The paintings of New York-based artist Angela Fraleigh question the social issues of beauty, class and gender. Ambiguous figures occupy space bound in tension as they struggle for power within their surrounding environments. The artist’s formal process of painting allows the figures to be dominated by a wash of seductive intensity that captures the passion of her subjects. “If not, winter” is the title of[.....]

The photography of Lynne Cohen documents large empty spaces that imply human presence through objects and environments rather than from physical being. Spaces such as classrooms, work places, spas, laboratories and libraries are often used in Cohen’s found sets, each room isolated and full of psychological and narrative possibilities. The photographs identify institutionalized spaces that are saturated with information about the humans who have occupied[.....]

Michael Salter is an artist who synthesizes the constant flow of images from contemporary culture into a new visual language. Salter creates multi-disciplinary work that challenges mass media through reductive and iconic imagery. The artist has begun to create installations of oversized and miniature robots out of cardboard boxes and Styrofoam. Salter re-contextualizes the materials, objects and images employed in his installations to offer new[.....]

Referencing promotional imagery used by commercial billboards to sell goods through sex and desire, Chinese artist Feng Zhengjie creates large-scale paintings as a critique on the principles of capitalism. The artist’s work reduces the overt content usually found in such advertisements, allowing a streamlined version of temptation to exist without a specific product. The essence of desire is manifested through the blank-eyed ethnically ambiguous women[.....]

Dusseldorf-based artist Katharina Grosse creates dominatingly formalist paintings on a range of surfaces, such as aluminum, paper, canvas and existing architectural structures. Grosse’s works are energetic and are not bound to a particular space but travel from walls to floors to ceilings, referencing elements of Abstract Expressionism and Colour Field painting. Often, piles of rumble on the gallery floor will be saturated with color, continuing[.....]

The sculptures of artist Christian Maychack inhabit pre-existing architectural structures and animate otherwise stationary objects. The sculptures either take place as an extension of a pre-existing form or are manifested from the artist’s imagination. Maychack employs the visual vocabulary of three-dimensional rendering animation and uses anthropomorphic qualities to enliven each form. The work is simultaneously in a state of decomposition and growth, referencing a transformation[.....]

“Zivildienst Kunstprojekt, Kunstprojekt Zivildienst” translates to “Social Service Art Project, Art Project Social Service” and is a new series by Canadian artist Althea Thauberger at John Connelly Presents in New York. Long periods of research in social and political developments led the artist into collaborative performances that intend to reveal a particular group consciousness and civil responsibility. Thauberger collaborates with various social groups, engaging them[.....]