Author: Elise Thornton
“Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Matthew 7:19) Some drawings begin with an idea. Others begin with a building that won’t leave you alone. Michael Aldag’s graphite drawing Barren (Vacant Annex) (2009) started with the second kind, and it still carries the quiet that comes from a place that has been emptied out. A Building Down the Street Aldag made the drawing while he was in college. The subject stood not far from his apartment in Columbus, Ohio. It had once been the home of St. Cyprian of Carthage Episcopal…
Gradients are easy to make and hard to believe. On a screen, a smooth slide from one hue to another is a few clicks away, and it usually looks exactly like that. Karel Fehr’s Soft Flowing Colours makes a gradient that feels earned, because it is found in a plant. The colour runs down a tall, narrow frame and never once announces itself as a trick. Colour in Transit The picture is vertical, almost a strip. On the left, an olive and moss green sits quiet and slightly dark. Moving right, the green thins into a pale, hazy grey, and…
Most painters begin with a subject and let the line serve it. Michael Kaphengst, who calls himself “The Linearist,” reverses the order. “I see the line as the primary force,” he says, “with the image emerging almost as a consequence.” That inversion drives his whole practice and gives it a coherence that is rare in contemporary painting. For Kaphengst, the line is the origin of the work, and the picture is what remains once the line has finished its business. Process as Subject Kaphengst’s central idea is that life is a linear process, and that no one can step outside…
For Australian artist Benjamin L.M., painting is an act of expression in which colour, gesture, and meaning converge. Based in New Jersey, USA, he works primarily in figurative art, occasionally turning to abstraction as a space for experimentation, intuition, and unexpected discoveries. Across both approaches, his paintings carry a distinctive intensity, reflecting his belief that the artist’s life force remains present in the paint, the canvas, and the words chosen to identify each work. Benjamin’s three abstract paintings, Yellow Pink Orange 7 (2023), Improvisation Aqua Purple Scarlet Brown (2025), and Orange And Purple In Mystery Love (2023), demonstrate different dimensions…
Every few years, a phrase from the art world gets worn smooth from overuse “capturing the human spirit,” “revealing inner beauty.” Sylvianne Blum Cassereau’s work is a useful reminder of what those tired phrases were originally trying to describe, before repetition drained them of meaning. Her pastel portraits do not announce themselves with grand statements. They simply pay attention, patiently and consistently, to individual people and in doing so, manage to say something the worn phrases no longer can. An Artist Rooted in Encounter Based in Mexico City, Blum Cassereau has built a body of work centered entirely on the…