Chris Martin | Bus Maniac, 2008-11, oil and collage on canvas, 54” x 45 1/8”
Courtesy the artist and Mitchell-Innes & Nash

The newsprint series bears homage to artistic predecessors Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg (plus Andy Warhol for the screaming, scandalous headlines), but Martin has locked it seamlessly into his own painterly vocabulary. Off modernist grids of tabloids, he unloads a palette of fruit-chew hues–not yellow, green, and orange, but lemony-yellow, lime-green, and that fluorescent “orange-orange”. Bus Maniac (the name yanked from a headline) features thick, liquid verticals of these colors over 70-point phrases like “Bus Lunatic’s Deadly Shooting” and “Jackson Bollocks!”. A Lioness Roars, a cherry-red neighbor spotlighting Amy Winehouse in a circular yellow accent and tales of Famous Ray’s Greenwich Village pizzaria’s closing (“Ciao, Ciao, Pie-san”), and All Final Prophecies Come True–wide bands of popsicle tones across tales of Michael Jackson’s ghost, sinkholes to a hollow earth, and “Adam and Eve Were Aliens!”–command one gallery wall.

Chris Martin | All Final Prophecies Come True, 2012, oil and collage on canvas, 45” x 37”
Courtesy the artist and Mitchell-Innes & Nash

Chris Martin | Untitled (installation view), 2012, oil and collage on canvas, 118” x 135”
Courtesy the artist and Mitchell-Innes & Nash

Artwork scales run from large to mammoth, with the epic Untitled’s sensual tangerine and black vertical rivers as the visually biggest, due to its display propped on cinderblocks and against a gallery pillar. While October Afternoon is technically the same size (and features a found garden gnome in one of the canvas’ carved holes), Untitled’s placement off the wall makes it just feel huge. Martin injects a bit of collage in this one, too: printouts of frogs, giraffes, and the recurring Amy Winehouse. She’s central in an adjacent, equally-sized canvas R.I.P. Amy Winehouse (bearing a few trace footprints across its shiny black surface), a tiny figurative portrait partially obscured by Julian Schnabel-like gestural brushwork.

Chris Martin | Tony Romo Fallen Hero, 2010-11, Oil and collage on canvas, 31” x 26”
Courtesy the artist and Mitchell-Innes & Nash

Final ingredient to a Martin show: sufficient psychedelia. Collaged images of mushrooms recur throughout the non-newsprint works–plus there is the visual trip within the relatively smallish Tony Romo Fallen Hero, featuring a sportspage image tucked into a pixellated forest of bleeding colors, like the whole canvas went in the wash. It’s the regal Magic Carpet, featuring a rug framing the work and reconstituted to burst from a painted green and orange harlequin pattern, that most reminds me of past Martin exhibitions. His knack for creative collage is concentrated here: painted LPs from Bob Marley and the Wailers, the Jack Johnson soundtrack, prints of mushrooms and James Brown…and of course the carpet itself. It’s a sweet, heady flashback.

Chris Martin | Magic Carpet, 2009, oil and collage on canvas, 88” x 77”
Courtesy the artist and Mitchell-Innes & Nash

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Brooklyn-based painter Chris Martin’s solo exhibition Staring into the Sun at Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, which was accompanied by a fully-illustrated catalogue, concluded in January. His first solo museum show occurred in 2011 at the Corcoran Gallerz of Art in Washington D.C. His third solo exhibition at Mitchell-Innes & Nash runs through March 3.

Brian Fee is an art punk currently based in Austin, TX. His culture blog Fee’s List covers his three loves (art, film and live music) occurring in his other three loves (the Lone Star State, the Big Apple, and Tokyo).

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On Monday we released the names of the featured artists from New American Paintings #98, the Northeast Issue. Only two more issues until our 100th publication! Go here to see the entire list of winners!

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Whitney Kimball, our New York City contributor, visited Terry Winter’s exhibition at Matthew Marks. She notes in her post, “Winters has long held an interest in natural and scientific forms; the press release cites his initial fascination with “cells, spores and seeds,” which progressed to “biological processes, scientific and mathematical fields, and issues raised by the interaction of information technologies and the human mind.” Read the full review.

Terry Winters | Tessellation Figures (10), 2011, oil on linen, 80 x 76 inches, Courtesy Matthew Marks

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Mid-week we posted another poll, this time to see whether or not you wanted to see more or less artists in New American Paintings. The voting results indicated that the publication should be left as is (we have no plans to make any changes to the number of artists or reproductions). In our comments section, “David” wrote, “By reducing the number of artists included in each publication the juror’s professional and personal tastes would only be more amplified in the selections and the publication may become less comprehensive.” It’s not to late to vote and to voice your opinion here!

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If you live in the Midwest, now is your chance to enter our competition. the deadline for this year’s Midwest Competition is February 29th (Midnight EST). If you’re a painter residing in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, or Wisconsin, this is your opportunity to submit work to New American Paintings. The juror for the 2012 competition will be Lisa D. Freiman, Senior Curator and Chair of the Department of Contemporary Art Department, Indianapolis Museum of Art. APPLY NOW!!!

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Finally, Matthew Smith, our Washington, D.C. contributor, reviewed an exhibition by Gina Beavers at Nudashank. Smith noted, “Culled from the unremarkable — quotidian moments and bits of cultural flotsam — her work is grounded by the immediacy of her source material. Despite the occasional abstraction, these representations aren’t meant to veer far from their physical subjects; they’re tethered to experiential moments that are as concrete as the sculptural reliefs on her canvases.” Read more about the show!

Gina beavers | 6-color palette, acrylic & paintbrush on canvas, 12” x 14”, 2011, (courtesy Nudashank and the artist)

Gina Beavers | Installation view of Le Sigh, 2012 (courtesy Nudashank)

Le sigh, of course, is the catchphrase of cartoon character Pepe Le Pew, but it’s also become expression du jour in the blogosphere as of late, denoting a dreamy sort of resignation. And not unlike peppy SMS shorthand like LOL and OMG, the meaning of le sigh is more nuanced in its written form, its significance predicated by the mediating effect of technology and social media.

Gina Beavers | Mondrian, acrylic on canvas, 30” x 40”, 2012 (courtesy Nudashank and the artist)

The paintings in Beavers’ Le Sigh, then, are similarly mediated representations of their “long form” counterparts — appropriated images from Tumblr and other corners of the Net (see Beavers’ cheeky rendition of a 1992 Vanity Fair cover, not included in her Baltimore show). Like the phrase le sigh, the impastoed depictions are far more nuanced as second incarnations, though in their naive aesthetic they aim to remain as palpably awkward as their virtual counterparts. And it’s this sophisticated back-and-forth, made material by the mediated context of our times, that ultimately becomes the subject of Beavers paintings. Seemingly, it’s what she brings to the edge of objecthood and back.

Gina Beavers | Wash Flo-lite, acrylic on canvas, 40” x 54”, 2011 (courtesy Nudashank and the artist)

Gina Beavers | Watercolor palette, acrylic and paintbrush on canvas, 14” x 18” (courtesy Nudashank and the artist)

Gina Beavers | Installation view of Le Sigh, 2012 (courtesy Nudashank)

Gina Beavers | Installation view of Le Sigh, 2012 (courtesy Nudashank)

Le Sigh by Gina Beavers is on display at Nudashank in Baltimore, MD, through March 10 2012

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Gina Beavers lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She received an MFA from School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her BA from UVA. Recent exhibitions include a solo show at PACS Gallery (Brooklyn) and group shows “Go Figure!” at Dodge Gallery (NYC) and “The Death of Affect” at ART BLOG ART BLOG (NYC).

Matthew Smith is a writer and artist based in Washington, D.C.

The juror for the 2012 competition will be Lisa D. Freiman, Senior Curator and Chair of the Department of Contemporary Art Department, Indianapolis Museum of Art.

In the meantime, if you live in the Midwest (IL, IN, IO, MI, MN, MO, OH, WI), APPLY NOW!

Last year’s Midwest cover, painting by Andrew Mazorol & Tynan Kerr

Please vote below and be sure to tell us why you voted the way that you did in the comments section.

Terry Winters | Tessellation Figures (1), 2011, oil on linen, 80 x 76 inches, Courtesy Matthew Marks

Winters has long held an interest in natural and scientific forms; the press release cites his initial fascination with “cells, spores and seeds,” which progressed to “biological processes, scientific and mathematical fields, and issues raised by the interaction of information technologies and the human mind.” The cells, spores, and seeds, at least, appear throughout; in Tessellation Figures (1), little green dots gravitate toward a yolk in a translucent green orb- like frog spawn. In Tessellation Figures (7), pink dots recall blood cells, intertwined through the center of the painting. The same dominant wreath pattern is overlayed on top of each painting. The swarming ebb and flow around the room recall forces beyond our control.

Terry Winters | Tessellation Figures, 2011, oil on linen, 88 x 112 inches, Courtesy Matthew Marks

This is a strange sensation when expressed through brushy marks and cumbly layers of oil paint: abstract expression, the bastion of self-hood and free will, against the all-encompassing tide of nature and time. Winters even seems to express this relationship within the shapes themselves, especially in Tessellation Figures, where small, regular cells appear to cluster together to form irregular, self-contained forms.

Winters presents the fact of all-encompassing biological patterns; there is nothing more than this, he seems to insist- but his own visual language is evidence of something else. He claims to be interested in combining art and science- “our two ways of finding out about the world.” Perhaps typical of both fields, not much is discovered, but questions are asked.

Terry Winters | Tessellation Figures (10), 2011, oil on linen, 80 x 76 inches, Courtesy Matthew Marks

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Terry Winters (born 1949) lives and works in New York City and Columbia County, New York. He has had solo exhibitions at Tate Gallery, London (1986); the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1992); Whitechapel Art Gallery, London (1998); the Kunsthalle Basel (2000); The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2001); and the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2009).

Terry Winters: Cricket Music, Tessellation Figures, & Notebook, will be on view at the Matthew Marks Gallery at 522 West 22nd Street and 502 West 22nd Street (between 10th and 11th Avenues), from February 4 through April 14, 2012. Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 11:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M.

Whitney Kimball is a New York-based painter and art writer.

Deitsch notes in her essay, “While the Northeast can be characterized by its cold weather, ties to the earliest days of American history, a collection of some very good schools, and perhaps, what is politely termed a Yankee frugality or better yet, pragmatism, the truth of the matter is that the art here bears no such defining characteristics. In the realm of painting, where the limits are the mind and hand, there is a remarkable range of forward-thinking ideas, subject matter, and technique. In the grouping of painters featured in this issue of New American Paintings you’ll come across works that speak more to the human experience—both local and global—and a broadening effect of thinking through painting as a material, as color, and less as a means to an end. This shift towards the materiality of paint seems to almost reinvigorate the medium, taking it into the space of the world itself.”

– View a list of all featured artists after the jump!

You can pre-order the issue by calling 617-778-5265.

Featured Artists:

Cover by KAORUKO

Table of Contents, Amze Emmons

Spotlight with Franklin Evans

Noteworthy Artists: Summer Wheat and Benjamin Degen

Behind the Scenes with Kristen Dodge (Dodge Gallery)

Back Cover: Joe Wardwell

The selected “photographer” will receive a two-year subscription to New American Paintings, a dedicated blog post for the photographs (with full credit, of course), and a link to their personal website or blog.*

To be considered as our guest photo contributor, please fill out the form here by February 26th. We need to know a little bit about you and get a few samples of some photographs that you’ve taken while gallery-hopping or visiting an art fair.

Thanks for participating and good luck! We will introduce our guest contributor(s) at the end of the month.

*Photographers will be responsible for their own transportation and admission to the fairs. All images must be submitted by Sunday, March 11.

Kathryn Clark | Modesto Foreclosure Quilt, 2011. 16″ x 42″ Tea stained voile, linen, cotton and embroidery thread.

Clark builds upon and tweaks this quilting tradition though.  Quilts have always captured a history, personal narrative, or story in more ways than one, whether memorializing a person with scraps of clothing, or depicting monumental events in one’s life, or by capturing a family’s history in cloth.  Clark’s cloths tell a similar story, but they do so by freezing a moment forever in time.  Mapping foreclosed neighborhoods and cities, Clark’s “Foreclosure Map Quilts” quite literally preserve a changing landscape and document the current economy using remnants, found cloth, and fibers as the conservatorial glue.  Her quilts are rich, contextually, historically, and visually. - Ellen C. Caldwell, LA Contributor

Kathryn Clark | Modesto Foreclosure Quilt, 2011. 16″ x 42″ Tea stained voile, linen, cotton and embroidery thread, DETAIL.

Kathryn Clark | Atlanta Foreclosure Quilt, 2011. 19 1/2″ x 19 1/2″ Recycled denim, bleached linen, cheesecloth, yarn and embroidery thread.

Ellen Caldwell:  In NAP #97, you describe your “Foreclosure Map Quilts.” Had you quilted before, or how did you make those jumps from urban planning to the fallen economy to quilting?

Kathryn Clark: I had been following the foreclosure crisis for several years and was struggling to find a way to build a body of work around it. My father sent me a link to a Denver Post article featuring depression era color photographs. What struck me immediately was what an important role that fabric played in these photos. Clothing was utilitarian but often quite colorful. I wondered what the quilts must have looked like during the depression and before the war and immediately I knew I could highlight our current hard times by making quilts. I also grew up in the Deep South, where quilting has always been a part of life.

Kathryn Clark | Works in progress at artist’s studio.

EC: So this is what first led you to work with cloth — recycled and other?

CK: I was really afraid for several years to use fiber as a medium. Coming from the fine art world, there’s a stigma attached to it. Thankfully, that’s changing now. I struggled through several series of paintings trying to make my work look like fiber, because I thought it was so beautiful and I had a strange affinity with it. The only way I could confidently use fiber as a medium was to be able to justify the need for its use in my work. Years later, it seems obvious to me why I love the medium so much, my mother was a fiber artist. She died when I was a teenager, so the material has a very emotional significance for me. It took me years to understand this.

Kathryn Clark | Cleveland Foreclosure Quilt, cotton, linen, recycled denim, and thread, 60 x 25 inches.

EC:  Your work is intricate and detailed at times (such as the “Cleveland Foreclosure Quilt”) and more vast and spread out at others (“Cape Coral Foreclosure Quilt”)… but they are aesthetically pleasing and enticing all around.  And there is something very familiar to them, and yet you’d think that the depiction of these foreclosure sites would counteract the beauty and details — but they don’t. Can you speak to this, telling me a bit about your process and how you achieve this balance?

KC: A quilt is inherently a beautiful object, perhaps even more so when torn and mended. The material I chose for each quilt reflects something about that particular city. In the “Cape Coral quilt,” the dark, musty blues reference the water that surrounds the area. In the “Cleveland Quilt,” I found a fabric named “Forest Hill” that refers to the neighborhood shown on the quilt. I’ve always worked with muted tones in my work; I suppose I’m more of a minimalist than most. The muted tones work in my favor by allowing the contrast of the foreclosed lots, oftentimes red, to stand out.

Kathryn Clark | Cape Coral Foreclosure Quilt, recycled string and bleached linen, 44 x 30 inches.

EC: As you mentioned in NAP, “Quilts act as a functional memory, an historical record of difficult times.”  This is a great and challenging sentiment. Can you discuss this a bit further?

KC: The quilt is a functional piece of cloth by providing warmth. Traditionally quilts were made using leftover bits of fabric from making clothing, used clothing and empty grain sacks. You can tell a lot about what people ate, what they wore and what they did for a living, just by looking at the remnants used to make one.

Kathryn Clark | Detroit Foreclosure Quilt, cheesecloth, cotton, linen, and thread, 44 x 22 inches.

EC: There have been lots of projects built around the concept of “mapping” recently (LA Times “Mapping LA” and artist Sara Wookey’s walking projects or artist Wei Weng’s Anti-Mapping project all come to mind)– but you approach this so differently.  Part of this difference is obviously in the medium, but could you discuss the use of maps and mapping in your work? 

KC: My entire life has been spent looking at the world through maps. As a little kid, I would steal my brother’s matchbox cars and layout complicated city plans on large sheets of cardboard and then zoom the cars through the streets. There are pictures of me as a ten year old pouring through a world atlas. My favorite pastime as a kid was filling notebooks with hundreds of floor plans I designed. So, not surprisingly, I became an urban planner and architect when I grew up. I always wanted to find a way to use maps in my art and the foreclosure series was that opportunity.

EC: Yes, I saw this site about the maps we read as children recently and it seems relevant….

KC: I loved looking through that link! I have to say there’s a dearth of good children’s books these days that include maps which is really sad. Peter Sis has made some great ones like Madlenka (I have a seven year old so I know these things!). I still love reading books that include maps. Simon Winchester has written some of my favorites.

EC: And how do the recycled materials play into your work (or do they)?

KC: Regarding materials, historical quilts were often pieced together using remnants. When times were tough, nothing was left to waste. I try to do this when I can on each piece. I save all the leftover fabrics after making each quilt and try to use them again on future pieces. My current piece, “Riverside,” has a layer entirely comprised of blue grey remnants leftover from “Cleveland,” “Las Vegas,” and “Atlanta.”

Artist Kathryn Clark at work in studio.

EC: Do you foresee yourself continuing with the “Foreclosure quilts” or along a similar theme for your next show?

KC: I am continuing to make “Foreclosure Quilts” for as long as needed. My work ties into our land use policies, how we’re abusing them and don’t seemed concerned about the repercussions or poor planning. I am working on a new body of work based on farmlands.  I’m drawn to the large-scale farming crisis that is happening worldwide. The series will likely be fiber and mapping might have an important role to play here, too.

Kathryn Clark’s Idiom Series is on an ongoing rotation at Kala Art Gallery in Berkeley, starting in late February.  She will also be part of a group show called “Disintegration and Repair” at Warm Springs Gallery in Charlottesville, VA in August. You can see more of her quilts on her Flickr page.

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Ellen C. Caldwell is an LA-based art historian, editor, and writer.

Please vote below and be sure to tell us why you voted the way that you did in the comments section.