Ground Line Redefines How Women Artists Have Evolved
By Joe Bendik
Daniele Marin’s current exhibition, Ground Line, at Noho Gallery explores how women in art and society have evolved over time. By using iconic imagery along with the mundane, Marin recontextualizes these images to create nonlinear narratives. Doing this makes the historical information seem fresh. Marin also uses fabric in the acrylic paintings, creating texture and delineating space.
As Marin said, “The incorporation of fabric shifts the expectation about traditional feminine arts.” It also serves as an anchor point for the eye, a place of return.
Marin considers the painting surface a stage where different techniques communicate with each other. In fact, the paintings themselves seem to speak to each other. The color of each painting works within the bigger concept of the show. Marin is particularly interested in “the ground line,” the foundation for this exhibit, which is the horizontal plane on which objects sit. She weaves this into all of the works, establishing unity while referencing “still” images from the past, thereby reclaiming and redefining their roles as ‘feminine.’ The result is a new way of viewing traditional materials.
Marin was born in Paris but lives in the United States. She has an MFA from the Pratt Institute and has won two painting awards from the Visual Arts Center in New Jersey. She has been featured in Art in America and Woman’s Art Journal (Rutgers), among other publications. Some of her works are in the collection of the Newark Museum, the Montclair museum and Merrill Lynch, as well as private collections.
This show runs through Feb. 4. While visiting the exhibition, I had the eerie feeling of walking through a different state of being; somehow becoming a part of the ground line myself, as if I was inside the paintings.
Daniele Marvin: Ground Line
Noho Gallery, 530 W. 25th St., 4th Fl., 212-367-7063, www.danielemarin.com.
Tuesday–Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Cecil Fabulous
Beaton’s New York years revived
By Marsha McCreadie
One high aesthetic compliment is to call an artist ahead of his time. Yet, the real trick is to be both of your time and ahead of it. Cecil Beaton—photographer, illustrator, set and costume designer, even author—turned that trick, and nicely, too. Read more
The Bloody Apple
An exhibit of Weegee’s photographs proves that crime does pay
By Mark Peikert
In the pantheon of New Yorkers—Dorothy Parker, Andy Warhol, the Ramones—photographer Weegee may not be the first to spring to mind, but he may symbolize the contradictions of New York City better than anyone else. Driven, self-mythologizing and morbidly curious about the curiously morbid, Weegee spent a decade, from 1936 to 1947, chronicling the violence and urban beauty of life in the Big Apple. Read more
Double Exposure
Career nanny Vivian Maier’s posthumous recognition as a photographer
By Penny Gray
The Howard Greenberg Gallery has just opened an exhibition of the photographic works of Vivian Maier (1926–2009) from the Maloof Collection. If the name doesn’t ring a bell, it’s because Maier’s work is a recent discovery.
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Vote Early, Vote Often
Gingerbread house contest at Le Parker Meridien benefits City Harvest
Midtown at Christmas is an exercise in sensory overload. From the tourist-trapping mayhem of the windows at Macy’s to the OCD-inducing antiquariana of Bergdorf’s displays, from the scrum for skates at the Rockefeller Center rink to the desperate jingle of the carriage horses at Central Park, it can be easy to flag in the face of so much glitter and sound. Sometimes, simplicity is all you need—no bells, whistles or strobe lights, just creativity, humor and good old-fashioned craftsmanship. Read more
Illustrator’s Book Captures Horrors of WWII
By Ashley Welch
The award-winning illustrator Ed Young will celebrate his 80th birthday this fall with the release of two new books and the launch of a one-man show about his work on countless children’s books over the years.
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From Start to Finish
By Lisa Chen
Among the upholsterers, gilders and other artisans of the Upper East Side is the Isabel O’Neil Studio Workshop at 315 East 91st Street. Since 1955, the studio has offered weekly instruction in the art of painted finish to an eager and devoted following of students. The studio stresses that no prior art experience is needed to create the many beautiful finishes that O’Neil invented herself. We recently visited with Executive Director Beth Mahaffey and board member Elizabeth Paul to discuss O’Neil’s influence and the art of the painted finish.
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Lawyer’s Love Affair with Photography
By Laura Shin
In the late 1960s, a young woman sought the help of a lawyer. That’s how former art director Joan Niborg first met trial lawyer and photographer Len Speier.
“It was love at first sight,” Speier said.
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Peter Greenaway’s Original Fake
A 3D “Last Supper’ at Park Avenue Armory
Peter Greenaway’s films—such as The Belly of an Architect or The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover—have always dealt with different forms of betrayal, usually between spouses and lovers. His new installation focuses on a betrayal at the center of Western culture and art. In Leonardo’s Last Supper: A Vision By Peter Greenaway, the filmmaker illuminates da Vinci’s centuries-old painting through a near perfect “clone” of the original and breathtaking cinematic devices. Read more
OPEN GALLERIES DURING ART AUCTION WEEK
Art dealers from the Upper East Side will present American pieces on the private market Wednesday, Dec. 1.
Participating galleries will be open for extended hours, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., for the Just Off Madison Winter Gallery Walk.
Art enthusiasts will have the opportunity to see museum-quality pieces, representing a wide range of media—including painting, sculpture and drawing—from the 19th and mid‑20th centuries. Read more
