby).

Rosa Loy named her composition "Bearbeitung (Processing)" ( 2015, Casein on canvas, 59 x 39.5 inches, 150 x 100 cm).



Enjoy!


PS. The pictures are taken with a point-and-shoot camera (Panasonic Lumix DMC-SZ7) which doesn`t get the images perfectly. If you go to the gallery you will get a much better impression.