Amy Sillman, Anna Sew Hoy at SIKKEMA JENKINS & CO.

James Kalm wheels into Chelsea to sample the exhibitions of Amy Sillman and Anna Sew Hoy. If anyone was to be put forth as an example of where the current state of the "New York School" is, Amy Sillman qualifies. Her luscious and physical use of paint, strong drawing, strange figurative fragments and an adherence to the legacy of Ab-Ex have given her a local cult-like following as well as international recognition. Anne Sew Hoy mixes masterly craft skills with an appreciation of the suburban abject, rendered in the ubiquitous materials of denim, ceramics and shades.

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• Sillman
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• Sew
• Hoy
• Sikkema
• Jenkins
• Gallery
• opening
• art
• painting
• drawing
• sculpture
• Abstract
• Expressionism
• Modernism
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• York

[jameslour]

from the NYT:

"Ms. Sillman does not sufficiently defamiliarize the different styles she uses. So while her paintings are undeniably competent and good-looking, you miss the hair-raising surprise factor."

Is this true? Does an artist have to "defamiliarize" the work and provide "hair-raising surprise"?

[jameskalm]

@jameslour "Defamiliarize"? I guess I missed that class in art school, but it sounds like it involves electrodes attached to the forehead. There's plenty of "unfamiliarized" painting going on out there, and the NY Times critics generally run in the opposite direction, fast.

"Pastiche" now that's another subject.

[chandru1103]

"Hey there's Jerry Saltz, Let's Follow him!"

One of these days I will say these words and mean it.

[claureic]

@jameslour I didn't know the NYT had art critics...

[d1artbob]

I had an opinion of Amy Stillman's work that your video erased. Thanks, James. I now know more and understand her work and appreciate it more.

[MrWowforever]

@claureic that was my first thought too. all that orange! :)

[MrWowforever]

wow....star studded turnout.......good for Amy Sillman, she deserves it :)

[kcollinsart]

Wonderful paintings! I loved the suite of drawings as well. Sillman's scraping and working of the surface and her color, her color, her color..just inspiring.

[MrSeanMDickinson]

Colours remind me of Hockney

[claureic]

That last Sillman piece (Shape 6.38), in the backroom... it reminds me of Bacon's 1946 Three studies for the base of a Crucifiction (the background, the long arm-like whitish shape...).