Elizabeth Harris Gallery 529 W 20th Street, New York 212-463-9666 Through May 27 Abstract-Expressionism is a tough act to revisit; whose gestures today could seem as authoritative—and yet so personally revealing—as Jackson Pollock’s? Nevertheless “Ab-Ex” continues to be a fertile source for many contemporary painters, among them James Bohary, whose encrusted but quirkily disciplined canvases…

Graham Nickson: Paintings Salander-O’Reilly Galleries 20 E. 79 th Street, New York 212-879-6606 Giorgio Cavallon: Paintings Salander-O’Reilly Galleries Both shows through April 30 What, for a painter, surpasses the nobility of the human figure? Why, several human figures—or so we might gather, thumbing through any history book of western art. So many of the “mega-hits,”…

Lohin Geduld Gallery 531 West 25th Street Until April 23 One of the appeals of Outsider Art is its apparent sincerity–the relief it offers from Postmodernist detachment and appropriation. The problem lies in verifying its authenticity, because a skilled artist can find ways to appropriate even the appearance of sincerity. After all, how hard is…

Kraushaar Galleries 724 Fifth Avenue Until April 30 A few floors below in the same gallery building, the exuberant landscapes of Henry Finkelstein, a painter in his mid-40s, make an intriguing contrast with Ms. Blaine’s. Mr. Finkelstein’s bold palette convincingly evokes the atmosphere of the French countryside he paints, his rich hues maintaining their full…

Tibor de Nagy Gallery 724 Fifth Avenue Until April 23 Every few years, Tibor de Nagy Gallery offers up another selection of works by painter Nell Blaine (1922–96), allowing us to wonder again at the intensity of this artist’s highly original, self-possessed images. The present selection of work from her last four decades includes two…

Michael Ingbar Gallery of Architectural Art 568 Broadway Until April 23 Richard Sloat and Su Li Hung share many things besides a household. Both are painters/printmakers inspired by views of New York City neighborhoods, and over the years both have exhibited numerous times in group shows at Michael Ingbar Gallery. Their current two-person show at…

DC Moore Gallery 724 Fifth Avenue at 57th Street New York NY 10019 212-247-2111 March 8 to April 9, 2005 A version of this review appeared in the New York Sun, March 17, 2005 The assured brushstrokes, iconic figures, and radiantly red backgrounds of Nathan Oliveira’s latest paintings suggest that, after five decades of exhibiting,…

Salander-O’Reilly Galleries 20 East 79th Street, New York, NY 10021, Telephone (212) 879-6606 September 8 to Octobrt 2, 2004 We have a convenient shorthand phrase for the making of meaningful marks on canvas: “the Painting Process.” But it isn’t really a single process, nor even a finite one. For representational painters the challenge has always…

Salander-O’Reilly Galleries 20 East 79th Street New York, NY 10021 May 5 to June 5, 2004 “He is the rare and exceptional genius and the father of modern landscape painting,” noted Delacroix noted in 1861. “He is still the strongest, he has anticipated everything,” Degas affirmed some 20 years later. “There is only one master…

May 3-June 26, 2004 Mitchell-Innes & Nash 1018 Madison Avenue, New York NY 10021 It’s safe to say that no artist has been so over-exposed as Picasso. It isn’t simply the seemingly countless exhibitions and critical studies; his styles (all of them!) have so thoroughly infiltrated popular culture that no one thinks twice about the…