A Wide Variety of Effects

Sheinkman’s drawing is a more rigorous synthesis of both Eastern and Western traditions. Sheinkman has traveled in Asia, and his work has been influenced by Pollock, among others, as well as by New York’s own growing Orientalizing tradition in abstract painting. Sheinkman, in his characteristic manner, explores this versatile technique to its limit, in one case extending a single monumental image across the broad expanse of a billboard sign. However, one thing this early work lacked was a significant surface, something that bonded the image to its ground and made it less slippery. At this point Sheinkman began to produce beautiful small drawings that were simply graphite on paper. Usually a dense, rectangular area of graphite was laid down and marks were made by incision or erasure… Sheinkman can elicit such a wide variety of effects, not all of them elegant, from such seemingly austere means… his drawings have a wonderful hand-made facture that seems to defy many of the mechanical overtones of Minimalism or photography, although his work still draws heavily from those resources. [Michael Brennan on Mark Sheinkman]

“… casual consistency is typical of Row’s approach to composition, as he seems willing to follow a formula so long as it produces a desired visual effect. Though his canvas shapes seem to revisit issues tackled in the 1970s by Kenneth Noland, the analytical depth to which they are subjected, particularly in this series, indicates a willingness to investigate many aspects of abstraction simultaneously. He avoids ideological traps. Pitting one abstract element against another suggests a permanent restlessness. The search itself seems to be the point.
Considering much of current abstract painting’s focus on spontaneity and one-off effects, Row’s tendency to revisit abstract elements embraced by earlier painters—not just Noland but Ellsworth Kelly, Dorothea Rockburne and Al Held, with whom Row shared a close friendship—may seem retrograde. But Row evidently depends on viewers willing to look beyond the superficial recognition of a style’s elements. He’s interested in how the elements function in a single painting. His aesthetic hangs off slender threads tying abstract painting to both feeling and intellect.” [Peter Malone on David Row]

“Well-known for his abstract paintings, the working drawings and color studies provide a rare glimpse into David Reed’s process and contemplations. The color studies display Reed’s experiments with color, light, and form. Works such as “Color Study #27” exhibit his signature winding, wrapping, rhythmic ribbon-like shapes, and lay the groundwork for the paintings. While the working drawings, ultimately, provide a kind of diary of the artist and each painting, recording Reed’s deliberations and struggles with the work over days, or even years. For example, in “Working Drawing #295-3” Reed writes, “3/19 Thought at first that this would work – no longer sure.” Likewise, they contain a biographic and personal element, chronicling events in Reed’s life, from studio visits to protests occurring outside his window. Made on grid paper, the working drawings possess the qualities of an architectural drawing with schematics outlining compositions and dimensions, or a scientific journal with detailed notes on decisions made regarding color. Just as Reed turns his paintings as he works, he turns the drawings, resulting in writing that is at times upside down or sideways.
In these works on paper, working through his written notes, Reed visually analyzes the formulas for blending paints and layering glazes by painting the color studies directly on single or multiple sheets of paper.” [Art Daily on David Reed]