I'm the only hell my mama ever raised

The thing I love about this painting, is that we have a girl who is sixteen? Absolutely beautiful and stubborn white trash. She already knows she doesn't have to live here. She knows she can waltz out into the big world any day and get plenty for what she's got. That's not the problem. The problem for her at this point is just how to make the first move.

I'm the only hell my mama ever raised, Todd Bienvenu, 2014

Todd Bienvenu at Life on Mars on Friday

Constellations, 2013, at Life on Mars

The specter of false consciousness still haunts the art world. New art stars are still received either with mawkish tones of hope or with a Bronx cheer. For thirty years we have been snared in this ambivalent jag. Criticism takes refuge in elaborate workarounds and risorgimenti. Brooklyn takes truckloads of guff for truckloads of hubris. And very few painters have been able to crack this mess open and splay it out as deliciously as Todd Bienvenu.

Gili Levy at Valentine

Gili Levy, oil on canvas, approx. 46" x 54"
Now on view at Valentine

Gili Levy is in the show that opened last night at Valentine in Ridgewood. She joints Lauren Collings, Barbara Friedman, and Shelley Marlow in "4 Who Paint." This is a good show, well worth a visit. Fred Valentine has an excellent eye and about as good a knowledge of the arts in northern Brooklyn as it is possible to have. The shows at his gallery are consistently intelligent. Gili Levy has been in both of the two shows we've had to date at ethan pettit gallery, and so we are delighted with her placement in the present show at Valentine.