The other day I saw a man sitting alone at an outdoor café. It seemed as if he were talking to himself. I assumed he was merely talking on a blue tooth. But he wasn’t. He really was talking to himself. I was oddly comforted.

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The Robin Yount of Contemporary Painting

Thomas Nozkowski: Works on Paper

Bravin Lee Programs, 526 West 26th St. Rm 211 [btwn 10th & 11th Aves], 212.462.4404
www.bravinlee.com

Closed

Thomas Nozkowski can best be described as one of those quiet players who puts up great numbers every year and before you know it is ready for the Hall of Fame. He’s a pro’s pro. If he isn’t the flashiest player in the league, he’s certainly the steadiest. Pound for pound his paintings pay out the most consistently interesting rewards to their viewers. In this show oil on un-gessoed [!] paper paintings wring myriad possibilities out of their humble form. Anything you see in them I can see better: graffiti, Klee, Matisse, Lasker—but most of all Nozkowski. He’s been knocking around inside the same four sides of his surfaces with the basically the same elements for 25 years and it’s never boring and seldom precious. Like the great Robin Yount he rarely makes an error.

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Father's Day

Len Servetar

JCC-Y, 900 Route 45, New City, NY, (845) 362-4400
http://www.servetar.com/HTML/len_index.html

Through July 28

Ok, so I’ve completely compromised my journalistic integrity [oxymoron?] by listing this show. Then again, unless your dad is Andreas Gursky or Barry Frydlender, my dad is a better photographer than your dad anyway. Nyah.

At Play, 18" x 20", digital print, 2006

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Mish Mash

Robert Altman: I am what I am
Lothar Hempl: Umbrella

Anton Kern Gallery, 532 West 20th St. [betw. 10th & 11th Aves.], 212.367.9663
www.antonkerngallery.com

Closed

Endlose Reise (Endless Journey), Boat, MDF, photographic paper, lights, 80 x 45 x 128, 2006

So I walked into the gallery. I only saw Robert Altman’s name on the front wall. Saw a bunch of things that looked as if Altman might have made them in his garage when he wasn’t busy not-directing one of his tomes. Hippie art assemblages, photo collages and diamond shaped canvases in early 70s colors with faded frau themes—strictly rummage sale stuff. In the back were stills from Altman’s various films—the potentially money making part of the exhibit. I got to thinking about how celebrities have taken over Broadway plays, children’s books, procreation and now, so it seemed, art making. Then I found out that the stuff in front was by Lothar Hempl. My bad.

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